Youth4DigitalSustainability: 1-1 session + invitation to webinars

The Internet offers many opportunities for communication, development, and collaboration, but we can also acknowledge concerning environmental, social, and economic effects of digitality. Young people are at the forefront of advocacy for a more sustainable world, and have impact on policy development. For the UN Internet Governance Forum 2020, the Youth4DigitalSustainability Program wants to highlight the opportunities of digital sustainability and point the way forward.

The key policy topics that this program is concerned with are: Greening the Internet, Fair Digital Businesses, Internet for Social Good, and Sustainable Internet Governance. For each, a global working group is established in order to draft policy recommendations to be presented to decision-makers in the public and private sectors, civil society, academia, and the technical community.

Youth who are between 16 and 30 years of age from across the globe are part of these working groups and we are happy to inform that Lily Edinam Botsyoe (Secretary), Juliana Novaes (Global Engagement Director), Eileen Cejas (Regional Engagement Director-Latin America and the Caribbean region), Elnur Karimov (Regional Engagement Director- Eastern Europe region) and Mohammad Atif Aleem (Regional Engagement Director- Asia Pacific region) were selected for this program along with other active members of Youth Observatory also have been chosen to work in the above mentioned 4 working groups.

Young people in all world regions, with diverse backgrounds and levels of professional and academic experience are contributing through this interesting initiative.

On August 16, Elnur Karimov had a 1-1 online session with Elisabeth , organiser of the Youth4DigitalSustainability Program. You can watch the recording and read the slides here

Register in the links below to participate of the webinars:

Webinar 1: Greening the Internet

August 20, 2020; 4 PM-5PM/16:00-17:00 CEST (Berlin Time)

Link: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3035337496791218702


Webinar 2: Fair Digital Businesses

August 27, 2020, 4PM-5PM/16:00-17:00 CEST (Berlin Time)

Link: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/3106850832574131470

Webinar 3: Internet for Social Good

September 3, 2020, 4PM-5PM/16:00-17:00 CEST (Berlin Time)

Link: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/607881904476491022


Webinar 4: Sustainable Internet Governance

September 14, 2020, 4PM-5PM/16:00-17:00 CEST (Berlin Time)

Link: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/9118174471230220814

Youth SIG is part of the Global Citizens’ Dialogue in Argentina

The Youth SIG (also known as Youth Observatory) is participating at the Global Stakeholders’ Dialogue as a National Strategic Partner for Argentina for the We The Internet. This initiative is launched by Missions Publiques, a high impact social entrepeneur founded in 1998 and localy boosted by our Regional Engagement Director for Latin America and the Caribbean region Eileen Cejas in Argentina.

We, The Internet is a two phases global event: first, there was the Global Stakeholders’ Dialogue in June 2020, and the second phase is composed by the Global Citizens’ Dialogue, happening in October 2020.

Global Stakeholders Dialogue

At the Global Stakeholders’ Dialogue, stakeholders from around the world participated in the deliberation regarding the three model of arquitecture of digital cooperation, which were picked by the High Level Panel in Digital Cooperation of the UN to be discussed by the global stakeholders. The second phase is composed by the Global Citizens’ Dialogue, happening in October 2020.

Photo updated by Paola Gálvez from Twitter: “#WetheInternet stakeholders’ dialogue last session has started to discuss about #digitalcooperation Glad to be here!!”

After the Global Stakeholders’ Dialogue, the gathered recommendations made by the attendees of the event were compiled into a report, which was shared as one of the recommendations collected by the German government as part of the High Level Panel follow-up process. Moreover, the results of the event are part of the process for the Roadmap of Digital Cooperation issued by the UN Secretary General’s office.

Some of the recommendations collected at the Global Stakeholders’ Dialogue were:

1. A shift is required towards a hybrid architecture for the future of Digital Cooperation.
2. Providing the right resources in a fair way is key to impactful Digital Cooperation.
3. Improving effective inclusion must be at the heart of governance reform.
4. Greater coordination and cooperation is required between stakeholders and the different bodies.
5. Transparency and guidance are essential in navigating the complex system.
6. Trust must be established with transparent, fair coordination and effective, stable leadership.
7. The IGF+ needs to move from a discussion forum to a decision-making body.


