This is a rare - and powerful - opportunity to address your voice directly to key decision-makers from international organizations. They look forward to hearing your ideas and recommendations and are ready to carry them to their work.
Be mindful to be ambitious but realistic about the asks. It is the ownership of decision-makers and the actual implementation of the recommendations that will define their impact, not merely the bold statements they bring in the spotlight. Please be specific and clear, and feel free to provide examples. To the extent possible, build on the discussions in Rooms 2 and 3 to formulate your recommendations.
Questions:
What recommendations can you formulate (maximum 3) to your audience/s (please specify the decision-makers to which each recommendation is addressed to - either governments, ITU or UN at large) towards building a safe, inclusive and wholesome digital future for today's youth?
What actions are needed to tackle the current challenges with youth access to social and economic opportunities in the digital world?
How can government agencies and stakeholder groups (private and public sector, academia, innovators) collaborate better, at the national as well as at the international level, towards shaping a better digital future for all?
What will happen if the goals of the 'Call to Action Our Digital Future' get accomplished, and the recommendations implemented?
What will the positive change in tomorrow's digital world look like and how can it be measured?
It’s been a great pleasure to join this consultation as your moderator and to have the chance to get firsthand and personal input on the Youth Call to Action. I was pleasantly surprised by the depth and accuracy of the discussions and, most of all, by your desire to contribute to changing the digital future for the better.
The main takeaways of the contributions you’ve shared this week were related to education and youth information campaigns, the importance of digital literacy on top of the infrastructure, and the collaboration among all the stakeholders, be they institutions, policymakers, decision-makers, or international organizations or industry leaders.
As I said in my introduction message last week, I am a strong supporter of education, and I think digital skills are key elements for the future of any society. Thus, seeing the ideas you shared only highlights their importance and makes me put in even more effort to promote and implement educational programs in Romania, and, of course, at international level.
Thank you again for sharing your thoughts which will be forwarded to the Youth Call to Action document. The final draft will be passed over to decision makers during the WTDC, taking place in Kigali right after the Generation Connect Youth Summit (2-4 June).
I encourage all those who would like to further engage on these topics to register to Generation Connect Youth Summit, physically or virtually.
I am lucky enough to attend the summit personally, and I'm looking forward to seeing you all in Kigali.
Wishing you the best of luck and success in all your future endeavours!
I am excited to have you with us on the journey to connect the unconnected. As young people, you will inherit the world that is being shaped by today’s technological advancements. Your voices matter as we forge solutions to advance an inclusive digital future, for all.
Please share your thoughts and ideas to the listed questions. Your contributions will shape the ‘’Youth Call to Action’’ document, which will be shared with decision-makers at ITU’s World Telecommunication Development Conference in Kigali, Rwanda in June 2022.
Warm welcome to the engagement space on policy direction for a better digital future!
My name is Youlia Lozanova, I am working with countries to assess the strengths and areas for improvement of their digital policy frameworks, and chart strategies to enhance them.
I will be your Moderator for the coming week before handing over the moderation to the Offices of the UN Youth Envoy and the UN Envoy on Technology next week.
This is the space to discuss what decision-makers need to focus on now, concretely, to prepare your better digital future tomorrow. By ‘decision-makers’, we mean governments and the various government ministries and agencies, as well as regional and international organizations, such as the United Nations. What should decision-makers do better and how? Remember, the individual work of agencies can be amplified by collaboration across sectors (e.g., education, health, entrepreneurship) and partnerships across the board (with private sector, financiers, innovation hubs) at the national and international level.
The policies carried out have direct impact on national digital development and creating more opportunities for meaningful participation in the digital world. By ‘digital development’, here we understand building connectivity and the use and application of Information and Communication Technologies, ICTs, and digital tools (e.g., mobile and cloud technologies and the Internet) for development and impact in key public sectors (e.g., edtech, mobile payments, e-agriculture).
This discussion will form the basis for the outcome document of the forthcoming ITU Youth Summit (2-4 June, Kigali), the Call to Action, so we can enhance youth engagement in ITU and across the UN system.
Share your views and ideas and do feel free to bring your friends and likeminded youth in this space. You are welcome to answer any or all of the questions above and respond to other contributors' posts.
I very much look forward to our discussion!
Youlia
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Hello everyone my name is Ismael Sowtall,greeting from Guinea ?? Conakry. Graduated in English and computer science; i am a community volunteer within UNVP.
because governments and national, international institutions lead people but they can not innovate in numérique and create digital tools. Then…
Governments must Open the doors and facilitate entreprises, factories and societies to innovate in that field by following the common lines and philosophies of inclusivity.
So what should instructions do?
Finally, from the beginning to the end, institutions must be the bridge of that inclusivity. Why and how?
Because when we talk about governments we talk at same time about corruption , about injustice, about division… And when we talk about entreprises too , at the same time we talk about profit, benefit, capitalism… all those things make digital inclusion more and more difficult.
So National and international institutions must take care about what kind and how the numérique world that we all wish is going to be built. Is it inclusive ? Is it diversified ? The question like that can help to bring can.
NB: personally I think to get better digital world, some digital and numeric innovation must be reinvented because any digital that does not care about all dimension of society, handicaps persons, level of education of concerned people, and capacities of everyone to bay it, that digital must be reinvented.
Greetings Ismael Sowtall, thank you very much for sharing your thoughts.
The principles of inclusiveness, diversity and accessibility you brought in the discussion are indeed fundamental in the digital world. Innovation can be a driver for achieving development goals and creating digital opportunities for all.
Ismael, could you please elaborate a bit and share what can be the (1-2) most important actions governments and international agencies can take to shape a better digital future? What is most needed - better policies, better governance, better innovation ecosystems, more collaboration? Who should take action, at the national and international level?
ismael Sowtall from Guinea Conakry, community volunteer.
Tout d’abord, avant de commencer je voudrais bien remercier la team UIT, YOUHT CONNECT ENVOY et LES NATIONS UNIES pour l’intérêt qu’ils accordent au domaine numérique car le monde de demain sera de plus en plus numérique et vouloir améliorer le numérique d’aujourd’hui c’est de laisser un avenir fantastique aux futures générations.
- Je pense que globalement le numérique est un outil indispensable et fantastique dans l’atteinte des objectifs du développement durable.
•Quand vous prenez dans le domaine de la santé; le numérique joue un rôle important en matière gestion de données médicales et la rapidité dans les interventions en cas d’urgence.
• Dans l’éducation: le numérique réduit les coûts et les distances en donnant la chance à tout le monde d’apprendre.
• Dans le business: le numérique joue un rôle important dans les échanges.
•Aujourd’hui il existe même des monnaies d’échange numérique, c’est à dire un jour l’humanité n’utilisera plus les billets.
- Cependant le numérique est-il suffisamment inclusif et diversifié pour que tout le monde, peu importe ta langue, ton origine, tes moyens financiers, ta religion ou ta culture soit pris en compte? Que personne ne soit abandonné derrière?
Pour être bref je dirais non!!!
Heureusement il existe encore des solutions pour un monde numérique inclusif et durable.
* Premièrement: dans l’éducation, quels sont ces pays du sud( Afrique)ou d’Asie du Sud est où le cursus scolaire prend vraiment en compte le numérique ? Cette question revient au gouvernements et au décideurs, ils doivent intégrer le programme informatique comme étant une matière à part entière dans les programmes d’études nationaux.
* Deuxièmement : les institutions doivent mettre en place une ligne directrice pour les innovateurs numériques à fin que leurs innovations ne soient pas seulement des biens qui rapportent des profits; mais soient aussi des biens permettant une inclusion globale et durable tout en tenant compte des réalités des individus et des sociétés .
C’est à dire les langues, les religions, les cultures, les opinions des uns ou des autres , le niveau d’étude des uns et des autres ou encore les moyens financiers, ne soient pas un obstacle à faire partir d’un monde numérique inclusif mais plutôt un atout à la fois pour le créateur numérique et l’utilisateur. C’est la diversité inclusive et durable.
Ce rôle revient généralement aux institutions nationales et internationales.
*Pour finir : Le monde numérique est difficile à cerner, difficile à contrôler mais avec un peu de bonne volonté, le numérique peu apporter un changement considérable pour la construction des sociétés plus juste, plus inclusive et plus durable.
Thanks very much to all of you who have shared your experience and views in our four discussion rooms.
Maria Jo Londoño Tous , it's great to read about your commitment to work towards wider and better use of digital technologies and the Internet for social development. What if we look at the big picture - what is that governments need to do to build a more inclusive and sustainable digital world where young people feel represented, safe and thriving?
Dafinematagi , congratulations on you community initiatives to reflect on the digital future together with Kenya's youth. You said 'Private and public organizations should also come in to make all these happen' - but how? I am sure you have ideas to put forward to national and international decision-makers. Please share your views here.
Federica Morici , your testimonial is impressive. Education has indeed such an important role to play in getting ready for the future, and the promise of digital technologies haven't yet been fully leveraged. What concrete actions would you ask governments and international organization to start doing now to make sure young people are prepared to meaningfully participate in the digital future?
I will love to hear more about your views and concrete proposals and I'm sure all the community will, too.
I hope that those who haven't yet joined the conversation do so now! We need all the brain power of the community to formulate ambitious but realistic recommendations to decision-makers in your countries and worldwide.
Thank you so much for your time and for being so committed to building a bright digital future for all.
¿Qué pasa si miramos el panorama general: qué deben hacer los gobiernos para construir un mundo digital más inclusivo y sostenible donde los jóvenes se sientan representados, seguros y prósperos?
Si miramos el panorama general nos damos cuenta de unas cuantas cosas, la primera, es que todos vivimos en contextos sumamente diferentes, la segunda, es que algunos cuentan con el privilegio para poder acceder a un mundo digital, tercero, la poca escolarización que tiene la población y eso contando que una parte de esta misma población tiene analfabetismo -relacionando más que todo en mi país Colombia- que esto se vio evidenciado en la pandemia que nos llevo al confinamiento lo importante que es el acceso al internet y su consideración a que este sea un derecho fundamental, debido al mundo digital que cada día nos estamos sumergiendo más. En ese orden de ideas, para una solución o varias, pues estamos ante una problematica que se debe manejar con sumo cuidado, por parte de las entidades estatales, que es en sí el gobierno, es dimensionar todos estos problemas, pero no solo es entregar computadoras, laptos u otro aparato electronico, de hecho, eso serían las herramientas para colocar en practica el conocimiento que se debe tener sobre un mundo digital porque este no solo consiste en "oh, yeah, internet" porque en este puede haber tanto sus beneficios como sus problematicas y ese es al punto donde debemos llegar, además de entregas de las herramientas, proporcionar el conocimiento en base de lo que implica ser y pertenecer a un mundo digital. Agregando el hecho, de que los recursos que sean para este tipo de programas no se vean malversados o se pierdan, darles esa oportunidad a aquellos jóvenes que lo necesitan, dando talleres dinamicos enfocados en las diferentes inteligencias y las formas de aprender de las personas y más cuando son jóvenes, y sobre todo, mucho compromiso, disciplina, longevidad en el tiempo y dedicación.
Maria Jo Londoño Tous thank you for your thoughts. We will be taking your important points forward in the Call to Action.
In the meantime, would you like to share your views on the international aspects of fast-tracking global digital development and what synergies are needed between stakeholders (governments, private sector, NGOs, financiers) to build a digital future that is better and more inclusive than today? I would love to hear your ideas around Questions 1 and 3 above.
Thank you and do provide your feedback to the other discussion rooms too !
So great to have you in the conversation! Please leave your comments on the concrete policies and actions needed to fast-track a digital future that is full of opportunities, meaningful and sustainable.
We are listening to your ideas and will carry them forward.
Hello, I'm Furkan USTA. I am an electrical and electronics engineering student.
Every state invests in increasing the productivity of its people. To give an example in my own country (Turkey), there are many young entrepreneur training programs and many young entrepreneur support programs. I am sure that there are many organizations, both state-sponsored and NGOs, in countries under the umbrella of the United Nations. It is very important to increase their number and quality.
In our globalizing world, the ability to work with other nations has become very important. As our group does, we try to understand each other through online and offline meetings. Putting ourselves in someone else's shoes is one of the most important factors that directly increase our productivity. I think that the establishment of young entrepreneur education programs such as student exchange programs that we are involved in at university age is very important for our future goals. This is one of my suggestions.
To touch on another subject, I would like to touch on the financing part of the subject, taking into account the suggestions of my other friends.
Some tasks require a stimulating action for the cycle to continue on its own. The life of organizations where financing is at the forefront ends the day the financial support ends. For this reason, I would like to recommend our decision makers to determine the size of the project with talented minds who can devote their own time to the project, instead of determining the size of the project with money.
How Does?
Let's say we take young minds or academics as a source. If we can bring people together in such groups and motivate them to produce something, we will lay the foundations for everyone to win.
I can give examples of Ideathons that support this view. In Ideathons, people usually produce or design small-scale versions of the projects they want to do without financial resources. The winning project of Ideathon is supported financially and the final product is aimed to be produced.
For those in the developing world class like my country, it may be more difficult to support projects financially, but we have people with great minds. We can try to balance financial strength with working capacity across countries
Finally, the only cost of thinking is time. If we can find participants who will invest in our project with their time in the first place, we will have the opportunity to do a much more solid-based study. In order to use our world resources, especially economic, more effectively, I want our decision makers to listen to bright ideas more and to work for the realization of the feasible ones.
I hope the issues I have discussed will help us to improve our mind.
Thank you Furkan USTA , for the useful pointers and the insightful suggestions.
It would be great if you can also share your ideas around Question 3 above: How can government agencies and stakeholder groups (private and public sector, academia, innovators) collaborate better, at the national as well as at the international level, towards shaping a better digital future for all?
I realize this is one of the most complex issues to figure out going forward, but it is one of the most pressing, too. What do you think?
Ismael, if you take a close look at our country, Kenya that is, it is a third world country. You can visualize all the challenges that it goes through
Firstly, most rural areas lack reliable electricity and internet access(major requirements for digital technology). This is because it's undergoing financial constraints
The point I was driving home is; some organization should come in, at least provide some grants and assistance so that electricity and internet access can be made readily accessible for young people
Experts should also volunteer to come in and offer free formal education so that at least we can eradicate this challenge of digital illiteracy in our country.
Lastly, Kenyan young people lack access to digital devices basically because of poverty and so they cannot afford them
It would be thrilling if international organizations join in to provide digital devices for these young people in Kenya so that they can have a clue of how to use them.
