UN Summit of the Future: Broadband Commission demands enhanced global digital cooperation - ITREALMS

ITREALMS ... making leadership SENSE with digital news!

​​​The B​​roadband Commission​ for Sustainable Development at its Fall Meeting has urged governments, industry, academia and civil society to collaborate to support the implementation of the forthcoming UN Global Digital Compact.

Taking place in New York just days before the UN's Summit of the Future, the Fall Meeting of the Commission underscored the importance of global initiatives to set a course towards a resilient, safe, and inclusive digital future. Both the Compact and the Pact for the Future are expected to be agreed at the upcoming UN Summit.

Tecno's Phantom V fold2 5G comes with enhanced AI - ITREALMS

Sponsored@ITREALMS ... making leadership SENSE with digital news!

Innovative technology brand TECNO today unveiled the new PHANTOM V Fold2 5G – an AI-enhanced second-generation foldable smartphone that brings more efficiency for business professionals and creatives. Embracing the incredible possibilities of large-screen foldable devices, it is a powerhouse of productivity and creativity elevated by futuristic AI innovation.

PHANTOM V Fold2 5G is freshly equipped with TECNO’s brand-new TECNO AI suite of AI functions, including the upgraded Gemini-integrated Ella AI Assistant, AI Artboard, AI Wallpaper and more. It also features advanced hardware, with 6.42” outer and 7.85” main 120Hz LTPO screens with 30-120° hovering capability, a powerful 5750mAh Aircell battery, 70W charging, and an Ultra-Clear Five Camera Imaging System, while it also supports the new PHANTOM V Pen stylus.

NIBF 2023 gets underway, unveils enhanced website, social media accounts - ITREALMS

ITREALMS ... making leadership SENSE with digital news!

The Nigerian International Book Fair (NIBF) has unveiled a newly enhanced website and social media accounts, reports ITREALMS.

NIBF, ITREALMS gathered, is a highly anticipated event that celebrates and promotes the literary arts in Nigeria and beyond. The event has been organized annually since 2001, and the 2023 edition is set to be one of the most exciting yet.

Federal Civil Service Commission enters enhanced ‘FOI Hall of Shame’ - ITREALMS

ITREALMS: 

The Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has inducted the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) into its enhanced Freedom of Information (FOI) Hall of Shame and promised to take legal action against the Commission for its blatant disregard of its obligations under the FOI Act in violation of the rights of the public to information, reports ITREALMS.

FOI Programme Manager at MRA, Mr. Ridwan Sulaimon, said despite its responsibility of overseeing a huge federal civil service, the Commission has ignored virtually all its duties as a public institution as defined by the FOI Act, thereby consistently sending a wrong signal to other public institutions under its supervision with the result that, unsurprisingly, many of those public institutions and their officials have themselves repeatedly violated the provisions of the Act.

Noting that the Commission was established by section 153(1) of the 1999 Constitution(as amended) as a federal executive body empowered to appoint persons to offices in the federal civil service and to dismiss or exercise disciplinary control over persons holding such office, Mr. Sulaimon said: “This is a huge responsibility that requires the Commission, which essentially serves as the engine room of the government, to be transparent in order to protect its integrity and enjoy credibility with those it superintends over as well as to comply with all applicable laws and regulations so that it can enforce these and others laws and regulations with respect to the public institutions and officials under its supervision.

According to him, “The Commission can have no credibility in exercising disciplinary control over members of the public service for breaches of relevant laws and regulations and its efforts in this regard cannot be effective when it is itself in breach of its duties and obligations under a Law validly made by the National Assembly. The hypocrisy in such an exercise will be a major encumbrance to the performance of the Commission’s functions and the realization of its objectives.”

Mr. Sulaimon accused the Commission of failing to proactively publish the range of information and documents that it is required to disclose by the Law; refusing to designate an FOI Desk Officer; not providing the appropriate training for its officials on the public’s right of access to information and for the effective implementation of the Act; and consistently neglecting to submit to the Attorney-General of the Federation its annual FOI implementation reports, all of which are mandatory requirements of the Law.

