[digital.global] in dialogue

At this cooperation event of AWE with IHK Karlsruhe and LAV on the topic “Latin America – new markets – new needs: AI and Digital Innovation as a Common Approach in Cooperation”, Corinna Peters, Consultant for Digitalization at AWE, presented the offers of the [digital.global] network.

On the initiative of the BDI and with the support of LiveEO, the NewSpace Breakfast discussed the rapid developments in the African space market. Dirk Meyer, Head of Division, Global Health, Economy, Trade and Rural Development, BMZ, gave a keynote speech on the growing importance of satellite technologies in development cooperation.

On June 20th 2023 from 11:00am – 12:30pm CEST, the Members of Parliament Armand Zorn (Social Democrats) and Tobias Bacherle (Greens) together with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) are hosting an online webinar on “The necessity of value-driven regulations for a fair digital transformation”.

This webinar was the last session of the webinar series on digitalization in development cooperation and participants were invited to share their expertise and perspective in the discussion with the Members of Parliament, the Parliamentary State Secretary at the BMZ, Dr. Bärbel Kofler, as well as anticipated international expert panelists such as Alison Gillwald (CEO, Research ICT Africa), a representative from Smart Africa and local governmental partners.

Together, the opportunities of regulations for a fair digital transformation and the need for harmonized, value-based international regulations were discussed. It also explored the extent to which the EU’s regulatory approaches are relevant and adaptable for countries in the Global South, while conversely we seek to learn from the regulatory approaches of our partner countries in the Global South.

At this BDI event Martin Wimmer, CDO BMZ, participated in the panel “The digital and technology sector: Opportunity for young people in developing and emerging countries? “and exchanged views with Bernhard Longin, Chairman of the Board of Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft e.V. and CEO of dot-gruppe, Torsten Töllner, Managing Director CyCo Cyber Competence Center, Svenja L. Schauten, Deputy Managing Director, DSAA e. V. Dominic Orr, Component Manager, GIZ and and Jost Neumann, Program Director of TUI Care Foundation.

The BMZ exchanged views with the board “Digital Transformation” on 16.06.2023. Participating institutions and organizations at the meeting included: Engagement Global, German Evaluation Institute for Development Cooperation (DEval), German Institute of Development and Sustainability gGmbH (IDOS), Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), KfW, and Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). BMZ’ participants were: Martin Wimmer, CDO; Dirk Meyer, Head of Division Global Health, Economy, Trade and Rural Development; Dr. Iliya Nickelt, Head of BMZ Data Laboratory; Andreas Kottwitz, Sub-Department Head Central Services and IT; and Dr. Ariane Hildebrandt, Head of Division Principles, Data and Effectiveness.

The GreenTech Festival, with its keynotes, panels and bootcamps, is designed for anyone seeking sustainable change. Ideas driven by the need for sustainable business solutions are shared with bold pioneers and outstanding global leaders.

The panel “For Meta or worse: Sustainability in AI, VR and the token economy” took place on June 15.

Panelists:

• Majorie Hernandez, CEO and Founder, LUKSO & The Dematerialised
• Max Orgeldinger, Managing Lead, TLGG
• Martin Wimmer, CDO, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
• Bernhard Kronfellner, Partner and Associate Director, BCG
• Host: Christian Wölbert, Editor, c’t Magazin for Computer technology, Heise Medien

To event

The global digital transformation of the public sector presents a challenge for international development cooperation to promote inclusive digitization with partners from the Global South. This discussion aimed to explore how mission-oriented policymaking and digital services can enable this transformation by examining two approaches that drive innovation and digitization: Mission Oriented Innovation Policies (MOIPs) and the digital building blocks methodology known as the GovStack approach. The discussion explored the synergies, potentials, and lessons learned of both approaches and how they can be leveraged for successful digitization.

This event of the [digital.global] network of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development took place on the Bowl stage as a fishbowl session, in which the audience could participate in the discussion depending on the topic.

Speakers were Noémie Bürkl (BMZ), Benjamin Kumpf (OECD), Yolanda Martinez (ITU), Maksym Shkilov (Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine) and Stella Deppe (GIZ).

As a cross-sector network that brings together players from politics, business, science and civil society, Initiative D21 aims to promote the potential of digitization and digital participation in Germany. At the last meeting of the working group Martin Wimmer, CDO BMZ, gave a keynote speach.

The topic of the webinar was the financial inclusion of women. What added value can blockchain and digitalization offer here? Peer-to-peer lending, microcredit for women’s savings groups, or community inclusion currencies – blockchain offers a range of use cases to reach people who have been largely excluded from the formal financial system. But can these technological solutions also help change gender norms and strengthen women’s financial inclusion and economic participation?

We discussed theese questions with partners from CGAP, WFP Innovation Accelerator and GIZ Cameroon, who presented projects from development cooperation and humanitarian aid.

More information

Towards a feminist digital development cooperation, the betterplace lab organized the online roundtable “Towards a feminist digital development cooperation” as part of a trend study on feminist digital development cooperation.

The Regional Forum for Digital Transformation was a hybrid space for dialogue and networking to exchange experiences on Digital Transformation, Digital Policy, Data and Public Policy, Digital Economy, Climate Action and Sustainable Development. During the three days of the Forum, almost 5,000 virtual attendees participated from 18 different countries such as Germany, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru; and nearly 700 people attended in person. There were 58 sessions, including expert panels, keynote speakers, multi-stakeholder dialogues, and five workshops. The Forum, held in the Ministry of Economy in Mexico City, featured the participation of 120 speakers from 40 different public, private, and social sector institutions.

Organized by the Open Source Business Alliance (OSB Alliance), the Sovereign Cloud Stack Summit aimed to promote exchange on open source technologies, especially in the cloud space. The focus was on digital sovereignty and European core values in the digital space, which were significantly advanced by SPRIN-D. For the panel discussions and speeches, the broad ecosystem of open source stakeholders from politics, the private sector, academia and civil society was included. The BMZ highlighted the international perspective on digital sovereignty and open source through the policy initiative GovStack and the [digital.global] Network.

The Global Solutions Summit is the world’s leading forum for translating research-based evidence into policy recommendations for the G7/G20. Its goal is better global governance for the common good. The meeting brought together high-level government officials with academic researchers, NGO leaders and international CEOs. The BMZ participated in several sessions of the Global Solutions Summit, including the Advisory Board meeting and the High-Level Forum on Climate and Digital Architecture for the Public Good sessions.