Upcoming Global Citizens’ Dialogue

On October 10th and 11st of 2020, the Youth SIG in Argentina will host the local version of the Global Citizens’ Dialogue, where inhabits from all around Argentina will discuss these thematic areas:

-Internet and me

-Digital Identity

-Digital Public Sphere

-Artificial Intelligence

-Data Privacy

In order to introduce attendees into these themaric areas, the We The Internet Argentina team will facilitate an online introductory webinar (‘Conversatorio virtual’) on August 17. More details on registration are available here (only available for Argentina).

If you are from Argentina, you can check the We The Internet Argentina website for further details : www.wetheinternet.com.ar.


Other countries and organizations participating of this initiative:

Youth Observatory participated in EuroDIG2020

Youth Observatory (Youth SIG) was invited by the Youth Coalition on Internet Governance to participate in the session Youth Coalition on Internet Governance: Creating synergies and the Way Forward”. This session was part of the Day 0 program at EuroDIG2020.

EuroDIG is the pan- European dialogue of Internet Governance, where participants from countries of all Europe gather to discuss issues of the region. This year, the online event chose the overarching theme “Towards a sustainable governance of the Internet” to discuss the focus areas: a) Cooperation, legislation, standardisation; b)Leverage connecting the unconnected; c)Data governance and data security; d)Media issues (ongoing); e) all matter DNS.

On this session, our Regional Engagement Director for Eastern European Group Elnur Karimov introduced the audience to Youth Observatorys initiatives we have done in the last years, including Youth Atlas, Creating Networks and the session proposals we worked within the IGF Working Groups for the IGF2020.

Elnur said “more youth participation means better Internet Governance” while highlighting the achieved projects by the Youth Observatory and our enthusiasm for the future involved in IG.

Our Regional Engagement Director for EEG also mentioned what we have done in the last months, including submitting sessions proposals to the IGF2020 and the launch at Regional Activities, which have the goal to feature young individuals from our community to share their thoughts on relevant topics for youth.

We will soon share news on our social media, stay tuned!

We want to thank Youth Coalition on Internet Governance for the invitation-

Participate in Regional Activities!

Youth Observatory, as Special Interest Group of Internet Society focused on Youth, has prepared a series of community outreach activities to engage young people in capacity building.

We believe in these times of pandemic, we should foster a closer relationship with our members, giving a space to share with the community about their leadership experiences and share their insights on an area of their interest.

The Community Outreach will include:

LEADERSHIP EXCHANGE: Informal gatherings on Zoom platform to share experiences on leadership. In this space, we can meet to know more about our members and learn on their leadership experiences.

YOUTH AT FOCUS: Live session at Instagram to talk about an area of their expertise. Instagram is a great platform to have a 1-1 discussion, when everyone can leave a comment to our featured young speaker.


If you are a Youth Observatory member and you want to apply, kindly fill this form. Regional Engagement Directors will reach you for the next steps.



List of Regional Engagement Directors:

African Group- Joshua Joshua

Asia Pacific Group- Mohammad Atif Aleem

Europe- Elnur Karimov

Latin America and the Caribbean- Eileen Cejas

Western Europe Group and Others- Ana Jovanovic

COVID STORIES

Following the outbreak of COVID-19 and its development into a global pandemic, we are implementing measures to safeguard our community as well as maintain our community activities to the extent that innovation and technology allows. In line with this, the Youth Observatory is collating stories of what youths around the world are seeing in terms of Internet use and access during the Coronavirus pandemic, how you are navigating the times and recommendations. We invite you to share your story:
Here’s the link :


https://bit.ly/YouthObsCovidStories


Listen to Nidhi Singh from our Board of Directors talking about our project on “COVID 19 Stories”, where we are collecting stories on the impact of the COVID 19 on the Youth.