He stressed that it was evident from the website of the Commission that it is in breach of the requirements of section 2(3)f of the FOI Act which imposes an obligation on all public institutions to proactively publish the title and address of the appropriate officer to whom applications for information under the Act should be made by members of the public.

Mr Sulaimon said: “Such level of impunity should not be tolerated in any decent society and it amazes us that a government that expects ordinary citizens and its officials to obey the law allows an institution of the government with such massive coordinating and supervisory roles to get away with such blatant disregard for a valid and subsisting law, thereby presenting an image of a lawless society and a government that condones lawlessness.”

He added that: “An approach to governance in which government officials and institutions disobey the law, sets a bad example for ordinary citizens and robs the government of legitimacy as well as the moral authority to enforce any law against citizens. It is even more disheartening when the law in question is one aimed at fostering transparency and accountability in government and where the government involved is one that claims to be championing a war against corruption.”

Mr. Sulaimon said MRA was extremely concerned that despite an earlier induction of the Commission into the FOI Hall of Shame about two years ago in which the organization highlighted its various transgressions, the Commission had made no effort to improve on its performance in the implementation of the FOI Act and had continued to operate in total disregard for the Law.

According to him, given these circumstances, MRA had no other option but to take legal steps to compel the Commission to comply with its obligations under the Act in accordance with the provisions of the Law.

Ayo Midele/Editor

*JOIN our alert's group | Share stories with us | Advert placement: WhatsApp | SMS: +2348033592762 *Twitter: @ITREALMS *Email: itrealms.dsa@gmail.com*

Temenos unveils learning community engine to banks, enhanced change - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

The banking software company, Temenos has unveiled the Temenos Learning Community (TLC) Engine, the latest addition to the TLC training suite, reports ITREALMS.

TLC Engine, ITREALMS gathered, helps banks to reduce operational risk and costs, monitor their regulatory compliance better, and increase staff engagement; it could be deployed on the cloud or on premise and integrates seamlessly with Temenos banking software products, and could also be integrated to third party systems, which a bank may be using.

TLC Engine is specifically designed for banks, to serve as a foundation for change management and training activities. With TLC Engine, financial institutions can record, update and cascade their unique business processes, using the Temenos Standard Operating Procedures (TSOP) as a basis. TLC Engine can then utilize these processes to support the ongoing training of staff across all of a bank’s organization. TLC Engine also enables banks to train, test and certify their teams in Temenos software solutions, offering access to the official Temenos content and certification processes found across the Temenos Learning Community suite of products.

Following the launch, Byblos Bank, the third largest bank by assets in Lebanon, became one of the first clients to sign for the new offering. Lebanon-based Byblos Bank is a leading financial institution with operations in Armenia, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Iraq, Nigeria, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. Byblos Bank will use TLC Engine to help drive and support change in its current digital transformation project that is delivering a new, upgraded Temenos T24 core banking platform.

Raffoul Raffoul, AGM and Head of Group Organization Development, Information System & Operational Support at Byblos Bank, commented: “The need for digital change is greater than ever to cope with a rapidly changing marketplace. The speed at which we need to deliver change and new functionality demands the need for an online training solution. Signing for the TLC Engine to ensure success and drive change as part of our transformation project was an obvious choice. With the platform, we are able to prepare for each phase of implementation, and down the road ensure that our employees continue to be educated on best practices and new solutions. We will use TLC Engine to intelligently link technologies and incorporate business processes to implement technology in the most optimal way for our needs.”

Dale Thomas, Director of The Temenos Learning Community said: “The key to a project’s success is staff engagement, knowledge, and ability to use the new system to its full potential. With the launch of this new platform, we are bringing to new and existing clients easy-to-access knowledge of our products and technology, as well as personalized support from our experienced change management team. We are delighted that the launch of TLC Engine is accompanied by extending of our relationship with Byblos Bank, a long-term client of Temenos. We are already very proud to be helping Byblos Bank to deliver its upgrade project, and now to support the Bank in creating and implementing a change management program with TLC Engine.”

