27th CSTD side event: Building an economic justice playbook for WSIS+ 20 - An expert-led dialogue

The event will bring together experts from civil society, academia and research institutions to enable a wide ranging audience, including policymakers and advocates for global justice, engage in a structured dialogue. 

The session aims to generate a positive agenda for the WSIS 20 year review milestone in 2025.

The WSIS (2003 and 2005) marked an important point of departure for envisioning an information society that is people-centred and development oriented. Yet, twenty years into the digital epoch, we stand at a cross roads. 

The digital arena and its constituent artefacts - connectivity, platforms, data, AI - are a highly contested terrain, with their gains accruing disproportionately to powerful actors in the geo-economic and geo-political landscape.

Questions to be addressed:

• How can public and social value be (re)centred in the digital society?
• What would it take to make issues of economic justice paramount in the WSIS+20 agenda?
• How can multilateral governance move towards longer term institutional frameworks commensurate with the aspirations of the majority for global democracy?