Thank you, Dafinematagi for sharing your experience and the challenges preventing many young people in developing countries from reaping the digital dividends.
Please can you elaborate more on what are the non-financial solutions to digital development issues. What can governments, international organization or other stakeholders do, concretely, to improve connectivity and digital opportunities for youth, in addition to more resources and funding options? I would be very interested to read your views on Questions 1 and 3 above.
Thanks so much to all of you for adding your voice to the discussion on actions for building a better digital future. I was impressed by the clarity of your ideas, your engagement and passion. A high-energy clarion ‘Call to Action’ started shaping this week and I can’t wait to see it mature over the remaining two weeks of the consultation.
Many of you have clearly experienced first-hand the challenges related to digital inequalities and the lack of meaningful connectivity - this is indeed still the realities in many places. This situation needs to change, and this consultation process helps create an agenda for change and a roadmap for action for governments and the United Nations community. Our ‘Call to Action’ has the ambition to build a bridge between agencies and stakeholders and open new channels for established and new international processes, such as the UN Common Agenda and the UN Global Compact.
Some of the key action points you brought to the table this week were:
Digital development needs to be at the top of government agendas as the key to an inclusive and sustainable digital future.
Governments should strive to eradicate inequalities related to connectivity and ensure meaningful connectivity for all people everywhere.
Digital public goods in key areas such as education and health cannot be delivered without connectivity and the supporting infrastructure (such as electricity grids).
Safe and affordable access to the Internet has become a fundamental right and governments need to recognize it as such and ensure it is granted to all citizens.
Youth engagement in government and decision-making processes needs to be enhanced.
Equipping young people with digital and entrepreneurship skills and integrating those in academic curricula is key to building the workforce of the future.
Governments need to craft enabling policy frameworks to support digital innovation and ecosystem building.
New financing mechanisms are needed to support innovative projects for digital development, youth empowerment and digital entrepreneurship.
Many of the issues you raised this week will be discussed at the upcoming Generation Connect Youth Summit (2-4 June, Kigali). This is where the ‘Call to Action’ will also be sealed and passed over to national and international decision-makers. I hope you will be there with us to support the movement. If you haven’t yet registered to participate in person or virtually, do so now.
In the meantime, please continue sharing your ideas, views and experiences. As I sign off as your moderator for the past week, I hand over the discussion in this room to the UN Youth Envoy and the UN Envoy on Technology. You all have a rare opportunity to speak directly to them, without intermediaries, and deliver your asks for concrete actions by governments and international organizations – I hope you will use this opportunity well.
Stay tuned and become advocates for this consultation and the ‘Call to Action’ yourselves!
I must commend Ghana for their efforts to step up in digitalization, yet there are a few things I would like to talk about.
If digitalization will be possible for Ghanaians, we would have to start from the grassroots: infuse it in our educational system and then the other actions can be taken. This is important because children and youth go through formal education void of digitalization but come into the after school life, work, entrepreneurship and other fields only to struggle to fit in.
Most basic schools and high schools don't even have computer laps, those who have, do not have enough, which makes practicing very difficult. Sadly, most of these schools who have few laptop are mostly situated in the urban areas, leaving behind the rural areas.
In spite of all these, I believe that there is hope for a digitalized future for Ghana and other African countries. UN organizations, in collaboration with other organizations and the government can help provide computers and systems to make practice of digitalization in the educational system possible.
Again, as Angela Lusiga said, government, UN organizations and other organizations should also focus on investing in youth people's digital intelligence. The youth are the future and they have brilliant ideas and innovations that will help achieve the digital future we seek.
It is a collaborative effort, and all hands should be on desk for a better digital future.
Thank you so much for sharing your perspectives and for highlighting the integral role that education plays.
I agree, institutions, policymakers, decision-makers, and industry leaders must invest in building young people’s digital skills and literacy so that young people can fulfill their potential.
Young people should not be expected to solve the world’s biggest challenges without having meaningful support (such as education and access to tools and resources) to help them create solutions for the sustainable development goals.
Thank you for reflecting on this aspect of the digital divide in your recommendations based on your observations and lived experiences.
Allow me to continue the conversation and also ask you: how can government, private and public institutions, and educational institutions, collaborate better with young people at national and global level to create a better digital future for all?
Again, for those who are outside the school system and already find themselves in the working field, employers should endeavor to give digital education and capacity building training for their employees to bring them up to speed on the new system of doing things.
Another area where digitalization is very important is the health sector. Government, UN organizations and innovative individuals can help build a health system where patient's health records can be shared with other hospitals with a collaborative consent.
Over these years till recently, almost all the hospital's retake details of patients over and over again without former health records. It is very frustrating sometimes but if the various stakeholders in the health sector come together to digitalize health information that can be shared in confidence and with consent, it will improve Ghana's health sector and build a better digital future for this sector.
That cool. Im from roma community ujual awer women Maried and don't have masters degrees. So i think for digital resurse and support for rural women and tradition community to improve the ar skills.
Al so yesterday i was watched som regugee women campaign from UNHRl abiut food for Ramadan. The women was widow without Karier skils or chanse to work she have tri children. World should support female to stady new thinks and have new skills
My name is Jayathma Wickramanayake, I'm the United Nations Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth and I'm very excited to be your next moderator for this #OurDigitalFuture discussion. I will also be joined by the UN Envoy on Technology this week.
As you are aware, digitalization, innovation, and technology advancement are growing at a pace that is more rapid than ever. Personally, as a young person and a digital native, I feel very privileged to grow up with technology. However, I understand that the technology that we had ten years ago has evolved and changed so much more than the ones we have today. While opportunities that technology and digitalization present to us today are much more advanced, we cannot ignore the risk and digital divide that still exist for many young people out there.
When the United Nations introduced its Roadmap for Digital Cooperation two years ago, the report acknowledged that the digital future has enormous potential for creating positive changes. But the digital future also has the potential to worsen inequalities. We cannot afford a digital future that further excludes those who are already vulnerable or left behind - and this is what the UN hopes to achieve through the Global Digital Compact outlined in the Our Common Agenda Recommendation.
We need a digital future that is safe, inclusive, and wholesome. This is why we need to hear from you, the most connected generation, to share your views, ideas, and recommendations and let us know what institutions and decision-makers should prepare to build a better digital future for everyone.
Don't hesitate to share your answers to the five guiding questions above - feel free to share recommendations as well as examples of lessons learned from your lived experiences and unique perspectives!
I'm excited to hear your thoughts!
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My name is Eliane Mbende, I'm the Cameroon Youth Voices Chapter Lead and a 23 year-old general dentist passionate about international development; Thank you for this amazing space!
Dear Jayathma, In Sub-Saharan Africa, 25% of the population has no network coverage, while 49% cannot use the internet because they cannot afford smartphones or mobile services, do not have the skills to use them, or the services do not really meet their needs (source: GMSA).
We cannot talk about digital sustainability without mentioning the need to ensure connectivity across Africa, which involves the deployment of ICT infrastructure, internet access and connections between rural and urban areas.
Firstly, our governments with ITU' support need to contribute to digital inclusion by:
- simplifying access to connectivity and planning tomorrow's networks, while maintaining current global networks,
-creating and developing learning initiatives for the use of digital services,
-supporting entrepreneurship and start-ups,
- promoting innovation. For example, one idea would be to set up open access project hubs with unlimited access to the internet and learning.
Secondly, international organizations such as UNWomen, UNICEF need to focus on ICT literacy for women and children in elementary school. ICT literacy will give women, especially in rural areas, a chance to join the virtual labor market while updating information and communication technology (ICT) programs and policies;
Thirdly, ICT programs and policies need to be thoroughly reviewed in every country by the academia sector. The new curriculum should include topics such as digital skills and entrepreneurship basics. The private, public sector could increase investment opportunities for digital startups to enable young people to develop through digital.
Finally, I think that young entrepreneurs should know how to leverage global investments to make their digital startups work and also collaborate with stakeholders to create a longlasting positive impact in the society.
Thank you so much for your concrete recommendations!
The 3 recommendation points that you outlined are all interlinked to each other and that is completely true: our approach to building a better digital future must be holistic - we cannot ignore the link between policies, programs, education, and infrastructure/resources.
In short, the world cannot afford to work in silos if we are serious about solving the digital divide.
We will be taking the important points you have highlighted forward in the Call to Action. In the meantime, I would love to also ask a follow-up question: how do you see the role of peer-to-peer support and grassroots changemakers in helping to advance digital literacy in local communities?
? My name is Zubair and I will be contributing to this discussion with the perspective of an educational activist as the UK Youth Leader for Global Partnerships for Education, and a social entrepreneur as the founder of ZNotes, a global student movement addressing educational inequality and has reached over 3.5 million students from all over the world.
What actions are needed to tackle the current challenges with youth access to social and economic opportunities in the digital world?
While the digital world has, at large, democratised the access to knowledge and unlocked opportunities more than ever before, it has also exacerbated the inequalities which remain for those who are unable to participate in this new space. It has been argued for decades as to whether access to a stable internet connection and tools to leverage this were basic human rights. It may have been unclear some decades back but it is now undoubtedly necessary. The Covid-19 pandemic and consequential implementation of technological platforms for tracking and vaccine distribution highlighted how digital poverty also put your health on the line. I witnessed this first-hand as some of those around me with only a legacy mobile phone and no internet access were denied access and unable to access vaccines in a timely way. Instead, they were batted between the few alternate systems implemented and faced additional challenges.
In addressing the current challenges for youth, it is imperative we consider the intersectionality where youth belong and be aware of their unique sets of challenges. Solutions developed for one region, economic class or gender may be irrelevant to another. Nuanced solutions and deeper sensitivity to intersectionalities are necessary to tackle the current challenge for the youth.
How can government agencies and stakeholder groups (private and public sector, academia, innovators) collaborate better, at the national as well as at the international level, towards shaping a better digital future for all?
As the founder of a social-impact startup and continuously seeking opportunities to grow our impact through multistakeholder collaboration, the engagement with public sector continues to be the most difficult to navigate. The necessity of high levels of social capital to even arrive at a door combined with lengthy timescales make it impractical to meaningfully collaborate. Setting up a special division within local or national government that is solely for youth and made highly accessible so that young people addressing social challenges in their communities with digital technology can reach out would be hugely valuable for both these young innovators and also the public sector.
What will the positive change in tomorrow's digital world look like and how can it be measured?
Impact measurement remains a distraught topic as the term ‘impact’ becomes sensationalised and trending, and we see a spectrum of companies and organisation trying to associate themselves with it. Measuring impact needs to be a highly scientific and rigorous exercise and not bucketed as a marketing strategy or branding exercise. In a digital world, we are able to collect more data than ever before but it requires expertise to identify what aspects of a tool should be capturing data, how this translates into outcomes or proxies behaviour, and finally, how this turns into impact. We must move beyond simple traction metrics and instead consider how a digital tool reaching a certain group of people can have impact directly but also indirectly.
Thank you so much for taking the time to share your recommendations and for sharing comprehensive feedback!
Your feedback is well noted and we will take it forward in developing the Call to Action.
I particularly would like to echo your point on the importance of taking intersectionality into account! I am a big believer that young people are experts in their own way because of the unique lived experiences they gained through the intersectionality of youth’s identities.
This is why representation matters and why we must have young people in all their diversity included and represented at all levels in the process of shaping decisions, policies, and programmes.
On that note, when we launched the UN Youth Strategy 3 years ago, this is what we hope to achieve - for the UN to be an institution that can work together with all its partners (including policy and decision-makers at the national level) to advance this ambition by supporting the government in different areas of work, including the work to engage youth in the design, monitoring and review of in-country programmes and ensuring no youth is left behind. In case interested, you can learn more about the progress here: https://www.unyouth2030.com/progressreport22 .
Meaningful youth engagement is crucial in helping us all achieve a better future, including a better digital future, and it can only be done by listening and working together with young people, such as yourselves and all the young leaders in this room, who have kindly shared their input and recommendations.
So thank you so much for joining us in this process and do provide your feedback to the other discussion rooms too!
Thank you for reply, Jayathma Wickramanayake - Hillary Bakrie kindly introduced me to this consultation following the ECOSOC Youth Forum. ?
Thank you also for directing me toward the Youth2030 Progress Report - I'd like to commend you and the team for producing such a thorough and rigorous report, and making each UN entity accountable through the scorecard. I was particularly interested in the section regarding how partnerships/collaborations were being leveraged including the examples of the youth-led initiatives. Was any analysis conducted on the effectiveness of youth engagement versus not in the projects on factors such as time taken for solution development and impact produced? Apologies if I missed this while skimming through the report. Evidence such as these could be hugely valuable to validate the importance of youth in solution development beyond simply tokenistic inclusion.
More broadly, I believe very deeply in the importance of transitioning problem-owners to be problem-solvers. Lived experience is irreplicable and critical for effective solution development.
I will definitely continue to engage with the other discussion groups too and hopefully, see the Call to Action take shape!
I'm Iyunoluwa Ademola-Popoola, GPE Youth leader from Nigeria. The Nigerian society over the last few years has witnessed many more people (especially young people) and companies embracing more digital skills. The involvement of the youth could be improved through the following means. These recommendations would help in creating a safe and sustainable digital future for the Nigerian Youth.
1. Government could think of a Public-private partnership that could allow for tech skills. These skills should be infused into classes so it becomes easy for a talent pipeline to be created for technology companies in the market. Not just technology adoption but gromming technology talent that would be useful for creating technological tools in the market.
2. Government should subsidize technological learning centres. The government itself can create vocational learning institutes that focus on these key emerging skills that would be needed for the adoption and creation of technology. Goverment should create tax havens for technological companies, this will stimulate more technological activities, promote influx of techonoligical companies and enhance egagement.
3. The government should encourage national orientation workshops. The workshop would open up the realities of technology and the promises it offers to its young ones in society. This could be a periodic workshop that could involve a partnership between government and private tech companies.
Learning from the perspectives of local changemakers like yourself is very important in helping to develop solutions that work for local context and communities. So thank you so much for taking the time to share your point of view and for outlining your 3 recommendations!
I particularly wanted to highlight the point you raised on the need to invest in young people’s tech skills and the prospect of creating a talent pipeline.
Indeed, public-private partnerships offer a lot of opportunities for joint forces in creating talent pipelines that will enable young innovators to bring positive contributions to the future of technology. Allow me to also ask a follow-up question: how do you see the role of young educators in supporting this vision and collaboration?
