Month: November 2016

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Inclusive Education

Inclusive development looks at ensuring that all groups in society, everyone that is affected, are included in the development processes and programs. In a similar way, inclusive education is focused on the right of education for all children including those that are sometimes left out or marginalized, for example children with disabilities. As the UNICEF document on Inclusive Education Initiatives states, it is the responsibility of all schools to be able to accommodate any and all students. Whether it is one single student or a group of students that need special attention or different physical accommodations, these things cannot be denied. Schools cannot turn students away and they cannot actively neglect someone an education simply because they do not have the necessary resources or do not want to invest the extra time and money into helping these individuals be able to actively participate in their education. While this idea of inclusive education is becoming very widespread, still many educational institutions are not accessible to all and some even actively ignore their responsibility to do so. What makes inclusive education initiatives so challenging is that they require the successful implementation of various elements such as, strong political and government commitment, awareness at all levels of the rights of children with disabilities, awareness of the benefits of inclusive education for all students, pre-service and in-service teacher training, whole school approach with specialist support, constant advocacy for the full employment of disabled children’s rights and needs, and a couple more crucial elements (UNICEF). These elements have to be implemented together in order for the necessary impact to be made and for concrete change to occur.

Some countries more than others have made significant progress towards achieving inclusive education, but several successful initiatives have been driven by motivated individuals with disabilities that choose to fight for their rights and bring awareness to the issue. For example, there is the university student in Brunei who stressed the importance of self-advocacy and fought to get the necessary resources established in the university to ensure that he was able to successfully complete his studies. Setbacks and shortcomings can lead to frustration and feelings of isolation for students with disabilities who are unable to keep up with their studies due to all the barriers they face. The student mentions the importance of learning to overcome that frustration but others should also take it upon themselves to help prevent that frustration. That is why it is so important that university or school staff, teachers, and peers work together to help other students fit in and maneuver the system, so that not all the weight of the problem is placed solely on the student with disabilities.

As schools work to create inclusive educational environments in today’s modern world, the ICTs are increasingly becoming key players towards this goal. With the incredibly sophisticate technologies that we have today, there is much that can be done technologically to ensure that education is made available to all. That is why we now have the Model Policy for Inclusive ICTs in Education for PWDs that focuses on finding ways to use ICTs to support the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of PWDs. In order to guarantee that all students have the same opportunities and access, technology will have to play a role. While it is not the sole solution, it is an important one for many aspects of inclusive education.

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Multistakeholder Internet Governance

The issue of Internet governance in today’s hyper globalized world is quiet complex due to the fact that as an entity, the Internet is not technically owned by anyone. This lack of concrete ownership complicates the organization of oversight and regulatory management. Starting as a military research project, the Internet has grown at incredible speeds and spread across the entire world. All corners of the world have been touched by the Internet and in fact, almost everything in one way or another now depends on the Internet, whether it be businesses, schools, governments, or individuals. With so many individuals and organizations dependent on the Internet and with only parts of the Internet being owned, the best approach to Internet governance is through a multistakeholder approach in which decision-making is accountable, sustainable, and effective (Internet Governance (IG) – reading). However, the multistakeholder approach cannot be seen as the single solution but rather as a toolbox in which a source that has been developed and maintained by many actors can by governed by an open, distributed and interconnected governance force (IG – reading). Due to the Internet being transnational in scope, the multistakeholder governance attributes such as inclusiveness and transparency, collective responsibility, and effective decision-making and implementation are crucial and it is why it is important to ensure the survival of a multistakeholder approach to Internet governance.

Since there is no global government in place, there are a couple of multistakeholder platforms that help maintain an open dialogue around the key issues in Internet governance. First off there is the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), which brings people together and facilitates the discussion around public policy issues relating to the Internet. Although it does not create a concrete negotiated outcome, its importance lies in informing and inspiring those that do have policy-making power both in the private and public sector. Meetings for the IGF are held annually and all of their sessions are live streamed allowing as many people as are interested to join in. Another important global body is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Its main function is to coordinate the maintenance and procedures of databases related to the namespaces of the Internet. Ultimately, ICANN performs more of the technical maintenance work of the central Internet address pools by authorizing domain name sales and handling registrations. The main critique of ICANN is that it does not do enough for development, but that is not really its focus.

