Expanding access to Information for All through good evidence – Pre 01 2023

19 June 2023 | 10:00 - 11:30 EEST | Auditorium A1 |
Consolidated programme 2023 overview / Pre 1

Session description

Created by UNESCO Member States in 2001, the Information for All Program (IFAP) provides a platform for international co-operation and partnerships aimed at building inclusive and sustainable Knowledge Societies. Central to IFAP’s contributions is its support to digital policy formulation and exchanges of experiences, including for the generation of robust evidence for digital development that promotes access to information.

As good policy requires good evidence to underpin identification of opportunities and gaps, and analyses that yield recommendations, IFAP raises awareness of and advocates for monitoring mechanisms and analytical frameworks that facilitate decision-making to advance digital ecosystem. Some are UNESCO’s own frameworks, such as the Internet Universality ROAM-X Principles (human Rights, Openness, Accessibility, Multistakeholder participation) and indicators, the SDG 16.10.2 on public access to information, the Media and Information Literacy Assessment Framework, among others. In addition, and to build complementary and synergy, IFAP works extensively with partners and stakeholders to identify and promote relevant sources of evidence to various issues affecting digital ecosystems, including indicators such as those in the UN e-Government Survey published by UNDESA, ITU’s digital skills measures, meaningful connectivity, reports such as those by the Regional Center for the Study of the Development of the Information Society (CETIC) located in Brazil, and by the Alliance for Affordable Internet.

This year has also been marked by swift and deep change in digital ecosystems, and more is to come, as new governance and regulatory mechanisms are discussed at global, regional and national levels,

This year is also marked by global discussions and consultations on principles for a Global Digital Compact, and how to leverage global collaboration to advance on the UN Secretary-General’s Roadmap for Digital Cooperation. New issues and frameworks will likely be proposed and developed, making it relevant that IFAP raises awareness of these new processes and engage its networks in multi-stakeholder collaboration in reflecting how current monitoring experiences can inform creation and/or strengthening future monitoring exercises and generate timely and relevant evidence to underpin policy recommendations in new areas, such, as a simple example, the impacts of specific emerging technologies on sustainable development.

On the occasion of EuroDIG 2023, UNESCO Information for All Programme (IFAP) organizes this event with the following objectives:

• Present findings, recommendations, and follow-up on monitoring of digital development in Europe, sharing the best practices and extracting lessons learnt that can be shared across the world.
• Discuss how current measurement and monitoring systems need to be adjusted in order to be fit-for-purpose in rapidly changing digital environments
• Reflect on the relevance of evidence to digital policymaking in European countries, and on the role that IFAP can play to support evidence-based policy making in its six priority areas: Information for Development, Information Accessibility, Information Ethics, Information Preservation, Information Literacy and Multilingualism in cyberspace.
• Discuss how to strengthen evidence to contribute to effective policies in face of the rapid development and unprecedented challenges of digital transformation

People

Moderators:

• Xianhong Hu, UNESCO Programme Specialist
• Giacomo Mazzone, Member of the EuroDIG Board and the co-chair of PNMA – policy network meaningful access of the IGF

Rapporteur:

• Xiaojie Sun, Junior Professional Officer, UNESCO

Agenda

• Opening (15’)
  • Welcome remarks by Sandra Hoferichter, Secretary General of EuroDIG (5')
  • Keynote introduction by Marielza Oliveira, Director for Division for Digital Inclusion and Policies and Digital Transformation and Secretary of the Information for All Programme, UNESCO (10')
     
• Monitoring digital development policies: approaches, good practices and lessons to share across the world (20')
  
  • Dr. Xianhong Hu, Programme Specialist, the Secretariat of Information for All Program (IFAP), UNESCO (5')
  • Dr. Matthias C. Kettemann, Head of Research Program, Leibniz Institute for Media Research, Hans-Bredow-Institut – Germany (Online) (5')
  • Polya Kanyova, Chief Expert in “Information Technologies, Information Society, European Coordination and International Cooperation”, Directorate, Ministry of Electronic Governance – Bulgaria (Online) (5')
  • Onica Makwakwa, Gobal Digital Inclusion Partnership (Online) (5')
     
  • Issues to address:
    • Present findings, recommendations, and follow-up on monitoring of digital development in Europe, sharing the best practices and extracting lessons learnt that can be shared across the world.
    • Discuss how current measurement and monitoring systems need to be adjusted in order to be fit-for-purpose in rapidly changing digital environments
       
• Q&A (5')
   
• What is/is not being measured? How to future-proof monitoring frameworks in fast-changing digital environments? (30')
  • Andreas Salz, Programme Specialist Communication and Information, German Commission for UNESCO expert (Online) (5')
  • Tomasz Komorowski, Project Coordinator, Polish National Commission for UNESCO (Online) (5')
  • Giacomo Mazzone, Member of the EuroDIG Board and the co-chair of PNMA - policy network meaningful access of the IGF (On-site) (5')
  • Suada Hadzovic, GAC HRIL WG Co-Chair, ICANN-GAC (Online) (5')
  • Desiree Miloshevic Evans, Co-Chairs the RIPE Cooperation Working Group and Generic Name Supporting Organisation Councillor at Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) (On-site) (5')
  • Yves Poullet, IFAP Working Group Chair (On-site) (5')
     
  • Issues to address:
    • Reflect on the relevance of evidence to digital policymaking in European countries, and on the role that IFAP can play to support evidence-based policy making in its six priority areas: Information for Development, Information Accessibility, Information Ethics, Information Preservation, Information Literacy and Multilingualism in cyberspace.
    • Discuss how to strengthen evidence to contribute to effective policies in face of the rapid development and unprecedented challenges of digital transformation
       
• Q&A (15')
   
• Closing remarks (5')
  • Marielza Oliveira, Director for Division for Digital Inclusion and Policies and Digital Transformation and Secretary of the Information for All Programme, UNESCO

Video record

https://youtu.be/eNNEA-7mRng