Opening ceremony

Speaker: Representatives of the Program Committee, Government

• Virginia Pardo, AGESIC Uruguay

Youth LACIGF 2020 Report

Session 1 – Digital Inclusion: Models for an Inclusive Internet

The goal of this session is to identify the main advances and gaps in the development and implementation of models and alternatives for digital inclusion.

Based on the general consensus that digital inclusion is currently a prerequisite for economic, social and human development as well as for strengthening the exercise of human rights, this session seeks to review different models for connecting the unconnected and address the challenges related to the quality and costs of access for those who are already connected.

The session will have two parts. The first will include a conceptual review, from the point of view of the different actors involved, of the progress that has been made in the past year in terms of deployment of technology, favorable regulatory changes and public policy frameworks, and the development of capacities to leverage digital inclusion, as well as of the main gaps in those areas. The second part will present concrete examples and solutions aimed at addressing the main gaps in the three areas covered in the first part of the session.

The session will close with guidelines on the role and commitments of the different actors to advance in the implementation of solutions.

Part 1 

Panelists:

• Adriana Labardini (Rhizomatica, México) 
• Laura Kaplan (LACNIC)
• Sergio Valdes (AT&T) 
• Allan Ruiz (COMTELCA)
• Sebastián Rovira (CEPAL)

Moderator: Valeria Betancourt, APC

Part 2

Panelists:

• Gustavo Ríos, Coordinador de Política Digital, Gobierno de Chihuahua, México 
• Miguel Ignacio Estrada, LACTLD
• Lilian Chamorro, Colnodo, Colombia
• Marta Suárez, Dinamic Spectrum Alliance 

Moderator: Valeria Betancourt, APC

Report

Session 2 – Internet and the Pandemic: Opportunities and Impacts of Deployed Technologies on Human Rights

The countries of Latin America and the Caribbean have been strongly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has seriously impacted their emerging economies and faced them with the challenge of protecting the health of their population while ensuring the continuity of the most important social activities, such as education and work. In the context of the pandemic, technology is one of the components incorporated by the governments of the region in their search for solutions, often with support or services provided by the private sector for their deployment.

This session proposes a critical review of the role that the technologies implemented during the pandemic have played in the protection of human rights and the lessons learned from this situation regarding their role in the future development of our societies and on how to promote balanced public and private policies for increased respect and promotion of the rights of the region’s inhabitants.

Panel I Use of Data-Intensive Technology in the Context of COVID-19

• Laura MCGorman, Data For Good Facebook
• Rafael Zanatta Data Privacy, Brasil 
• Luis Ricardo Oliva – Administrador de la Autoridad Nacional para la Innovación gubernamental (AIG), Panamá

Moderator: María Paz Canales

Panel II  Technology and Public Policy, the Challenges of Information and Transparency in the Context of the Pandemic

• Edison Lanza – OEA 
• Maryleana Méndez – ASIET 
• Maria José Calderón, CNE, Ecuador

Moderator: María Paz Canales

Report

Session 3 – Transformation, Acceleration and Use of New Technologies in a Post-COVID-19 World

The current pandemic has revealed the accelerated productive and technological changes we are experiencing, where economic development relies increasingly on services and the expansion of digital platforms (as generalized spaces for interaction). These have been vital for ensuring the continuity of productive processes across the region in the face of the different impacts of the pandemic. However, the pandemic has also shown us that there is still a lot of work to be done, as multiple and varied problems have also emerged. In this context, reflecting on the post-COVID-19 world inevitably leads us to reflect on the digital presence of companies and the future of employment and work.

Part 1: Promoting Digital Presence

In the context of isolation seen in the last few months, companies of all sizes have been abruptly forced to adapt their operations to an online environment, perhaps without taking sufficient precautions for either their users/clients or the future of their operations. The options for maintaining an online presence are varied, as are the consequences of the decisions taken in this regard.

This session seeks to understand the impact of these accelerated changes on the different sectors and assess the post-pandemic future.

