The following are the outputs of the captioning taken during an IGF intervention. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
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>> NEIL WILSON: Good morning, everyone. Thank you so much for joining here in person and online. Welcome to this IGF Open Forum on Developing a Secure, Rights Respecting Digital Future.
My name is Neil Wilson. I come from the cyber policy department, and I'm delighted to be sharing this session with this panel.
You will all have heard a lot this week about the critical juncture we find ourselves at here at the 20th anniversary and, indeed, the 20th edition of the IGF.
Following the Global Digital Compact and the WSIS+20 Review, both the scale and the challenge and addressing it has never been clearer.
We've been continually reminded this week, in our daily lives, that the digital world is no longer a separate space. It's the very infrastructure of our economies, our societies, our daily lives, and how we govern these technologies is critical to how we govern ourselves and especially for those of us undergoing digital transformation.
We're in a period of immense change, and it's not slowing as we embrace new technologies.
With this comes a really complex web of challenges, cybersecurity threats, widening divides, AI, and the ultimate need to ensure the digital transformation respect promotes inclusion.
This session is about more than identifying problems. In line with this year's IGF theme of building governance together, this session is about exploring collaborative, inclusive, and accountable solutions.
So today, we'll be asking a wide range of questions. How do we ensure that all voices are heard in shaping our digital future? How do we connect the unconnected? How can we build infrastructure that serves everyone every.
I'm joined by a standing selection of panellists who I will ask to introduce themselves so it's not just me speaking at this top section.
To my right, we have Alessandra Lustrati.
Alessandra, do you want to introduce yourself?
>> ALESSANDRA LUSTRATI: Hello, everybody. Thank you for waking up this early to join us.
I'm Alessandra Lustrati, Head of Digital Development, UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office. I'm also a senior private sector development advisor.
>> NEIL WILSON: Online, we have Samantha O'Riordan, Senior Project Lead, Telecommunication Development Bureau, International Telecommunication Union.
Can you hear us?
>> SAMANTHA O'RIORDAN: I'm part of the ITU development sector. Working with Alessandra, we have a partnership working to assist several countries in connecting the unconnected.
>> NEIL WILSON: Thank you, Samantha, for joining us. Great to see you.
Also joining us online, we have Leonard Mabele.
Leonard, are you with us?
>> LEONARD MABELE: Yes. Hello, Neil. Hello, everyone. I hope you can see me. My name is Leonard Mabele, Lead, Research and Innovation, African Advanced Level Telecommunications Institute (AFRALTI),Researcher and Ph.D. Candidate, Strathmore University, Kenya. It's based in Nairobi.
We've been working closely with Alessandra through the digital access initiative at FCDO. Looking forward to speak.
>> NEIL WILSON: Thank you, Leonard. Great to see you.
Next, we have Professor Luzango Mfupe.
Professor, can you hear us?
>> LUZANGO MFUPE: Yes. Good morning, colleagues. I'm Luzango Mfupe, Head of Policy and Advocacy, Global Partners Digital. My area of research interest is connecting the unconnected. I've been working with Alessandra on a number of initiatives.
Thank you.
>> NEIL WILSON: Thank you, Professor.
Returning to the room in Oslo, Maria Paz Canales, Head of Policy and Advocacy, Global Partners Digital.
>> MARIA PAZ CANALES: Thank you. I'm Maria Paz Canales, Head of Policy and Advocacy, Global Partners Digital. It's a civil society organisation based in the UK but working globally with partners in different regions and underpinning human right policy.
>> NEIL WILSON: Thank you, Maria.
Each of our panellists brings a unique lens to this conversation, as do you in the audience, both here in person and those joins online from around the world.
It's interesting to bridge these perspectives and include dialogue from academia, the technical community, and civil society.
We're going to talk about how we can shape a rights‑respects digital future.
Just a quick note on how we will run this session.
To kick things off, each panellists will provide opening remarks. Then we'll dive into the panel discussions.
Without further ado, Alessandra, would you like to kick us off with the principles you see as most relevant to delivering a secure and rights‑respecting digital future.
>> ANNE MARIE ENGTOFT MELGAARD: Thank you, Neil. I will see if I can open my presentation.
Thank you, tech.
So good morning again. We're starting to get to know each other. I hope you're looking forward to this quite diverse set of contributions.
My task this morning is to provide you with an overview of the approach of the UK government to digital development. As usual, before we say the what and how we do it, it's always good to ask why we do it, even this early in the morning.
So why, normally, when we reflect on these things, we try to organise them on four different levels.
