11 Jun 2019

United Nations (UN) report on digital cooperation will add on to global efforts aimed at ensuring that no one is left out of the digital sphere.

Speaking at the launch of report on June 10, Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Ms Bogolo Kenewendo said the report was the culmination of nine months of work by a 20-member high level panel that was assembled by the UN Secretary General, Mr Antonio Guterres.

Ms Kenewendo said the team, of which she was a member, had consulted widely around the world on the subject of digital cooperation, and had to come up with the report, whose focus was on three broad sets of interlocking issues of building an inclusive digital future, protecting human rights, promoting digital trust and security as well as fashioning a new global digital cooperation architecture.

She said it was expected that the report, titled The Age of Interdependence, would be a guiding tool to all efforts to bridge the existing digital divide.

Ms Kenewendo noted that the issue of digital inclusivity was among those highlighted in the report because currently, some vulnerable sections of the global community, among them women and other marginalised groups, remained left out of the digital sphere.

She observed that as economies were becoming more and more digital, it was paramount that no one got left behind.

Further, the minister indicated that the panel had, in the report, highlighted the importance of ensuring safety in the digital domain.

Outlining the five recommendations that the panel had made, Ms Kenewendo cited the need to build inclusive digital economy and society, to develop human and institutional capacity and also to protect human rights and human agency.

Moreover, the panel recommended the promotion of digital trust, security and stability as well as the need to foster global digital cooperation.

UN resident coordinator, Ms Jacinta Barrins concurred that digital cooperation was indeed key to the general advancement of the global community.

She said it was for this reason that stakeholders, including governments, the private sector, civil society, international organisations, the technical and academic communities and developers in the digital sphere, joined hands in pushing for digital cooperation.

Ms Barrins also commended Botswana for having been the first African country to adopt and run with the ‘Leave No One Behind’ theme, which she said was first highlighted during the Poverty Eradication Conference a year ago. ENDS