YouthLACIGF 2020 on the way!

The Organising Committee of the YouthLACIGF is preparing great activities for the YouthLACIGF 2020. This year the event will be entirely online on August 1-2. Chilean Time Zone.

The online event will address these 4 thematic areas:

Online education and access to the internet. Digital Literacy matters!

Misinformation, problems with social media

COVID 19 related to privacy and cybersecurity in Latin America and the Caribbean region

Online democracies: a new model of democracies after the pandemic?

If you are a young resident of the Latin America and the Caribbean region, you can submit your application by filling this form. Applications in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese are accepted.

Read more information on formats, deadlines and speakers at the website.


In adittion, the Organising Committee has prepared an Open Course with the support of Internet Society. Taking into account the situation of COVID-19 in the region, we considered to provide this capacity building tool as preparation for the YouthLACIGF and LACIGF online meetings. We will have webinars with experts of the Latin American and the Caribbean region on selected topics relevants for the region.

You can enroll in the course here. Deadline to enroll: May 14, 2020, 11h59pm UTC

Our Story

The Youth Observatory is a non governamental organization, created on September of 2015, being a Special Interest Group of Internet Society (ISOC) since 2016. It is composed by members of around the world, between 18 to 32 years old committed in the training of the knowledge of Internet ecosystem and Internet Governance. We have accepted the challenge of increasing the participation of new actors through their involvement in forums and divulgation of workshops that increase the academia research.

This has been our journey since 2015:

In 2015, we wrote the ‘Youth’s Declaration’ (“Declaración de la Juventud”), which was introduced in the Internet Governance Forum in 2015. Later, in 2016, the “Gender Youth” Group wrote the ‘Declaration of Young Latin American Women, to empower young women and build a feminist Internet Governance’ (“Declaración de las Mujeres Jóvenes Latinoamericanas, para empoderar a las mujeres jóvenes y construir una Gobernanza de Internet feminista”). This document was presented at the Internet Governance Forum 2016 and the Internet Freedom Festival in 2017.

Since 2015, we have participated actively in many national, regional and international events such as Internet Governance Forum (IGF) 2015,2016,2017, LACIGF 2016, 2017, Internet Freedom Festival 2017, among others. One of our main contributions happened in 2017, where we organised 2 workshops: 1# Workshop 193 about the commitment of youth in the Internet Governance ecosystem and 2# about the gender challenges and youth.

In 2017, we launched the book ‘Analysis of youth connected’ (“Análisis de una juventud conectada”), which is a collection of articles written by young persons on Internet Governance topics. The book is available in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

Also, during 2017, we organized an interactive hub of InterCommunity in Guadalajara, Mexico, counting with the participation of thousands of young individuals remotely and onsite.

We created the first youth initiative of IGF for Latin America and the Caribbean called Youth LACIGF, which takes place one day before the LACIGF. Since its first edition in 2016, we have committed to give financial support to young individuals in the region to attend the meeting.

Aditionally, since 2016, we have developed projects to stimulate critical thought about youth problems in Internet. One of our main project was ‘Youth at schools’ (“Juventud en las escuelas”) addressed young students in schools in Brazil. Our members helped them to discuss and analyse their relationships with Internet. This project helped to build ‘Cyberneteens’, a project applied by ISOC Brazil in partnership with Youth Observatory for the Internet Society’s Chapterton 2017, which also included taking the critic reflection of Internet at schools.

On 2018, we transitioned from a regional SIG (Latin America and the Caribbean) to an international Special Interest Group; in order to include more young voices in Internet Governance.

Why trust in the Youth Observatory?

Because we are a youth led initiative for young persons, we count with experience in the organization of forums and events related to Internet. We propose and develop in successful way projects in the Internet ecosystem, transforming them in a global reference in the involvement of the next generation of leaders in the regions.

We foster an active exchange of communication among young individuals, through capacity building in local, regional and international debates, so in this way we empower youths and build new lines of debate for the multistakeholder community. We are sure through dialogue and active cooperation, we set the basis for the tomorrow’s leaders.

