Agenda

As the world takes stock of the WSIS+20 Review Outcome (A/RES/80/173), adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 2025, the imperative to place people at the centre of digital transformation has never been more urgent. This high-level session, convened by Women in Technology in Nigeria (WITIN) in partnership with the National Data Protection Commission (NDPC), examines how citizen-generated data, participatory science, community-led innovation, and inclusive STEM engagement can drive digital inclusion, evidence-based policymaking, and sustainable development. 

Indigenous and community data are foundational. For AI systems to produce equitable, representative outputs, training data must capture all voices — particularly those of historically underserved and indigenous communities. Excluding these datasets risks encoding bias and deepening inequality. Culture, storytelling, and local knowledge are not peripheral — they are data.

Grounded in the Global Digital Compact and the WSIS+20 Review Outcome (A/RES/80/173, December 2025), the session affirms that communities — especially women, girls, and marginalised groups — must be active contributors to data generation and digital innovation, not merely consumers of technology. Inclusive data governance is the foundation of participatory science and a just digital future.