First of all ‑‑ maybe the text is a little bit small for reading ‑‑ I will read through the key concepts for you.
First of all, we think about the fact that digital transformation is widely recognised as an absolute key enabler of socio‑economic enabler. This has been accelerated and amplified by the upcoming technologies and including AI that's there with us.
And then, of course ‑‑ let me just see ‑‑ enabling development. I can't read it. My eyesight is very bad.
This is enable development at different levels, and, at the same time, there are problems we need to solve. The first one is the digital divide. We know that 2.6 billion people around the world are not online.
We also have specific things like the digital gender gap. Many of you are very, very familiar with these issues.
On top of the divides, we need to think about the risks, risks that have been developing and accelerating all the time, including cybersecurity threats, online safety risks, but, also, those risks that AI has amplified. It's amplified misinformation and disinformation.
We want to support an inclusive, responsible, and sustainable digital transformation.
I'm going to unpack it using the framework that's here. Very colourful.
Digital development is quite a complex concept. I know different stakeholders in the IGF define it many different ways. We find this way of thinking quite useful, and we've developed this framework based on experience of quite a few years of working with countries and trying to promote the use of digital technologies to advance development.
When we think about digital transformation, we are actually referring to digital transformation, typically, of the economy and very much of government and society, in the broad sense of the term.
So it's a very broad approach to digital transformation.
However, we don't want to promote digital transformation just because. We want it to be inclusive.
We focus on the foundational block, inclusive and affordable and sustainable connectivity, especially connectivity at the last mile, the underserved.
Within that, we look at the situation specifically. Underserved communities but marginalised groups like women and girls and people with disabilities. We think about how they can get connected and access digital content and services that are relevant to them and how they can use it.
To manage the risks is the bucket of digital responsibility with which we include all of our work, not just the work at the UK but the partners and people we collaborate with all the time.
We focus on these things and also the promotional online safety. We have emphasis on gender‑based violence and, unfortunately, it's a phenomenon that's been growing over the years, and data protection. With the advance of AI and the use of data and the transparency of it, it's a critical issue.
Sustainability, this is a pillar to our framework a couple of years ago. Like many around the world, it's critical and brings leverages, and we can use it for solutions for local communities, et cetera. And there's a clear and environmental cost of digital transformation. Think about the energy used, the criminal minerals, the infrastructure, you name it.
And with AI, this is amplifying again. Think about data centres, et cetera, et cetera.
Let me go to the next one. Hopefully, that gives you an overview. If you want to know more and, also, if you want to see practical examples of how we've applied this over the years with the impact of this approach and a bit of the plan for the future, look at the digital development strategy.
That's the QR Code to make it easier for you. I will give you a second, if you want to take note of that. Wonderful. Okay.
And then we go to the last part of my presentation, which is actually giving you a practical example of how we apply all of this thinking and our approach.
Isle focus on our, quote/unquote, flagship programme on digital access. The digital access programme is a partnership between FCDO and the Department of Science and Technology. We work with government to promote three pillars of work. The first one is on digital inclusion, pillar one, and it basically works at two levels. One is the level of the policies, regulatory frameworks and standards that create that enabling environment, the system‑wide change that can support and enhance digital inclusion, but at the market and community level, we specifically focus on testing technology and business models that can enable, first of all, that kind of famous inclusive, meaningful connectivity at the last mile but also all the other models that happen with digital skills, access to content and services, et cetera.
The second pillar is trust and resilience. It maybe makes you think back to digital responsibility with a lot of focus on cybersecurity capacity and working in online safety and data protection.
And last but not least, pillar three is now about taking all of this work and creating that sort of positive environment for the local digital economy and ecosystem and specifically supporting those forms of tech ownership in the local digital economies of our five focal companies you see listed at the top, Brazil, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and other regions.
This helps across the border as well.
Those five countries, we have Kenya and South Africa represented extremely well. Actually, we are amplifying the work with DAP across the regions and sharing information and disseminating the models we've developed over the years.
I will just say, to conclude, the top‑line results have been that we've reached ‑‑ million people where we have sustainably improved the digital inclusion of people in these communities, but you can think that 50 million people ‑‑ 2.6 million people is just a drop in the ocean. What is important is it's not so much the people we reach in a sustainable way, but it's actually the models and practices that we try to demonstrate with the multistakeholder approach and how all of this gets embedded through a lot of capacity building and technical assistance that enables local organisation to then take forward and the stakeholders to take forward that work.