All the mentioned sectors do have multiple value proposition regarding their work or stake on the digital future. Many private companies do not see advantage in interacting with the public Sector, since often it represents the apex of bureaucracy and slow innovation.
Therefore we should work on building a shared dashboard, Hub, innovation facilitator o similar, in order to take the lead in this collaborative effort.
Private sectors know more their customers needs and targets than anyone else.
Public sectors know macro situation of the country with it's socio-economic and accessibility issues.
Academics have extensive knowledge and best practices.
Innovators do have cost-effective, fast to deploy and efficient solutions.
Few ways to foster the collaboration:
- The academics world often has a multitude of collaboration tools at a global level, that's an asset. It is scalable to run research efforts on a specific set of issues. We should invest more time in connecting the world of innovators with the academics, in order to balance theory and practice for better solutions. This can be done with hackatons, events, conferences or call for ideas.
- This first step will facilitate the creation of blueprints at scale. Private companies working on IT might benefit from this blueprints that will widen their outreach in the digital world and have a winder impact.
- here, the Public Sector should play 2 crucial roles: A) listening sessions, where they connect deeply with citizens needs, especially in the matter of digital inclusion, through surveys ect.. B) Tech literacy democratization, and report development in order to showcase the progress of the nation towards digital inclusion and areas of improvement. Subsizide online courses on tech usage, and offline workshop's into disadvantaged segments of society.
Overall, these processes can ideally be compressed into a digital dashboard and platform that works to bring all these industries together, sharing information, tips and progress.
Thank you for highlighting the different roles of the public sector, academia, innovators, and private sector. And most importantly, thank you for sharing your recommendation of actions!
We will be taking your feedback forward in the process of developing the Call to Action.
In the meantime, allow me to also ask a follow-up question: What will happen if the goals of the 'Call to Action Our Digital Future' get accomplished, and the recommendations made by young people are implemented?
As the acting Tech Envoy for the United Nations, I am very excited to be here to hear from all of you. It is imperative that we listen closely to and take into account the voices and perspectives of young people, because the consequences of our action (or inaction) in the digital space and how we address digital opportunities and challenges today will ultimately all be borne by young people. The Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology is thus deeply committed to strengthening youth engagement here at the United Nations. For instance, a High-Level Event on Digital Cooperation at the 2020 UNGA drew on a youth campaign which we organized with the Office of the Youth Envoy, as well as focused on Future Generations and youth-related challenges.
As Jayathma has already mentioned, I thus look forward to your views on what you think "Our Digital Future" should look like; as a critical input into the United Nations' ongoing and future discussions on digital issues. In particular, the Global Digital Compact that is being prepared now, which will be a key outcome of the Summit of the Future next September, should take into account the views of young people. Your suggestions and inputs on key principles for a more open, free and secure digital future for all, as well as actions and commitments that must be undertaken to create this future, are thus very much appreciated. The discussion in Kigali is an important milestone and the Call to Action being developed is a key contribution.
In the words of the Secretary-General, as he concluded his Roadmap for Digital Cooperation: "Future generations will judge whether the present generation seized the opportunities presented by the age of digital interdependence. The time to act is now."
Hello Everyone, I am Abdulmajid haruna saeed from Nigeria. I will like to formulate my recommendations. These recommendations will be addressed to the ITU and the Governments.
1. The ITU as an international body for telecommunication regulators should work closely with the national telecom operators in ensuring that people living in rural communities enjoys equal quality services as that of their urban counterparts. The broadband penetration is very low in some communities which makes it impossible for people living in rural areas to have access to internet.
2. The governments should invest in the digital transformation and provide finance and support to tech start ups, this will increase the participation of youths in contributing to digital innovations.
3. To achieve a safe and inclusive digital future, youths have to be educated on digital literacy. A large percentage of youths who have access to digital assets lack the basic skills on how to use the resources available to them. The ITU and the governments should prepare a digital literacy roadmap that presents a holistic approach on how to educate and enlighten the masses to take advantage of their digital assets towards contributing to the development of digital innovations. While on the other hand, increasing the ownership of digital assets (phones and laptops) by providing it to those who can't afford to acquire it.
Thank you very much for the specific recommendations!
I see “digital literacy” as one of the important points that have been brought up consistently by young changemakers like yourself and other young leaders in this discussion room - which only highlights the need to advance progress on this topic even more.
Your feedback is well noted and we will take it forward in developing the Call to Action.
In the meantime, I’m hoping that you can elaborate more on your second recommendation. Based on your perspectives and lived experiences, in addition to financial support, what are the specific support from governments and institutions that can help young solution makers and their startups contribute to advancing a better digital for all?
Thank you for this wonderful opportunity. Its my pleasure to share my perspectives on the required support governments and institutions can offer to start ups who are passionate in taking the leads towards achieving inclusive digital transformation.
I am of the opinion that governments and financial institutions can work collaboratively in making access to funds more easier to start ups especially those in the tech industry. A certain amount of money should be set aside which will be given to techPreneurs with little or no interest rate.
Apart from supporting start ups with capital through loans, the governments can also decide to provide the equipments and an enabling business environment instead of the money.
There can be an agreement between governments and start ups which should clearly states that all the necessary equipments will be made available, in this case the "techPreneur" will be responsible for the operation and maintenance of that venture.
je recommande à UIT en collaboration avec UN de financier ou appuyer les gouvernements dans l'instauration de fibre optique dans les pays qui sont encore en arrière dans le domaine technologie .
Les actions à mener pour relever le défis actuel de l'accès des jeunes aux opportunité sociale et économique dans le monde numérique sont:
-appuyer les organisations des jeunes ou dirigées par les jeunes dans la formation des outils numérique aux jeunes et aussi la sensibilisation sur les différentes plate-forme en ligne qui concernent les opportunités sociaux économique.
Les agences gouvernementales, les Universités etc... Doivent aussi tenir compte de télétravail c'est à dire les travaux en ligne pour permettre un avenir numérique durable.
Thank you so much for your concrete recommendations and for highlighting the importance of infrastructure to help end the digital divide.
On that note, I’d love to invite you to check out the work of #Partner2Connect Coalition which aims to bring different stakeholders to come together and mobilize the resources needed to connect those who are still offline. Moreover, the Partner2Connect Coalition is also inviting everyone, including young people, to share their work and commitment to advance #UniversalConnectivity: https://www.itu.int/itu-d/sites/partner2connect/
Thank you also for highlighting the role of youth-led organizations! Your feedback is well noted and we will take it forward in developing the Call to Action.
In the meantime, I'd love to invite you to also contribute to the other discussion room and share your take on the other important topics!
Jayathma Wickramanayake Je suis ravi pour votre invitation à rejoindre cette Coalition et je vous promets d'aller dans les autres salles pour donner mes commentaires aux différents thèmes car là où les jeunes se rassemblent pour discuter de l'avenir mondial y compris contribuer au développement mondial sur différents domaines je n'hésiterai même pas une seconde à intervenir par ce que je suis jeune je dois faire aussi un effort pour que la voix des jeunes porte.
je me suis déjà inscrit comme mon organisation n'est pas membre de TIES on me démane d'envoyer une demande d'accès je vais le faire ce soir pour être en accès et devenir membre afin de contribuer d'une manière significative.
I think this is the time for government agencies as well as education ministries to restrategise and take advantage of the digital space as well as law makers to make policies and that encourages online learning through digital means this is the best perfect time for schools to listen to their students and find ways to improve their online learning facilities. Even after the pandemic passes, remote learning could be a valuable tool to making education accessible and flexible to rural areas that have internet enable devices my humble submission
Indeed, online learning presents an opportunity to make education more accessible for young people. Unfortunately, many young people out there still lack access to connectivity and infrastructure that will enable them to access these online learning opportunities.
On that note, I’d love to continue with a follow-up question: what actions should institutions take to tackle the current challenges with youth access to educational opportunities as well as socio-economic opportunities in the digital world?
ICTs can enhance the quality of education in several ways: by increasing learner motivation and engagement, by facilitating the acquisition of basic skills, and by enhancing teacher training. ICTs are also transformational tools which, when used appropriately, can promote the shift to a learner-centered environment and also Technologies such as tablets and computers, are tools that augment the typical use of physical book copies for learning. Unlike a physical book, laptops for example, can access infinite amount of information from multiple sources around the globe, further contributing to one's education path , some of the trending ICT technologies today are Hyper automation. ...
Multiexperience. ...
Democratisation of the use of technology. ...
Human perfection. ...
Transparency and traceability.
The appropriate strategy in most countries is to use all possible delivery modes with the infrastructure that exists today. Use online tools to assure that lesson plans, videos, tutorials, and other resources are available for some students and probably, most teachers. But also, podcasts and other resources that require less data usage. Working with telecommunication companies to apply zero-rate policies can also facilitate learning material to be downloaded on a smartphone, which more students are likely to have.
Radio and TV are also very powerful tools. The advantage we have today, is that through social networks, WhatsApp or SMS, ministries of education can communicate effectively with parents and teachers and provide guidelines, instructions and structure to the learning process, using content delivered by radio or TV. Remote learning is not only about online learning, but about mixed media learning, with the objective of reaching as many students as possible, today. In conclusion government and institutions should make those ict gatchet available to the poor as well as affordable to remote areas were the cannot be able to affordable and free . Furthermore institutions needs to infrastruture and ICT centers to track the development under a body to monitor and govern the affairs of the implentation and processes.
First of I am proposing a Reformation in our educational system remember it is education that shape and form our behaviours as literate beings in that regards I am proposing a character education in our digital space and must be made compulsory right from high school , I will like to define Character Education as a learning process that enables students and adults in a school community to understand, care about and act on core ethical values such as respect, justice, civic virtue and citizenship, and responsibility for self and others. Now, in Nigeria today in my view, Character Education is not visible but so much attention and emphasis on 'Intellectual Competency' and this is not helping matters rather it's producing Educated corrupt people Example is the Yahoo boys of today. They are smart and use it the wrong way. The learning of Maths, English, and other subjects is good but not helping matters, we still need to lay much emphasis on CHARACTER EDUCATION and build every individual as a leader that can emerge anytime.
Without much ado, I suggest the following can be done to CHANGE the narrative of the education system in Nigeria:
1)Add character education to the curriculum, by making the government see the need.
2)Train teachers on how to carry out the teaching.
3)Form a vital partnership with parents and the community so that students hear a consistent message about character traits essential for success in school and *life*
4)Organise training and seminars for parents to educate them on the importance of character education.
It’s been my pleasure to join all of you in this past week as your moderator, and to join this consultation together with . It truly has been a rich discussion!
Many of you have highlighted the important role of education in building digital skills and literacy, the need for sustainable infrastructure and investments in bridging the digital divide, the importance of youth inclusion and representation in the process of shaping digital development, as well as the opportunity that multistakeholder and public-private partnership present in working together for a better digital future!
Thank you very much for taking the time to share your substantive feedback, your experiences, your perspectives, and your concrete recommendations. As said before, all of your valuable inputs will be taken forward in the process of developing the #GenerationConnect Youth Summit outcome as well as feed into the #GlobalDigitalCompact process, the call to Action. We hope that you will stay engage!
For those who would love to learn more about the Summit, the #GlobalDigitalCompact, as well as the UN Youth Strategy check out the links below:
Welcome to all the participants whose contributions can make a change to #OurDigitalFuture.
I know these might sound like big words but having the opportunity to make your voice heard by decision-makers brings you one step closer to shaping the future you envision. I am honored and happy to be your next moderator for the last week of #OurDigitalFuture discussions.
Many thanks and appreciation to all the previous moderators who have gracefully conducted the discussions and got valuable input for the ’Youth Call to Action’’ document, whose final draft will be brought into the limelight at ITU’s Generation Connect Youth Summit (2-4 June) in Kigali, Rwanda.
Also, hats off to all the contributors for the on-point perspectives you shared, and for providing insights from your communities!
As a Member of the Romanian Parliament, where I act as the President of the IT&C Committee, I am responsible for coordinating and implementing national policies, and projects in the field of information technology, communications, and digitalization. Having managed all these, I realized that education has one of the most essential roles to play in youth getting ready for a digitalized future. Thus, one of the main objectives of my activities at the national level is to encourage students to bring their contribution to amending the Law of education so that the curriculums become relevant for the jobs of the future. We need curriculums that allow students to make better use of digital technologies.
Truth be told, the digital era we live in provides unlimited opportunities. You need to seize these opportunities, have the courage to make your voice heard, and take action to shape the world you desire.
This is why I encourage all of you to share your thoughts and views and send us any recommendations on what we, lawmakers, should do to build the digital future you’d like to experience. Please feel free to answer any or all of the questions above and respond to other contributors' posts.
Every Stakeholders With Relevant Experience Is A Must Tool Of A Nation For Success.History Is A Recording Device And Powerful Evidence Of It..Youths Can Push Forward The Boundaries Of Knowledge And Implement It With New Strategies...By Discussion Of Weak Areas,Which After Identification And Analysis,In Every Methods Be It In The Legal Process,Scientific Reports,Or Other Subjects,Policies In Compliance To 21st Century Can Be Realistic With Modernism In Mind.Technologies Must Be Sustainable With Next Generation Updates Keeping In Mind The Geographical Locations With Education To Create Entrepreneurs...Youth-Old Partnership Is Also Important...Inclusivity To Make A World Which Is Connected By Globalism And Is Ahead Looking.
Thank you for adding your voice to the #OurDigitalFuture discussion, and I'm glad to see you're keen to tailor your own future. I definitely agree that youth is the catalyst for pushing the boundaries and challenging the status quo with a fresh, new perspective. This is why working closely with them in the policy-making process is essential for every nation's success.
I would also like to know what actions do you think are needed to tackle the current challenges with youth access to social and economic opportunities in the digital world? (Question 2). Could you please elaborate on that?
We are delighted to contribute to this important topic! While we include young people and youth organizations in discussions about digitalization and how to use it in daily life, we must also reconsider our approach to digitalization in and of the youth sector. Specifically, at CONNECT International, we are interested in understanding how digitalization affects youth organizations and networks, as well as how young people benefit from their digital programs. We conducted a research study on this topic last year with over 200 youth workers and representatives of local, national and international youth organizations and networks from all around Europe, and based on that, we developed a set of (evidence-based) policy recommendations. A more detailed version of all recommendations can be found on our website: http://www.connect-international.org/do-not-digitalize-me/
Boost a debate about the impact of digitalization
CONNECT urges the authorities to promote greater debates on how to implement digitization in the youth sector, bearing in mind it should be used only when needed and for the benefit of young people. Europe as a whole should engage in the debate and provide more clarity on how to digitally transform the youth sector. The lack of discussion among all stakeholders about the standardization of youth work affected by digitalization, poses a significant concern, if not a threat, to the youth sector.
