Digital technologies and their application in international trade practices have the potential to greatly contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. For small island developing States (SIDS), information and communications technology (ICT) and electronic commerce (e-commerce) have immense potential for supporting the participation of SIDS in international and regional markets, building resilience and recovering better from disasters. Despite its importance, the digital economy in SIDS is still in an early stage of development. The common challenges in the digital transformation of SIDS include not only access to affordable digital infrastructure, but also the lack of adequate legal frameworks and digital identity system which can facilitate the take-up of e-commerce and the transition to a digital economy. Furthermore, the lack of official national statistics on ICT use and e- commerce constitutes a handicap for the formulation and evaluation of digital development policies. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has reinforced pre-existing bottlenecks in the e-commerce ecosystem of SIDS.

This project will contribute to strengthening the capacities of SIDS in Africa, the Caribbean and Asia and the Pacific to adopt trade policies that foster digital economy development and enhance crisis responsiveness. Specifically, it aims at strengthening the capacities of SIDS on key aspects of the digital economy through the development of skills, knowledge with innovative development approaches based on a recognized blended learning method and state-of-the-art technological solutions.

Objectives

The objective of the design a curriculum (DACUM) session was to update the TRAINFORTRADE blended learning course on Legal Aspects of e-Commerce. The process aimed at the review of the course target population and course contents given that the course was last updated in 2015 and that many aspects have changed since then. Additionally, some specific aspects for the small island developing states audience and simulation exercises to be introduced in the course were discussed.

Target population

Once the course will be updated, it will be offered to the relevant groups of stakeholders from SIDS:

• Policy and law makers, regulators (enforcement agencies) in charge of defining general policy guidelines and elaborating national legal frameworks for e-commerce
• Judiciary (lawyers, judges, police) involved in electronic commerce issues
• Service providers, businesses offering on-line products and services

Updated course contents

DACUM participants agreed to update the course structure to cover the following nine modules:

1. Regulating e-Commerce
2. Trade and e-Commerce
3. e-Transactions
4. Consumer protection
5. Payments and taxing e-commerce
6. Protecting personal information
7. Securing e-commerce
8. Cybercrime
9. Content regulation

The course is planned to be conducted in 2023 on the TRAINFORTRADE's distance learning platform. In the platform, participants will have access to manuals, multimedia presentations, module tests, opinion surveys and forums created for each module for discussions with the instructor and other participants as well as simulation exercises giving them an opportunity to put in practice the knowledge acquired during the course.