Panelists:

• Luis Arancibia (LACTLD / NIC Chile)
• Héctor Faya (Facebook)
• Mercedes Aramendía (URSEC)
• Carolina Barada (Wingu)

Moderator: Rodrigo de la Parra (ICANN)

Part 2: The Future of Work

The challenge of reflecting on the post-COVID-19 world and the inevitable reflection on the future of work and employment lies not only in the risks posed by automation, but also in the new forms of work, the need for new skills and digital labor under the unprecedented paradigm that the post-pandemic will present to us as a region.

In this sense, it is now more important than ever to understand what this economic recovery will look like in the countries of Latin America, its impact on the labor market, and the skills that the jobs of the future will demand, rethinking how to train people in this new context.

This poses numerous questions. For instance, among other issues, we must reflect on how to generate the right incentives to kickstart the economic recovery, how to detect the use of new technologies in a timely manner, how to increase the flexibility of the education system to integrate new training requirements, and how we are going to inform workers of the new skills that will be required.

Panelists:

• Ana Inés Basco (BID – INTAL)
• Carolina Caeiro (LACNIC) 
• Erick Huerta (Sociedad Civil)
• Rodrigo Galindo (Google)
• Gerhard Reinecke (ILO – International Labour Organization)  

Moderator: Beatriz Rodríguez (AGESIC)

Report

Session 4 – Connecting the Unconnected: Infrastructure and Regulatory Challenges from SDG to the Challenges of the Pandemic in Latin America

Despite the notable advances in connectivity in recent years, at least 40% of Latin Americans still cannot access the Internet, a figure that reveals the enormity of the challenge that lies ahead. Country-to-country connectivity figures show that there is still a major digital divide between the urban and rural population, between men and women, and mainly between different socioeconomic groups. Closing the digital divide is now more than ever an economic imperative, but most importantly an ethical one.

In 2015, the International Community made its most ambitious commitment to date with the approval of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) contained in the 2030 Agenda, currently the most important tool at global level. In order to achieve the 17 SDGs and 169 targets, all United Nations member states agreed that the development and regulation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is a cross-cutting issue. ICTs apply to and benefit the entire agenda.

The pandemic made it clear that the Internet has become an essential ally for maintaining the economy, social support and education. Consequently, the more than 40% of Latin Americans who are still unable to access the Internet are probably those who have suffered the harmful effects of the pandemic the most, both in terms of their health and their economy. The lack of Internet access has determined that many of the daily activities that a connected citizen conducts online and which allow them to implement isolation measures have been impossible for the unconnected, who have had to abandon their confinement to ensure their daily sustenance and therefore increased their exposure to the virus. For all of the above, bridging the digital divide in the medium and long term should be a primary goal for the entire region.

However, the economic circumstances prior to the pandemic were already complex for the development of infrastructure and this has been exacerbated by the economic effects of the pandemic in the region, even raising doubts regarding their future sustainability, particularly considering the uncertainty regarding how the pandemic will evolve.

Faced with the dilemma posed by the imperative need to expand the Internet and close the digital divide in the current context of economic crisis in which this task is more difficult than ever, this session will attempt to raise a series of questions:

• Question 1: How can the 2030 Agenda be implemented to address the infrastructure, regulation and development challenges in a post-pandemic world? What framework for action should we propose to address existing challenges?
• Question 2: Is the current regulatory framework appropriate for meeting this challenge? What type of policy and regulatory solutions can we adopt? How can we generate a sustainable framework in the medium and long term?

Panelists:

• Estefanía Laterza, ODS Paraguay
• Ana Valero, Telefónica
• Christian O’Flaherty, Internet Society
• Mariela Baladron, IEALC

Moderator: Sergio Scarabino, UIT

Report

Session 5 – Internet Governance, Gender and Intersectionality: What Can a Gender Approach Do for Technology Policies?

The purpose of this session is to discuss with the LACIGF community how gender approaches can contribute to the development of public and private Internet policies and the implementation of technologies with an intersectional perspective that better promote the exercise of the rights of women and LGBTQI+ groups in Latin America. Considering that the topic is new to this space, the goal will be to listen to the perspectives of representatives of the different sectors, who will be presented with guiding questions and cases where these problems are manifested in the region.