Assist in ensuring inclusive digital youth work
CONNECT is actively working to ensure fair access to opportunities for all young people, and urges authorities to give special attention to this issue. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many young people to digitalize multiple aspects of their lives. Disadvantaged groups encountered issues with the digitalization due to a lack of digital literacy and infrastructure, and individual needs. The accelerated digitalization caused by COVID-19 pandemic made certain previously difficult-to-reach groups even more difficult-to-reach, and new disadvantaged groups have emerged.
Digital skills before digital youth work
CONNECT believes that increasing the digital literacy of both youth workers/trainers and young people may be achieved by transferring knowledge related to the use of digital technologies and skills that will help both groups adapt to new IT trends. According to CONNECT’s research, 23.3 percent of youth organizations face challenges with digital skills on a regular basis, while 43.4 percent face them at times.
Establish high quality standards in digital youth work
CONNECT urges donors to establish minimum and maximum standards (framework) for online program delivery, as well as provide additional capacity building for youth organizations to conduct online programs. 55,3% of the respondents stated that young people's motivation to participate in online activities is a major worry. Online event lengths, lack of interactivity, tiredness, and lack of digital skills all contributed to this issue.
Prepare youth organizations for digital youth work era
CONNECT encourages institutions to support youth organizations by offering further training in the design and implementation of privacy practices, as well as by addressing data protection concerns when evaluating new funding proposals. Citing CONNECT’s study, one in four youth organizations states that the lack of data protection knowledge hinders their operations. Statistically, 2021 was a record-breaking year for data breaches. CONNECT believes in the importance of data security and has been actively aiding organizations in building internal data security practices to comply with the GDPR.
Make sure that digital participation is always meaningful
With the digital transition, CONNECT invites authorities and organizations across Europe to explore meaningful digital participation in decision making, governed by common international principles. CONNECT’s study reveals a variety of experiences when it comes to digitalizing youth participation. Difficulty advocating with institutions was cited by 22.7 percent of youth organizations during the pandemic.
Don’t replace in-person youth work, compliment it with the digital version
A similar “Right to disconnect” for employees has inspired CONNECT to encourage authorities to collaborate with stakeholders on developing and promoting a balanced understanding of digital and in-person activities for young people, emphasizing that digital activities should be implemented to benefit young people, not the other way around. According to CONNECT's study, 71.7 percent of the respondents anticipate that the use of digital tools in youth work will expand in the future, despite their hope for the pandemic to end soon. In that regard, authorities must pay particular attention to the mental wellbeing of young people, as well as their development of socio-emotional skills, which have already been affected in the previous two years as a result of their lives being cluttered with digital activities.
Step up the fight for critical-thinking education
Confronted with ongoing disinformation and malevolent intents to exploit people for personal gain, CONNECT believes that youth organizations and networks can support institutions in promoting media literacy among young people, which is essential for safeguarding human rights and democratic values in the digital realm. With the rising digitalization of our daily life, media literacy has never been more important. This is especially true for young people, whose lives were almost completely digitalized in 2020 and 2021.
It is such a pleasure to have organizations like yours as part of our consultation. Your experience and know-how will surely make a difference in the final draft of the Youth Call To Action, and I thank you for your extensive contribution.
Whenever there is a collaboration among institutions and organizations, everyone has something to gain, especially when they are like-minded and have similar objectives. I, therefore, consider that connecting the outcome of your activity and ITU Generation's Connect one can lead to achieving all of our goals quicker and more impactful.
Last but not least, congratulations on the Do NOT Digitalize Me study! I checked the complete recommendations list, and the results are highly relevant to organizations and institutions worldwide.
Hi everyone, I'm Joseff Mayberry, International Affairs Manager at Ofcom, the UK's communications regulator. As a young policy professional, I'm looking forward to participating in the Generation Connect Youth Summit, and meeting many of you in this discussion room (in-person or virtually), to further the discussion on how we can achieve an inclusive digital future. Below are some of my reflections on what actions decision-makers can take to ensure an inclusive digital future for today's youth.
All stakeholders - Prioritise the achievement of the sustainable development goals
A safe and inclusive digital future for today’s youth should be led by and support the Sustainable Development Goals. Universal, meaningful connectivity can support quality education and gender equality, reduce inequalities, foster innovation and contribute to sustainable development.
All stakeholders - Ensure universal internet access
According to the ITU, in 2021, 4.9 billion people were connected to the internet, 63% of the global population. This means that around 2.9 billion people were left completely offline, 96% of whom live in developing countries, with some 390 million with no mobile broadband coverage at all. To reach everyone, internet access needs to be affordable. Citizens also need to be empowered through education and this must be regardless of gender, age, socioeconomic position, disability or any other factor. Programmes such as Partner2Connect Digital Coalition initiative which aims to foster meaningful connectivity are crucial in this regard.
All stakeholders - Meeting net-zero carbon targets
At the COP26 conference in November 2021, world leaders gathered to address the critical issue of climate change. Telecommunications and Information Communication Technologies can play a role in enabling the reduction of carbon emissions as we aim for a more sustainable society. Information and communication technologies can be instrumental in the transition to net-zero carbon – whether through reducing travel, increasing network durability, or enabling services such as smart meters in homes or satellites to monitor climate change. ICTs should also play a role in reducing their own carbon emissions.
What actions are needed to tackle the current challenges with youth access to social and economic opportunities in the digital world?
We need to focus on connecting the unconnected and bridging the digital divide to ensure accessibility. It is important for all stakeholders to play a role in increasing access to ICTs (i.e. by investing in infrastructure) as well as developing skills to increase usage (i.e. by capacity building programmes).
We also need to reduce gender inequalities in accessing and using ICTs. Ways to improve bridging the gender digital divide is through opportunities in education and training, encouraging girls and women into careers in STEM, removing any discriminatory barriers, as well as programmes that focus on increasing girls’ and women’s use of ICTs .
How can government agencies and stakeholder groups (private and public sector, academia, innovators) collaborate better, at the national as well as at the international level, towards shaping a better digital future for all?
Collaboration between all stakeholders, including civil society, will be absolutely crucial to achieving the SDGs, connecting the unconnected and achieving net zero. There are many different ways to do this. At the International level multistakeholder cooperation is imperative, for instance open forums to discuss the challenges and collaborate to find solutions.
Government agencies and national regulatory authorities can promote better collaboration with the private sector, academia and innovators by holding public consultations on proposals and decisions, with the aim to reach the largest possible number of people and organisations who may be interested in the outcome of these decisions.
What will happen if the goals of the 'Call to Action Our Digital Future' get accomplished, and the recommendations implemented?
The accessibility and usage of ICTs among youth will increase, which in turn should lead to better health, educational opportunities, increased access to information, and stronger economies. It can also lead to greater gender equality as everyone gains equal access to digital opportunities.
What will the positive change in tomorrow's digital world look like and how can it be measured?
We can see and measure it in the statistics gathered by the ITU on internet accessibility and usage, including equal participation by gender, region and age. It will also be measurable in economic statistics on productivity and GDP. This will help demonstrate whether meaningful connectivity has been achieved.
Thank you for your specific recommendations for building a safe and inclusive digital future for today's youth. I genuinely appreciate putting in the time and your experience to draft this extensive and insightful contribution.
The topics you have tackled are essential both individually but also as a whole. SDGs, universal internet access, net zero carbon, and bridging the digital divide, to name a few, are top priorities for decision-makers worldwide. Having people like you advocating for connecting the unconnected and bridging the digital divide brings us one step closer to a better digital future.
We will carry forward your valuable suggestions to the Call to Action document, and I am Looking forward to meeting you at the Generation Connect youth Summit in Rwanda!
Should we leave it fate to decide the uncertainties we have made in translating the power of technology as a civilization?
Africa is caught In the middle group of this narrative. The western American amendment and the Eastern China exponent.
We need to question how we regulate, innovate and distribute digital resources that they fall under the spectrum of African grown and African serving initiatives as we are the largest youth demographic with the highest potential of setting course to a modern more inclusive world if we can truly localize our innovations in the narrative of solving our problems and our economy.
The suggestions I poise are:
Localization of internet in terms of languages and infrastructure ownership to boost local content, This comes hand in hand with digital Literacy as they are intertwined together.
Equality of spaces and meaningful connectivity goes hand in hand with a woke generation that can self regulate not only as consumers but as creators, innovators and leaders.
Protection of the cyberspace, meaningful use goes with purposeful protection from aspects of infrastructure, identity and the content we share and create.
When technology has grown to a point of emerging technologies can abuse our democracies with centralization it's time we raise the questions and debate on the future of digital civilizations, digital sovereignty with the African Agenda.
Thank you so much for being the African communities' voice and sharing these on-point insights. I've mainly noticed digital literacy, which has been a hot topic among the contributors on this platform, only highlighting its importance. Besides providing access to the internet for the youth worldwide, we also need to make sure that those who already have access to digital assets will also learn basic skills to use the resources available to them.
I'd also like to build on your concern on technological progress worsening or deepening the digital divide. No one would like such thing to happen, this is why digital skills are so important.
As you know, all the discussions we're having here will have a real impact in policymaking around the world. We will be taking your feedback forward in the process of developing the Youth Call to Action 'Our digital future' and present it at the ITU Generation Connect Youth Summit (Kigali, Rwanda, 2-4 June 2022) to world leaders.
What youth need is a voice. At this point in time we are slowly getting it. I think it would be extremely helpful if governenments were to create a platform where youth can share opinions they face not only online but socially and every other aspect. These platforms can be chat applications or online forums where youth can rely on their voices being heard. By building these, inclusivity can be achieved. Building a safe internet environment is quite an issue. However, it can be addressed mostly by making people aware of what puts them in danger online and how they can avoid it. Most people are in the dark about how the digital world actually operates because no one takes the time to actually find out. But if information were free and widely available, then it would embetter the situation. Youth need opportunity, opportunity made aware to them and they will definitely take it. In so saying, their participation in the digital world can only be determined by how space is dedicated to them and how well aware they are of it. These opportunities can be created by any organisation; they can be competitions, board positions and others. Forming a joint group dedicated to inclusivity, all parties from the government to the private/public sector can participate. I think this would be achievable by the formation of such a group dedicated to such collaboration in each country. The result of all this happening i believe would be a wider and more engaged youth population online. I think upon implementation of these suggestions, a safe and inclusive digital world can be built for youth around the world.
Thank you for sharing your contribution and highlighting the importance of education and youth information campaigns, as I've always stated that a more informed and educated youth will set the grounds for a better-digitalized future. Learning more about the digital world, how it works, and what its highs and lows are will only make people more aware of how digital tools can be used to benefit them, not the other way around. This consultation is a way for ITU and its members to give youth a voice that is heard by the policy-makers, and that will generate change, so thank you once again for joining us in this process.
Please feel free to provide your feedback to the other discussion rooms too.
Hello everyone, my name is Nicola and I am a Senior Policy Officer at the Australian Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications. I’ve included my thoughts below on what actions government decision-makers, ITU and UN organisations need to take to build a better digital future.
All stakeholders need to prioritise connecting the unconnected and reducing the digital divide by providing youths the tools they need to engage meaningfully online and remove barriers preventing peoples’ online participation. To build a safe and inclusive digital future for youth to easily and meaningfully engage online, the following is crucial:
Basic connectivity infrastructure to connect the unconnected, particularly for rural and remote communities.
Capacity-development and upskilling programs for youths (including for youths part of marginalised groups such as girls and young women, indigenous peoples, people with special needs, etc.) to engage safely and confidently in online spaces.
Ensuring affordable connectivity and access so that youths may benefit from opportunities to share engage online, access education, and engage in associated social and economic benefits.
To achieve collaboration, the private and public sector, academia, civil society and community members need to be engaged at all levels of decision-making – including at the international level. It is important that international organisations engage in multi-stakeholder collaboration and make space for the private and public sector, academia, civil society and community members to contribute to discussions through initiatives such as open consultations. International organisations engaging in open and active cooperation and consultation on issues of interest with relevant stakeholders is important to solve challenges and shape a digital future for all.
Positive changes in the digital world will include increased engagement online by youths, in particular girls and young women, indigenous peoples, people with special needs, and those living in rural and remote communities. This increased engagement and relevant statistics can be measured by publications such as the ITU’s Facts and Figures Reports.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, I strongly agree with your perspective. So to have a better digital future we must involve all stakeholders: institutions, policymakers, decision-makers, international organisations and industry leaders - they all must work together to offer the infrastructure, digital skills, and literacy to youths from all corners of the world. When talking about positive changes in the digital world, you specifically mentioned online engagement for women and girls - I am content to notice this topic is constantly brought into the limelight in your country. Furthermore, the Australian government is also taking action in this regard and will provide Leadership training for women during the ITU PP-22, which I will have the honor to chair in September. I am looking forward to seeing the results of this training.
We will surely be taking your important points forward in the Call to Action.
Hello! My name is Nicholas Gasani a 2nd year student at the University of Rwanda (in Rwanda) studying Civil Engineering with major in Environmental engineering. I take this opportunity to welcome you all to Kigali Rwanda !
What recommendations can you formulate (maximum 3) to your audience/s (please specify the decision-makers to which each recommendation is addressed - either governments, ITU, or UN at large) towards building a safe, inclusive, and wholesome digital future for today's youth? My recommendations to governments. 1. Governments should develop programs/policies to make the internet (in Africa mobile internet especially) more affordable. 2. Ensure all high schools and universities have an in-depth digital skills curriculum as part of the schools' curriculum and support internet to every school/university 3. Affordable devises: Develop programs/policies that lower the cost of devices (especially laptops/smartphones) to affordable levels.
What actions are needed to tackle the current challenges with youth access to social and economic opportunities in the digital world?
Increase broadband access, especially to rural youths in Africa. In my university class of 53 students, about 30% were not digitally literate. Youths, in general, face a digital divide, but those in the rural areas and the urban poor are at the highest risk for exclusion.
What will the positive change in tomorrow's digital world look like and how can it be measured? The positive change in tomorrow's digital world in Africa will be a more productive (socially and economically) youth workforce that takes full advantage of the opportunities in the digital world. This can be measured by how many youths use the internet for work, education, and other social activities. For work, one can measure income that has been generated as a result of access to the internet.
