By Barrack Otieno.
The Kenya ICT Action Network Participated in the 14th Internet Governance Forum in Berlin Germany. The Forum was hosted by the Government of Germany from 25 to 29 November 2019 under the overarching theme: One World. One Net One Vision.
More than 2000 participants attended the forum onsite and remotely using various remote hubs that had been established around the world to facilitate inclusion. Kenya had a significant presence at the meeting with stakeholders drawn from the Government, Legislature, Civil Society, Technical Community , Private Sector and Academia.
Kenya ICT Action Network participated in the session on UNESCO’s Internet Universality Indicators. The Special session – lasting almost five hours – was dedicated to sharing information between stakeholder teams from 16 countries across five continents. They represented initiatives in Kenya, Senegal, Benin, Ghana, Tunisia, South Korea, Sudan, Nepal, Thailand, Brazil , Paraguay, Uruguay, Ecuador, France , Serbia and Bulgaria. More details on the session can be found here.
KICTANet Co-convener Grace Githaiga moderated a high level panel on Internet Governance, Sustainable Development Goals and Inclusion. Panelists included Houlin Zhao – International Telecommunications Union Secretary General , Ms Pinky Kekana – Deputy Minister Communication and Digital Technologies Republic of South Africa among other distinguished speakers. The discussion focused on several issues such as ITU’s priority list on Digital Inclusion, ICT Infrastructure and connectivity and how businesses have performed, key gaps and barriers to Digital Inclusion in 2019 and how African governments can bring all Africans into sustainable development goals.
The Network also participated in the National and Regional Initiatives main session entitled emerging technologies and their interfaces with inclusion, security and human rights.
