Month: December 2017

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Global Governance

Multistakeholder governance relies on a large variety of stakeholders to come together to share their ideas, concerns, resource, and perspectives to formulate productive and effective plans of action for development. An example of this is seen in goal 17 of the Sustainable Development Goal which specifically states that global partnerships of diverse groups and categories must work together in order to achieve the other 16 goals by the target year. An important factor in this concept is internet governance which allows these groups to communicate from all around the world easily. The internet and new technologies allow for increases communication and transferring of information from various stakeholders. An example of one of these tools is the collaborate software that we have utilized in class. This system allows students and virtually anyone to not only listen to the lectures but also participate just as those who are physically capable of attending class in person.

IG and multistakeholder governance plays an enormous role in inclusive sustainable development. These technologies and the potential of the internet allows persons with disabilities and persons who lack the financial means to attend political forums and otherwise the capabilities to participate in the conversations and think tanks that are fueling development initiatives. This gives voice to those who need it the most and who are most effected by undeveloped communities.

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Digital Divide

The digital divide arises from the increase innovation and use of technologies. It refers to the gap between demographics that have access to the newest and most innovative technologies and those who do not. These demographics that do not have access to ICTs do not have the same opportunities and resources to advance their communities and solve societal problems. The digital divide represents the differences in economic class. This divide is especially seen with assess to cell phones and smart phones. The World Summit on Information Society has brought this issue to the forefront of the United Nations and demands that countries take action to bridge the technology gap.

Another aspect beside economic means is people with disabilities who offend cannot utilize technologies even if they gain access to them physically. People with disabilities face barriers from the technology’s software that prohibits them from using it. However new technologies are in place and continue to be created to improve software to make technology more accessible. The idea is to shift the mindset from the average user to all users. The concept of digital divides also came from a report entitled ‘Falling Through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide.’ This report examined the issue and focused on the internet as lacking in access to the developing world.

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ICTs

Information and communication technology is a key factor in sustainable development as technology provides the basis for innovation and the world’s ability to solve its grand challenges. Therefore, ICTs play a major role in countries initiatives and progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. The Mainland Commission Report highlighted the importance of ICTs in development. The World Summit on the Information Society met in 2003 and 2005 which developed a society that promotes ICTs and attempts to close digital divides which I will discuss in another post. This conference made the powerful statement that ICTs are interconnected to development and that without the innovation and initiatives that come from developing technologies, sustainable development is not possible in the time frame needed to address the world’s grand challenges. They also developed a matrix that demonstrated how ICTs are connected to each SDG.   

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Inclusive City

The majority of the world’s population with soon be based in major cities making the structure of cities and their inclusivity increasingly important. It is crucial that the benefits of cities are open and easily accessible all people. It is also key that people with disabilities and marginalized groups are given to opportunity to not only utilize the city but be active economic contributors in order to push cities towards further development. These are just some of the elements of an inclusive city, more examples include ensuring all people have access to public transportation, parks, affordable homes, healthcare, etc.

The Habitat III conference took place in Ecuador and reviewed the topic of housing and sustainable urban development. This conference and the discussions within revolve directly around the theory of inclusive cities. The conference specifically recognized global urban trends and it set a new global standard for urban development. The major outcome of this conference was the creation of the New Urban Agenda. The NUA has specific sections that dictate the freedoms, services, and requirements that cities must provide its citizens in order to be considered a an inclusive developed city. The NUA specifically mentions inclusivity as a key to a developed city and requires that all persons have access to the rights of the city.

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SDG & HLPF

The Sustainable Development Goals are 17 international development goals set by the United Nations. The SDGs are meant to fill the place of the expired Millennium Development Goals. The SDGs are an improvement upon the MDGs because they are more specific and within each goal are detailed targets and indicators that allow countries to better determine and track their progress. The SDG that relates closely to the field of my interest is SDG 7 which is renewable energy access.