As most things, if not all things, Internet governance is far from perfect. However, as with other topics in development, there is the concern that the global North is too involved in the process and doing as it pleases without concern for the rest of the world. In the summer of 2013, after the Snowden revelations, ex Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff accused the U.S. of breaking international law. The outcome of this was the NETmundial meeting that focused on the elaboration of principles of Internet governance and the proposal for a roadmap for the future development of this ecosystem (NETmundial). Apart from being a very open and transparent process, NETmundial was important also for the fact that it was hosted and organized by the global South. Although the meeting was successful, the follow up NETmundial initiative was said to be hijacked by the north. Therefore, this concern will continue to be at the forefront. However, what is important is that we as a world community continue to participate in and respect the importance of the multistakeholder approach to Internet governance.

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Multistakeholder Internet Governance

Internet governance, as learned throughout the class discussions, relates to the internet community and the number of stakeholders that make decisions about the development and use of the internet. It was in WSIS 2005 that the term was coined and put to use. The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) was then created and has been able to provide valuable opportunities for thousands of representatives in a number of different stakeholder groups. All of these groups are all interconnected as they operate without a central governing body. The question that now arises is: how do we govern the internet? And if so, who governs it? The internet was created in the United States under ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) and different decisions were made and established to spread the internet around the world. Because of this, the internet became more valuable when more people were using it.

ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) oversees the majority of assignments within the internet such as: domain names, transport controls and even internet protocol addresses. ICANN is governed by the NTIA, which makes ICANN one of the few bodies with a global and centralized influence over the diverse number of groups that are on the internet. However, ICANN did have a number of controversial issues that did not make their decision-making process easy. This led to the creation of the IANA Transition Process on October 1st of 2016 to enhance ICANN’s accountability and to illustrate the affirmation of the principles that best addresses the challenges of governing the internet and fulfill the global requirements that it gives to all of the countries using it.

Because the creation and most of the development efforts of the internet came from the USA, it was believed by many that there should not be a core resource that is solely based there. This is where the legitimacy of the ITU (International telecommunication Union) was being challenged. The purpose of the ITU is to “coordinate telecommunication operations and services throughout the world” but the purpose of the internet was for it not to be state owned and it was hard to fully trust that the development and use of the internet was not being compromised to benefit just the USA and the groups that reside within it.

It is hard to imagine the internet being managed by just one country or stakeholder group. The importance of having multi-stakeholders is so that they take the initiative to allow all the different communities to engage. Once there is full transparency, it will be easier to organize and make decisions when dealing with the internet. NETmundial was a critical opportunity to reinforce the IGF so that it can be strengthened and improved to enhance the participation of a number of countries, including developing ones. This global multi-stakeholder meeting on the future of internet governance was the mechanism needed to ensure the principles needed for a multilateral mechanism to work worldwide.

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SDG & HLPF

               With the expiration of the Millennium Development Goals this past December, the UN established new goals to further address the major development issues in our world. The 2030 Sustainable Development Goals went into effect January 1, 2016 with a new, more inclusive fifteen-year plan. The MDGs were mostly focused on eradicating poverty, but the SDGs have expanded upon them by also intending to protect the planet and fight inequalities. There are 17 global goals in the SDG agenda, each with specific targets and indicators for implementation within the next fifteen years. Although the SDGs are not legally binding, their widespread support and ratification makes them more legitimate and provides further grounds for advocacy and accountability.  However, because the goals are so ambitious and complex, producing and monitoring their implementation remains incredibly challenging. Consequently, the HLPF (High-Level Political Forum) was created as the central platform for follow-up and review of the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda. The HLPF is the High-Level Political Forum that meets annually for eight days under ECOSOC and at a higher level every four years under the UN General Assembly. Each convening has a different theme of focus related to specific goals and targets to analyze their progress. The HLPF states that it is “the most inclusive and participatory forum at the UN,” although in reality it is not because it is highly political in that you need to be a member or accredited by ECOSOC to participate and attend the forum. Therefore, only representatives of the major groups and chosen stakeholders can participate and have the right and capabilities to attend all official meetings, have access to all official information and documents, intervene in official meetings, submit documents and present written and oral contributions, and make recommendations. However, this does encourage the major groups and other stakeholders, such as persons with disabilities, “to autonomously establish and maintain effective coordination mechanisms for participation in the HLPF at the global, regional, and national levels in a way that ensures effective, broad and balanced, participation by region and by type of organization” (Class notes). Although it’s the state reports that are the official reports, shadow reports are also written by NGOs who don’t have to be as comprehensive and can instead use their resources to focus on one or some aspects of the articles. Fortunately, both state and shadow reports are taken into consideration when determining the success and accountability of SDGs, but there seems to be a lack in enforcement capabilities and solutions when the SDGs targets and indicators aren’t adequately achieved.

