UNCTAD eCommerce Week 2022: High-Level Dialogue - Towards digital and data governance for all

Statement by Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General of UNCTAD

Excellencies,

Distinguished speakers

Friends and colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen

 

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to this High-Level Dialogue of the 2022 edition of the eCommerce Week.

I am joining you today from New York, but rest assured that I will be hopping on a flight tonight to be present in Geneva during the rest of the Week.

I wish this eCommerce week would have come at a better time for the world. But, it has not.

As we highlighted in our report to the Global Crisis Response Group, set up by Secretary General Guterres in response to the war in Ukraine, the developing world is at the brink of a perfect storm of debt, food and energy crises.

Given elevated levels of socioeconomic stress following the COVID-19 crisis and the unremitting cost of climate change, global exposure to this crisis is counted in the billions of people, living in over a hundred countries. As a result, a systemic debt crisis is unfolding as we speak, inflation is at multi-decades high, and instances of civil unrest are brewing in all corners of the world.

In the midst of all this, our progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals has been severely hampered in the past few years and we have witnessed with alarm growing poverty levels and greater inequalities.       

When the 2030 Agenda was approved, we at UNCTAD calculated the investment gap for developing countries to meet their SDGs at 2,5 trillion dollars. The pandemic widened this gap to 4,3 trillion dollars. The war in Ukraine is expected to widen this gap further. Now, an ever-widening gap is not a gap. It is an abyss. 

But there are some trends that can give us hope. These developments are taking place at a time of rapid digital transformation of our economies and societies, with important implications for our future.  With the roll-out of 5G mobile technology, greater reliance on artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, we are set for a further rapid expansion of digital data and digital disruption.

The overall theme today of our High-Level Dialogue is “Towards Digital and Data Governance for All”.

There are very good reasons for focusing on the governance aspect, especially in view of current global challenges.

Technology is not deterministic. The disruptions that come with the use of new technologies – including digital technologies – create both opportunities and risks, and they affect different people, enterprises, and societies differently.

Take COVID-19 as an example. Our need to lockdown to combat the spread of the virus led to a very fast expansion in the use of digital solutions to enable teleconferencing, e-commerce, distance learning, telework, eMedicine... The ability to share scientific data also helped to produce new vaccines in record time. And new mobile apps were quickly developed to help with efforts to control and trace the spread of the virus.

At the same time, far from all people, businesses and governments were able to take full advantage of digital solutions. But the pandemic served as a key reminder of the wide gaps that still prevail in terms of digital connectivity and digital readiness. As a result, the acceleration of digital transformation has accentuated the risk of widening digital as well as development inequalities across and within countries.

Digitalization is also relevant in the context of climate change. The collection and analysis of big sets of meteorological data are crucial elements of the scientific work that can serve as a basis for policy decisions. Similarly, digital solutions can be used for example to limit the need for travelling by enabling telework or teleconferences. Digital solutions can also be used to build smarter cities and smarter energy grids.

On the other hand, as we have learnt, the surge in digital data resulting from the wide-ranging digital transformations witnessed today is in itself adding to the emission of CO2. As we watch more videos online, play more digital games, and use ever more sophisticated smart devices, we are generating more data and therefore also use more energy. And this at a time when energy is becoming an increasingly rare and expensive resource.

So, governance is what will determine the outcome of digital transformation and the rules of the game for digitalization. Many questions should be addressed like:

Who will benefit and lose from digital disruption?

How can the value creation in the digital economy be more equally shared?

Who should be responsible for externalities deriving from the use of digital solutions?

How can we ensure that markets are competitive and contestable in an area characterized by huge network effects and winner-takes-all features?

And again:

How do we ensure that data can be harnessed to deal with climate change, pandemics, urban planning, and productivity, while at the same time protecting the privacy of users, protecting national security, and avoiding that most of the benefits from data are captured by a few rather than by many?

Because, so far, that is exactly what is happening. According to last year’s Digital Economy Report, the market is very highly concentrated. Only seven companies represent more than 90% of the market capitalization of the world’s digital platforms.

Dear friends:

These are highly complex questions to address, not least in view of the rapid pace at which digitalization is unfolding against the backdrop of wide digital and data divides.

It is more important than ever that we bring great minds from all stakeholders together and look for policy responses that can chart the way towards inclusive and sustainable development from digitalization.

I hope that this eCommerce Week will help in this context

The topic of data governance is currently being discussed in various fora and from various perspectives.

I believe the UN system must play a prominent role. But even the UN system will need to consider novel ways to accelerate progress in this space. There are already various initiatives at the United Nations that are relevant to various aspects of data governance. But for the UN to be fully leveraged in this area it may be necessary to create a dedicated ¦international ¦coordinating ¦ mechanism¦ that will focus on global data governance and development ¦ that can attract the right skills and ensure effective links to other ongoing processes and initiatives led by civil society, academia, and the private sector.

This proposal as others on the table merits a serious discussion.

We know, it is not going to be easy. But inaction is the worst of all options.

Let’s collectively think at better ways to shape our collective future.

I welcome all of you again to join the conversations during this week and beyond.

I look forward to working with you, and to hearing the many important thing you have to say.

I thank you.