Delivered by Verónica Ferrari, APC Global Policy Advocacy Coordinator
The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is a membership-based network of organisations and activists with the mission of strengthening collective organising towards building a transformative movement to ensure that the internet and digital technologies enable social, gender and environmental justice for all people. APC is comprised of 71 organisational members and 41 associates active in 74 countries, primarily in the global South, and also works closely with various partner organisations.
APC welcomes the opportunity to present this submission on “The developmental aspects to strengthen the internet” to the Online Open Consultation for the ITU-Council Working Group on International Internet-related Public Policy Issues (CWG-Internet) during its Twentieth Meeting.
I will present some key points from our submission that outlines APC’s position on internet policy and discuss the need to strengthen internet development through multilateral and multistakeholder processes.
We argue that the Summit of the Future, WSIS, the IGF and other global policy spaces addressing digital cooperation and governance should aim to prioritise key existing gaps and failures such as digital inequality, the gender digital divide and environmental sustainability.
The WSIS+20 review is a unique opportunity to reinterpret this WSIS vision in light of the persistent, current and emerging challenges.
We recommend the WSIS review process to:
- Review and adjust the WSIS action lines to respond to persistent and in some instances growing digital inequality.
- Address urgent global challenges and tensions such as those posed by climate change and degradation of our natural environment, which in many instances is exacerbated by digital transformation, while at the same time offering new tools to help mitigate or adapt to environmental damage.
- Address the urgent need to operationalise universal meaningful connectivity and digital equity.
- Renew commitment to the WSIS principles of multistakeholder participation, drawing on the NETmundial+10 São Paulo Guidelines.
- Integrate the Global Digital Compact (GDC) with the WSIS follow-up and implementation processes. The WSIS review should take into consideration the principles agreed during the GDC negotiations.
- Place intersectional gender justice at the core of the WSIS and GDC processes, ensuring that the governance, development and use of technology are inclusive, and benefit women and girls, in all their diversity.
- Place inclusion at the core of the WSIS and GDC processes through serious consideration of voices, perspectives and realities of people who are most affected and vulnerable. In particular, Indigenous groups should have their active and meaningful role secured during the WSIS review process.
Lastly, in the submission, we highlight the role of community-centered connectivity initiatives in bridging the digital divide, especially in rural and underserved areas.
We advocate for appropriate regulatory frameworks, licensing and financial support to enable these small-scale, social-purpose operators to contribute effectively to digital inclusion.
Finally, we would like to stress the need for international cooperation based on principles of social justice, human rights and environmental responsibility to ensure equitable access to digital technologies.
Overall, we recommend the following steps:
- Recommit to the multistakeholder processes that underpin efforts toward achieving digital equity and meaningful connectivity.
- Ensure that interventions are based on a set of internationally agreed principles rooted in social justice, the public interest and human rights.
- Prioritise key existing gaps such as addressing digital inequality, the gender digital divide and environmental sustainability.
- Adopt appropriate licensing and spectrum management frameworks for small social-purpose operators that allow them to effectively contribute to solving the connectivity challenge.
- Put in place national financing mechanisms that support community networks and other complementary connectivity providers by providing small-scale startup funding
- We believe that now is the time for those participating in the ITU-Council Working Group on International Internet-related Public Policy Issues to recognise that community-centred models are not receiving enough attention, and there is a need to be more proactive in supporting these complementary solutions that are critical to ensuring the inclusion of marginalised groups such as women and Indigenous communities, as well as the most financially disadvantaged.
Thanks for the opportunity to present and for your attention.