I should quote that the model is flexible and agile, and we give huge priority to working with local organisations. We also have fantastic local partners. The ITU is online with us. You've heard from other partners in Kenya and South Africa. You will listen to them in a minute.
We work with the British Standards Institute and the British Council on the various aspects of the programme.
I will stop here. I hope this gives you more information about the digital development. You will hear more presentations on some of the activities.
Thank you so much.
>> NEIL WILSON: Thank you, Alessandra. That's a really comprehensive overview. There's rich discussion to follow, I'm sure.
Turning to Samantha O'Riordan from the ITU, I will turn it over to you for your opening remarks about how we can develop a secure and rights‑respecting digital future.
>> SAMANTHA O'RIORDAN: Good morning, Neil.
Good morning, everyone. I represent the International Telecommunications Union, ITU, which is the UN specialised agency for information and communication technologies. This year, ITU was proud to turn 160 years old.
Even since the beginning of the ITU, there have been concerns about trustworthy communication and about interference. Back in the day, it was interference with cable, but now things have moved on.
Technology has progressed with new technology like AI and quantum computing.
It is important to note that as we progress in this digital age, there are still, as Alessandra mentioned, 2.6 billion people offline. The majority of them can be found in Africa and Asia. So it's a disproportionate spread.
It's important to know that while we talk about coverage, often we say that ‑‑ I think it's now between about 97% of the world that's covered by a mobile network. There is also a usage gap.
Now, there are many reasons why there remains a usage gap. Two of the primary reasons are down to affordability but also a lack of digital skills, awareness, knowledge, maybe local content, and trust. It is important that people feel safe and secure online.
That's why ITU has been supporting the UN targets on meaningful connectivity for 2030, which state that it's important for those who have connectivity to have meaningful connectivity. By meaningful "connectivity," it means that people have connectivity at an affordable cost.
In terms of ITU and what we do and how we support countries, we have been supporting countries with enabling policy and regulatory environments, helping them to create those through research capacity building and awareness raising.
Also, we have been promoting inclusive and secure telecommunications for sustainable development through the ‑‑ C5 and the ‑‑ conference in 2006.
Even though it's been a decade of the Global Cybersecurity Index, you can see today that the challenges possessed in these developed countries and small island developing states, which are often 10 years behind other developing countries.
To give you an idea of how ITU is helping countries to ensure safer environments, ITU has helped establish 24 computer incident response teams. Over the past years, the team worked with seven different countries to establish cybersecurity strategies through training workshops, discussions.
ITU has worked with over 50 partners in 30 countries to train 170,000 children, 2,500 parents, and over 1,000 stakeholders in child protection.
It's not just about keeping children safe online. It's about thinking about the experience of women and supporting women online. Women In Cyber and Her Cybertracks, making sure that women can be online safely.
Lastly, just to mention that in May, ITU organised a global cyber drill in Dubai with over 136 countries participating.
As Alessandra mentioned, we have been working with SDO with an access programme to promote effective regulation, greater ‑‑ and underserved communities in five countries, the work includes policy guidance and information for regulators and alternative access solutions and digital inclusion research and training.
Examples of the work we have been doing include collaborative regulation studies in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa.
Digital skills assessments conducted in Kenya and Nigeria.
We've been supportive of making sure that while connectivity reaches those underserved communities, that they still have a safe online experience.
Finally, I just wanted to mention that with the upcoming World Telecommunications Conference, there will be a commitment to leaving no one behind and ensuring connectivity and ensuring populations have the relevant skills and tools and partnerships needed to ensure their populations thrive securely in the digital age.
Thank you.
>> NEIL WILSON: Really interesting to hear about the work that the ITU is doing with connectivity, meaningful work.
Leonard Mabele, I will pass it to you for your opening remarks.
>> LEONARD MABELE: Yeah, once again, thank you very much, Neil. Great to be here again.
I'm just going to share a small slide I have here.
Let me know it's clear in the room.
>> NEIL WILSON: Yeah. We can see that in the room. Thank you.
>> LEONARD MABELE: Perfect. Based on what Alessandra was saying earlier, I'm going to present a glimpse of what's going on in Kenya and what's happening. Pretty much, from what some of the government initiatives are looking at digital access across the country and collaborative actions in the region and projects we have worked on with the programme by FCDO.
From 2020 to 2021, the government was working together to develop the National Broadband Strategy, there was deliver to schools. There were challenges realised. There's a holistic approach that focuses on power. That broadband strategy, the ‑‑ (audio is distorted) ‑‑ like the one I'm presenting right now. There's different pillars to broadband strategy.