I am very happy to have a contribution from Rwanda, the place where the next Generation Connect Global Youth Summit will take place, between 2 - 4 June. Thank you for making your voice heard and addressing the issues youth in Africa face. I can see the main topic raised here is education and digital literacy, and they are essential elements for eliminating or, at least, reducing the digital divide. We will forward your input to the Youth Call to Action document, which will be passed over to decision makers during the WTDC taking place in Kigali right after the summit.
Please feel free to share your input in any of the other rooms related to the Youth Call to Action; your contribution is important and highly appreciated!
Comments (59)
Hello everyone!
It’s been a great pleasure to join this consultation as your moderator and to have the chance to get firsthand and personal input on the Youth Call to Action. I was pleasantly surprised by the depth and accuracy of the discussions and, most of all, by your desire to contribute to changing the digital future for the better.
The main takeaways of the contributions you’ve shared this week were related to education and youth information campaigns, the importance of digital literacy on top of the infrastructure, and the collaboration among all the stakeholders, be they institutions, policymakers, decision-makers, or international organizations or industry leaders.
As I said in my introduction message last week, I am a strong supporter of education, and I think digital skills are key elements for the future of any society. Thus, seeing the ideas you shared only highlights their importance and makes me put in even more effort to promote and implement educational programs in Romania, and, of course, at international level.
Thank you again for sharing your thoughts which will be forwarded to the Youth Call to Action document. The final draft will be passed over to decision makers during the WTDC, taking place in Kigali right after the Generation Connect Youth Summit (2-4 June).
I encourage all those who would like to further engage on these topics to register to Generation Connect Youth Summit, physically or virtually.
I am lucky enough to attend the summit personally, and I'm looking forward to seeing you all in Kigali.
Wishing you the best of luck and success in all your future endeavours!
Welcome all participants!
I am excited to have you with us on the journey to connect the unconnected. As young people, you will inherit the world that is being shaped by today’s technological advancements. Your voices matter as we forge solutions to advance an inclusive digital future, for all.
Please share your thoughts and ideas to the listed questions. Your contributions will shape the ‘’Youth Call to Action’’ document, which will be shared with decision-makers at ITU’s World Telecommunication Development Conference in Kigali, Rwanda in June 2022.
I look forward to reading your thoughts!
Warm welcome to the engagement space on policy direction for a better digital future!
My name is Youlia Lozanova, I am working with countries to assess the strengths and areas for improvement of their digital policy frameworks, and chart strategies to enhance them.
I will be your Moderator for the coming week before handing over the moderation to the Offices of the UN Youth Envoy and the UN Envoy on Technology next week.
This is the space to discuss what decision-makers need to focus on now, concretely, to prepare your better digital future tomorrow. By ‘decision-makers’, we mean governments and the various government ministries and agencies, as well as regional and international organizations, such as the United Nations. What should decision-makers do better and how? Remember, the individual work of agencies can be amplified by collaboration across sectors (e.g., education, health, entrepreneurship) and partnerships across the board (with private sector, financiers, innovation hubs) at the national and international level.
The policies carried out have direct impact on national digital development and creating more opportunities for meaningful participation in the digital world. By ‘digital development’, here we understand building connectivity and the use and application of Information and Communication Technologies, ICTs, and digital tools (e.g., mobile and cloud technologies and the Internet) for development and impact in key public sectors (e.g., edtech, mobile payments, e-agriculture).
This discussion will form the basis for the outcome document of the forthcoming ITU Youth Summit (2-4 June, Kigali), the Call to Action, so we can enhance youth engagement in ITU and across the UN system.
Share your views and ideas and do feel free to bring your friends and likeminded youth in this space. You are welcome to answer any or all of the questions above and respond to other contributors' posts.
I very much look forward to our discussion!
Youlia
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Hello everyone my name is Ismael Sowtall,greeting from Guinea ?? Conakry. Graduated in English and computer science; i am a community volunteer within UNVP.
For government decision-makers, ITU and UN organizations at large to build a better digital future need specifically a strong relationship. Why?
because governments and national, international institutions lead people but they can not innovate in numérique and create digital tools. Then…
Governments must Open the doors and facilitate entreprises, factories and societies to innovate in that field by following the common lines and philosophies of inclusivity.
So what should instructions do?
Finally, from the beginning to the end, institutions must be the bridge of that inclusivity. Why and how?
Because when we talk about governments we talk at same time about corruption , about injustice, about division… And when we talk about entreprises too , at the same time we talk about profit, benefit, capitalism… all those things make digital inclusion more and more difficult.
So National and international institutions must take care about what kind and how the numérique world that we all wish is going to be built. Is it inclusive ? Is it diversified ? The question like that can help to bring can.
NB: personally I think to get better digital world, some digital and numeric innovation must be reinvented because any digital that does not care about all dimension of society, handicaps persons, level of education of concerned people, and capacities of everyone to bay it, that digital must be reinvented.
Thank! Merci ? !
Greetings Ismael Sowtall, thank you very much for sharing your thoughts.
The principles of inclusiveness, diversity and accessibility you brought in the discussion are indeed fundamental in the digital world. Innovation can be a driver for achieving development goals and creating digital opportunities for all.
Ismael, could you please elaborate a bit and share what can be the (1-2) most important actions governments and international agencies can take to shape a better digital future? What is most needed - better policies, better governance, better innovation ecosystems, more collaboration? Who should take action, at the national and international level?
I will love to hear more from you.
Thank you and my best wishes,
Youlia
Hello Youlia! Moderator.
ismael Sowtall from Guinea Conakry, community volunteer.
Tout d’abord, avant de commencer je voudrais bien remercier la team UIT, YOUHT CONNECT ENVOY et LES NATIONS UNIES pour l’intérêt qu’ils accordent au domaine numérique car le monde de demain sera de plus en plus numérique et vouloir améliorer le numérique d’aujourd’hui c’est de laisser un avenir fantastique aux futures générations.
- Je pense que globalement le numérique est un outil indispensable et fantastique dans l’atteinte des objectifs du développement durable.
•Quand vous prenez dans le domaine de la santé; le numérique joue un rôle important en matière gestion de données médicales et la rapidité dans les interventions en cas d’urgence.
• Dans l’éducation: le numérique réduit les coûts et les distances en donnant la chance à tout le monde d’apprendre.
• Dans le business: le numérique joue un rôle important dans les échanges.
•Aujourd’hui il existe même des monnaies d’échange numérique, c’est à dire un jour l’humanité n’utilisera plus les billets.
- Cependant le numérique est-il suffisamment inclusif et diversifié pour que tout le monde, peu importe ta langue, ton origine, tes moyens financiers, ta religion ou ta culture soit pris en compte? Que personne ne soit abandonné derrière?
Pour être bref je dirais non!!!
Heureusement il existe encore des solutions pour un monde numérique inclusif et durable.
* Premièrement: dans l’éducation, quels sont ces pays du sud( Afrique)ou d’Asie du Sud est où le cursus scolaire prend vraiment en compte le numérique ? Cette question revient au gouvernements et au décideurs, ils doivent intégrer le programme informatique comme étant une matière à part entière dans les programmes d’études nationaux.
* Deuxièmement : les institutions doivent mettre en place une ligne directrice pour les innovateurs numériques à fin que leurs innovations ne soient pas seulement des biens qui rapportent des profits; mais soient aussi des biens permettant une inclusion globale et durable tout en tenant compte des réalités des individus et des sociétés .
C’est à dire les langues, les religions, les cultures, les opinions des uns ou des autres , le niveau d’étude des uns et des autres ou encore les moyens financiers, ne soient pas un obstacle à faire partir d’un monde numérique inclusif mais plutôt un atout à la fois pour le créateur numérique et l’utilisateur. C’est la diversité inclusive et durable.
Ce rôle revient généralement aux institutions nationales et internationales.
*Pour finir : Le monde numérique est difficile à cerner, difficile à contrôler mais avec un peu de bonne volonté, le numérique peu apporter un changement considérable pour la construction des sociétés plus juste, plus inclusive et plus durable.
Merci modératrice Youlia!
merci à tous!
Hi everyone, Happy Friday!
Thanks very much to all of you who have shared your experience and views in our four discussion rooms.
Maria Jo Londoño Tous , it's great to read about your commitment to work towards wider and better use of digital technologies and the Internet for social development. What if we look at the big picture - what is that governments need to do to build a more inclusive and sustainable digital world where young people feel represented, safe and thriving?
Dafinematagi , congratulations on you community initiatives to reflect on the digital future together with Kenya's youth. You said 'Private and public organizations should also come in to make all these happen' - but how? I am sure you have ideas to put forward to national and international decision-makers. Please share your views here.
Federica Morici , your testimonial is impressive. Education has indeed such an important role to play in getting ready for the future, and the promise of digital technologies haven't yet been fully leveraged. What concrete actions would you ask governments and international organization to start doing now to make sure young people are prepared to meaningfully participate in the digital future?
I will love to hear more about your views and concrete proposals and I'm sure all the community will, too.
I hope that those who haven't yet joined the conversation do so now! We need all the brain power of the community to formulate ambitious but realistic recommendations to decision-makers in your countries and worldwide.
Thank you so much for your time and for being so committed to building a bright digital future for all.
My best wishes,
Youlia
¿Qué pasa si miramos el panorama general: qué deben hacer los gobiernos para construir un mundo digital más inclusivo y sostenible donde los jóvenes se sientan representados, seguros y prósperos?
Si miramos el panorama general nos damos cuenta de unas cuantas cosas, la primera, es que todos vivimos en contextos sumamente diferentes, la segunda, es que algunos cuentan con el privilegio para poder acceder a un mundo digital, tercero, la poca escolarización que tiene la población y eso contando que una parte de esta misma población tiene analfabetismo -relacionando más que todo en mi país Colombia- que esto se vio evidenciado en la pandemia que nos llevo al confinamiento lo importante que es el acceso al internet y su consideración a que este sea un derecho fundamental, debido al mundo digital que cada día nos estamos sumergiendo más. En ese orden de ideas, para una solución o varias, pues estamos ante una problematica que se debe manejar con sumo cuidado, por parte de las entidades estatales, que es en sí el gobierno, es dimensionar todos estos problemas, pero no solo es entregar computadoras, laptos u otro aparato electronico, de hecho, eso serían las herramientas para colocar en practica el conocimiento que se debe tener sobre un mundo digital porque este no solo consiste en "oh, yeah, internet" porque en este puede haber tanto sus beneficios como sus problematicas y ese es al punto donde debemos llegar, además de entregas de las herramientas, proporcionar el conocimiento en base de lo que implica ser y pertenecer a un mundo digital. Agregando el hecho, de que los recursos que sean para este tipo de programas no se vean malversados o se pierdan, darles esa oportunidad a aquellos jóvenes que lo necesitan, dando talleres dinamicos enfocados en las diferentes inteligencias y las formas de aprender de las personas y más cuando son jóvenes, y sobre todo, mucho compromiso, disciplina, longevidad en el tiempo y dedicación.
Maria Jo Londoño Tous thank you for your thoughts. We will be taking your important points forward in the Call to Action.
In the meantime, would you like to share your views on the international aspects of fast-tracking global digital development and what synergies are needed between stakeholders (governments, private sector, NGOs, financiers) to build a digital future that is better and more inclusive than today? I would love to hear your ideas around Questions 1 and 3 above.
Thank you and do provide your feedback to the other discussion rooms too !
Furkan USTA, Apolline Labey , gabriel karsan , Olivia W , Osseine Soumahoro , Princia MUGISHA , Amaro Chagan , Priscilla Adikwu , Ametii
So great to have you in the conversation! Please leave your comments on the concrete policies and actions needed to fast-track a digital future that is full of opportunities, meaningful and sustainable.
We are listening to your ideas and will carry them forward.
Best,
Youlia
Hello, I'm Furkan USTA. I am an electrical and electronics engineering student.
Every state invests in increasing the productivity of its people. To give an example in my own country (Turkey), there are many young entrepreneur training programs and many young entrepreneur support programs. I am sure that there are many organizations, both state-sponsored and NGOs, in countries under the umbrella of the United Nations. It is very important to increase their number and quality.
In our globalizing world, the ability to work with other nations has become very important. As our group does, we try to understand each other through online and offline meetings. Putting ourselves in someone else's shoes is one of the most important factors that directly increase our productivity. I think that the establishment of young entrepreneur education programs such as student exchange programs that we are involved in at university age is very important for our future goals. This is one of my suggestions.
To touch on another subject, I would like to touch on the financing part of the subject, taking into account the suggestions of my other friends.
Some tasks require a stimulating action for the cycle to continue on its own. The life of organizations where financing is at the forefront ends the day the financial support ends. For this reason, I would like to recommend our decision makers to determine the size of the project with talented minds who can devote their own time to the project, instead of determining the size of the project with money.
How Does?
Let's say we take young minds or academics as a source. If we can bring people together in such groups and motivate them to produce something, we will lay the foundations for everyone to win.
I can give examples of Ideathons that support this view. In Ideathons, people usually produce or design small-scale versions of the projects they want to do without financial resources. The winning project of Ideathon is supported financially and the final product is aimed to be produced.
For those in the developing world class like my country, it may be more difficult to support projects financially, but we have people with great minds. We can try to balance financial strength with working capacity across countries
Finally, the only cost of thinking is time. If we can find participants who will invest in our project with their time in the first place, we will have the opportunity to do a much more solid-based study. In order to use our world resources, especially economic, more effectively, I want our decision makers to listen to bright ideas more and to work for the realization of the feasible ones.
I hope the issues I have discussed will help us to improve our mind.
Well said Furkan!
Thank you Furkan USTA , for the useful pointers and the insightful suggestions.
It would be great if you can also share your ideas around Question 3 above: How can government agencies and stakeholder groups (private and public sector, academia, innovators) collaborate better, at the national as well as at the international level, towards shaping a better digital future for all?
I realize this is one of the most complex issues to figure out going forward, but it is one of the most pressing, too. What do you think?
Hey everyone
Thanks for the space once again
Ismael, if you take a close look at our country, Kenya that is, it is a third world country. You can visualize all the challenges that it goes through
Firstly, most rural areas lack reliable electricity and internet access(major requirements for digital technology). This is because it's undergoing financial constraints
The point I was driving home is; some organization should come in, at least provide some grants and assistance so that electricity and internet access can be made readily accessible for young people
Experts should also volunteer to come in and offer free formal education so that at least we can eradicate this challenge of digital illiteracy in our country.