Uj. N. Dominic/GEE

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

Enhanced Cooperation: What’s next after WGEC2.0?

Commentary@ITREALMS: 

Ordinarily when you review the phrase“Enhanced Cooperation,”it should reflect the etymology of the two words “enhanced” and “cooperation” to indicate that a measure of existing cooperation is being taken to the next level. Yes, this is the intention of the architects of the language to avoid an imminent deadlock at the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis, 2005.

The European Union (EU) who has successfully used many forms of cooperation to achieve tremendous success over years came to the rescue when countries demanded that they join the US in its historical oversight role on the management of the Critical Internet Resources (CIRs); Internet Address names, numbers and protocol parameters.

It can be recalled that the United States (US) provided initial research funding that resulted in the global networks of networks called the Internet which is managed by interest-motivated volunteers across the US and later the rest of the world. As the Internet became the cornerstone of any modern economy, and governments in the late 1990s began to take note of this critical development enabler, they began to express interest in the management of the Internet which culminated in the convening of the 1^st World Summit on Information Society in Geneva in 2003; and due to inconclusive outcome scheduled another round of Summit for 2005 in Tunis, Tunisia that produced the famous Tunis Agenda (TA).

In the Tunis Agenda are reaffirmation of Action Lines and Targets of the Geneva Action Plan of WSIS 2003 with two important outcomes connected to the management of CIRs namely the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and Enhanced Cooperation (EC). While IGF convened immediately first in Greece in 2006 and every year till the last in Geneva in 2017, Enhanced Cooperation track could “not take-off” as envisaged due to different interpretations by UN member states of the meaning of “Enhanced Cooperation” and the nature of mechanism for its implementation.

I had the privilege to speak though remotely at the 1^st United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development (UN CSTD) consultative forum on Enhanced Cooperation on International Public Policy Issues pertaining to the Internet in 2012, where I reflected as a matter of fact that EC has been on-going for years even at the bedrock of the Internet.

Without sustained cooperation, networks cannot be built talk-less of network of networks. I also indicated that in the government circle, government has increasingly continued to cooperate on diverse public policy issue pertaining to the Internet. Issues like cybersecurity and cybercrime have seen governments collaborating through Interpol, OECD, EU, G7, etc with positive outcomes like the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime and more recently on the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe.

While some stakeholders including governments maintained that EC was already taking place, other governments indicated that EC according to paragraphs 69 to 71 of the TA was yet to begin. The consultation on EC in 2012 led to the convening of the first Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation by a resolution of the UN General Assembly (GA) (paragraph 20-21) asking the Chair of CSTD to establish the WG which convened between 2013 and 2014.

Composed of 22-nation representatives according to UN representation process and 5 representatives each from business, civil society, academic and technical communities; and International organizations with previous hosts of IGFs; the WG could not agree to produce a consensus report due to just one controversial issue - how governments on an equal footing can make decisions on international public policy matters pertaining to the Internet viz-a-viz CIRs. Based on the work of a correspondence group, the WG produced evidence that EC has increasingly been on-going among governments and other stakeholders.

On the strength of increasing evidence of cooperation on International public policies issues pertaining to the Internet, the GA by a resolution in 2015 asked the Chair of CSTD to once again convene another WGEC with the hope of finding a consensus position on the intractable Tunis Agenda outcome.

By the time the WG was to meet in September 30, 2016, the United States Government (USG) had wisely in 2014 announced and begun a process to relinquish its unique oversight function on the Internet. USG said it was in continuation of a planned process begun in 1998 that saw to the creation of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a private sector-led US registered not-for-profit organisation focused on serving global public interest in ensuring a stable, secure and resilient Internet. The USG through its agency, the National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA) of the Commerce Department as part of its condition to the global Internet community indicated that it would not subscribe to any government led replacement to its oversight role.

