Problem
Fierce geopolitical competition between the United States and China is fragmenting global technology governance and leaving the global south with little to no say. To counter this trend, the United Nations aims to rekindle support for multilateral technology governance: on the 22 September, the UN adopted the Global Digital Compact which lays out several fundamental principles and recommendations to create an “inclusive, open, sustainable, fair, safe and secure digital future for all”. However, its success will largely depend on countries’ follow-up actions, making it vulnerable amid great and middle power competition.
Solution
The European Union should therefore dedicate resources to ensure that key UN recommendations materialise. This would adhere to the EU’s values of multilateralism, global standards, and open technologies, as well as help prevent further technological fragmentation which would diminish the EU’s regulatory power and innovation capacity.
To do this, the EU should identify achievable objectives set at the UN level to which it can align its existing digital diplomacy instruments. Specifically, the EU should:
- Lead on and commit financial resources to the establishment of a global AI fund,as recommended in the Global Digital Compact. This will help bridge the AI divide and enable countries that face financial constraints to use AI effectively. The financial resources could be redirected from the digital track of Global Gateway, which has been so far limited to connectivity funding in partner countries. The EU should also make non-financial commitments and provide access to AI resources, such as supercomputing capacity and regulatory sandboxes, which enable real-world testing of innovative technologies, for entrepreneurs coming from partner countries.
- Lead efforts to boost digital regulation governance with partners in the global south. Cooperation meetings with public officials would encourage the exchange of best practices, including the EU’s approach and experience in regulating AI systems and online platforms. The specific priorities of capacity-building efforts should be set by the partner countries to avoid a top-down approach and recognise their resource constraints.
- Build an EU-Africa digital accelerator to foster innovation and entrepreneurship and meet the Global Digital Compact’s goal of increasing the number of digital start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises in the global south. This could be financed under the under the EU’s Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument. Based on the digital accelerator initiative in Latin America, this initiative would provide incubation services to African innovators and match them to business opportunities in both the EU and Africa.
Context
The UN secretary-general published a report on Our Common Agenda in 2021 which proposed the holding of a Summit of the Future to take place in September this year. In preparation for the summit a dedicated technology track was proposed which would come together in a Global Digital Compact. After negotiations between UN member states, a final text was adopted which aims to close all digital divides, foster inclusion in the digital economy, and advance responsible AI and data governance approaches. To implement and finance this, the compact calls on governments and other stakeholders. If the compact fails to live up to its promises, digital divides and gaps in regulation would be exacerbated, especially in the global south, and trust towards multilateral processes would be further damaged.
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