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Multi-stakeholder Internet Governance

In our last  session we discussed how a transnational issue such as internet governance relates to the anarchy problematique in international relations. In an anarchic world system, with sovereign and equal states interacting without a global government, legal authority must be ceded by states in order to address issues such as internet governance. Transnational issues that goes beyond the level of any nation state thus necessitate a multistakeholder approach. No one nation, including the United States, should have an unproportionate amount of control over a public good such as the internet. The muiltistakeholder approach to internet governance services to advance ideals of equal treatment for internet access and net neutrality for all users.

Which is why the the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition is so important for strengthening multistakeholder internet governance. When many Internet Society members assembled in  2013 and  called for the transition of the IANA functions away from the US government’s control, the U.S. responded positively, soliciting  a plan for moving IANA’s oversight to the global, multistakeholder community. The plan was researched, debated and discussed by public and private sector organizations, technical experts, and civil society representatives from around the world, a reflection of the internet as a  globally distributed network. This is also significant in stakeholders realized that INANA functions could not simply pass from one state to another, but rather would necessitate a solution by all sectors of society. The Internet Society describes the importance of the endorsement of the IANA transition plan by all stakeholders in March of 2016, as a testament to the success of the multistakeholder internet governance approach. The process “worked to create a stable, secure, accountable, and transparent way to manage a critical Internet resource. Just as the Internet is a ‘network of networks’, so its global governance is a set of overlapping organisations with different roles and ways of working.”

Multistakeholder decision-making has proved to be successful for many reasons. Some of which include the fact that decisions on internet governance impact many actors, there are shared obligations across countries, and support for internet governance decisions directly impact its implementation. The Internet is a multistakeholder entity  by definition as it was developed by a group of diverse actors including  public and private sectors, academia, and civil society. Multistakeholders have been able  to capitalize on  the diverse expertise of the  global community and work towards finding the solution for the governance of this essential public good.

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Digital Divides

The Macbride Commission report, Many Voices One World discusses systems of communication and their effectiveness. Networks of communication affect societal functions in terms of information, socialization, motivation and achieving collective aims, debate and discussion, education and the transmission of knowledge, cultural promotion, entertainment and integration of all persons groups and nations, facilitating mutual understanding. When there are divides in access to such systems of communication unequal development persists. In today’s world, communication has often become an exchange between unequal partners, allowing the predominance of the more powerful, the richer and the better equipped.

An estimated 1.2 billion people – 17% of the global population – did not have access to electricity in 2013, which is 84 million fewer than in the previous year. Many more suffer from a supply of electricity  that is inconsistent and of inferior quality. More than 95% of those living without electricity are in countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, and they are predominantly in rural areas. Progress in providing electrification in urban areas has outpaced that in rural areas two to one since 2000. Broadband Internet continues to fail to reach billions of people living in the global south, according to a new United Nations report that offers country-by-country data on the state of access around the globe. The State of Broadband, produced by the UN Broadband Commission reveals that 57 per cent of the world’s people remain offline.

What is alarming is the impact of such divides, which is not limited to a country’s economic development. In many ways the social impact of not having access to digital forms of communication can be seen to have just as lasting and devastating effects on a society. The fact that media presence is so heavily concentrated in the global north, and that populations of developing countries have little opportunity to shape their own narrative on the global stage or highlight key issues facing their countries being overlooked by mainstream media. Their lack of access prevents the diffusion of knowledge and unique contributions that these countries citizens have to offer, that could help to inform not only global development initiatives, but also improve reporting and implementation in countries which can benefit from it most. Frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals and the WSIS + 10 Outcome Document recognize the importance of striving to bridge the digital divide, but they are just the start. The digital divide requires solutions for developing countries by  developing countries to ensure equal access for all.