ICANN based on the mandate given by NTIA led the world to produce an acceptable proposal to NTIA that convinced the USG to abandon its oversight function on the Internet on October 1, 2016. This event was like a miracle because a young US Official once told me in Geneva that“I don’t see USG relinquish this role in my life-time.”

USG relinquished its oversight function on the Internet but yet some governments still wanted paragraph 71 implemented to the letter. Most private sector (business, civil society, academic and technical community) and Western Countries including Japan posited that nations can exercise their public policy sovereignty within their borders but not on International Internet public policy issues (IIPPI). But come to think of it, what is wrong if governments on an equal footing have a mechanism to discuss IIPPI? Nothing is really wrong and that was why I proposed for adoption at the WGEC2.0 for the CSTD to continue to provide the platform for governments to discuss IIPPI with full participation of other stakeholders since the CSTD already has in its mandate the responsibility to discuss and make recommendation on public policy issues to the GA through the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

This was to be the consensus agreement as many Western countries that hitherto objected to the idea later embraced it in the spirit of compromise. Unfortunately, a handful of countries (e.g. Saudi Arabia) opposed the idea insisting the only idea they supported was the creation of a new Institutional mechanism in the likes of ITU or UNESCO to handle IIPPI. A vast majority did not support the creation of new Institutional mechanism because: 1. the nature of the Internet (which is distributive) does not concentrate control on one entity and 2. it would be expensive considering cost cutting measures within governments across the world not least the United Nations itself.

WGEC2.0 met eight times for 3 days each in Geneva over a 2-year period (2016-2018) under the distinguished chairmanship of Ambassador Benedicto  Fonseca of Brazil, who did from my perspective an outstanding job of co-ordination to the effect that even with high tensions many times and eventual failure of consensus recommendation, all participants remained cordial, hopeful and appreciative of his efforts. The CSTD Secretariat also worked tirelessly and impressively to support the work of the WG.

Nevertheless, the WG agreed on the characteristics of EC including transparency, inclusivity, collaboration, effectiveness, sustainability, responsiveness, peace etc but its failure to agree a position by consensus on paragraph 71 torpedoed many other positive conclusions of the WG.

Perhaps the next line of action is for the subject of EC to continue to be a subject line item on the schedule of the CSTD whenever its convenes its annual meeting. CSTD already has such mandate within its statute anyway.

For me, it has been a great learning experience and a privilege representing business and participating at the cutting edge of global Internet public policy debate as the first African business person in two high profile UN Working Groups and on the same footing with states.

*Contributed by Jimson Olufuye, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Kontemporary Konsulting, Chairman, Africa ICT Alliance, AfICTA and one of the 5 global business representatives to WGEC 1.0 & 2.0.

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

ISOC seeks input into CSTD-Working Group on enhanced cooperation

ITRealms:

The Internet Society is seeking inputs of its global members into the United Nations (UN) Commission on Science and Technology for Development's Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation (CSTD WG EC), reports ITRealms.

Constance Bommelaer of Internet Society, hinted ITRealms that the formation of this group was one of the outcomes from the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS +10) review conducted last year.

As its precedent, Bommelaer said this review has its basis in the Tunis Agenda, where the notion of "enhanced cooperation" is developed in paragraph 69. You'll remember that this text established a distinction between the day-to-day operations of the Internet and Internet public policy issues. But various interpretations have been made, hence the ongoing debate over the past decade.

According to her, at the heart of the issue are very different views on whether "enhanced cooperation" is specifically about enhancing the role of governments in Internet governance, or whether it's about enhancing cooperation among all stakeholders, including governments.

To this end, she said, ISOC supports the latter, which has to do with stakeholders including government, “where we have a broad, inclusive understanding of ‘enhanced cooperation’.

The current consultation opportunity, she said, involves all Internet stakeholders hereby invited to share their thoughts with the UN on two questions: What are the high level characteristics of enhanced cooperation?

In addition, she said, taking into consideration the work of the previous WGEC and the Tunis Agenda, particularly paragraphs 69-71, what kind of recommendations should we consider?

Nenye Dom/GEE

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!