90% of the country is covered, in this case, in 4G, there's a need to look at affordable accessed. And maybe borrowing some of the words from Samantha, making sure that the access is meaningful in places that are still very much underserved. In this case, most of these are in the rural areas.
We have countries larger than the size of ‑‑ in this case, ensuring that people see what connectivity means.
There are women that may not see their value or have the understanding of the opportunity that is presented to them.
That's a key pillar.
(Audio is distorted)
>> LEONARD MABELE: Then we're looking at that. Of course, the infrastructure being ‑‑ (video freezing) ‑‑ we're all familiar with the conversations on AI now. This is one of the key pillars. There's a lot of work happening, not only in the urban and suburban areas but in the rural communities.
In Kenya, you will find digital hubs in the city. There's few of that in the rural areas.
So trying to see how we bridge that digital divide, particularly when looking at digital ‑‑ there's still some not online. There's underrepresented groups and communities where women are not having access to the digital government services.
So, again, the digital economy has created this as a separate pillar to have new services that are meant to reach as many people as possible, becoming digital and accessible. At the same time, ones that are available, being able the reach the underrepresented groups.
Now, the next slide speaks to the work that is contributing to what this pillars, the strategies the government has already put out there.
One of the developments we have ongoing ‑‑ and we pretty much had it from way back in 2020 when the communications authority developed the framework for ‑‑ wide space. Based on the models of delivering and the legacy models that deliver connectivity particularly through cellular connectivity.
With spaces forming as a foundation, there's a chance of work that developed over time after that has been an immense collaboration that's still going on. Other stakeholders are looking at what can be looked into to enhance the capacity for Internet access and, at the same time, enhance the access to the Internet.
At DSA, we worked on the studies for Wi‑Fi and helped ‑‑ but the communications authority published on ways to enhance Wi‑Fi capacity.
The conversations happening now is seeing how the upper part can be adopted or used to develop more access to Wi‑Fi.
We did not focus on the lower part. We looked at the whole band, and we're looking at how that can be expanded.
Between 2023 and last year, there was work to see an opportunity to have public networks deployed in places that are underserved.
Last‑mile Internet access, through private networks, there's community networks deployed in places that are underserved. That's part of the new initiatives of ‑‑ and supporting the last‑mile access.
At the tail end of this development is to have new policies come out that are able to support the commercial rollouts of these sort of no, and sustainable models that can be delivered to reach communities that are underserved.
(Audio is distorted)
(No discernible speaker)
>> LEONARD MABELE: I just mentioned we have the developments that are now in the pipeline to be able to see what sort of framework can be developed to support the networks.
Beyond this, we realised that when we talk about these conversations, it's the lack of capacity, particularly to some of the Internet Service Providers to ‑‑ government to provide these services and ‑‑ (audio is distorted) ‑‑ and with that, we embarked on working with different digital skills programme, which are running the different multistakeholders. The FCDO has worked with Internet, worked with ‑‑ and has worked with others on various initiatives.
At the moment, there's work going on with DSA and ‑‑ University to have a programme that understand what is you need, and they will go forward with stakeholders to develop infrastructure to support the last‑mile networks.
Beyond that, it's the aspect of having the understanding of the different topics with cybersecurity as well as the push for the access to the other side. We also understand what comes with ‑‑ as Samantha was saying earlier. And the pillars of data protection are meant to be understood and there are other digital skills running. We have a fiber programmes that been developed to have community networks understand that they can deploy their networks through fiber infrastructure, among other programmes that are going on.
Neil, I will stop there and hand it back to you.
>> NEIL WILSON: Thank you, Leonard. It's interesting to see how this is playing out in your context there.
Now, turning to Professor Luzango.
Professor, please, take it over with your remarks.
>> LUZANGO MFUPE: So my colleagues already touched some of the aspects and topics I would like to cover.
But to emphasise more on the need to broadband connectivity for the development of any nation, in South Africa, of course, just to give you an overview, the last 10 years, the government has made quite good success, in terms of digital transformation and connectivity. For example, we are talking about most of the population is connected to mobile networks. Similar to my colleagues in Kenya. Around 13.5% of the population is connected by a fixed Internet at home.
Of course, we do have a development plan, 2030, which calls for universal access for everyone, as we are aware that broadband connectivity can contribute quite a good percentage of GDP in developing countries.
