Privacy safeguards are essential for digital identity projects, and blanket internet shutdowns violate human rights, the UN Secretary General said in a report on digital cooperation in September. Last June, a UN panel headed by Melinda Gates and Jack Ma laid out some objectives for digital cooperation on the international level. The High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation, appointed by the UN Secretary General, laid out broad goals to be achieved in the coming years. Here is a summary of each of those recommendations, and the gist of what should be done on that front, per a roadmap by the Secretary General released a year after the report was released, where he made the observations on digital identity projects and internet shutdowns. The roadmap or the preceding UN report has been endorsed by Lacalle Pou, the President of Uruguay; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the President of Turkey; Vargas Maldonado, president of the Dominican Republic; President Rebelo de Sousa of Portugal; and President Egils Levits of Latvia. While India did not participate in discussions this year on some of the recommendations, the Indian Software Product Industry Roundtable (iSPIRT) participated in a roundtable discussion on Digital Public Goods. Recommendations and roadmap What follows are recommendations from 2019, and the points underneath represent the roadmap outlined by the UN Secretary General in May. Inclusivity Every adult should have internet access by 2030, with safe and sufficient access to banking and health services. Cost of infrastructure: Developing countries face an enormous cost issue when building fibre…