The High Level Political Forum is a platform within the United Nations that aims to respond to the Sustainable Development Goals which are set to be achieved by 2030. The Forum convenes every year and meets over a period of 8 days. The HLPF’s main position is to support and oversee the implementation of the SDGs. There are 9 major groups within the Forum that represent the main constituency groups. These groups are women, NGOs, indigenous peoples, children, local authorities, unions, IT community, farmers, and businesses. These are the major stakeholders in development initiatives and are therefore given a platform for which to voice their concerns, opinions, and best practices to make the implementation of the SDGs a success.

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Development Theory

Development is a concept that lacks a universally accepted definition. Development in terms of countries is defined by Sen as people’s ability to access freedoms of all kinds. Sen’s ideas are based on a theoretical concept of development which includes expanding people’s capabilities and giving them access to tangible freedoms. This means that development is not simply based on economic factors but of social, political, and civil factors that provide people within a country to have freedoms. Increasing freedoms to all people is the basis of inclusive development in which every person has complete access to the freedoms offered by a country.

In a more economical sense, Acemoglu and Robinson claim that development is the inclusivity of economic institutions which allows all people to participate in opportunities. Development has 3 inter- related definitions; long term, short to medium term, and a dominant discourse. Long term development focuses on structural societal change. Short to medium term development utilizes targets and indicators such as the Millennium Development Goals and the Sustainable Development Goals. Dominant discourse development refers more specifically to western ideals of modernization.

Personally, I am more a believer in Sen’s ideals of development as they are more applicable to the diversity of countries and allow for more inclusivity in terms of who has access to the freedoms that developed countries offer.

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Intersectionality in Sustainable Development

Intersectionality is the idea that social identities such as race, class, gender, religion are fundamentally interconnecting and compound with one another to create systems of advantage, disadvantage, and discrimination. Personally, the concept of intersectionality is essential to a complete understanding of society as a whole, in that, systematic injustice in addition to social inequality can be best understood by examining the intersections of identity. For example, issues of gender can be compounded with issues of race in class. In American society, racial discrimination of Black Americans can be compounded with the gender based discrimination faced by women within American society to result in Black American women having a less privileged status than that of a white man.

In terms of the importance of intersectionality in the field of international development, intersectional approaches are critical to understand how compounding identities can fundamentally disadvantage some populations within societies, and advantage others. This approach is crucial in understanding why certain populations get left behind in the development plans of nations. When the intersections of, for example, poverty and indigenous heritage are not considered within the development plan of states, discrimination of indigenous people can be two fold in that indigenous populations might be stigmatized by majority ethnic populations, and might have fewer employment opportunities as a result.

This places enormous pressure on the importance of intersectional approaches for international organizations like the United Nations. While intersectionalility as a mainstream social theory is relatively young, there has been a concerted effort to incorporate the concept into the governance structure of the UN. For example, within the HLPF, there are 9 major groups that permitted to participate in proceedings. The nine major groups represent different communities and populations and were formed with the goal of incorporating a wide variety of perspectives into agenda setting and decision-making. The nine major groups are 1) Women, 2) Children and Youth, 3) Indigenous Peoples, 4) Non-Governmental Organizations, 5) Local Authorities, 6) Workers and Trade Unions, 7) Business and Industry, 8) Scientific and Technological Community, and 9) Worker and Trade Unions. While there are certainly limitations to the number of perspectives that are truly able to be incorporated into the UN in the limitation of the major groups to nine, the inclusion of the groups marks a step in the right direction for intersectionality in governance institutions.

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Inclusive Education, Enshrined in the CRPD

Education as a fundamental human right is a view that has gained popularity across the world in the late 20th and 21st centuries. Education for Persons with Disabilities remains a problem that is pervasive in most societies. According to UNESCO, “Persons with disabilities are more likely to be out of school or to leave school before completing primary or secondary education.” This is a global phenomenon that has inextricable impacts on the capacity of persons with disabilities to support themselves economically, navigate access channels to health services, and generally contribute to the social fabrics of their societies.