Lastly, Kenyan young people lack access to digital devices basically because of poverty and so they cannot afford them
It would be thrilling if international organizations join in to provide digital devices for these young people in Kenya so that they can have a clue of how to use them.
Thank you, Dafinematagi for sharing your experience and the challenges preventing many young people in developing countries from reaping the digital dividends.
Please can you elaborate more on what are the non-financial solutions to digital development issues. What can governments, international organization or other stakeholders do, concretely, to improve connectivity and digital opportunities for youth, in addition to more resources and funding options? I would be very interested to read your views on Questions 1 and 3 above.
Thank you again!
Dear all,
Thanks so much to all of you for adding your voice to the discussion on actions for building a better digital future. I was impressed by the clarity of your ideas, your engagement and passion. A high-energy clarion ‘Call to Action’ started shaping this week and I can’t wait to see it mature over the remaining two weeks of the consultation.
Many of you have clearly experienced first-hand the challenges related to digital inequalities and the lack of meaningful connectivity - this is indeed still the realities in many places. This situation needs to change, and this consultation process helps create an agenda for change and a roadmap for action for governments and the United Nations community. Our ‘Call to Action’ has the ambition to build a bridge between agencies and stakeholders and open new channels for established and new international processes, such as the UN Common Agenda and the UN Global Compact.
Some of the key action points you brought to the table this week were:
Many of the issues you raised this week will be discussed at the upcoming Generation Connect Youth Summit (2-4 June, Kigali). This is where the ‘Call to Action’ will also be sealed and passed over to national and international decision-makers. I hope you will be there with us to support the movement. If you haven’t yet registered to participate in person or virtually, do so now.
In the meantime, please continue sharing your ideas, views and experiences. As I sign off as your moderator for the past week, I hand over the discussion in this room to the UN Youth Envoy and the UN Envoy on Technology. You all have a rare opportunity to speak directly to them, without intermediaries, and deliver your asks for concrete actions by governments and international organizations – I hope you will use this opportunity well.
Stay tuned and become advocates for this consultation and the ‘Call to Action’ yourselves!
Thank you,
Youlia
Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to provide input and thank you Youlia for the wonderful moderation!
Hi, my name is Helena Amoah from Ghana.
I must commend Ghana for their efforts to step up in digitalization, yet there are a few things I would like to talk about.
If digitalization will be possible for Ghanaians, we would have to start from the grassroots: infuse it in our educational system and then the other actions can be taken. This is important because children and youth go through formal education void of digitalization but come into the after school life, work, entrepreneurship and other fields only to struggle to fit in.
Most basic schools and high schools don't even have computer laps, those who have, do not have enough, which makes practicing very difficult. Sadly, most of these schools who have few laptop are mostly situated in the urban areas, leaving behind the rural areas.
In spite of all these, I believe that there is hope for a digitalized future for Ghana and other African countries. UN organizations, in collaboration with other organizations and the government can help provide computers and systems to make practice of digitalization in the educational system possible.
Again, as Angela Lusiga said, government, UN organizations and other organizations should also focus on investing in youth people's digital intelligence. The youth are the future and they have brilliant ideas and innovations that will help achieve the digital future we seek.
It is a collaborative effort, and all hands should be on desk for a better digital future.
Hi Helena Amoah and GenoWeva Sotirova !
Thank you so much for sharing your perspectives and for highlighting the integral role that education plays.
I agree, institutions, policymakers, decision-makers, and industry leaders must invest in building young people’s digital skills and literacy so that young people can fulfill their potential.
Young people should not be expected to solve the world’s biggest challenges without having meaningful support (such as education and access to tools and resources) to help them create solutions for the sustainable development goals.
Thank you for reflecting on this aspect of the digital divide in your recommendations based on your observations and lived experiences.
Allow me to continue the conversation and also ask you: how can government, private and public institutions, and educational institutions, collaborate better with young people at national and global level to create a better digital future for all?
Again, for those who are outside the school system and already find themselves in the working field, employers should endeavor to give digital education and capacity building training for their employees to bring them up to speed on the new system of doing things.
Another area where digitalization is very important is the health sector. Government, UN organizations and innovative individuals can help build a health system where patient's health records can be shared with other hospitals with a collaborative consent.
Over these years till recently, almost all the hospital's retake details of patients over and over again without former health records. It is very frustrating sometimes but if the various stakeholders in the health sector come together to digitalize health information that can be shared in confidence and with consent, it will improve Ghana's health sector and build a better digital future for this sector.
That cool. Im from roma community ujual awer women Maried and don't have masters degrees. So i think for digital resurse and support for rural women and tradition community to improve the ar skills.
Al so yesterday i was watched som regugee women campaign from UNHRl abiut food for Ramadan. The women was widow without Karier skils or chanse to work she have tri children. World should support female to stady new thinks and have new skills
? Hello Everyone! ?
My name is Jayathma Wickramanayake, I'm the United Nations Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth and I'm very excited to be your next moderator for this #OurDigitalFuture discussion. I will also be joined by the UN Envoy on Technology this week.
As you are aware, digitalization, innovation, and technology advancement are growing at a pace that is more rapid than ever. Personally, as a young person and a digital native, I feel very privileged to grow up with technology. However, I understand that the technology that we had ten years ago has evolved and changed so much more than the ones we have today. While opportunities that technology and digitalization present to us today are much more advanced, we cannot ignore the risk and digital divide that still exist for many young people out there.
When the United Nations introduced its Roadmap for Digital Cooperation two years ago, the report acknowledged that the digital future has enormous potential for creating positive changes. But the digital future also has the potential to worsen inequalities. We cannot afford a digital future that further excludes those who are already vulnerable or left behind - and this is what the UN hopes to achieve through the Global Digital Compact outlined in the Our Common Agenda Recommendation.
We need a digital future that is safe, inclusive, and wholesome. This is why we need to hear from you, the most connected generation, to share your views, ideas, and recommendations and let us know what institutions and decision-makers should prepare to build a better digital future for everyone.
Don't hesitate to share your answers to the five guiding questions above - feel free to share recommendations as well as examples of lessons learned from your lived experiences and unique perspectives!
I'm excited to hear your thoughts!
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Hello folks.
My name is Eliane Mbende, I'm the Cameroon Youth Voices Chapter Lead and a 23 year-old general dentist passionate about international development; Thank you for this amazing space!
Dear Jayathma, In Sub-Saharan Africa, 25% of the population has no network coverage, while 49% cannot use the internet because they cannot afford smartphones or mobile services, do not have the skills to use them, or the services do not really meet their needs (source: GMSA).
We cannot talk about digital sustainability without mentioning the need to ensure connectivity across Africa, which involves the deployment of ICT infrastructure, internet access and connections between rural and urban areas.
Firstly, our governments with ITU' support need to contribute to digital inclusion by:
- simplifying access to connectivity and planning tomorrow's networks, while maintaining current global networks,
-creating and developing learning initiatives for the use of digital services,
-supporting entrepreneurship and start-ups,
- promoting innovation. For example, one idea would be to set up open access project hubs with unlimited access to the internet and learning.
Secondly, international organizations such as UNWomen, UNICEF need to focus on ICT literacy for women and children in elementary school. ICT literacy will give women, especially in rural areas, a chance to join the virtual labor market while updating information and communication technology (ICT) programs and policies;
Thirdly, ICT programs and policies need to be thoroughly reviewed in every country by the academia sector. The new curriculum should include topics such as digital skills and entrepreneurship basics. The private, public sector could increase investment opportunities for digital startups to enable young people to develop through digital.
Finally, I think that young entrepreneurs should know how to leverage global investments to make their digital startups work and also collaborate with stakeholders to create a longlasting positive impact in the society.
Dear Eliane Mbende ,
Thank you so much for your concrete recommendations!
The 3 recommendation points that you outlined are all interlinked to each other and that is completely true: our approach to building a better digital future must be holistic - we cannot ignore the link between policies, programs, education, and infrastructure/resources.
In short, the world cannot afford to work in silos if we are serious about solving the digital divide.
We will be taking the important points you have highlighted forward in the Call to Action. In the meantime, I would love to also ask a follow-up question: how do you see the role of peer-to-peer support and grassroots changemakers in helping to advance digital literacy in local communities?
? My name is Zubair and I will be contributing to this discussion with the perspective of an educational activist as the UK Youth Leader for Global Partnerships for Education, and a social entrepreneur as the founder of ZNotes, a global student movement addressing educational inequality and has reached over 3.5 million students from all over the world.
What actions are needed to tackle the current challenges with youth access to social and economic opportunities in the digital world?
While the digital world has, at large, democratised the access to knowledge and unlocked opportunities more than ever before, it has also exacerbated the inequalities which remain for those who are unable to participate in this new space. It has been argued for decades as to whether access to a stable internet connection and tools to leverage this were basic human rights. It may have been unclear some decades back but it is now undoubtedly necessary. The Covid-19 pandemic and consequential implementation of technological platforms for tracking and vaccine distribution highlighted how digital poverty also put your health on the line. I witnessed this first-hand as some of those around me with only a legacy mobile phone and no internet access were denied access and unable to access vaccines in a timely way. Instead, they were batted between the few alternate systems implemented and faced additional challenges.
In addressing the current challenges for youth, it is imperative we consider the intersectionality where youth belong and be aware of their unique sets of challenges. Solutions developed for one region, economic class or gender may be irrelevant to another. Nuanced solutions and deeper sensitivity to intersectionalities are necessary to tackle the current challenge for the youth.
How can government agencies and stakeholder groups (private and public sector, academia, innovators) collaborate better, at the national as well as at the international level, towards shaping a better digital future for all?
As the founder of a social-impact startup and continuously seeking opportunities to grow our impact through multistakeholder collaboration, the engagement with public sector continues to be the most difficult to navigate. The necessity of high levels of social capital to even arrive at a door combined with lengthy timescales make it impractical to meaningfully collaborate. Setting up a special division within local or national government that is solely for youth and made highly accessible so that young people addressing social challenges in their communities with digital technology can reach out would be hugely valuable for both these young innovators and also the public sector.
What will the positive change in tomorrow's digital world look like and how can it be measured?
Impact measurement remains a distraught topic as the term ‘impact’ becomes sensationalised and trending, and we see a spectrum of companies and organisation trying to associate themselves with it. Measuring impact needs to be a highly scientific and rigorous exercise and not bucketed as a marketing strategy or branding exercise. In a digital world, we are able to collect more data than ever before but it requires expertise to identify what aspects of a tool should be capturing data, how this translates into outcomes or proxies behaviour, and finally, how this turns into impact. We must move beyond simple traction metrics and instead consider how a digital tool reaching a certain group of people can have impact directly but also indirectly.
Hi Zubair Junjunia ,
Thank you so much for taking the time to share your recommendations and for sharing comprehensive feedback!
Your feedback is well noted and we will take it forward in developing the Call to Action.
I particularly would like to echo your point on the importance of taking intersectionality into account! I am a big believer that young people are experts in their own way because of the unique lived experiences they gained through the intersectionality of youth’s identities.
This is why representation matters and why we must have young people in all their diversity included and represented at all levels in the process of shaping decisions, policies, and programmes.
On that note, when we launched the UN Youth Strategy 3 years ago, this is what we hope to achieve - for the UN to be an institution that can work together with all its partners (including policy and decision-makers at the national level) to advance this ambition by supporting the government in different areas of work, including the work to engage youth in the design, monitoring and review of in-country programmes and ensuring no youth is left behind. In case interested, you can learn more about the progress here: https://www.unyouth2030.com/progressreport22 .
Meaningful youth engagement is crucial in helping us all achieve a better future, including a better digital future, and it can only be done by listening and working together with young people, such as yourselves and all the young leaders in this room, who have kindly shared their input and recommendations.
So thank you so much for joining us in this process and do provide your feedback to the other discussion rooms too!
Thank you for reply, Jayathma Wickramanayake - Hillary Bakrie kindly introduced me to this consultation following the ECOSOC Youth Forum. ?
Thank you also for directing me toward the Youth2030 Progress Report - I'd like to commend you and the team for producing such a thorough and rigorous report, and making each UN entity accountable through the scorecard. I was particularly interested in the section regarding how partnerships/collaborations were being leveraged including the examples of the youth-led initiatives. Was any analysis conducted on the effectiveness of youth engagement versus not in the projects on factors such as time taken for solution development and impact produced? Apologies if I missed this while skimming through the report. Evidence such as these could be hugely valuable to validate the importance of youth in solution development beyond simply tokenistic inclusion.
More broadly, I believe very deeply in the importance of transitioning problem-owners to be problem-solvers. Lived experience is irreplicable and critical for effective solution development.
I will definitely continue to engage with the other discussion groups too and hopefully, see the Call to Action take shape!
Good day everybody.
I'm Iyunoluwa Ademola-Popoola, GPE Youth leader from Nigeria. The Nigerian society over the last few years has witnessed many more people (especially young people) and companies embracing more digital skills. The involvement of the youth could be improved through the following means. These recommendations would help in creating a safe and sustainable digital future for the Nigerian Youth.
1. Government could think of a Public-private partnership that could allow for tech skills. These skills should be infused into classes so it becomes easy for a talent pipeline to be created for technology companies in the market. Not just technology adoption but gromming technology talent that would be useful for creating technological tools in the market.
2. Government should subsidize technological learning centres. The government itself can create vocational learning institutes that focus on these key emerging skills that would be needed for the adoption and creation of technology. Goverment should create tax havens for technological companies, this will stimulate more technological activities, promote influx of techonoligical companies and enhance egagement.
3. The government should encourage national orientation workshops. The workshop would open up the realities of technology and the promises it offers to its young ones in society. This could be a periodic workshop that could involve a partnership between government and private tech companies.
Dear Iyunoluwa Jesudemilade
Learning from the perspectives of local changemakers like yourself is very important in helping to develop solutions that work for local context and communities. So thank you so much for taking the time to share your point of view and for outlining your 3 recommendations!
I particularly wanted to highlight the point you raised on the need to invest in young people’s tech skills and the prospect of creating a talent pipeline.
Indeed, public-private partnerships offer a lot of opportunities for joint forces in creating talent pipelines that will enable young innovators to bring positive contributions to the future of technology. Allow me to also ask a follow-up question: how do you see the role of young educators in supporting this vision and collaboration?
Answer of question number 3.
All the mentioned sectors do have multiple value proposition regarding their work or stake on the digital future. Many private companies do not see advantage in interacting with the public Sector, since often it represents the apex of bureaucracy and slow innovation.
