On Thursday June 22 2023 at 11:00-12:30 EDT (15:00-16:30 UTC) the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information, as part of its Global Digital Governance series, presents a webinar 'Function Follows Form: The Proposed UN Digital Cooperation Forum'.
On June 5, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres presented a policy brief on his Global Digital Compact initiative to the General Assembly. Among the brief’s ideas is a proposal to create an annual Digital Cooperation Forum (DCF). This new UN forum would not be a negotiation body, but would instead foster action-oriented dialogue and analysis concerning international cooperation on digital policy issues. A proposal like this has been anticipated since the SG’s High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation issued its report in 2019. The case for a DCF is being championed in particular by the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology. The proposal has yet to garner support but will be discussed by a ministerial meeting in September 2023 that is to help prepare the groundwork for the UN’s 2024 Summit of the Future.
The policy brief states that the DCF would coexist with existing bodies and processes like the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in an integrated hub and spoke system. However, aside from its presumably broader scope, in many respects the DCF appears to duplicate the IGF. Given that the IGF has long faced challenges from those governments that are unhappy with its multistakeholder character, the existence of a comparatively intergovernmental DFC could complicate the renewal of the IGF’s mandate at the 2025 WSIS+20 review. In addition, there are a number of other issues raised by proposing a new forum without specifying its substantive focus and institutional modalities or assessing the demand for one. The experiences over the past twenty years with failed proposals to create new institutions for global Internet and digital governance merits consideration in this context.
An inclusive dialogue is needed to determine whether the DCF vision can overcomes the potential barriers to its realization or at least contribute to strengthening international cooperation in other settings. To help with that task, this webinar assembles a panel of expert participants in the debate about the United Nations’ role in global digital cooperation and governance. The group will assess the driving issues and interests, potential negotiation dynamics and outcomes, and larger digital governance implications of the DCF proposal.
INTRODUCTION
Eli Noam, Paul Garrett Professor, Emeritus / Director, Columbia Institute for Tele-Information
PANEL
Fiona M. Alexander, Distinguished Policy Strategist in Residence, School of International Service / Distinguished Fellow, Internet Governance Lab, American University
Anriette Esterhuysen, Senior Advisor for Internet Governance, Association for Progressive Communications (APC)
Nigel Hickson, Internet Governance, United Kingdom’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT)
MODERATOR
William J. Drake, Director of International Studies at the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information
LIVESTREAM http://livestream.com/internetsociety3/citi-dcf
PARTICIPATE VIA ZOOM https://bit.ly/46gCrta
REAL TIME TEXT https://bit.ly/44hazU3
TWITTER #DigitalCooperation @Elinoam @wjdrake @Columbia_Biz @fionamalexander @InternetGov Anriette Esterhuysen @APC_News @njhickson @UNTechEnvoy
MASTODON #DigitalCooperation
SIMULCASTS
https://www.twitter.com/ISOC_Live/
https://www.facebook.com/liveisoc/ (AI Captions)
ARCHIVE
https://archive.org/details/citi-dcf
