sdgs

On Friday 15 July 2022 at 1pm-2:30pm EDT (17:00-18:30 UTC) the Internet Society and Access Now will host a United Nations High-Level Political Forum 2022 virtual side event ‘Preserving an open Internet to achieve the SDGs: The Internet as an enabler for achieving SDGs 4 and 5‘.

The Internet has proven resilient though gaps remain in bringing students and women online, among other impacted communities. According to the 2021 State of Global Education report by UNESCO, UNICEF, and the World Bank, the pandemic impacted traditional education models, affecting 1.6 billion children. Children especially in rural and remote areas were unable to learn remotely due to a lack of Internet access and digital technologies at home.

Unfortunately, governments often see the Internet as a threat to be contained and splintered rather than a resource to expand universally. Access Now’s Shutdown Tracker Optimization Project (STOP) in collaboration with the #KeepItOn Coalition reported 182 Internet shutdowns in 34 countries in 2021, including the longest Internet shutdowns on record. Internet shutdowns limit women’s possibilities and aggravate inequality and injustice. For students, particularly girls, Internet shutdowns during school examinations remain a common practice hindering quality education worldwide.

While the Internet is incredibly resilient, it is constantly under attack, which may limit our ability to grow and use it to its full potential, ultimately affecting the attainment of SDG4 and SDG5. Governments, businesses, and organizations worldwide are increasingly making decisions that could lead to a splinternet.

This virtual side event will examine some of the efforts to expand access to the Internet and how they contribute to the achievement of SDGs 4 and 5, as well as challenges the Internet faces that undermine achievement of SDGs 4 and 5. This session will examine what needs to be done to ensure that everyone has unrestricted, inexpensive, and dependable Internet access.

SPEAKERS
Peter Micek, General Council, Access Now
Neeti Biyani, Policy and Advocacy Manager, Internet Society
Marielza Oliveria, Director for Partnerships and Operational Programme Monitoring, UNESCO
Juwang Zhu, Director of the Division for Public Institutions and Digital Government, UN DESA

MODERATOR
Dr. Joseph Hall, Distinguished Technologist, Internet Society

LIVESTREAM http://livestream.com/internetsociety/hlpf2022-openinternet

TRANSCRIPT https://archive.org/download/hlpf2022-openinternet/hlpf2022-openinternet_TRANSCRIPT.pdf

TWITTER #HLPF2022 #openinternet @lawyerpants @AccessNow @neetibiyani @InternetSociety Marielza Oliveria @UNESCO  Juwang Zhu @UNDESA @SustDev #SDGs #GlobalGoals  

SIMULCASTS
https://twitter.com/ISOC_Live/status/1547988757051162627
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1535811506
https://www.facebook.com/liveisoc/videos/3270016833230522/ (AI Captions)
https://www.facebook.com/InternetSociety/videos/1135785430303115/ (AI Captions)
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6951268495212916736

ARCHIVE
https://archive.org/details/hlpf2022-openinternet
https://youtu.be/5WPTcz9o1Ig