Therefore we should work on building a shared dashboard, Hub, innovation facilitator o similar, in order to take the lead in this collaborative effort.
Private sectors know more their customers needs and targets than anyone else.
Public sectors know macro situation of the country with it's socio-economic and accessibility issues.
Academics have extensive knowledge and best practices.
Innovators do have cost-effective, fast to deploy and efficient solutions.
Few ways to foster the collaboration:
- The academics world often has a multitude of collaboration tools at a global level, that's an asset. It is scalable to run research efforts on a specific set of issues. We should invest more time in connecting the world of innovators with the academics, in order to balance theory and practice for better solutions. This can be done with hackatons, events, conferences or call for ideas.
- This first step will facilitate the creation of blueprints at scale. Private companies working on IT might benefit from this blueprints that will widen their outreach in the digital world and have a winder impact.
- here, the Public Sector should play 2 crucial roles: A) listening sessions, where they connect deeply with citizens needs, especially in the matter of digital inclusion, through surveys ect.. B) Tech literacy democratization, and report development in order to showcase the progress of the nation towards digital inclusion and areas of improvement. Subsizide online courses on tech usage, and offline workshop's into disadvantaged segments of society.
Overall, these processes can ideally be compressed into a digital dashboard and platform that works to bring all these industries together, sharing information, tips and progress.
Hi Omid Gholamzadeh Nasrabadi
Thank you for highlighting the different roles of the public sector, academia, innovators, and private sector. And most importantly, thank you for sharing your recommendation of actions!
We will be taking your feedback forward in the process of developing the Call to Action.
In the meantime, allow me to also ask a follow-up question: What will happen if the goals of the 'Call to Action Our Digital Future' get accomplished, and the recommendations made by young people are implemented?
Dear everyone,
As the acting Tech Envoy for the United Nations, I am very excited to be here to hear from all of you. It is imperative that we listen closely to and take into account the voices and perspectives of young people, because the consequences of our action (or inaction) in the digital space and how we address digital opportunities and challenges today will ultimately all be borne by young people. The Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology is thus deeply committed to strengthening youth engagement here at the United Nations. For instance, a High-Level Event on Digital Cooperation at the 2020 UNGA drew on a youth campaign which we organized with the Office of the Youth Envoy, as well as focused on Future Generations and youth-related challenges.
As Jayathma has already mentioned, I thus look forward to your views on what you think "Our Digital Future" should look like; as a critical input into the United Nations' ongoing and future discussions on digital issues. In particular, the Global Digital Compact that is being prepared now, which will be a key outcome of the Summit of the Future next September, should take into account the views of young people. Your suggestions and inputs on key principles for a more open, free and secure digital future for all, as well as actions and commitments that must be undertaken to create this future, are thus very much appreciated. The discussion in Kigali is an important milestone and the Call to Action being developed is a key contribution.
In the words of the Secretary-General, as he concluded his Roadmap for Digital Cooperation: "Future generations will judge whether the present generation seized the opportunities presented by the age of digital interdependence. The time to act is now."
Hello Everyone, I am Abdulmajid haruna saeed from Nigeria. I will like to formulate my recommendations. These recommendations will be addressed to the ITU and the Governments.
1. The ITU as an international body for telecommunication regulators should work closely with the national telecom operators in ensuring that people living in rural communities enjoys equal quality services as that of their urban counterparts. The broadband penetration is very low in some communities which makes it impossible for people living in rural areas to have access to internet.
2. The governments should invest in the digital transformation and provide finance and support to tech start ups, this will increase the participation of youths in contributing to digital innovations.
3. To achieve a safe and inclusive digital future, youths have to be educated on digital literacy. A large percentage of youths who have access to digital assets lack the basic skills on how to use the resources available to them. The ITU and the governments should prepare a digital literacy roadmap that presents a holistic approach on how to educate and enlighten the masses to take advantage of their digital assets towards contributing to the development of digital innovations. While on the other hand, increasing the ownership of digital assets (phones and laptops) by providing it to those who can't afford to acquire it.
Dear Haruna Abdulmajid Saeed
Thank you very much for the specific recommendations!
I see “digital literacy” as one of the important points that have been brought up consistently by young changemakers like yourself and other young leaders in this discussion room - which only highlights the need to advance progress on this topic even more.
Your feedback is well noted and we will take it forward in developing the Call to Action.
In the meantime, I’m hoping that you can elaborate more on your second recommendation. Based on your perspectives and lived experiences, in addition to financial support, what are the specific support from governments and institutions that can help young solution makers and their startups contribute to advancing a better digital for all?
Hi Jayathma Wickramanayake
Thank you for this wonderful opportunity. Its my pleasure to share my perspectives on the required support governments and institutions can offer to start ups who are passionate in taking the leads towards achieving inclusive digital transformation.
I am of the opinion that governments and financial institutions can work collaboratively in making access to funds more easier to start ups especially those in the tech industry. A certain amount of money should be set aside which will be given to techPreneurs with little or no interest rate.
Apart from supporting start ups with capital through loans, the governments can also decide to provide the equipments and an enabling business environment instead of the money.
There can be an agreement between governments and start ups which should clearly states that all the necessary equipments will be made available, in this case the "techPreneur" will be responsible for the operation and maintenance of that venture.
je recommande à UIT en collaboration avec UN de financier ou appuyer les gouvernements dans l'instauration de fibre optique dans les pays qui sont encore en arrière dans le domaine technologie .
Les actions à mener pour relever le défis actuel de l'accès des jeunes aux opportunité sociale et économique dans le monde numérique sont:
-appuyer les organisations des jeunes ou dirigées par les jeunes dans la formation des outils numérique aux jeunes et aussi la sensibilisation sur les différentes plate-forme en ligne qui concernent les opportunités sociaux économique.
Les agences gouvernementales, les Universités etc... Doivent aussi tenir compte de télétravail c'est à dire les travaux en ligne pour permettre un avenir numérique durable.
Dear Ursul Boundja
Thank you so much for your concrete recommendations and for highlighting the importance of infrastructure to help end the digital divide.
On that note, I’d love to invite you to check out the work of #Partner2Connect Coalition which aims to bring different stakeholders to come together and mobilize the resources needed to connect those who are still offline. Moreover, the Partner2Connect Coalition is also inviting everyone, including young people, to share their work and commitment to advance #UniversalConnectivity: https://www.itu.int/itu-d/sites/partner2connect/
Thank you also for highlighting the role of youth-led organizations! Your feedback is well noted and we will take it forward in developing the Call to Action.
In the meantime, I'd love to invite you to also contribute to the other discussion room and share your take on the other important topics!
Jayathma Wickramanayake Je suis ravi pour votre invitation à rejoindre cette Coalition et je vous promets d'aller dans les autres salles pour donner mes commentaires aux différents thèmes car là où les jeunes se rassemblent pour discuter de l'avenir mondial y compris contribuer au développement mondial sur différents domaines je n'hésiterai même pas une seconde à intervenir par ce que je suis jeune je dois faire aussi un effort pour que la voix des jeunes porte.
je me suis déjà inscrit comme mon organisation n'est pas membre de TIES on me démane d'envoyer une demande d'accès je vais le faire ce soir pour être en accès et devenir membre afin de contribuer d'une manière significative.
I think this is the time for government agencies as well as education ministries to restrategise and take advantage of the digital space as well as law makers to make policies and that encourages online learning through digital means this is the best perfect time for schools to listen to their students and find ways to improve their online learning facilities. Even after the pandemic passes, remote learning could be a valuable tool to making education accessible and flexible to rural areas that have internet enable devices my humble submission
Hi Viginus Nnaji ,
Thank you very much for sharing your feedback.
Indeed, online learning presents an opportunity to make education more accessible for young people. Unfortunately, many young people out there still lack access to connectivity and infrastructure that will enable them to access these online learning opportunities.
On that note, I’d love to continue with a follow-up question: what actions should institutions take to tackle the current challenges with youth access to educational opportunities as well as socio-economic opportunities in the digital world?
Jayathma Wickramanayake
ICTs can enhance the quality of education in several ways: by increasing learner motivation and engagement, by facilitating the acquisition of basic skills, and by enhancing teacher training. ICTs are also transformational tools which, when used appropriately, can promote the shift to a learner-centered environment and also Technologies such as tablets and computers, are tools that augment the typical use of physical book copies for learning. Unlike a physical book, laptops for example, can access infinite amount of information from multiple sources around the globe, further contributing to one's education path , some of the trending ICT technologies today are Hyper automation. ...
Multiexperience. ...
Democratisation of the use of technology. ...
Human perfection. ...
Transparency and traceability.
The appropriate strategy in most countries is to use all possible delivery modes with the infrastructure that exists today. Use online tools to assure that lesson plans, videos, tutorials, and other resources are available for some students and probably, most teachers. But also, podcasts and other resources that require less data usage. Working with telecommunication companies to apply zero-rate policies can also facilitate learning material to be downloaded on a smartphone, which more students are likely to have.
Radio and TV are also very powerful tools. The advantage we have today, is that through social networks, WhatsApp or SMS, ministries of education can communicate effectively with parents and teachers and provide guidelines, instructions and structure to the learning process, using content delivered by radio or TV. Remote learning is not only about online learning, but about mixed media learning, with the objective of reaching as many students as possible, today. In conclusion government and institutions should make those ict gatchet available to the poor as well as affordable to remote areas were the cannot be able to affordable and free . Furthermore institutions needs to infrastruture and ICT centers to track the development under a body to monitor and govern the affairs of the implentation and processes.
First of I am proposing a Reformation in our educational system remember it is education that shape and form our behaviours as literate beings in that regards I am proposing a character education in our digital space and must be made compulsory right from high school , I will like to define Character Education as a learning process that enables students and adults in a school community to understand, care about and act on core ethical values such as respect, justice, civic virtue and citizenship, and responsibility for self and others. Now, in Nigeria today in my view, Character Education is not visible but so much attention and emphasis on 'Intellectual Competency' and this is not helping matters rather it's producing Educated corrupt people Example is the Yahoo boys of today. They are smart and use it the wrong way. The learning of Maths, English, and other subjects is good but not helping matters, we still need to lay much emphasis on CHARACTER EDUCATION and build every individual as a leader that can emerge anytime.
Without much ado, I suggest the following can be done to CHANGE the narrative of the education system in Nigeria:
1)Add character education to the curriculum, by making the government see the need.
2)Train teachers on how to carry out the teaching.
3)Form a vital partnership with parents and the community so that students hear a consistent message about character traits essential for success in school and *life*
4)Organise training and seminars for parents to educate them on the importance of character education.
Hi Everyone ?
It’s been my pleasure to join all of you in this past week as your moderator, and to join this consultation together with . It truly has been a rich discussion!
Many of you have highlighted the important role of education in building digital skills and literacy, the need for sustainable infrastructure and investments in bridging the digital divide, the importance of youth inclusion and representation in the process of shaping digital development, as well as the opportunity that multistakeholder and public-private partnership present in working together for a better digital future!
Thank you very much for taking the time to share your substantive feedback, your experiences, your perspectives, and your concrete recommendations. As said before, all of your valuable inputs will be taken forward in the process of developing the #GenerationConnect Youth Summit outcome as well as feed into the #GlobalDigitalCompact process, the call to Action. We hope that you will stay engage!
For those who would love to learn more about the Summit, the #GlobalDigitalCompact, as well as the UN Youth Strategy check out the links below:
Thank you once again and please allow me to pass the baton to our next moderators! ?
Welcome to all the participants whose contributions can make a change to #OurDigitalFuture.
I know these might sound like big words but having the opportunity to make your voice heard by decision-makers brings you one step closer to shaping the future you envision. I am honored and happy to be your next moderator for the last week of #OurDigitalFuture discussions.
Many thanks and appreciation to all the previous moderators who have gracefully conducted the discussions and got valuable input for the ’Youth Call to Action’’ document, whose final draft will be brought into the limelight at ITU’s Generation Connect Youth Summit (2-4 June) in Kigali, Rwanda.
Also, hats off to all the contributors for the on-point perspectives you shared, and for providing insights from your communities!
As a Member of the Romanian Parliament, where I act as the President of the IT&C Committee, I am responsible for coordinating and implementing national policies, and projects in the field of information technology, communications, and digitalization. Having managed all these, I realized that education has one of the most essential roles to play in youth getting ready for a digitalized future. Thus, one of the main objectives of my activities at the national level is to encourage students to bring their contribution to amending the Law of education so that the curriculums become relevant for the jobs of the future. We need curriculums that allow students to make better use of digital technologies.
Truth be told, the digital era we live in provides unlimited opportunities. You need to seize these opportunities, have the courage to make your voice heard, and take action to shape the world you desire.
This is why I encourage all of you to share your thoughts and views and send us any recommendations on what we, lawmakers, should do to build the digital future you’d like to experience. Please feel free to answer any or all of the questions above and respond to other contributors' posts.
Every Stakeholders With Relevant Experience Is A Must Tool Of A Nation For Success.History Is A Recording Device And Powerful Evidence Of It..Youths Can Push Forward The Boundaries Of Knowledge And Implement It With New Strategies...By Discussion Of Weak Areas,Which After Identification And Analysis,In Every Methods Be It In The Legal Process,Scientific Reports,Or Other Subjects,Policies In Compliance To 21st Century Can Be Realistic With Modernism In Mind.Technologies Must Be Sustainable With Next Generation Updates Keeping In Mind The Geographical Locations With Education To Create Entrepreneurs...Youth-Old Partnership Is Also Important...Inclusivity To Make A World Which Is Connected By Globalism And Is Ahead Looking.
Dear Ishan,
Thank you for adding your voice to the #OurDigitalFuture discussion, and I'm glad to see you're keen to tailor your own future. I definitely agree that youth is the catalyst for pushing the boundaries and challenging the status quo with a fresh, new perspective. This is why working closely with them in the policy-making process is essential for every nation's success.
I would also like to know what actions do you think are needed to tackle the current challenges with youth access to social and economic opportunities in the digital world? (Question 2). Could you please elaborate on that?
Looking forward to hearing more from you!
Hello to everyone!
