Agenda

Background

Following the WSIS+20 outcome, significant efforts are underway to develop Action Line roadmaps, align them with the Sustainable Development Goals and the Global Digital Compact, review indicators and implement a biennial reporting cycle. These efforts, coordinated through the UN system and its WSIS Action Line facilitators, have the potential to shape how progress and accountability are understood in the next phase of WSIS implementation. They also represent a concrete opening for the global multistakeholder community to contribute to how monitoring is designed, what gets measured, and how implementation is assessed across the full scope of WSIS commitments.

Choices about indicators, baselines, and reporting scope are not merely technical. Existing measurement efforts risk privileging what is easily quantifiable over what is meaningful, and reflecting the geography of available data rather than the diversity of governance realities. Human rights online, multistakeholder governance, responsible AI, and the misuse of digital technologies remain areas where data is limited, methodologically contested, or structurally absent, thereby impacting accountability. Poorly chosen indicators can also narrow ambition, distort priorities, or generate a misleading picture of progress. At the same time, civil society organisations, research institutions, and technical bodies have developed a substantial body of data, tools, and monitoring approaches that are not yet systematically reflected in formal WSIS reporting, and which represent a significant resource for strengthening the evidence base.

Objectives

This session creates space for a conversation about what we want to measure, and what data, indicators, and approaches are necessary to monitor progress on the WSIS Action Lines. It brings together policymakers, civil society, members of the UN system, and representatives from the broader multistakeholder community to consider:

·       What outcomes the WSIS Action Lines are actually trying to achieve, and whether current indicators reflect those outcomes;

·       Where existing data and monitoring approaches are robust, and where they are insufficient, absent, or structurally biased;

·       Where measurement of certain commitments is inherently limited or contested;

·       How the multistakeholder community can contribute to better data and monitoring infrastructure.

The aim is to feed grounded, multistakeholder insights into ongoing WSIS and Global Digital Compact implementation processes, helping to ensure that monitoring efforts remain credible, inclusive, and aligned with a human rights-centred digital future.

Format

The session opens with a short framing of the WSIS+20 implementation landscape, followed by a briefing from the ITU's Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development on its ongoing review of WSIS targets and indicators. The floor is then opened for interventions from both invited contributors and any interested participants. The session will be structured as a facilitated, participatory discussion, where participants are encouraged to draw on their own experiences with data, monitoring, and implementation.