(Speaker video is frozen)
(Captioner lost Internet connection)
(Please stand by)
>> LUZANGO MFUPE: ‑‑ trying to reduce the cost of connectivity. We've been trying to develop technologies and solutions that would allow rural communities to connect to the broadband officially. Some of the initiatives in the area of reducing the cost of accessing spectrum because we are aware that spectrum contributes immensely in the total cost of ownership for an operator, wireless operators like mobile networks. One of the solutions we're looking at through the innovative views of spectrum by sharing it. In the past 10 years, for example, we worked with the regulator to come up with regulations that will allow operators big and small to access Spectrum in the broadcasting broadband.
In March, that was achieved. The regulator published it. There was connectivity in the rural areas.
Going forward, we are now in phase two of that initiative, which is allowing secondary use of other parts of Spectrum outside of the broadcasting band, and we are currently working with a regulator on the innovation spectrum. This is around 4.2 gigahertz.
In this regard, we've been working closely with FCDO, firstly in the ‑‑ owned by women and youth and persons with disabilities in taking advantage of what is available and the regulations we've been working to get in motion.
Since around 2020, the FCOD and CCF collaborated in deploying affordable connectivity in rural areas. Around five provinces have been reached through this programme, and over 70,000 users in rural areas connected to this initiative daily. Over 200 public facilities have been connected through those initiatives.
Over 215 jobs have been created. Over 150 small businesses have been connected.
To sum it up, it has been a success. Of course, making sure that it is sustainable. FCOD, CRCO, and other partners have been providing capacity building to these beneficiaries, in terms of technical and business models so that they can be sustainable beyond the support that we are providing to them.
Maybe I should stop here. Thank you now.
>> NEIL WILSON: Thank you very much, Professor. Really interesting there. I think already across this conversation, if you will excuse the pun, we're running the spectrum of frameworks and environments all the way up to the global normative initiatives. I think this leads us quite nicely to our next panellist, Maria, who is going to be representing the civil society voice.
>> MARIA PAZ CANALES: Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. As Neil just mentioned, the intervention will try to complement what you've heard. We've heard about ensuring connectivity in a sustainable and meaningful way.
But a complement of what was in the pillars presented initially by Alessandra, like having inclusive and responsible and sustainable digital transformation strategies look into the aspect of what it means unpacking and having effective and inclusive participation of different stakeholders at the local level emboldened from the very beginning in the design and deployment of these different strategies.
This has something that's been part of the core work of the global partners organisation. Across the years, we have been working with partners in regions around the world in helping them to unpack their work at the local level and working in collaboration with local authorities in setting kind of the elements of what it means and what are the benefits of having participatory process of designed implementation deployment of digital strategies.
So applied particularly to the context of connectivity. Also, I think Samantha was referring to this usage gaps. Many times, when we start with the deployment of this digital transformation strategies or the implementation of this project, we focus very heavily in the first part, which is ensuring that the population can be effectively connected, have broadband access, access to devices, and, increasingly, skills. We've heard about the implementation of this, and there's an additional layer when we provide tools to a local actor to engage meaningfully with these policies.
One element I would like to see more, like where it sits, the more participatory angle that can be a little bit part of the inclusive approach, but it's also part of the responsible approach.
We only know what we know. We don't know what we don't know. So the only way of being effective in responding to the needs of the local communities and the local realities on the context is to have, by design, the digital transformation policies being produced and discussed a item local level with the relevant actors and with the marginalised communities because we need to go beyond the top‑down approach, seeing we're providing technologies to a population, but we need to learn what are their needs and ways in which they start to engage and how technology starts to transform the social lives at the community level. All those elements should be taken into account when we are talking about digital transformation that's really conscious and rights‑respecting for the exercise of the best measure of human development.
The final angle I would like to include on that because maybe probably after we won't have much time for discussion is what is the relevant of the connection between the local partners and global guidance.
I've seen many groups struggle to show their local governments and the ‑‑ and the engagement of companies that look at the many developing countries that are engaging in the digital transformation strategies. They're not willing to off the same protection offered in other places and other jurisdictions.
There's a benefit in keeping an eye on what is the global development, in terms of technologies with the human rights approach. There is a lot of work that is being conducted by the UN bodies providing guidance and the implementation of technologies and different fields in cybersecurity, in artificial intelligence corners, in platform corners. And all of that should be part, also, of the interaction and feeling the local perspective, in terms of how to assign meaningful, responsible, and sustainable digital transformation at the local level.
We try to be good partners in trying to bring that to the different groups working on the ground. So if you want to have more access to information, I encourage you to visit our website. There are many materials. I'm happy to be in contact for anyone who can benefit from some of what we have implemented.
I will stop there now.