We are delighted to contribute to this important topic! While we include young people and youth organizations in discussions about digitalization and how to use it in daily life, we must also reconsider our approach to digitalization in and of the youth sector. Specifically, at CONNECT International, we are interested in understanding how digitalization affects youth organizations and networks, as well as how young people benefit from their digital programs. We conducted a research study on this topic last year with over 200 youth workers and representatives of local, national and international youth organizations and networks from all around Europe, and based on that, we developed a set of (evidence-based) policy recommendations. A more detailed version of all recommendations can be found on our website: http://www.connect-international.org/do-not-digitalize-me/
Boost a debate about the impact of digitalization
CONNECT urges the authorities to promote greater debates on how to implement digitization in the youth sector, bearing in mind it should be used only when needed and for the benefit of young people. Europe as a whole should engage in the debate and provide more clarity on how to digitally transform the youth sector. The lack of discussion among all stakeholders about the standardization of youth work affected by digitalization, poses a significant concern, if not a threat, to the youth sector.
Assist in ensuring inclusive digital youth work
CONNECT is actively working to ensure fair access to opportunities for all young people, and urges authorities to give special attention to this issue. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many young people to digitalize multiple aspects of their lives. Disadvantaged groups encountered issues with the digitalization due to a lack of digital literacy and infrastructure, and individual needs. The accelerated digitalization caused by COVID-19 pandemic made certain previously difficult-to-reach groups even more difficult-to-reach, and new disadvantaged groups have emerged.
Digital skills before digital youth work
CONNECT believes that increasing the digital literacy of both youth workers/trainers and young people may be achieved by transferring knowledge related to the use of digital technologies and skills that will help both groups adapt to new IT trends. According to CONNECT’s research, 23.3 percent of youth organizations face challenges with digital skills on a regular basis, while 43.4 percent face them at times.
Establish high quality standards in digital youth work
CONNECT urges donors to establish minimum and maximum standards (framework) for online program delivery, as well as provide additional capacity building for youth organizations to conduct online programs. 55,3% of the respondents stated that young people's motivation to participate in online activities is a major worry. Online event lengths, lack of interactivity, tiredness, and lack of digital skills all contributed to this issue.
Prepare youth organizations for digital youth work era
CONNECT encourages institutions to support youth organizations by offering further training in the design and implementation of privacy practices, as well as by addressing data protection concerns when evaluating new funding proposals. Citing CONNECT’s study, one in four youth organizations states that the lack of data protection knowledge hinders their operations. Statistically, 2021 was a record-breaking year for data breaches. CONNECT believes in the importance of data security and has been actively aiding organizations in building internal data security practices to comply with the GDPR.
Make sure that digital participation is always meaningful
With the digital transition, CONNECT invites authorities and organizations across Europe to explore meaningful digital participation in decision making, governed by common international principles. CONNECT’s study reveals a variety of experiences when it comes to digitalizing youth participation. Difficulty advocating with institutions was cited by 22.7 percent of youth organizations during the pandemic.
Don’t replace in-person youth work, compliment it with the digital version
A similar “Right to disconnect” for employees has inspired CONNECT to encourage authorities to collaborate with stakeholders on developing and promoting a balanced understanding of digital and in-person activities for young people, emphasizing that digital activities should be implemented to benefit young people, not the other way around. According to CONNECT's study, 71.7 percent of the respondents anticipate that the use of digital tools in youth work will expand in the future, despite their hope for the pandemic to end soon. In that regard, authorities must pay particular attention to the mental wellbeing of young people, as well as their development of socio-emotional skills, which have already been affected in the previous two years as a result of their lives being cluttered with digital activities.
Step up the fight for critical-thinking education
Confronted with ongoing disinformation and malevolent intents to exploit people for personal gain, CONNECT believes that youth organizations and networks can support institutions in promoting media literacy among young people, which is essential for safeguarding human rights and democratic values in the digital realm. With the rising digitalization of our daily life, media literacy has never been more important. This is especially true for young people, whose lives were almost completely digitalized in 2020 and 2021.
Hello, CONNECT team!
It is such a pleasure to have organizations like yours as part of our consultation. Your experience and know-how will surely make a difference in the final draft of the Youth Call To Action, and I thank you for your extensive contribution.
Whenever there is a collaboration among institutions and organizations, everyone has something to gain, especially when they are like-minded and have similar objectives. I, therefore, consider that connecting the outcome of your activity and ITU Generation's Connect one can lead to achieving all of our goals quicker and more impactful.
Last but not least, congratulations on the Do NOT Digitalize Me study! I checked the complete recommendations list, and the results are highly relevant to organizations and institutions worldwide.
Goodluck with all your projects!
Hi everyone, I'm Joseff Mayberry, International Affairs Manager at Ofcom, the UK's communications regulator. As a young policy professional, I'm looking forward to participating in the Generation Connect Youth Summit, and meeting many of you in this discussion room (in-person or virtually), to further the discussion on how we can achieve an inclusive digital future. Below are some of my reflections on what actions decision-makers can take to ensure an inclusive digital future for today's youth.
All stakeholders - Prioritise the achievement of the sustainable development goals
A safe and inclusive digital future for today’s youth should be led by and support the Sustainable Development Goals. Universal, meaningful connectivity can support quality education and gender equality, reduce inequalities, foster innovation and contribute to sustainable development.
All stakeholders - Ensure universal internet access
According to the ITU, in 2021, 4.9 billion people were connected to the internet, 63% of the global population. This means that around 2.9 billion people were left completely offline, 96% of whom live in developing countries, with some 390 million with no mobile broadband coverage at all. To reach everyone, internet access needs to be affordable. Citizens also need to be empowered through education and this must be regardless of gender, age, socioeconomic position, disability or any other factor. Programmes such as Partner2Connect Digital Coalition initiative which aims to foster meaningful connectivity are crucial in this regard.
All stakeholders - Meeting net-zero carbon targets
At the COP26 conference in November 2021, world leaders gathered to address the critical issue of climate change. Telecommunications and Information Communication Technologies can play a role in enabling the reduction of carbon emissions as we aim for a more sustainable society. Information and communication technologies can be instrumental in the transition to net-zero carbon – whether through reducing travel, increasing network durability, or enabling services such as smart meters in homes or satellites to monitor climate change. ICTs should also play a role in reducing their own carbon emissions.
What actions are needed to tackle the current challenges with youth access to social and economic opportunities in the digital world?
We need to focus on connecting the unconnected and bridging the digital divide to ensure accessibility. It is important for all stakeholders to play a role in increasing access to ICTs (i.e. by investing in infrastructure) as well as developing skills to increase usage (i.e. by capacity building programmes).
We also need to reduce gender inequalities in accessing and using ICTs. Ways to improve bridging the gender digital divide is through opportunities in education and training, encouraging girls and women into careers in STEM, removing any discriminatory barriers, as well as programmes that focus on increasing girls’ and women’s use of ICTs .
How can government agencies and stakeholder groups (private and public sector, academia, innovators) collaborate better, at the national as well as at the international level, towards shaping a better digital future for all?
Collaboration between all stakeholders, including civil society, will be absolutely crucial to achieving the SDGs, connecting the unconnected and achieving net zero. There are many different ways to do this. At the International level multistakeholder cooperation is imperative, for instance open forums to discuss the challenges and collaborate to find solutions.
Government agencies and national regulatory authorities can promote better collaboration with the private sector, academia and innovators by holding public consultations on proposals and decisions, with the aim to reach the largest possible number of people and organisations who may be interested in the outcome of these decisions.
What will happen if the goals of the 'Call to Action Our Digital Future' get accomplished, and the recommendations implemented?
The accessibility and usage of ICTs among youth will increase, which in turn should lead to better health, educational opportunities, increased access to information, and stronger economies. It can also lead to greater gender equality as everyone gains equal access to digital opportunities.
What will the positive change in tomorrow's digital world look like and how can it be measured?
We can see and measure it in the statistics gathered by the ITU on internet accessibility and usage, including equal participation by gender, region and age. It will also be measurable in economic statistics on productivity and GDP. This will help demonstrate whether meaningful connectivity has been achieved.
Dear Joseff,
Thank you for your specific recommendations for building a safe and inclusive digital future for today's youth. I genuinely appreciate putting in the time and your experience to draft this extensive and insightful contribution.
The topics you have tackled are essential both individually but also as a whole. SDGs, universal internet access, net zero carbon, and bridging the digital divide, to name a few, are top priorities for decision-makers worldwide. Having people like you advocating for connecting the unconnected and bridging the digital divide brings us one step closer to a better digital future.
We will carry forward your valuable suggestions to the Call to Action document, and I am Looking forward to meeting you at the Generation Connect youth Summit in Rwanda!
All the best!
Should we leave it fate to decide the uncertainties we have made in translating the power of technology as a civilization?
Africa is caught In the middle group of this narrative. The western American amendment and the Eastern China exponent.
We need to question how we regulate, innovate and distribute digital resources that they fall under the spectrum of African grown and African serving initiatives as we are the largest youth demographic with the highest potential of setting course to a modern more inclusive world if we can truly localize our innovations in the narrative of solving our problems and our economy.
The suggestions I poise are:
Localization of internet in terms of languages and infrastructure ownership to boost local content, This comes hand in hand with digital Literacy as they are intertwined together.
Equality of spaces and meaningful connectivity goes hand in hand with a woke generation that can self regulate not only as consumers but as creators, innovators and leaders.
Protection of the cyberspace, meaningful use goes with purposeful protection from aspects of infrastructure, identity and the content we share and create.
When technology has grown to a point of emerging technologies can abuse our democracies with centralization it's time we raise the questions and debate on the future of digital civilizations, digital sovereignty with the African Agenda.
Hi gabriel karsan!
Thank you so much for being the African communities' voice and sharing these on-point insights. I've mainly noticed digital literacy, which has been a hot topic among the contributors on this platform, only highlighting its importance. Besides providing access to the internet for the youth worldwide, we also need to make sure that those who already have access to digital assets will also learn basic skills to use the resources available to them.
I'd also like to build on your concern on technological progress worsening or deepening the digital divide. No one would like such thing to happen, this is why digital skills are so important.
As you know, all the discussions we're having here will have a real impact in policymaking around the world. We will be taking your feedback forward in the process of developing the Youth Call to Action 'Our digital future' and present it at the ITU Generation Connect Youth Summit (Kigali, Rwanda, 2-4 June 2022) to world leaders.
Until then, keep up the great work!
What youth need is a voice. At this point in time we are slowly getting it. I think it would be extremely helpful if governenments were to create a platform where youth can share opinions they face not only online but socially and every other aspect. These platforms can be chat applications or online forums where youth can rely on their voices being heard. By building these, inclusivity can be achieved. Building a safe internet environment is quite an issue. However, it can be addressed mostly by making people aware of what puts them in danger online and how they can avoid it. Most people are in the dark about how the digital world actually operates because no one takes the time to actually find out. But if information were free and widely available, then it would embetter the situation. Youth need opportunity, opportunity made aware to them and they will definitely take it. In so saying, their participation in the digital world can only be determined by how space is dedicated to them and how well aware they are of it. These opportunities can be created by any organisation; they can be competitions, board positions and others. Forming a joint group dedicated to inclusivity, all parties from the government to the private/public sector can participate. I think this would be achievable by the formation of such a group dedicated to such collaboration in each country. The result of all this happening i believe would be a wider and more engaged youth population online. I think upon implementation of these suggestions, a safe and inclusive digital world can be built for youth around the world.
Dear Moitheri,
Thank you for sharing your contribution and highlighting the importance of education and youth information campaigns, as I've always stated that a more informed and educated youth will set the grounds for a better-digitalized future. Learning more about the digital world, how it works, and what its highs and lows are will only make people more aware of how digital tools can be used to benefit them, not the other way around. This consultation is a way for ITU and its members to give youth a voice that is heard by the policy-makers, and that will generate change, so thank you once again for joining us in this process.
Please feel free to provide your feedback to the other discussion rooms too.
Hello everyone, my name is Nicola and I am a Senior Policy Officer at the Australian Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications. I’ve included my thoughts below on what actions government decision-makers, ITU and UN organisations need to take to build a better digital future.
All stakeholders need to prioritise connecting the unconnected and reducing the digital divide by providing youths the tools they need to engage meaningfully online and remove barriers preventing peoples’ online participation. To build a safe and inclusive digital future for youth to easily and meaningfully engage online, the following is crucial:
To achieve collaboration, the private and public sector, academia, civil society and community members need to be engaged at all levels of decision-making – including at the international level. It is important that international organisations engage in multi-stakeholder collaboration and make space for the private and public sector, academia, civil society and community members to contribute to discussions through initiatives such as open consultations. International organisations engaging in open and active cooperation and consultation on issues of interest with relevant stakeholders is important to solve challenges and shape a digital future for all.
Positive changes in the digital world will include increased engagement online by youths, in particular girls and young women, indigenous peoples, people with special needs, and those living in rural and remote communities. This increased engagement and relevant statistics can be measured by publications such as the ITU’s Facts and Figures Reports.
Hi Nicola,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, I strongly agree with your perspective. So to have a better digital future we must involve all stakeholders: institutions, policymakers, decision-makers, international organisations and industry leaders - they all must work together to offer the infrastructure, digital skills, and literacy to youths from all corners of the world. When talking about positive changes in the digital world, you specifically mentioned online engagement for women and girls - I am content to notice this topic is constantly brought into the limelight in your country. Furthermore, the Australian government is also taking action in this regard and will provide Leadership training for women during the ITU PP-22, which I will have the honor to chair in September. I am looking forward to seeing the results of this training.
We will surely be taking your important points forward in the Call to Action.
All the best!
Hello! My name is Nicholas Gasani a 2nd year student at the University of Rwanda (in Rwanda) studying Civil Engineering with major in Environmental engineering. I take this opportunity to welcome you all to Kigali Rwanda !
My recommendations to governments. 1. Governments should develop programs/policies to make the internet (in Africa mobile internet especially) more affordable. 2. Ensure all high schools and universities have an in-depth digital skills curriculum as part of the schools' curriculum and support internet to every school/university 3. Affordable devises: Develop programs/policies that lower the cost of devices (especially laptops/smartphones) to affordable levels.
Increase broadband access, especially to rural youths in Africa. In my university class of 53 students, about 30% were not digitally literate. Youths, in general, face a digital divide, but those in the rural areas and the urban poor are at the highest risk for exclusion.
Hi Nicolas!
I am very happy to have a contribution from Rwanda, the place where the next Generation Connect Global Youth Summit will take place, between 2 - 4 June. Thank you for making your voice heard and addressing the issues youth in Africa face. I can see the main topic raised here is education and digital literacy, and they are essential elements for eliminating or, at least, reducing the digital divide. We will forward your input to the Youth Call to Action document, which will be passed over to decision makers during the WTDC taking place in Kigali right after the summit.
Please feel free to share your input in any of the other rooms related to the Youth Call to Action; your contribution is important and highly appreciated!