In response to this challenge of inclusive education, the CRPD includes the provisions that states are to guarantee equal access to education (primary, secondary, and vocational) to persons with disabilities in Article 24 of the convention. In the legally binding nature of the CRPD, ratifying states are obligated not only to guarantee this equality in law, but implement concrete assistance programs that establish support systems for PWDs who require addition support in their learning. This includes specially trained teachers who are capable of teaching PWDs that may have specific needs, the use of educational materials that are accessible to blind and deaf PWDs, and to ensure that quality schools are physically accessible to PWDs.

The providing of inclusive education to PWDs is not only essential to the capacity development and economic independence of PWDS, but is also crucial to reducing the stigmatization that PWDs face in many societies. As more and more PWDs are able to access education, the stigma that paints persons with disabilities as individuals that do not contribute to the larger society as a whole can erode.

The establishment of ICTs for PWDs is one major avenue being utilized to cater education opportunities to the needs of PWDs. Fully online degree programs for higher education, remote participation in classroom activities, and the distribution of reading materials over the internet have led to fundamentally more access to education for PWDs in developed and middle income countries. In lower income countries, the need to establish available cyberinfrastucture is crucial to the ability to implement inclusive ICTs for education.

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Maitland Report

The Maitland Report references the effort to establish telecommunications in all areas. The ability to use telecommunication has become a vital part of today’s economy and necessary to be a part of the global context. The report is quoted as:

“virtually the whole mankind should be brought within easy reach of a telephone and, in due course, the other services telecommunications can provide. That should be the overriding objective. Achieving this will require a range of actions by industrialized and developing countries alike.”

This is because telecommunications have been neglected as an important part of integrating people in underdeveloped areas to the rest of the world. The combination of raising productivity, increasing efficiency, and enhancing the quality of life in these areas can be attained by an increase in access to telecommunications. Whether it is consistent access to a landline, cell phone tower installation for use with personal cell phones, or internet cafes for email use, these communications have proven vital in today’s world. Without these technologies, communities remain isolated despite other efforts to integrate them into the larger economy.

Another important note is that these telecommunications benefit everyday life in the developing areas in which they are implemented. For instance, health services will increase with the ability to call for emergency medical care or allow access to more advanced sciences. Another example is the increase in education available with the increase in telecommunication options. With access to stable internet, students are able to access the world of information usually regarded as a basic education tool in the developed world. Further, adults have access to information that could benefit any entrepreneurial venture they take.

The contributions they make towards the agricultural and infrastructure sectors of the global economy also benefits already developed areas. By allowing the fairer distribution of goods from these areas, it expands the global market and increases competition. This may sound like a threat to developed areas and their economies but it would allow for better products and increase opportunities for specialization.

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Internet Governance

The Internet Governance Forum through the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs serves as a multistakeholder process to manage internet access and behavior. The Internet Governance Forum Code of Conduct directly calls for 6 things: Treat all members of the IGF community equally, Act in a reasonable and informed manner when participating in any IGF Platform, Listen and respect all views of stakeholders when considering policies, facilitate transparency in policy discussions, act fairly and in good faith with other participants, promote ethical and responsible behavior within any IGF forum.

Once these things are established, the multistakeholder approach becomes vital to internet governance. It allows for new innovation in internet infrastructure, resolves an centralized institution surrounding the internet, and enhances inclusion of all people. This approach is necessary as the internet is intended for everyone and therefore governance of such requires input from all parties. This connects back to the Maitland Report and access to telecommunications. Moving beyond the situation of telecommunications in the 1980s when the Maitland Report was created, the idea of Multistakeholder Internet Governance takes the same ideas of inclusion and access to knowledge and applies them to the internet, now a main source of communication and information.

By considering all of the perspectives of people who could use internet, we allow for more people to be involved in internet use and overall knowledge. Not only do we allow more access to information and communication in underdeveloped areas, the knowledge these areas have to offer becomes available to the developed world. When these ideas of Traditional Knowledge are shared, it can help solve certain issues seen from scientific knowledge. Overall, by allowing for many perspectives and caring for the issues of everyone involved, the Internet Governance Forum facilitates benefits for all sides to communicate and collaborate on a wide range of issues facing the world today.