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The Digital Divide

The internet has been playing a vital role throughout the years it’s been active. Technology has given every person, organization, and country the advantage of being able to communicate with an outside audience in the hopes of improving international standards and affairs. This form of universal communication has given people the access to explore beyond their front door. Of course, to be able to explore the digital world, every person needs to have access to a computer and, most importantly, internet connection. Unfortunately, even though many of us automatically believe that the majority of the world has access to both of these things, there are actually a number of people who do not have access to them.

The people that do and do not have access can be categorized into the “haves” and “have nots”. This digital divide has been an ongoing problem for many years and our digital society is one of the main reasons for why this gap has not closed. Technology has been gaining much more importance with the way businesses, governments and personal transactions are made and sent. The same way that there have been a number of social advancements, there have also been social setbacks especially with those people who are the “have nots” within the digital divide. A number of minority groups fall into this category based on education, race and gender, age, and location. This divide is quite large and not many people know about it. The question at hand is where do we go from here knowing all of this information and why is it that we are still battling this digital divide? It is not enough to just have basic access nowadays. The “basic” we all know requires having the latest form of technology, and the latest is at most two years old, so the “have nots” continue to lose their chances of having the opportunity to cross the divide and for the gap to slowly close.

The Missing Link has established that not much has been done in regards to the developing worlds. They are the ones with the biggest problems and they are being skipped over by many. Even though a number of discrepancies have been dealt with, many still continue to arise and there still has not been a way to deal with all of the issues and to stop them from arising. Every country has the right to develop and be able to achieve their full potential. As every nation begins to advance politically, economically and technologically, people will begin to gain the basic access they need to slowly close the digital divide that exists.

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Digital Divide(s)

In today’s world, success is strongly correlated to Internet access. It is extremely unfortunate, but without technology and an online presence, there is very little anyone can do to get ahead. If everyone is to have access to the same opportunities in life, that automatically requires that everyone have access to a computer and an Internet connection. The importance of technology’s role keeps increasing daily and at incredible speeds. If a country or if individuals cannot keep up, they are left behind in a blink of an eye.

Although it appears at first glance that the majority of the world, or even the majority of the United States, has access to the net, this is not true. There is in fact a fairly large divide between the “haves” and the “have-nots” (Irving). Despite the social advancements that have been made, the groups of society that tend to lack access are still for the most part minority and disadvantaged groups based on age, education, location, race and gender. While not immediately visible in all contexts, this gap or divide is quite large. One of the main obstacles to achieving access is the lack of proper infrastructure to deliver the services. Having access depends on many different factors that have to come together. It is in this area that the link between the SDGs and WSIS is key in ensuring that these physical factors are provided to those parts of the world and groups in society that lack the basic infrastructure to access the various technologies necessary to succeed in today’s world.

As connectivity and penetration increases and access becomes more widespread, the issue then becomes one of how much access do you have? Is it fast? Is it wireless? Basic access is no longer enough (Falling Through the Net #3). In order to be able to achieve even the things that are considered “basic” it requires one to have the latest technology. Therefore, we need to build awareness on why access is important and we need to encourage the build out of broadband networks to all. Unfortunately, even though in recent a year the disparity has shrunken between groups and the access to computers and Internet has grown quickly, another problem exists and that is that the groups that were already connected are now even more connected. Therefore, although the size of the gap may have shrunken, the divide is deeper in a sense and those left behind are even farther behind now.

Beyond this issue of access and connectivity, is the problem of content on the web. Once people have access to the Internet, are they able to access the information they want? Is there a variety published or is all the content controlled by one entity or region of the world? The MacBride Commission Report touches upon this problem. In recent years it has been brought to attention the fact that the global north controls much of the access to images and media production, and that most of the information online is heavily influenced by the more developed countries. This should not be the case. Each country, each group, should have the ability to create and publish images and information about themselves. Information should not be consolidated and created by the hands of few. As we advance and more people gain access, this is another issue we have to tackle to ensure that proper access in ensured.