Thank you, Neil.
>> NEIL WILSON: Thank you, Maria.
We have a little bit of time left for questions now. If anyone here in the audience would like to ask a question, please do go up to one of the microphones at the side of the stage. State your name and the organisation you're in affiliation with and if you would like to address your question to any of the panellists.
We have online participation. There's a Mentimeter attached to that.
I will open the chat to see if there are any questions.
If there are none in the room or none online, I'm happy to answer the question. We've covered a broad spectrum of issues here. It's clear that there's a need to ensure connectivity and meaningful connectivity. It's ensuring that it's not technology for the sake of technology but that it's rights‑respecting. Part of that is we're hearing about the great risks and issues that are created, obviously, with the development of new technologies.
I'm sure it's an open question to the panel, and I welcome perspectives from anyone. But I'm really interested on hearing a bit more on the balance between kind of innovation and increasing connectivity. So increasing connectivity and balancing that with a need to prevent new harm, such as Alessandra mentioned, tech‑based, gender‑based violence, all of this has appeared.
I welcome this from the panel as we rapidly approach the end.
>> ALESSANDRA LUSTRATI: There's an increase in ‑‑ we work to deepen the approach. Because it's community‑based, it really starts from, as Maria indicated very importantly ‑‑ this is the way we approach things top‑down and hearing the needs of the communities and their ambitions. I think they've done a wonderful job in encouraging approach. There's a new application we've launched.
One of my passions, going back to the risk part ‑‑ I want to give space to the others ‑‑ but we've done a lot of work to promoting online safety, which always has to go both at the level of regulatory frameworks but also the capability of the users themselves.
We build in trainings, the theme becomes more complex, so we've tried to do research on where things come from and how we can prevent the dynamic rather than only support in dealing with the consequences.
I will stop there. If anyone wants to know more, we also have a global partnership of the UK with different countries around the world on this. Please come and talk to me or other FCOD colleagues, and we can tell you more on that.
I will stop on there. Thanks a lot.
>> NEIL WILSON: Thank you, Alessandra.
We've a few minutes left. Feel free to approach the microphones.
>> MARIA PAZ CANALES: I can jump in here. Just a comment from the previous remark. In ensuring the human rights I'm advocating for and address the potential risks or harms that come from some of these, relevant developments, we need to acknowledge that they all have negative sides as well as they bring a lot of potentiality and bring new risks and challenges. There's an institutional structure, the normative structure that will allow particularly to be able to track in an effective manner what is the impact the deployment of technology is having on the ground.
Usually, when we focus on providing meaningful connectivity and ‑‑ what we advocate, with the human rights approach, those are not some elements that are zero gain. We can do both at the same time. We have benefit, in terms of reinforcement, legitimacy, and ensuring it's not mission ‑‑ in the policies that we're implementing.
I totally believe there are good intentions calls, but there are a lot of unknown. The unknown are not only coming from the nature of the technology itself. They come from the specific interaction that happened between a specific technologies and local context and realities and cultural and social elements that are different from one place to another.
So that is why monitoring constantly how this is unpacking and being able to have mechanisms in place to course correct, to have oversight and review and repeat in the cycle of policy assignment are fundamental for ensuring a human rights‑respecting approach in the digital future.
>> NEIL WILSON: Thank you, Maria.
I'm afraid I can't see our online participants on the screen I have in front of me. Please do chime in if you have anything to add.
>> They can jump in.
>> LEONARD MABELE: I wanted to share a moment. We have a minute. Actually, yesterday, I came from a country to the western part of Kenya and neighbouring Uganda. Moving around the county, I found it to be the most underserved. Going by the limited access, the best connection you will get is 3G. Many places, I had 2G. That was baffling, how many schools were next to each other. The population reported, but the Bureau of Statistics is not correct of that county. There are more people we're not really counting, as we think about this stuff.
So looking at connectivity and innovation, something that struck my mind is we have an avenue to deliver meaningful access in rural areas. Beyond that, the conversation we were having with farmers, it was interesting to note that they also need digital solutions.
So connectivity brought on by networks and supporting innovation ‑‑ sorry. I took extra time.
>> NEIL WILSON: Thank you so much. We really appreciate it.
Unfortunately, we're not only out of time but slightly over time.
Thank you so much to our panellists here in the room and those online. All the participants, there will be a report published to the IGF website. Keep an eye out for that. I'm sure I speak on behalf of all the panellists here that we would be very happy to continue the conversation. We look forward to continuing the dialogue.
Thank you.
(Applause)