The session will be divided into three parts, the first of which will be devoted to understanding the challenges and identifying the best practices developed by each sector on specific issues such as gender-based online violence and inclusion and participation in policy development. During the second part, in small groups, participants will work on hypothetical cases or scenarios and discuss how each sector might collaborate in responding to the challenges of Internet governance from a gender perspective in each of the situations presented. Finally, the third part will consolidate the discussions of the different working groups and will attempt to summarize the contents of the session in order to point out possible ways forward.

Panelists

Part 1:

• Public Sector: Margarita Escobar, El Salvador
• Private Sector: Danya Centeno, Twitter 
• Technical Community: Carolina Caeiro – LACNIC
• Civil Society: Anais Córdova – Taller de Comunicación Mujer, Ecuador

Moderator: Jamila Venturini

Part 2:

• Group 1 Carolina Caeiro – LACNIC and Juliana Guerra – Derechos Digitales 
• Group 2 Paz Peña – Acoso.Online and Nina Da Hora, desarrolladora
• Group 3 MC Capelo – Facebook and Analía Fukelman – Lunar App
• Group 4 Lulu Barrera, Luchadoras and Denisse Albornoz, Hiperderecho

Working groups to discuss how each sector can respond to the following cases or scenarios:

Group 1: The challenges for the construction of technical standards that are in line with the protection of human rights with a gender perspective in Internet governance spaces such as the IETF or ICANN. How is equal participation guaranteed? What is the current or potential role of the feminist principles of the Internet? What barriers have been encountered? What challenges are still pending? 

Group 2: Intersectionality and discrimination in public policies based on the use of automated systems. Designing systems to predict teenage pregnancy risk in vulnerable socioeconomic sectors through public-private partnerships. How can these policies be designed so they are sensitive to gender issues and intersectionalities? What considerations can be adopted regarding participation in the evaluation of technologies? What role does civil society play? What is the role of the private sector?

Group 3: Incorporation of a gender perspective in the context of private moderation. Private censorship of sexual and reproductive health content by educational platforms due to an incompatibility with their private policies. How can we advance towards gender-sensitive private policy? What mechanisms can be adopted to generate a better balance of rights? What transparency measures can make it easier to submit a claim when faced with unfortunate outcomes that are the result of the private policies implemented by the platforms? How can we advance towards participatory mechanisms with the platforms in the case of groups that are particularly prone to censorship as a result of the application of private policies? How can a feminist point of view or gender perspective impact private policies?

Group 4: Regulation of online gender violence based on laws that punish the non-consensual dissemination of intimate images in the region. Are the proposed regulations successful? Are the regulations on this matter proposed in the region sufficient? Do these regulations provide adequate complaint mechanisms? What cultural changes should accompany these regulations from a feminist perspective or a gender approach?

Report

Session 6 – A New Cycle for LACIGF: Opportunities for Community Participation and Impact on Internet Policies in Our Region

The purpose of the session is to share with the community the latest advances in restructuring the work and action groups within LACIGF, and to provide a participatory space for receiving additional feedback from the community and their ideas on the ongoing redesign.

During the second part of the session, participants will work in groups on a specific topic relating to the redefinition of the operational structure of LACIGF. The notes of this interaction will be shared with the Program Committee so that this community feedback can be incorporated into the decisions that will be made in the coming months to finish reshaping the new operation of LACIGF.

Panelists

Part 1: A new LACIGF cycle

• Ernesto Majó
• Ignacio Estrada
• Lia Hernández

Part 2

• Group 1-  Facilitator: Ignacio Estrada
• Group 2 – Facilitator: Lia Hernández
• Group 3 – Facilitator: María Paz Canales

Moderator: Andrés Sastre

Report

LACIGF 13 Wrap-Up

Closing remarks, participation statistics.

Speaker: Representatives of the Technical Community sector.

• Oscar Robles, LACNIC

• Date: September 5 to 6
• Time: 10:00 am to 06:00 pm (UTC-4)
• Register: https://ti.to/youthlacigf/youthlacigf2020/es
• Agenda: http://youthlacigf.org/es/inicio/
• Organizers: Youth Observatory/Youth SIG Internet Society