Youth Observatory Webinar on COVID-19

Youth Observatory has prepared a webinar on COVID-19, with the purpose of joining efforts to fight COVID-19 with Dr. Abhishek Royal.

Dr. Royal is a medical doctor and a public health professional with experience of working with various vulnerable and marginalized population and public health emergencies in India. He is currently pursuing Master’s in Public Health in Implementation Research from Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia. He has received full scholarship from World Health Organization – Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases to pursue this international master’s program.

Dr. Abhishek Royal will talk to us on April 15th on the Community perspective on the pandemic and the effects of lockdown on Mental health.

Moderator: Mohammad Atif Aleem (Regional Engagement Director- Asia Pacific Region).

Sign up before April 13 at 12 pm UTC here: https://bit.ly/YouthObsAgainstCovid

The webinar on COVID-19 will take place on April 15 at 14pm UTC. Few spots available!


Watch the recording of the webinar below:

Youth Observatory Webinar on COVID-19

Youth Observatory Webinar on COVID-19. Dr. Abhishek Royal (MBBS, MPH Scholar | Implementation Research) will cover 1) Community perspective on pandemic; 2) Effects of lockdown and infodermic on mental health.

Posted by Youth Observatory on Wednesday, April 15, 2020

As part of Youth Obs Challenge, we are also proposing our community to take a short course on COVID-19 (enroll here) and share your certificate, tagging @YouthObs on social media and using the proposed hashtags #onlineandinformed #youthobsonline #InternetUnited #unitedagainstCovid19 #youthuniteagainstcovid.

Youth LACIGF 2019

The youth meeting took place in August 5th, in the city of La Paz, Bolivia. The organizing process started in January 2019 when we invited Youth Observatory members to take part in online meetings to shape the fourth edition of the Youth LACIGF, having our communication at our official Telegram group in order to set the working commissions.

In order to create an Internet Governance Initiative that achieves the goals of openness, transparency, inclusiveness, non-commercial, and multi-stakeholder participation, the main organizers established a dialogue with other stakeholders interested in the event. At the end of July, we had the participation of 5 actors from different stakeholder groups which conform the Organization Committee.


The Committee decided to use the format of “Break-out groups” to maximize the participation of all attendees in our agenda. The event was open to the public, free of charge and was widely disseminated in digital media.

Watch the recording here: https://youtu.be/uVk_p7lDPIc

Read the full report here (English).

Creating Networks: Localising Youth Initiatives

The Youth Observatory (also called “Youth SIG”) has been always creating new ways to engage young individuals across the globe, after our internalization process, while using different platforms to encourage youth to give their valuable inputs on how to engage their communities, as well as fostering the creation and thrive of young initiatives, eager to create a better Internet for everyone.

Our experience around the years has shown us there are many young leaders working around the world in amazing initiatives, starting from teaching girls how to code; provide STEM solutions to rural communities; till creating local initiatives to foster the inclusion of local languages in Internet; among many other topics. Their voices are a part of the Internet Governance picture, and their roles as changemakers in their countries are a big part of all the benefits Internet can bring to our daily lives.

The Creating Networks project is an initiative funded by the Internet Society Beyond The Net fund, where we created a map of youth initiatives and organizations that involve young people, informatics and telecommuniciations. In adittion to the Creating Networks Map, we designed a competition of youth-led projects that will be formed by the participants of the competition. In this competition, we will bring them capacity building tools (webinars, project management tools) in the thematic areas we are going to address, such as digital inclusion, gender inclusion and infrastructure matters.

This initiative was created thanks to participants Juliana Novaes, Carlos Rubí, Ángel David Santiago, Eduardo Tome, Giovanna Michelato, Guilherme Alves, Isabela Inês, Jhon Caballero, Paula Côrte Real, Juan Pablo González, Augusto Luciano Mathurin, Renata Ribeiro.

This initiative was also shared at the Internet Society’s website here


You can watch some of the videos shared by the Creating Networks participants, talking about their youth initiatives here: