Information and Communication Technology

(ICT) in Agriculture

A Report to the G20 Agricultural Deputies

1
Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
in Agriculture
A Report to the G20 Agricultural Deputies

Prepared by
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
with inputs from
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Rome, 2017
The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not
imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal or development status of any
country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or
boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these
have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by FAO in
preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned.
The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily
reflect the views or policies of FAO.
ISBN 978-92-5-109979-7
© FAO, 2017
FAO encourages the use, reproduction and dissemination of material in this information product.
Except where otherwise indicated, material may be copied, downloaded and printed for private
study, research and teaching purposes, or for use in non-commercial products or services, provided
that appropriate acknowledgement of FAO as the source and copyright holder is given and that
FAO’s endorsement of users’ views, products or services is not implied in any way.
All requests for translation and adaptation rights, and for resale and other commercial use rights
should be made via www.fao.org/contact-us/licence-request or addressed to copyright@fao.org.
FAO information products are available on the FAO website (www.fao.org/publications) and can be
purchased through publications-sales@fao.org.
This publication has been printed using selected products and processes so as to ensure minimal
environmental impact and to promote sustainable forest management.

Photo credit: ©FAO/Giulio Napolitano

Preparation of the Document

This report responds to the request by the G20 Agricultural Ministers to FAO, IFPRI and OECD in
June 2016 to build on their preliminary assessment of existing ICT applications and platforms and
make specific proposals for consideration and action by G20 Agriculture Deputies ahead of the next
G20 Agricultural Ministers meeting on the best possible mechanism to improve agricultural ICT
exchange and cooperation.
The report is organized as follows:
(i) The section Summary, Evaluation and Recommendations is targeted to policy makers and
draws from the detailed review undertaken in Sections 1 to 4 of the report. It provides a succinct
but comprehensive account of ICTs in agriculture, including evaluating their impact. It identifies
gaps, and puts forward a number of recommendations for the G20 in line with the G20 comparative
advantage for collective action.
Policies and measures to promote ICTs are crucial for the G20 economies and for agriculture in
particular. G20 Ministers of Agriculture can take action to integrate ICTs in agricultural policies and
initiatives. The report makes a number of recommendations for concrete actions in the area of ICTs
that promote sustainable food systems and contribute to the realization of the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development.
(ii) Sections 1 to 4 contain a detailed, albeit not exhaustive review of ICTs in agriculture. There is
plethora of ICT applications on agriculture, ranging from using radio to satellite remote sensing,
and in Section 2 every effort has been made to provide a comprehensive picture through the
discussion of selected applications. Section 3 reviews the platforms and initiatives that promote the
use of ICTs, and Section 4 examines governance issues specifically related to principles, rights and
privacy. A number of Annexes provide more detail to the reader on a number of areas related to
governance.

iii
Contents
1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................ 1
2 ICT in agriculture ...................................................................................................................................................... 2
ICT in agriculture: developing countries .................................................................................................... 3
ICT in agriculture: developed countries ..................................................................................................... 9
3 Platforms and selected programmes facilitating ICT applications in agriculture........................ 12
4 Governance ................................................................................................................................................................ 18
International fora on Internet governance.............................................................................................. 21
Human rights, privacy and ethics ................................................................................................................ 23
Annex 1…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..27
Annex 2…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..30
Annex 3…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..32

v
Summary, evaluation and recommendations

World population is expected to surpass the 9 billion mark by 2050, and agriculture has to increase
the production of nutritious food to meet the growing demand and ensure food security for all. It
has to generate jobs, improve incomes and contribute to poverty eradication and rural economic
growth. And it has a major role to play in the sustainable management of natural resources.
Most of the increase in food production will have to take place in developing countries. Agriculture
is increasingly becoming knowledge-intensive and millions of smallholder farmers around the
world are confronted by constraints such as poor access to markets and financial services, low
levels of human and physical capital, poor access to education and weak information flows. With
missing markets, low skills and weak capacity, agriculture across the developing world will have to
overcome a number of challenges in the future.
The information needs of farmers in both developing and developed countries will only increase as
they have to make more and more complex decisions on how to use their land, what crops to
produce and how, in which markets to buy inputs and sell their products. Their decisions, which
also include choices on how to finance their business and reduce the risk they face, impact the
livelihoods of their families and society.

ICTs in development and agriculture

ICTs have been a significant contributor to growth and socio-economic development in business
sectors, countries and regions where they are well adopted and integrated. Nearly 40 percent of the
global population has access to the Internet, and among the bottom fifth of the poor, 7 out of 10
households have a mobile phone.1 The large adoption and integration of ICTs has reduced
information and transaction costs, improved service delivery, created new jobs, generated new
revenue streams and saved resources.
In agriculture and food sectors across the world, ICT companies, multinational farm input business,
large machinery manufacturers, but also small and medium farm input suppliers provide a number
of services to farmers through ICTs, including extension advice. Downstream, supermarkets and
agricultural product buyers also engage in the food value chain through ICTs, where the technology
is also used by farmers’ cooperatives, international organizations, the civil society and governments
to effectively provide information on many aspects of farming, including regulation (see Section 2,
pp. 14-22 for a description of selected ICT applications on agriculture).
ICTs have transformed how businesses, people and governments work. They reduce transaction
costs and facilitate communication. People can be informed and communicate with each other at
significantly lower costs than before. With this, digital technologies promote efficiency and
inclusion – many tasks can be carried out at low costs and many services can reach people that
previously lacked access.
In rural Niger, agricultural price information obtained through mobile phones reduces search costs
by 50 percent.2 In Senegal, a website facilitates vulnerable communities’ access to information on
climate change adaptation. It supports a community of practice where members can share updates

1World Bank Group (2016). Digital Dividends. World Development Report 2016.
2Aker, J.C, and I.M. Mbiti (2010). "Mobile Phones and Economic Development in Africa." Journal of Economic Perspectives,
24(3): 207-32.

viii
on their work and adaptation techniques. In India, timely access to accurate weather information by
smallholders can come a long way in helping them to manage uncertainty and risk.3
At broader level, digital technology tapping into satellite imagery is revolutionizing the way
countries can assess, monitor and plan the use of their natural resources, including monitoring
deforestation and desertification. Access to easy-to-use digital tools that monitor forest cover, land-
use patterns and their changes over time are destined to become increasingly important as
countries around the world implement measures to adapt to and mitigate climate change.4
When in developing countries ICTs can have a profound impact on both efficiency, resilience and
inclusion, in developed economies innovations such as the Internet of Things, Cloud Computing and
Big Data are revolutionizing agriculture. Remote sensors collect data on soil moisture, temperature,
crop growth and livestock feed levels, enabling farmers to achieve better yields by optimizing crop
management and reducing the use of fertilizers, pesticides and water.
Increased efficiency is also the result of remote management and control of machinery and
irrigation systems using satellite positioning, while data from farm operations are collected and
analysed, often in conjunction with information on weather to provide new efficient decision-
making tools that promote agricultural productivity and manage natural resource effectively.
In developed countries large agribusiness, through their digital platforms, provide a wealth of
private information to their clients on farm technologies. On the demand side, e-commerce
platforms directly link the farmer to the food processing and retail stages of the value chain.
In the developing world, ICT applications are crucial in reducing information and coordination
costs. The spread of mobile phones in rural areas has already led to important changes in the
agricultural sector. Reducing these costs in the context of developing countries characterized by
poor infrastructure, promotes market access, facilitates financial inclusion and risk management,
contributes significantly to early warning, and can be central in revolutionizing agricultural
extension.
A growing body of evidence suggests that in many circumstances ICTs, specifically mobile phones,
are thought to increase access to both information and capacity-building opportunities for rural
populations in developing countries. This brings tangible benefits. Farmers can achieve higher crop
yields, as they get access to timelier and better-quality information on products and inputs as well
as environmental and market conditions through ICTs.5
ICTs can promote learning, which in turn can facilitate technology adoption among farmers, but can
also revolutionize early warning systems through better quality data and analysis. On the other
hand, policymakers can also benefit from increased information sharing, which allows them to
gather a more complete overview of the situation on the ground in their country. In this vein, ICTs
also have enormous potential to reach the poorest of the poor—those without access to land or
other assets—and also address gender issues by equalizing access to information and services by
women and men.
Although more research is necessary, the review of several applications and studies in this report
suggests that the information relayed by ICTs should be properly targeted and relevant if it were to
affect farmers’ production decisions. Content is crucial, and the existing evidence suggests that
content quality matters. To have an impact, the information provided to farmers must be locally

3 http://www.rmlglobal.com/web/
4 http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/350761/icode/
5 Torero, M. (2014). Information and communication technologies: Farmers, markets, and the power of connectivity. In

2013 Global food policy report. Eds. Marble, Andrew and Fritschel, Heidi. Chapter 6 Pp. 63-74. Washington, D.C.:
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). http://ebrary.ifpri.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15738coll2/id/128049

ix
relevant and specific to the needs of farmers. And the generation of local content requires local
knowledge and significant resources – for example, it is the food prices that prevail in the local
markets that are relevant to farmers.6 Building up human capacity, as well as the infrastructure
needed to facilitate better connectivity, are also critical.
The manner or mode by which information is delivered is also a crucial determinant of
effectiveness. ICTs encompass many different types of technologies, from computers and the
Internet to radio and television to mobile phones. Their impact varies widely depending on which
specific technology is used, but also on farmers’ level of literacy. Short message services (SMS),
voice messages, short video trainings, audio messages, social media interventions and virtual
extension platforms that can improve peer networks (though online platforms/websites) can
effectively enable farmer-to-farmer and farmer to experts information sharing.
Audio or voice-based question and answers services may overcome the limitations of text-based
platforms. SMS messages can be effective for simple price or weather information, but to facilitate
and revolutionize learning and make knowledge widely accessible, especially in the context of
adapting agriculture to climate change, other methods and modes will be necessary.
Finally, the review of ICT applications suggests that the development of digital technologies focuses
on the supply side. With the exception of initiatives that facilitate certification, there is a substantial
gap on ICT applications that provide public information on the consumer side both in developed
and developing countries.

Recommendation 1: Developing an ICT application to reduce food waste

at household level
Recognizing the importance of sustainable food systems for food security and growth,
and the need to provide targeted information in order to reduce food waste and
contribute towards the realization of SDG 12.3 in a cost-effective way, G20 members can
consider to:
1. Provide support to FAO, IFPRI and other relevant organizations and
stakeholders in the development of an ICT application, ‘SAVE FOOD-SAFE
FUTURE’ to raise awareness and help reduce food waste at the household level.

The application will be developed within the framework of activities of the G20 Technical
Platform on the Measurement and Reduction of Food Loss and Waste and will enable consumers
to plan and manage their food purchasing and food use; receive alerts on the expiration dates of
purchased food; and identify solutions for avoiding food waste by providing useful tips, such as
links to outsourced recipes or donation points.

A more sustainable food system will require making serious changes on how food is produced,
processed, transported, but also consumed. The G20 have highlighted the need to both measure and
reduce food loss and waste. Under the Presidency of Turkey in 2015, the G20, FAO and IFPRI
launched the G20 Technical Platform on the Measurement and Reduction of Food Loss and Waste.7
Accurately estimating food losses and waste can significantly contribute to meeting the objectives

6 Nakasone, E., M. Torero, and B. Minten (2014). The Power of Information: The ICT Revolution in Agricultural
Development. Annual Review of Resource Economics, Vol. 6: 533-550
7 http://www.fao.org/platform-food-loss-waste/en/

x
of the Rome Declaration on Nutrition and Framework for Action, following the FAO/WHO Second
International Conference on Nutrition, and the 2030 Agenda’s Sustainable Development Goal 12.3,
‘to halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along
the production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses’ by 2030.
With about one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year —
approximately 1.3 billion tonnes — getting lost or wasted, there is need to improve awareness on
the importance of sustainable consumption patterns, and information provided by ICT
technologies, such as smartphone apps, can influence individuals and society to focus on the social,
economic and environmental dimensions of food waste.
Such ICT applications should allow consumers to manage their food purchases in line with their
food consumption patterns in order to be effective – individualization of food and eating habits can
influence the responsibility of a person for saving food – while at the same time they should provide
options for promotion of interaction among users and between professionals and consumers in
order to facilitate empowerment.8

Promoting ICTs: Platforms and programmes

At the global level, there is a plethora of ICT applications to agriculture, and platforms and
communities of practice facilitate the exchange of information and experiences amongst farmers,
policy makers, agriculture and development experts and international organizations. They raise
awareness on how ICTs can contribute to many aspects of agricultural development (see Section 3,
pp. 24-29 for a discussion of platforms, initiatives and projects that promote ICT applications on
agriculture).
For example, the e-Agriculture Community of Practice (run by FAO) serves as a catalyst for
institutions and individuals in agriculture and rural development to share knowledge, learn from
others, and improve decision making about the vital role of ICTs in facilitating sustainable
agricultural productivity and ensuring food security. The ICT Observatory (of the Technical Centre
for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation) engages in identifying ICT policy issues, experiences and
projects relevant to agriculture in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States. InfoDev
(a project of the World Bank Group) supports mobile software entrepreneurs and offers training
programs, testing facilities, and competitions in several areas, including agriculture. InfoDev
promotes Internet entrepreneurship through supporting digital technology clusters – called mLabs
or tech hubs. Currently, there are more than 100 tech hubs in Africa, where public private
partnerships provide a fertile ground for governments, universities, the civil society and the private
sector to boost development through innovative ICT applications (see p. 26).
The ICT in Agriculture Sourcebook is an on-line practical guide (provided by the World Bank) in
understanding current trends, implementing appropriate interventions that promote ICTs, and
evaluating their impact.9 It combines expertise in ICT with empirical knowledge on agriculture and
is designed to support practitioners, decision-makers, and development partners who work at the
intersection of ICT and agriculture. The FAO-ITU e-Agriculture Strategy Guide, published in 2016,
supports governments in the development of their national e-agriculture strategies.10

8 Bouwman, L.I. G.J. Hiddink, M.A. Koelen, M. Korthals, P. van’t Veer, and C. van Woerkum (2005). Personalized nutrition
communication through ICT application: how to overcome the gap between potential effectiveness and reality. European
Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 59, S108-S116.
9 http://ictinagriculture.org
10 http://www.fao.org/3/a-i5564e.pdf

xi
Already, FAO and ITU work together towards promoting national e-agriculture strategies in Asia-
Pacific and Central Asia regions based on a multi-stakeholder approach that brings together
government agencies, the private sector (including mobile telephony companies and Internet
providers), farmers and their cooperatives, research institutions, banks and other financial
institutions, civil society and others.

Recommendation 2: Promoting good policy practices for ICT in agriculture

Recognizing that ICTs are crucial in reducing information costs and promoting
sustainable agricultural development globally, G20 members can consider to:
1. Support efforts by relevant International Organizations, including by FAO, ITU
and IFPRI, that promote ICT applications on agriculture, based on dialogue and
knowledge-sharing communities of practice, and on capacity-building activities,
including multi-stakeholder approaches for the development of national ICT
strategies for agriculture.

2. Solicit a systematic identification of agricultural and food policy interventions

and their compatibility with the wider G20 digital economy policy agenda, and
incorporate, where appropriate, specific ICT considerations in OECD innovation
policy country reviews.

3. Commit to support developing countries in promoting the application of ICTs

on agriculture, including where relevant through Official Development
Assistance and South-South Cooperation.

Identifying a gap for action: ICTs for sustainable production intensification

technologies
The above platforms and programmes meet several objectives. They increase awareness about the
impact of ICTs on agriculture and strengthen the focus on the need to build an enabling
environment for digital technologies to facilitate agricultural growth and rural development. They
promote and facilitate the exchange of information and knowledge on ICT applications, provide a
forum for discussions among practitioners, contributing towards scaling-up successful projects.
They also enhance coordination and collaboration among international organizations, the private
sector and the civil society and boost e-agriculture capacity building efforts.
In spite of these efforts, many innovations fail to scale up, especially in developing countries where
fee-based ICT services are characterized by weak take-up.11 In developed countries, the private
sector, such as large suppliers of seed and agrochemicals and machine manufacturers, engages in
innovative ICT applications, providing commercial services to their clients who have access to the
Internet and mobile devices.
These companies have made significant investments on ICT services, leveraging on economies of
scale and their market shares. Through their ICT services they collect information on the farming
practices of their clients, process and analyze it, and relay the knowledge they produce back to
them, thus enhancing production efficiency and in many cases providing wider benefits, such as

11 World Bank Group (2016). Digital Dividends. World Development Report 2016.

xii
preserving natural resources as in the case of Precision Agriculture. The sale of innovative inputs
and the provision of specific know-how to farmers through ICTs generate returns for these
companies which often are protected by patents and copyright – otherwise business would have no
incentive in engaging in research and development.
Nevertheless, many aspects of agricultural information constitute a public good and as a policy
implication, governments must play some role to its provision, ensuring that is not undersupplied.
For example, knowledge on how to adapt to, and mitigate the negative impacts of climate change on
agriculture is considered as a global public good that will benefit generations to come. International
organizations, including FAO, play a special role in the production and dissemination of this
knowledge and governments, recognizing its public good nature, have affirmed the importance of
education, training, public awareness, public participation, public access to information, and
cooperation at all levels on the matters related to climate change.12
Currently, ICT applications related to agriculture and its adaptation to climate change are found
either at a macro- or a micro-level. They range from large-scale projects such as weather
monitoring by satellite and large-scale sensor networks, to projects that increase awareness for
vulnerable communities and individuals to help them identify and manage their own adaptation
needs.13
Climate change will increasingly challenge conventional, resource-intensive agricultural systems.
Good agricultural practices, based on soil and water management and pest control, combined with
improved access to markets, can lead to significant improvements in agricultural productivity,
adapting to climate change and increasing resilience to supply shocks, whether due to climate
change or due to resource limits.
Sustainable production intensification technologies are knowledge-intensive. Climate Smart
Agriculture manages multiple objectives in agricultural growth and development under the specific
constraints of climate change, building resilience and adaptive capacity in agricultural systems,
while reducing and removing greenhouse gases to contribute to climate change mitigation. It
requires knowledge on many aspects of farming including for example minimal soil disturbance,
permanent soil cover and crop rotations.
Extension programmes that promote such technologies have to overcome a number of challenges.
Agriculture is location-specific and knowledge has to be developed and transferred accordingly,
while at the same time building on the hyper-local knowledge developed by international
organizations and research centres that work towards promoting such sustainable production
intensification approaches. There is also need for a great number of properly trained extension
agents to reach geographically dispersed and remote farmers, interact with, and advise them.
Knowledge sharing and training methods based on ICTs are important vehicles to improve access
to information and enhance knowledge on sustainable production intensification technologies. ICTs
can facilitate dialogue between stakeholders and across levels, and trigger learning with knowledge
networks and platforms that provide a venue where the diverse actors can connect.14 By integrating
local and hyper-local knowledge, ICT innovations can have a significant impact on improving the
content for extension and training, and promote technology adoption that can enhance adaptation
in both developed and developing countries.

12 Conference of the Parties, Twenty-first session, Adoption of the Paris Agreement, Paris, 30 November to 11 December
2015.
13 The World Bank, and the African Development Bank, with the support of the African Union (2012). The

Transformational Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Africa. eTransform AFRICA

14 FAO (2013). Climate Smart Agriculture Sourcebook, Rome.

xiii
Although existing communities of practice and initiatives are crucial in raising awareness and
underpinning capacity building, they do not engage in creating sustainable ICT innovation
laboratories that can develop capacity for state-of-art ICT applications to promote transformative
agricultural development, especially as far as knowledge-intensive technologies that can facilitate
adaptation to climate change are concerned.
Innovative applications such as virtual extension systems, though online platforms or websites, that
are based on peer networks can enable farmer-to-farmer and farmer-to-experts information
sharing. Serious gaming, played with a computer or smartphone can revolutionize extension
services and significantly facilitate technology adoption. The applications of serious gaming on
agriculture are at an initial stage, although gaming methods are utilized for training in the military,
corporate management and education (see p. 22).
Building on existing communities of practice and complementing systems already in-place,
significant improvements in the use of ICTs for facilitating the adoption of sustainable production
intensification technologies could be achieved through a collaborative technical platform, the ICT
for Sustainable Agricultural Production Innovation Lab. Its activities will aim at generating ideas,
developing pilot state-of-art applications, create prototypes, test and scale solutions that can be
adopted in different locations and within a multi-stakeholder context.
The Lab will be managed by the FAO Information Technology Division and will build on existing
mechanisms, linking farmers, farmers’ groups, application developers, agronomists, and extension
agents. More specifically, it will adopt the practice of UN Innovation Labs15 for ‘top-down’ and
‘bottom-up’ innovation by forging close synergies with: (i) the e-Agriculture Community of Practice,
as well as local communities and networks; (ii) the FAO regional and country offices and those of
other collaborative organizations and their technology adoption projects; (iii) non-profit tech hubs
in G20 and non-G20 countries; and, (iv) the FAO-ITU programme that aims at building capacity for
ICTs national strategies in developing countries.

Recommendation 3: ICT for Sustainable Agricultural Production

Innovation Lab
Recognizing the urgency for agriculture to adapt to climate change by effectively
promoting sustainable agricultural production intensification technologies through
ICTs, G20 members can consider to:
1. Support a laboratory, led by FAO and other relevant organizations and built on
existing mechanisms, to generate ideas, create pilot ICT applications and prototypes,
and test and scale up ICT solutions that promote the training on, and adoption of
sustainable agricultural production intensification technologies.

The Lab will develop a network linking knowledge-sharing communities of practice, such as e-
Agriculture and other local initiatives, extension services, research centres, international
organizations and tech hubs in order to promote innovative ICT applications based on dialogue
and existing capacity-building activities.

15United Nations Development Programme (2015). Innovation for 2030: UNDP Innovation Facility, 2015 Year Review.
United Nations Children Fund (2014). Innovation Annual Report 2014. Also http://www.unicef.org/innovation/

xiv
Internet governance
Since its inception, the Internet is governed through a multi-stakeholder process. Its governance
has evolved around a culture of cooperation, involving the private sector, transnational institutions,
academia, and governments, with the technical organizations that ensure its functionality reflecting
a multi-stakeholder approach.
For example, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is open to anyone who wants to contribute
to its functions – setting the rules that govern how computers and servers communicate worldwide,
namely the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP). The Internet Research
Task Force (IRTF) is formed by the private sector and focuses on longer term research issues on
Internet protocols, applications, architecture and technology.
The Internet Society (ISOC) provides an institutional home and financial support for IETF, and is
one of the main representatives of the technical community. Since 2010, ISOC is granted
Consultative Status by ECOSOC and participates in relevant UN conferences and preparatory
meetings.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a non-profit organization
that coordinates the operation of the Internet’s systems of addresses that includes IP addresses and
domain names. Although initially overseen by the US Department of Commerce, in 2014 ICANN
initiated a transition process towards becoming a fully independent transnational and inclusive
body.
At a broader level, the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was initiated in 2003 by
the UN in order to create an evolving multi-stakeholder platform to address ICT governance issues
through a structured and inclusive approach at the national, regional and international levels.
Internet governance issues have also been discussed at the World Conference on International
Telecommunications (WCIT).
WSIS is co-organized by ITU, UNESCO, UNCTAD and UNDP and aims to achieve a common vision,
desire and commitment to build an inclusive and development-oriented global Information Society.
WSIS has strengthened the role of states in Internet governance, while at the same time retains an
inclusive and multi-stakeholder nature. Its meetings follow a multi-stakeholder approach that
includes governments, Internet societies and communities, the private sector, academia and the
civil society, as well as International Organizations.
WSIS through its Geneva Declaration of Principles underlined the objective to build a global
Information Society, where everyone can create, access, utilize and share information, respecting
human rights. This common vision and guiding Principles are translated into concrete action
through the WSIS Geneva Plan of Action that promotes the use of ICT-based products, networks,
and services on many areas, including on agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries, forestry and
food. The e-Agriculture Community of Practice, managed by FAO, is an outcome of this Plan of Action
(see pp. 33-34 and Annex A).
In Antalya in 2015, the G20 leaders recognized that the Internet brings both opportunities and
challenges to global growth. In their summit in Hangzhou, the G20 leaders delivered the G20 Digital
Economy Development and Cooperation Initiative to address both opportunities and challenges
brought by ICTs, and propose some common understanding, principles and key areas for
cooperation and the development of the digital economy (see Annex C).

xv
 Recommendation 4: Promoting ICTs for agricultural development in
International fora
G20 members, through their engagement in the World Summit on the Information
Society events can consider to:
1. Emphasize agriculture as a key component of the digital economy, and
continue to support effective dialogue on the transformational role of ICTs in
agriculture, including through concrete actions that foster reliable, inclusive
and affordable connectivity in rural arears and integrate ICTs in agricultural
and rural development policies and institutions to support food security and
hunger eradication.

The Initiative affirms the G20 members’ commitment to a multi-stakeholder approach to Internet
governance, with active participation by governments, private sector, civil society, the technical
community, and international organizations, in their respective roles and responsibilities. It also
recognizes that Internet governance should continue to follow the provisions set forth in outcomes
of World Summit on the Information Society.

Principles and data privacy

There is no international binding agreement on online human rights and often the debate centres
on the freedom of expression and access to information – both fundamental human rights in the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Still, the UN Human Rights Council has adopted
a resolution preserving human rights on the Internet, affirming that people have the same rights
online that they have offline (see Section 4, p. 35).
Many countries provide guidelines with information about rights and freedoms in the context of
ICTs. Nevertheless, lack of access or inadequate national legal frameworks often create a fertile
ground for arbitrary and unlawful infringements of human rights in communications. The Internet
Governance Forum (IGF) – a multi-stakeholder platform that enables the discussion of public policy
issues pertaining to the Internet under the UN – has provided a framework on how human rights
should be interpreted to apply to the Internet environment, and the Internet policy principles
which must be upheld in order to create an environment which supports human rights to the
maximum extent possible (see Charter of Human Rights and Principles for the Internet in Annex B).
Governments collect large amounts of personal information for civil registries, social security,
housing records and tax purposes. At the same time, with the rapid expansion of software and web
search engine companies, social network platforms, and e-commerce, users disclose personal
information that can result in a massive amount of identifiable information that is owned,
controlled and used by digital service providers.
A challenge for privacy is the expanding use of Big Data – data that is subject to complex automated
discriminatory technologies – that can classify users and customers into categories according to
their preferences, income, ethnicity, political views and other sensitive characteristics. The Internet
of Things that connects devices to the Internet, can also result in detailed user profiles and poses
similar privacy challenges.
Nevertheless, meeting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development requires a ‘data revolution’ to
take advantage of new technologies, crowd sourcing, and improved connectivity to empower

xvi
people with information on the progress towards the SDGs.16 Digital data provides an opportunity
to gain a better understanding of changes in well-being and emerging vulnerabilities, and to get
real-time feedback on how well policy responses are working.
Big Data initiatives already provide valuable information on land use changes around the world,
crowd-sourcing facilitates the financial inclusion and market integration of small family farmers,
but also provides real-time information on food price inflation (see Section 3, p. 28). Global Pulse is
a flagship innovation initiative of the United Nations Secretary-General working towards
harnessing the potential of Big Data safely and responsibly for sustainable development and
humanitarian action.
Big Data creates unprecedented possibilities for informing decision-making, closing key gaps in
access, transforming our society and protecting the environment. Increases in quality data and
information will enable all stakeholders, governments, the private sector, the civil society and
international organizations to identify problems, plan, monitor, and be held accountable for their
actions. Nevertheless, such an increase in the usefulness of information should not result in
invasion of privacy and abuse of human rights from misuse of data on individuals and groups.
About 107 countries – half of them being developing countries – have privacy laws ensuring that
personal data are protected. These legal frameworks define the purposes for which personal data
can be collected legitimately, and establish rules for its proper management and protection from
misuse. For example, the Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications in the EU, and the
Africa Union Convention on Cybersecurity and Personal Data Protection, aim at strengthening
fundamental rights and public freedoms, particularly concerning the protection of data (see pp. 36-
38).
At a broader level, the UN Global Pulse has developed a set of Privacy Principles in consultation
with experts from public and private sector, academia and civil society. The United Nations
Secretary-General’s Independent Expert Advisory Group on a Data Revolution for Sustainable
Development has recommended to develop a global consensus on principles and standards
concerning legal, technical, privacy, geospatial and statistical standards which, among other things,
will facilitate openness and information exchange and promote and protect human rights. 17
The issue of protecting personal information collected, stored and managed by ICTs becomes more
complex as personal data are being processed and transferred on a regular basis across national
borders. The OECD Guidelines on the Protection of Privacy and Transborder Flows of Personal Data
represent a consensus on basic principles that can be built into existing OECD members’ national
legislation.
Nevertheless, there is no international binding agreement on cross-border digital data flows and
although in many countries data protection and privacy laws are based on a common set of
principles, they are locally adapted and often do not comply with each other.
Instead, digital data transfers, as well as digital trade, are often governed by bilateral, multilateral
or plurilateral agreements. For example, the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)
has an Annex on Telecommunications that supports ICT enabled services. The Cross-border Privacy
Enforcement Arrangement Privacy Framework of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation underpins
the free flow of information in the region. The Trans Pacific Partnership allows for the cross-border

16 High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda (2013). A New Global Partnership:
Eradicate Poverty and Transform Economies through Sustainable Development. http://www.post2015hlp.org/wp-
content/uploads/2013/05/UN-Report.pdf
17 United Nations (2014), p.6. A world that Counts: Mobilizing a Data Revolution for Sustainable Development by the

Independent Expert Advisory Group on a Data Revolution for Sustainable Development. New York.

xvii
transfer of digital information in line with national policies that provide for the protection of
personal data.
Issues related to principles and data protection in the digital economy are important for
agriculture, but are not under the mandate of the G20 Ministers of Agriculture. New technologies,
such as Big Data and the Internet of Things, will result to an exponential increase in the volume and
variety of data available, as well as the frequency by which information is collected. These data can
inform policy-making and transform the economy, including agriculture.
The G20 Digital Economy Task Force18 has been formed to facilitate dialogue among the G20
members, leverage opportunities and address the challenges brought about by ICTs. Given the
importance of data for sustainable development, including in agriculture and the rural economy,
the Task Force could increase awareness of the critical importance of information, promote
dialogue and facilitate common understanding on principles and regulations related to digital data
privacy and digital data transfers.

Recommendation 5: Developing a common understanding on principles

on digital data
Recognizing that new technologies create unprecedented opportunities for informing
agricultural and food policies, G20 Ministers of Agriculture, aware of the wider digital
economy agenda, support the G20 Digital Economy Task Force to:
1. Acknowledge the importance of principles and guidelines related to the
collection, storage and use of digital data, including information sourced
through Big Data and Internet of Things technologies.

2. Take into consideration relevant discussions in relevant fora and initiatives,

such as the World Summit on the Information Society, the UN Internet
Governance Forum, the UN Global Pulse and the OECD.

18 G20 Digital Economy Development and Cooperation Initiative, 2016. See Annex C.

xviii
1 Introduction

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is defined by the World Bank as “[…] any device,
tool, or application that permits the exchange or collection of data through interaction or
transmission.” It “includes anything ranging from radio to satellite imagery to mobile phones or
electronic money transfers.”19 The application of ICTs in agriculture is often referred to as e-
agriculture.
This report responds to a request by the G20 Agricultural Ministers to FAO, IFPRI and OECD in June
2016 to build on their preliminary assessment of existing ICT applications and platforms and make
specific proposals for consideration and action by G20 Agriculture Deputies ahead of the next G20
Agricultural Ministers meeting on the best possible mechanism to improve agricultural ICT
exchange and cooperation.
The report aims at discussing ICT applications on agriculture and rural development and reviewing
the initiatives that promote their use in order to identify possible gaps, inform the G20 Ministers of
Agriculture and make specific proposals for possible G20 actions in the area of ICTs in agriculture.
The next section provides a succinct review of ICT applications in agriculture in both developing
and developed countries, discussing their uses and impact. It provides examples in the main areas
where ICTs are contributing with creative solutions to traditional and emerging challenges faced by
farmers, including smallholders.
Section 3 provides a review of international platforms that promote ICT application on agriculture,
food security and nutrition and identifies potential gaps that could be addressed by the G20. It
presents some of the prominent global platforms that facilitate ICT applications on agriculture.
These platforms can consist, for instance, of initiatives that aim to engage and connect global
stakeholders for information sharing (such as the FAO e-Agriculture Community of Practice) or
programmes that inform and guide the development of national strategies on the use of ICT in
agriculture (ICT in Agriculture Sourcebook; FAO-ITU national capacity building efforts). These
platforms include initiatives championed by FAO, the World Bank, USAID and others.
Finally, Section 4 discusses issues related to the global governance of the internet, including
international efforts to promote an inclusive global Internet Society and ICT applications on
agriculture, as well as issues related to the regulation of data collection and use in the digital world.
It lists the key stakeholders involved in technical issues related to internet standards setting, the
international fora on internet governance, and the complexity of issues related to data ownership,
privacy and ethics.

19 World Bank (2011). E-sourcebook. ICT in Agriculture: Connecting Smallholders to Knowledge, Networks, and Institutions. Report Number 64605. P. 3.
2 ICT in agriculture
World population is expected to surpass the 9 billion mark by 2050, and agricultural production
will need to increase by 60 percent from its 2005/2007 levels to meet this additional food demand.
ICT applications can make a significant contribution to meet this future global food needs.
Information and Communication Technology can do so by collecting and sharing timely and
accurate information on weather, inputs, markets, and prices; by feeding information into research
and development initiatives; by disseminating knowledge to farmers; by connecting producers and
consumers, and through many other avenues. Some of the broad areas where ICT plays a crucial
role in agriculture are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Role of ICT in agriculture

Already, in the agricultural and food sectors of many countries, ICT companies, multinational farm
input business, large machinery manufacturers, but also small and medium farm input suppliers
provide a number of services to farmers through ICTs, including extension advice. Downstream,
supermarket and agricultural product buyers also engage in the food value chain through ICTs,
where the technology is also used by farmers’ cooperatives, international organizations, the civil
society and governments to effectively provide information on many aspects of farming, including
regulation. In a number of cases, ICTs form an integral part not only of information flows, but of the

2
actual farming operations and food processing from testing the soil in the farm to using 3D printers
to process food.20
Nevertheless, the digital divide between developing and developed countries is nowhere more
evident than in agriculture. Across the developing world, rural communities are at a fundamental
disadvantage to access this knowledge.
When farming their plots of land, smallholders are economic agents that make their choices using
all of the information available to them. Based on this information, they choose what to plant, which
inputs to use and how, when to plow, to seed, to harvest; how much to keep for consumption in the
household and how much to sell to raise cash, or how much to store. They often make their choices
in an adverse economic environment in which markets do not function well, and where very little
information is available to inform them in time for their decisions. As a result, their choices are
often not optimal. ICTs can play a crucial role in bridging this critical information and knowledge
gap.

ICT in agriculture: developing countries21

Transaction costs explain why markets are missing or do not function well. Smallholders are not
well integrated into markets due to high transport costs and their lack of ability to timely deliver
consistent, quality and large volumes of produce.
Even if well-developed infrastructure reduced transport costs, small family farmers would face
transaction costs to form a cooperative and aggregate their produce in larger volumes. They would
also face costs to obtain information about consumer preferences and decide what and how to
plant, and incur costs related to searching and screening for a partner with whom to negotiate a
deal, bargain, reach and monitor an agreement.
Similar transaction costs characterize other markets such as those for labour, credit, and insurance.
For example, low population density, isolated communities, and lack of information on collateral,
increase the costs of financial services and result in missing credit and insurance markets. For a
bank, often the fixed cost to establish a branch in a remote area is very high compared with the
quantity of business it will conduct.
High transaction and operational costs also hinder services that in developing countries are often
delivered by governments. In a developing country where agriculture makes up for a large part of
the economy, there is need for a great number of extension agents to reach geographically
dispersed and remote farmers, interact with, and advise them on innovative productive
technologies that can be crucial for their livelihoods.
ICTs have the potential to reduce these costs – digital technology can be transformational. For
example, DrumNet in Kenya helped link financial institutions, smallholder farmers, retail providers
and agricultural product buyers through a cashless microcredit programme. Farmers gained access
to inputs (e.g., seeds, fertilizers, pesticides) from local input providers by using a pre-established
line of credit from banks, where DrumNet provided the bank with a credit rating score for each
farmer.

20https://3dfoodprintingconference.com/
21An exhaustive list of ICT applications on agriculture in developing countries can be found in the FAO-ITU e-Agriculture
Strategy Guide, http://www.fao.org/3/a-i5564e.pdf

3
Esoko, in Africa uses a combination of mobile and web services and advisory call centres to improve
access to extension services. Voice, video, and call centres also have the advantage of being easily
accessible to illiterate farmers.22 In India, e-Choupal, a trading platform, reduces transaction costs
by connecting buyers with farmers, using Internet kiosks. Through its ICT-kiosk platform, e-
Choupal also offers farmers additional services, such as sharing of best practices to improve
productivity, and price benchmarking to increase sales prices.23
The increase in the use of digital technologies has created benefits for all through easier
communication and information sharing, and improving social connectedness. Inclusion, efficiency,
and innovation are the main mechanisms for digital technologies to promote development. Nearly
70 percent of the bottom fifth of the population in developing countries own a mobile phone. The
number of internet users has more than tripled in a decade, from 1 billion in 2005 to an estimated
3.2 billion at the end of 2015.24

Improving market access

In agriculture, ICTs can bring significant benefits through better information on markets. Prices
signal opportunities to producers, consumers, and traders — such as when excess demand is
creating more profitable opportunities to sell or when excess supply leads to cheaper deals. They
also reflect changing consumption patterns and contain information that can be used by farmers
when they decide what and how much to produce. With increased access to mobile phones, farmers
can better plan production and investments, based on supply-and-demand fundamentals, thus
increasing market efficiency.
Indeed, facilitating market access through the provision of information on prices is the most
frequent ICT application on agriculture. Delivery of information is mainly through short message
service (SMS), although voice messages, interactive voice response systems, or mobile applications
are also used. Reuter’s RML Information Services was launched in India in the state of Maharashtra
in 2007, providing an affordable SMS service that shared daily updates on prices, markets, and
weather with subscribing farmers. The platform evolved to offer this information through a
smartphone application, and currently also provides customized market data reports to banks,
procurement companies and other organizations on market prices, volumes and other information
covering many crops and 1,300 markets across India.25
Many other e-commerce applications, such as e-Choupal, provide matching services, commodity
exchanges, virtual trading floors and trading services that help the typically larger upstream and
downstream firms, such as processors or exporters, to manage their operations and the quality of
their produce better. Often, these platforms are based on specific contractual arrangements that
define online negotiations conditions, the procedure to assess quality, the payment and
delivery/withdrawal conditions – such standardized contracts can enhance transparency and
efficiency.
A number of studies provide a range of estimates for the effect of price information on
smallholders’ sale prices and profits. For example, the dissemination of price information in Uganda

22 www.esoko.com
23 Miller, C., V.N. Saroja and C. Linder. (2013). ICT uses for inclusive agricultural value chains. FAO. See
https://www.echoupal.com/
24 World Bank Group (2016). Digital Dividends. World Development Report 2016.
25 http://www.rmlglobal.com/web/

4
resulted in a 15 percent increase in farm-gate prices for maize.26 Similar effects are suggested by
researchers in Peru and the Philippines.27 Other studies suggest impacts of lesser magnitude.
Emerging work by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and partners as part of
the Government of Finland-funded Food Africa Programme sheds some light on the viability and of
challenges associated with agriculture-related ICT services. In Ghana and Uganda, farmers receiving
information on prices, weather, and extension through ICT applications indicated their willingness
to pay US$0.30-$1 a month to cover the cost of the service. Researchers however did not observe an
impact of the ICT service on the prices farmers were able to obtain from traders for their
agricultural products.

Agricultural extension and advisory services

Traditional extension services face several challenges in developing countries that limit their
efficiency. Poor infrastructure makes it harder and more costly to visit remote areas. For this
reason, often extension programmes provide only one-time information to farmers, lessening their
long-term impact. In addition, traditional extension is plagued by principal-agent and institutional
problems, including a lack of accountability.28
ICTs can increase smallholder’s access to timely extension information while addressing many of
these challenges by reducing the cost of extension visits, enabling more frequent two-way
communication between farmers and agents, and improving agents’ accountability.29 ICTs also
enhance access to private information from social networks, thus facilitating learning from one’s
peers, which is crucial for technology adoption. By increasing communication linkages between
farmers, extension agents, and research centers, ICTs can improve the flow of relevant information
among all these agents.30
While Esoko is based on web services and advisory call centres, Community Knowledge Workers, an
initiative of Grameen Foundation in Uganda, brings together a network of community agents who
act as intermediaries between smallholders and smartphone app content developers. This initiative
overcomes a number of challenges associated with traditional extension services - few
professionals, difficult to reach rural areas – and the challenges associated with access and
affordability of ICTs. Since the Community Knowledge Worker is the focal point and only s/he
needs access to a smartphone, the technology is more accessible to poor communities. 31
Digital Green, a non-profit international development organization, uses an innovative digital
platform for community engagement to improve lives of rural communities across South Asia and
Sub-Saharan Africa. Partnering with local public, private and civil society organizations the

26 Svensson, J. and Yanagizawa, D. (2009), Getting Prices Right: The Impact of the Market Information Service in Uganda.
Journal of the European Economic Association, 7: 435–445.
27 Beuermann D.W. (2011). Telecommunications Technologies, Agricultural Profitability, and Child Labor in Rural Peru.

DT. N° 2011-002 Working Paper, Central Reserve Bank of Peru. Labonne, J. and C. Robert S. (2009). The Power of
Information: The Impact of Mobile Phones on Farmers' Welfare in the Philippines. World Bank Policy Research Working
Paper Series, July.
28 Nakasone, E., M. Torero, and B. Minten (2014). The Power of Information: The ICT Revolution in Agricultural

Development. Annual Review of Resource Economics, Vol. 6: 533-550

29 Cole SA, Fernando AN. (2012). The Value of Advice: Evidence from Mobile Phone-Based Agricultural Extension.

Working Paper 13-047, Harvard Business School, Harvard University.

30 Aker JC. (2010). Information from Markets Near and Far: Mobile Phones and Agricultural Markets in Niger. Am. Econ.J.:

Applied Economics. 2(3): 46-59.

31Yonazi, E., T. Kelly, N. Halewood and C. Blackman (2012). “eTransform Africa:

The Transformational Use of ICTs in Africa. Chapter 3: ICT for climate change adaptation in Africa. World Bank (2012).
World Bank

5
platform shares knowledge on improved agricultural practices, livelihoods, health, and nutrition,
using locally produced videos and human mediated dissemination.32
Analyses of the role of ICTs in agricultural extension highlight the heterogeneity of delivery systems
which include one-way versus two-way communication between farmers and agricultural
specialists, SMS versus voice messaging, and oral description of problems versus pictures taken in
the field. Although these applications increase farmers’ awareness, this does not automatically
translate into behavioral changes such as increased adoption of improved agronomic practices or
modern inputs. Overall, there remains however a lack of evidence regarding which services work
and which do not, as most agricultural extension through ICTs is fairly recent.33

Climate change adaptation and early warning

The effects of climate change are already impacting agriculture, making the challenge of achieving
food security and improving nutrition increasingly difficult. In the face of such challenges,
information is key to preparedness; for farmers, this could mean the difference between a
successful or a failed harvest. ICT-based tools related to climate change issues and early warning
can assist in reducing the risks faced by smallholders.
At the micro level, the provision of timely updates on local meteorological conditions can push out
early warning messages related to extreme weather events – such as possible flooding, for instance.
For example, AfricaAdapt, in Senegal, facilitates vulnerable communities’ access to information on
climate change adaptation from researchers, policymakers and civil society organizations. It acts as
a community of practice, and is supported by a website where members can share updates on face-
to-face meetings about their work and adaptation techniques.
At the macro level, the World Food Studies (WOFOST) simulation model, developed by the Centre
for World Food Studies (CFWS) in cooperation with the University of Wageningen, analyzes growth
and production levels of annual crops and serves to calculate production levels for crops based on
soil and weather conditions, among other factors.34
ICT-mediated early warning and disaster information systems to mitigate risks are found around
the world. One of the most effective ways to disseminate early warnings as well as agricultural pest
and disease information related information is through the use of SMS. The Avian Influenza alert
system, developed by FAO and piloted in Bangladesh, extensively used mobile technology to track
the outbreak of the deadly avian (H5N1) virus. Short message services (SMS) were used to collect
and manage information from a large number of grassroot level volunteers, thereby enabling a
coordinated and real-time response to contain the outbreak.
Remote Sensing and ICTs are crucial in assessing natural resources and providing information to
tackle climate change. FAO and Google have partnered to enhance access to geospatial data and
analysis through Open Foris. The initiative combines Google’s Earth Engine with the Organization’s
international expertise to address complex issues relating to forestry, land cover and land use. The
open source app allows even a smallholder equipped with a smartphone to better measure and
monitor a piece of land no bigger than an acre and assess deforestation and forest degradation.35 In
addition, FAO's Locust Control Unit has used the Earth Engine to improve forecasts and control of

32 www.digitalgreen.org
33 Nakasone, E., M. Torero, and B. Minten (2014). The Power of Information: The ICT Revolution in Agricultural
Development. Annual Review of Resource Economics, Vol. 6: 533-550
34 http://www.fao.org/docs/eims/upload/295345/Sala ICT-climate change Agriculture.pdf
35 http://www.openforis.org/

6
desert locust outbreaks. Satellites cannot detect the dreaded insects themselves but can accelerate
identification of potential breeding areas and make ground interventions more effective.36

Food safety, traceability and certification

Foodborne illnesses pose a serious health threat to the world population. Increasingly, food
traceability has become very important as a risk-management tool, by which the movement of food
can be followed through specified stages of production, processing, and distribution, thereby
improving customer confidence. Traceability of livestock also ensures that animal disease
monitored and controlled more effectively, thereby facilitating regional and international trade. For
example, an internet based electronic service, TraceNet, facilitates certification for export of organic
products from India. It collects, stores and reports, forward and backward traces quality assurance
data.

Financial inclusion
Transfers and payments, credit, savings, and insurance are examples of financial services that are
offered through ICTs. ICTs can significantly help improve rural communities’ access by providing
financial institutions the means to enter rural markets through unconventional methods – through
a reduced need for high-cost branches and improved productivity of the staff in place.
M-PESA enables urban Kenyans to send money home easily to their families in rural areas. Since its
beginning, it has expanded significantly into other services, such as savings, and new clients, such as
businesses. ICTs play a significant role in increasing access to credit by smallholders but also in
facilitating the well-functioning and efficiency of the credit market, especially by reducing
information and monitoring costs. Like DrumNet in Kenya, ICT platforms can link farmers with
formal lenders (such as banks and microfinance institutions) but also informal ones (such as input
suppliers and food processors or traders), and provide improved (credit) risk monitoring.
Smallholders lack access to formal banking services. Informal institutions, such as village savings
and loan associations, allow them to save and access small amounts of money. Saving and taking
loans facilitate investments and consumption smoothing, adding to resilience. While village savings
and loan associations are both convenient and flexible, they are not as secure as formal institutions.
ICTs can reduce costs and address this issue.
For example, the Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE) in East Africa is
experimenting with connecting its village savings and loan associations to the formal banking
system. Each association is to have a single account tied to a bank, which can be tracked and
managed via a mobile phone. The advantages of these links and use of ICTs are that they provide
access to additional products from the bank, reduce the likelihood of theft or loss of the savings, and
improve the management and accounting of associations’ finances.37
Digital finance promotes financial inclusion, providing access to financial service to the poor, but
has also improved the delivery of public services. In Nigeria, an innovative mobile wallet system
initiated jointly by the public and private sectors uses mobile technology to transfer fertilizer
subsidies directly to farmers. The initiative relies on a database of more than 10.5 million farmers
and operates at one-sixth the cost, as there is no need for the government to procure and distribute

36http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/410307/icode/
37AllAfrica (2011). Rwanda: rural savings groups to be linked to mobile banking. allAfrica, 11 August. (available at
http://allafrica.com/stories/201108120952.html)

7
fertilizers. Based on this initial success, the system is expanding, aided by a digital identification
system and biometric signatures, taking financial services far into Nigeria’s rural hinterland.38

Insurance and risk management

Insurance services are a key determinant with respect to the adoption of sustainable production
intensification approaches, especially in the context of climate change. Insurance builds resilience
and unlocks opportunities that facilitate investment in new agricultural technologies or inputs.
Innovative instruments, such as index-insurance differ from traditional indemnity insurance, where
payouts are explicitly based on measured loss. Instead, in index-insurance farmers can purchase
coverage based on an index that is correlated with those losses, such as wind speed, the amount of
rain during a certain window of time (weather based indices) or average yield losses over a larger
region (area yield indices).
ICT innovations in earth observation, satellite rainfall estimations and remote sensing, combined
with in-situ data, have overcome high transaction costs associated with traditional multi-peril crop
insurance with market-based index-insurance products reaching millions of smallholder farmers
even in some of the poorest areas of the world, many of which were previously considered
uninsurable.39
At the micro-level, micro-insurance programmes, such as Kilimo Salama use ICTs and enhance
access to insurance products. Kilimo Salama allowed Kenyan smallholder farmers to insure farm
inputs against droughts or excessive rain through prepaid mobile phone fees – a US$2 bag of seeds
would be insured for 10 cents. The initiative evolved into the Agriculture and Climate Risk
Enterprise Ltd. (ACRE) and now undertakes risk assessments, product development, and risk
monitoring to facilitate access to insurance products for smallholders in Kenya, Rwanda, and
Tanzania.40

38 World Bank Group (2016). Digital Dividends. World Development Report 2016.
39 Greatrex H, Hansen JW, Garvin S, Diro R, Blakeley S, Le Guen M, Rao KN, Osgood, DE. (2015). Scaling up index insurance
for smallholder farmers: Recent evidence and insights. CCAFS Report No. 14. CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change,
Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). Copenhagen.
40 https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2012/nov/27/farmers-mobile-phones-

sms-agriculture http://acreafrica.com/

8
 ICT in agriculture: developed countries
The digital divide between developing and developed countries is nowhere more evident than in
agriculture. This is not only due to the different extent to which digital technologies have
penetrated rural areas across the developed economies and the developing world, but also due to
different farm structures. Farmers, their cooperatives, large, medium and small input suppliers,
traders, processors and retailers use ICTs throughout the food value chain, from testing the soil in
the farm to using 3D printers to process food.41
Over the last twenty years, farmers in developed countries have already been using ICTs in large
scale farming for Precision Agriculture (PA)42 including in in soil analysis, irrigation, farming
equipment, weather forecasting, and more. The fast pace of technological development, which
allows for increasing data storage and analytics and progressively lower costs has helped reach
these farming advances.

Precision Agriculture
While the main incentive to adopt Precision Agriculture (PA) methods is to maximise profitability,
it can also tackle health and safety issues as well as reduce environmental impacts of farming
practices. The approach is currently used mainly by large arable farms in Central and Northern
Europe, the USA and Australia. A successful example of the application of this method is the use of
Controlled Traffic Farming, which reduces crop damage and soil compaction as it confines field
vehicles to the minimal area of permanent traffic lanes with the aid of GNSS technology and
decision support systems. Farmers in Australia and the UK have been able to reduce machinery and
input costs and increase crop yields.
Precision Livestock Farming is another example of an approach that relies on the application of
ICTs. They are utilised in the automatic monitoring of individual animals for animal growth, milk
and egg production and detection of diseases, as well as for monitoring animal behaviour and their
physical environment. The application of this approach has shown commercial benefits in farms, for
example, in the South West of England.43
Even though PA methods are being progressively applied on farms in developed countries, there is
still further need for research and investment in order to increase uptake. In the European Union,
ICT AGRI coordinates regional, national and European research programmes in ICTs and robotics to
develop a common research agenda, including for the adoption of PA in smaller farms.
In addition to the various on-farm benefits of the approach, Precision Agriculture operations often
feed into and generate key elements of Big Data and its applications. Big Data, a collection and
analysis of large and complex data sets, can be used to interpret past events and predict future
ones. It has the potential to provide new efficient decision making tools to assist agricultural
development as well as biodiversity protection.
In the USA, two significant examples of data exchange platforms that utilise big data are i)
FieldScripts, a commercial service provided by Monsanto that analyses data and provides the
farmer with seeding prescriptions that will potentially increase yield and reduce risk; and, ii) the

41 https://3dfoodprintingconference.com
42 Precision Agriculture (PA) is a whole-farm management approach using information technology, satellite positioning
(GNSS) data, remote sensing and proximal data gathering.
43 http://www.europarl.europa.eu/studies

9
Farmers Business Network (FBN), a data exchange platform that, by the middle of 2015, was able to
assess the performance of 500 seeds and 16 different crops.

Serious gaming
A great number of people use on-line social networks to communicate, learn and experience new
forms of expression and entertainment. These networks have developed to virtual communities,
where people interact, and agriculture is an important part of society both real and virtual. For
example, FarmVille, a farming simulation social network game involving various farming activities,
was launched in Facebook in 2009 and held the top position in terms of popularity for two years.
More complex digital games, such as John Deere American Farmer, introduce in their simulations a
variety of crops, weather, natural disasters and crops, with players having to manage their farm
workers and purchase inputs.
Digital games are not only for entertainment. Serious games are digital gaming environments that
are designed for training the player in solving problems. They gain popularity in many areas, such
as public policy, defence, corporate management, education and training. They are simulation
platforms that allow learners to experience a number of scenarios and situations and provide
solutions, having a positive impact on analytical skills, learning and recollection abilities, problem
recognition and problem solving.
In these games, goals and rules define a set of solutions that are revealed through analytical and
simulation methods. For example although in the area of food and agriculture serious gaming is at
its infancy, RESOTRES, a stylized game on land use by smallholders, rich in social and ecological
outcomes with a variety of incentives shaping farmers’ decisions was applied in farming
communities in Chiapas, Mexico, sharpening skills on communal land use patterns, negotiations and
collective decision making.44 AgriManager, a serious game developed by Credit Agricole, helps
agronomy students to acquire farm management skills through problem solving, including in
entrepreneurship, banking and insurance.45
At a broader level, the World Economic Forum with the Worldwide Wildlife Fund, the Center for
American Progress, CNA Corporation, Cargill and Mars engaged in serious gaming exploring
responses to food crises through Food Chain Reaction, a simulating environment conditioned in the
context of climate change and extreme weather events, and informed by previous food shocks
around the world.46

44 Speelman, E.N.; García-Barrios, L.E.; Groot, J.C.J.; Tittonell, P.A. (2014). Gaming for smallholder participation in the
design of more sustainable agricultural landscapes. Agricultural Systems 126.
45 http://www.serious-game.fr/agrimanager-le-serious-game-du-credit-agricole-pour-les-agriculteurs/
46 https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/12/what-gaming-can-teach-about-us-about-food-security/

10
 Box 1 - Emerging policy issues and ICTs in agriculture

The opportunities to improve both productivity and sustainability of natural-resource use are
very promising, but are not yet fully realized. There are also challenges for the adoption of
disruptive data-driven technologies, not least because of the very large proportion of the work
force engaged in agriculture in many emerging and developing economies.

Increasing productivity growth and improving the sustainable use of land, water and
biodiversity resources are essential to ensuring sufficient food for a growing and more affluent
global population. ICTs in agriculture can potentially contribute to improve both the productivity
and sustainability performance of the agriculture and food sector towards the realization of the
Sustainable Development Goals. For example, precision application of agro-chemicals can reduce
the amounts of pesticides and fertilizers used, while at the same time increasing yields and
reducing possible negative side-effects on soil and water; better weather and market data enables
more effective farm production decisions, reducing waste and loss on the farm.
Government policy can enhance widespread adoption of appropriate ICTs, including by
facilitating access to “hard” (physical) and “soft” (skills and technical support) infrastructure. Large
input suppliers (like equipment manufacturers and the agro-chemical industry) and downstream
food processing and food service firms generally have the capacity to adopt and to adapt ICTs to
address the needs of farmers and consumers. The farm sector, on the other hand, is characterized
by the presence of SMEs, many of which may find it difficult to adopt ICT-based solutions. In
addition, barriers to adoption are relatively higher in developing economies and for small farmers
operating in remote areas.
A particularly promising application of ICTs in agriculture relates to the design of agri-
environmental policies. Because of limited means to monitor the environmental effects of policy
interventions, agri-environmental policies typically provide incentives for farmers to adopt
practices that are considered to be environmentally beneficial (such as subsidy payments to reduce
pesticide use). With new IT-based technologies it may be possible to target such policies more
directly to environmental outcomes, by reducing the information asymmetry between actions and
observable impacts.
More accurate and timely information on climate change, natural perils and market developments
is prerequisite for risk management on the farm and for designing effective public policies.
Governments can facilitate the provision of the necessary ICT infrastructure and both the collection
and dissemination of relevant information. While ‘information deficits’ are likely to exist in all
countries, they are particularly present in developing countries.

11
3 Platforms and selected programmes facilitating ICT
applications in agriculture

e-Agriculture Community of Practice (FAO)47

The e-Agriculture Community of Practice was established in 2007 to address the challenges that
face the digital divide, especially in a rural livelihoods context as a response to the
recommendations of the World Summit on the Information Society, initiated by the UN to create an
evolving multi-stakeholder platform to address ICT governance issues (see section 4, p.33).
FAO, the UN Agency assigned to lead the development and subsequent facilitation of ICT activities
on agriculture, engaged various stakeholders at all levels creating this global Community of
Practice, where people from all over the world exchange information, ideas, and resources related
to the use of ICTs for sustainable agriculture and rural development.48
The objective of the e-Agriculture Community is to serve as a catalyst for institutions and
individuals in agriculture and rural development to share knowledge, learn from others, and
improve decision making about the vital role of ICTs to empower rural communities, improve rural
livelihoods, and build sustainable agriculture and food security.
The Community counts over 13,000 members from 170 countries and territories. This membership
is made up by several organizations, and government departments, but also by individual
stakeholders such as information and communication specialists, researchers, farmers, students,
policy makers, business people, development practitioners, and others.
e-Agriculture focuses on knowledge exchange between UN agencies, governments, universities,
research organizations, NGOs, farmers' organizations, the private sector, and the wider community.
This exchange is based on constructive dialogue, facilitated by the e-Agriculture forum series.49
Topics are demand-driven and are led by partner institutions who specialize in different areas of e-
agriculture. Online forum discussions are used to produce Policy Briefs on various ICT-related
subjects.50
In 2015 the e-Agriculture Community of Practice, along with FAO, the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU), and the Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation
(CTA) organized an online forum on “National E-agriculture Strategy Development”. The
discussions were based on an ongoing work by FAO and ITU on a framework to support
governments in the development of their national e-agriculture strategies.51 The FAO-ITU E-
Agriculture Strategy Guide was published in 2016, and the framework is being used to develop
national e-agriculture strategies in Asia-Pacific and Central Asia regions.

47 http://www.e-agriculture.org/
48 e-Agriculture: A Global Community Facilitating Dialogue and Sharing Resources on the Use of ICTs for Sustainable
Agricultural and Rural Development. http://www.e-agriculture.org/sites/default/files/e-Agriculture_leaflet_LOW.pdf
49 http://www.e-agriculture.org/forums/discussions
50 http://www.e-agriculture.org/policy-briefs
51 FAO ITU (2016). E-agriculture Strategy Guide. http://www.fao.org/asiapacific/resources/e-agriculture/en/

12
FAO-ITU e-Agriculture national capacity building efforts
FAO and ITU are collaborating to support countries in formulating and implementing national e-
Agriculture strategies that stipulate how ICTs can be strategically used at national level to
overcome challenges and accelerate achieving agriculture sector goals and priorities. This support
is facilitated by the e-Agriculture Strategy Guide, a framework that was jointly developed by FAO
and ITU.
The formulation and implementation of national e-Agriculture strategies is based on a multi-
stakeholder approach and a series of interactions with national stakeholders in countries from
government agencies, private sector, including mobile telephony companies and Internet providers,
research institutions, banks, civil society organizations and others. FAO and ITU are already
working with Sri Lanka and Bhutan providing technical advice for formulating an e-agriculture
development action plan, together with monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. Under an ongoing
project, FAO and ITU would also be assisting Fiji, Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu.

ICT in Agriculture Sourcebook (World Bank)

The ICT in Agriculture Sourcebook is an on-line practical guide in understanding current trends,
implementing appropriate interventions, and evaluating the impact of those programs.52 It
combines expertise in ICT with empirical knowledge on agriculture and is designed to support
practitioners, decision-makers, and development partners who work at the intersection of ICT and
agriculture.
The Sourcebook addresses mainstreaming ICTs into 14 sub-sectors of agriculture, including rural
finance, markets, agribusiness value chains, extension, innovation systems, farmers’ organizations,
agricultural marketing, agricultural risk management, food safety and traceability, and land
administration and management.
The material illustrates more than 200 project-based case studies and examples, analyzing and
disseminating evidence of the impact of ICTs on agricultural development and rural poverty
reduction, exploring opportunities for long term and expansive efforts.
Through the illustration of these agriculture-specific ICT applications, the Sourcebook provides
guidance for the implementation of a complex set of policy, investment, innovation, and capacity-
building measures, which can encourage the growth of locally appropriate, affordable, and
sustainable ICT infrastructure, tools, applications, and services for the rural economy. It provides
rigorous analysis in how ICTs can support agricultural development, and under what conditions, as
well as on how innovative ICT applications can be replicated, and scaled up to promote sustainable
development for a larger and more diverse population.

InfoDev (World Bank Group) and Tech Hubs

InfoDev, a global trust fund program on Information and Development supports entrepreneurs in
high-growth sectors in more than 70 countries.53 Through innovative pilot programs on early-stage
financing, business training, and regional and global networks, InfoDev focuses on climate
technologies, agribusiness, and digital innovation, facilitating the growth of competitive ventures,
and the creation of jobs and services that benefit communities.

52 http://ictinagriculture.org
53 http://www.infodev.org

13
Internet and mobile technologies lie at the heart of InfoDev activities being recognized as powerful
tools for creating high-value jobs and strengthening social inclusion. The Digital Entrepreneurship
Program supports the growth of competitive mobile application industries in emerging and frontier
markets.
The program is scaling Mobile Application Labs (mLabs)—incubation facilities and innovation hubs
for digital entrepreneurs—and Mobile Social Networking Hubs (mHubs), rolled out across eleven
countries.54 These thriving communities for mobile software entrepreneurs offer training programs,
testing facilities, and competitions in the areas of education, health, financial inclusion, agriculture,
employment, environment, mobility, and information technology.
Based on the network of mLabs and mHubs, InfoDev facilitate the development of building mobile
innovation communities which research the app economy of emerging and frontier markets,
including in agriculture. For example, Mfarm enhances market access by providing information on
prices in Kenya, GreenHouse Pro is an application geared to facilitate productivity growth in
greenhouse farming, when MkulimaBima links farmers and insurance companies.
InfoDev’s efforts focus on enhancing entrepreneurial activity in ICTs by supporting technology
clusters to contribute to the development of a digital economy. According to the World
Development Report 2016, digital technology clusters, such as Silicon Valley in the US, are crucial in
sustaining entrepreneurship and development. They are based on public private partnerships that
entail close collaboration between academia and industry, easy access to venture capital, and high
levels of government research spending.
Such digital technology clusters, often called ‘tech hubs’ have recently flourished in cities such as
Bangalore, Berlin, Hangzhou, London, Nairobi, and New York, where internet infrastructure,
penetration and density allow the development of the high tech industry. Nevertheless, in Africa
more than 100 tech hubs, though nowhere similar in scale to Silicon Valley, demonstrate that close
collaboration between academia, government, and the private sector can help develop a vibrant
eco-system that facilitates ongoing innovation and market entry. 55

Fostering Agriculture Competitiveness Employing Information and Communication

Technologies (FACET), USAID
Fostering Agriculture Competitiveness Employing Information and Communication Technologies
(FACET), was a technical assistance project designed to help U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID) missions and their partners in applying ICTs to improve competitiveness and
productivity of agricultural value chains and to facilitate trade in agricultural products across sub-
Saharan Africa.56
In line with USAID’s call for an increased focus on evidence-based interventions and knowledge
sharing, FACET incorporated lessons learned and best practices to build collaborative relationships.
Activities focused on evaluation of sustainable and scalable approaches using ICTs; and on short-
term technical assistance to projects to help them improve ICT applications.
The knowledge sharing objective was extended by making the main outputs, toolkits and case
studies available to a global audience through the e-Agriculture Community of Practice. For

54 The Business Models of mLabs and mHubs—An Evaluation of InfoDev’s Mobile Innovation Support Pilots 2014
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank
55 See pp. 229-230, World Bank Group (2016). Digital Dividends. World Development Report 2016.
56 http://www.e-agriculture.org/usaids-fostering-agriculture-competitiveness-employing-information-communication-

technologies-facet

14
example, FACET has provided technical assistance on how to use low-cost video to improve
agricultural extension services and product marketing to USAID implementing partners and
mission staff from more than 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Other instruments include
briefing papers, Agricultural ICT application profiles and webinars.57

ICT Observatory and ICTUpdate (Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural
Cooperation)
The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) is a joint international
institution of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and the European Union
(EU). Their mission is to advance food and nutritional security, increase prosperity and encourage
sound natural resource management in ACP countries.
CTA’s ICT Observatory meetings were set up in 1998 as an instrument to advise the institution, and
its partners on ICT strategies and applications relevant to ACP agricultural and rural development
and to identify ICT policy issues, experiences and projects. The meetings’ specific objectives are to
review the need, design and implementation of ICTs for agriculture strategies in ACP countries; and,
identify strategic actions and collaborations to be put in place to strengthen the formulation and
implementation of effective and inclusive ICT strategies for agriculture.
CTA publishes ICTUpdate, a bimonthly printed bulletin, and maintains an online magazine and an
accompanying e-mail newsletter and mobile Web site. Each issue focuses on a specific theme
relevant to ICTs for agricultural and rural development in ACP countries, and features a selection of
commissioned articles. The printed bulletin also contains a Guest editor contribution, Tech Talk,
Resources, Dispatches and a ‘Question and Answer’ section.58
Joint promotion of the ICTUpdate series by CTA and e-Agriculture Community of Practice has
attracted a new audience for the ICTUpdate articles and ensured a regular source of fresh content
for the e-Agriculture online audience. Since 2013, ICTUpdate has published over 300 stories from
practitioners, ICT developers and beneficiaries, thus adding new content to its collection of over
2,000 pages.

Advanced Agricultural Practice Knowledge Portal

In India, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), in partnership with the e-
Extension Centre of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), developed the Advanced
Agricultural Practice Knowledge Portal for the ICICI Knowledge Park (IKP) Centre for Advancement
in Agricultural Practice (ICAAP) in 2012. This portal serves as a gateway for knowledge and best
practices from CGIAR and other international and national agricultural research centers.
Designed to respond to the information needs of local knowledge intermediaries such as research
scientists, extension professionals, farmers associations, NGO staff, and agricultural entrepreneurs,
the portal provides information that benefits both small and marginal farmers directly through
improved extension services, and indirectly through the improved use of information by
intermediary organizations.59

57 http://www.e-agriculture.org/content/integrating-low-cost-video-agricultural-development-projects-toolkit-
practitioners
58 http://ictupdate.cta.int/Issues/(issue)/82
59 . http://www.ikptrust.org.in/group-companies/ikp-centre-for-advancement-in-agricultural-practice-icaap/

15
ICT-AGRI – research on Internet of Things applications
ICT-AGRI is funded by the European Commission's ERA-NET scheme under the 7th Framework
Programme for Research.60 The objective of an ERA-NET scheme is to develop and strengthen the
European Research Area by facilitating practical initiatives to coordinate regional, national and
European research programmes in specific fields.
ICT-AGRI-1 began on 2009 and ran until 2014. The follow-up project ICT-AGRI-2 is scheduled to
run for 4 years until the end of 2017. The overall goal of ICT-AGRI is to strengthen the European
research within the diverse area of Precision Agriculture and develop a common European research
agenda concerning ICTs and robotics in agriculture. The project focuses on ICT systems for site-
specific applications of fertilizer, pesticides and water; Controlled Traffic Farming; automated
technologies for precision livestock farming and indoor climate control; and automated quality
control systems to improve quality, safety and traceability of food and feed. ICT-AGRI also focuses
on Precision Farming applications on smaller farms.

Projects using Big Data for agricultural development

Big Data is not only a large data set, but a complex system of data sources, technologies and
methodologies that result in an extreme volume of data of various types that can be rapidly
collected, recorded and analyzed. As early as 1975, participants at the Very Large Datasets
Conference discussed how to manage the US Census which at that time was considered massive.
Since then, computing power and decreasing costs of storage have resulted in huge volumes of data
being collected and analyzed.
In agriculture, large input suppliers and machinery manufacturers have initiated Big Data
applications to provide better services to their clients in developed countries and emerging
economies (see Section 2.2). Beyond commercial purposes, Big Data is being used by governments
and international organizations to enhance inclusion, promote cost-effective assessments, and
inform decision-making.
Open Foris (see Section 2.1 – Climate change adaptation and early warning) which improves access
to geospatial data, is based on Collect Earth, a tool that enables data collection through Google
Earth. In conjunction with Google Earth, Bing Maps and Google Earth Engine, users can analyze high
and very high resolution satellite imagery for a wide variety of purposes, including land use
changes, forestry assessments, and monitoring of agricultural land and urban areas.61
M-PESA (see Section 2.1 – Financial inclusion) in collaboration with Vodafone and USAID will work
towards creating a better system for mobile services in the agricultural sector in Kenya, Tanzania
and Mozambique. The pilot project is based on a remote crowdsourced data-collection method
through mobile phones that identifies who and where farmers are and the crops they specialize in
producing. The data set is highly structured and referenced both temporally and spatially, as well as
highly person-identifiable, enabling enterprises to distinguish specific farmers and their products.
Privacy is governed by Vodafone’s data privacy policies to ensure ongoing protection.62
UN Global Pulse utilized Twitter data in order to track food price inflation in Indonesia. The data
was generated between March 2011 and April 2011, including 100,000 Tweets and categorized
through an initial filter of content based on keyword searches as being related to food price

60 http://ict-agri.eu/
61 http://www.openforis.org/tools/collect-earth.html
62 The World Bank (2015). Big Data in Action for Development

16
increases or fuel price increases, thus enhancing the potential to implement ongoing real-time
analysis and inform policy-making.63

International conferences
ICTforAg, 10 June 2016, Washington D.C.: This 1-day conference built on ICTforAg 2015 and
brought together more than 275 thought leaders and decision makers in agriculture and technology
from the international development community and the private sector to examine how new
innovations can empower smallholder farmers, and the entire value chains that support them,
through the use of information and communication technologies (ICT).64
World Congress on Computers in Agriculture, Asia Federation for Information Technology in
Agriculture 2016, 21-24 June 2016, Sunchon, Korea: The WCCA AFITA 2016 conference, with
the theme of “ICT for Future Agriculture”, aimed to promote a wide range of ICT research and
development for agriculture. It provided an opportunity to exchange the latest information and
ideas, and debate on the issues in ICT convergence research.65

63 UN Global Pulse. (2014). Mining Indonesian Tweets to Understand Food Price Crises. http://www.
unglobalpulse.org/sites/default/files/Global-Pulse-Mining-Indonesian-Tweets-Food-Price-Crises%20copy.pdf
64 http://ictforag.org/ http://www.ict4ag.org/en/
65 www.afita2016.org

17
4 Governance

‘For something so central to the modern world, the Internet is shambolically

governed. It is run by a hotch-potch of organisations with three- to five-letter
acronyms. Many of their meetings, both online and offline, are open to the
public. Some—like the Internet Governance Forum...are just talking shops.
Decision-making is slow and often unpredictable.
It is in short a bit chaotic. But sometimes chaos, even one that adherents like
to claim somewhat disingenuously is a “multi- stakeholder” approach, is not
disastrous: the Internet mostly works. And the shambles is a lot better than the
alternative—which nearly always in this case means governments bringing the
Internet under their control.’66
Governance issues, infrastructure, connectivity, data ownership, privacy and ethics, but also the
emphasis on specific sectors, including agriculture are being shaped by the private sector,
governments, national strategies, legal systems, but also by an international processes under the
auspices of the UN.
Since the beginning of its existence, few decades ago, the Internet was a network of networks.
Established initially as a research platform, it was, and continues to be characterized by openness,
global interconnectedness, multiple layers, and a unique decentralized nature that is not entirely
compatible with the traditional instruments of governance. Both borderless and unbounded, the
Internet makes physical proximity irrelevant and its global infrastructure, formed by millions of
servers that span across countries, provides a basis for fast and effective information exchange, as
well as for trade in goods and services.
Being a global resource, and with billions of users, the Internet requires some degree of
international cooperation on technical matters, but also on standards and norms that can ensure
that it remains a global public good, facilitating information flows and contributing towards
sustainable development globally.
Although the Economist’s view of chaos may sound exaggerated, it is not far from truth. Internet is
run by a number of technical organizations or communities, each carrying out a variety of tasks that
ensure its functionality. The Internet Society, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN), the Internet Engineers Task Force (IETF) and the W3C are such organizations
that can be either loose affiliations of experts, or non-profit companies.
Sovereign states are also concerned with Internet governance, especially in terms of aligning
standards and norms with national policies and regulations. Cybercrime - the crime, facilitated by
the network and computer technologies – is also a priority concern for governments. Because of
Internet’s global reach, the anonymity of the user, and the possibility that even small participants
have capacity to commit cybercrime that can affect millions, national legal frameworks that are
tailored for the ‘real world’ cannot ensure effective monitoring – national jurisdiction is inherently
linked to the notion of state sovereignty. 67
Many states also consider Internet as a very important avenue in the provision of public goods, such
as information dissemination and education. Other states are concerned with the content and other

66 ’In Praise Of Chaos: Governments’ Attempts To Control The Internet Should Be Resisted, THE ECONOMIST (Oct. 1,
2011), http://www.economist.com/node/21531011.
67 Appazov, A. (2014). Legal Aspects of Cybersecurity. Mimeo, Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen.

18
information that bypasses geographical borders and may clash with local cultures and social
practices and goals.
Governments strive for a strengthened role of sovereign states in the governance of Internet, either
within a multi-stakeholder context, or within multilateral fora.68 The World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS) – a UN summit that was initiated in order to create an evolving multi-
stakeholder platform including technical communities, governments, civil society and academics -
aims at addressing the issues raised by ICTs through a structured and inclusive approach at the
national, regional and international levels.
This multi-stakeholder model reflected by WSIS is not unchallenged. Many governments prefer to
discuss Internet governance in intergovernmental or multilateral fora, such as the World
Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT). This multilateral model could assign the
responsibility of governing the Internet to sovereign states, providing limited space for other
stakeholders.

Technical organizations and communities

The Internet evolved around a culture of cooperation, and the technical organizations that ensure
its functionality matured reflecting this culture. These organizations do not operate under
government authority – most are inter-linked and have evolved through discussions and
conversations in various forums, adopting more or less formal organizational structures to solve
problems.
The openness, global interconnectedness, and decentralized nature of the Internet is mirrored on
the structure of these organizations, which in essence are operating as multi-stakeholder
platforms.69 Although technical in nature, their operations can sometimes touch political issues,
with decision-making based often on rough consensus through procedures that are characterized
by openness.
Established in 1986, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has evolved together with the
Internet, being responsible for setting standards for communication protocols, namely the
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP) – a set of rules that govern how
computers and servers communicate worldwide. IETF has a cooperative, consensus-based,
decision-making process, involving a wide variety of individuals. IETF is open to any interested
individual, including representatives of sovereign governments who are not accorded any
particular deference and are expected to have the technical skills to engage in discussions and
testing procedures.70
While IETF focuses on shorter term issues of engineering and standards making, the Internet
Research Task Force (IRTF) focuses on longer term research issues on Internet protocols,
applications, architecture and technology. The IRTF is composed of a number of focused and long-
term Research Groups. For example, the Human Rights Protocol Considerations Research Group is
mandated to assess the relationship between standards and protocols and human rights as defined
in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR). Its guidelines aim at informing future protocol development and decision
making where protocols and standards impact the effective exercise of the rights to freedom of

68 World Bank Group (2016). Digital Dividends. World Development Report 2016.
69 Waz, J. and P. Weiser (2013). Internet Governance: The Role of Multistakeholder Organizations. Journal of
Telecommunications and High Technology Law, Vol. 10, No. 2.
70 Kurbalija, J. (2014). An Introduction to Internet Governance. www.diplomacy.edu

19
expression or association. Research groups are formed by individual experts, rather than by
representatives of organizations.
The Internet Activities Board (IAB) traces its origins back to1972 when it was established by Vint
Cerf – one of the Internet’s early pioneers. IAB provides long-term technical direction for Internet
development, ensuring the Internet continues to grow and evolve as a platform for global
communication and innovation. IAB’s membership is made up by private sector experts and
academics. IAB also oversees the work of IETF and IRTF.
The Internet Society (ISOC) was formed in 1992 to provide an institutional home and financial
support for the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and its standard-setting activities and is one
of the main representatives of the technical community. ISOC also provides a hub for IRTF and IAB.
The Society facilitates open development of standards, protocols, administration, and the technical
infrastructure of the Internet and plays an active role in international fora on Internet governance,
such as the WSIS and ITU.
Since 2010, ISOC is granted Consultative Status by ECOSOC and participates in relevant UN
conferences and preparatory meetings. Based on this status, ISOC participates in the Human Rights
Council, and is recognized as "an NGO in operational relations with UNESCO" and is part of
UNESCO's Communication and New Technologies Joint Program Commission. ISOC is also a
Permanent Observer to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and Observer
organization to the Steering Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR). Participation in
ISOC is open to everyone, including organizations, experts, academics and NGOs.71
Internet communication is based on addresses - every computer has an Internet Protocol (IP)
address that is unique. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
coordinates and ensures the secure operation of the Internet’s systems of addresses that includes
IP addresses and domain names (such as .com, .int, or .org) but also generic country codes (such
as .uk, .in, .cn). ICANN – a California based non-profit organization – is responsible for assigning
unique names and numbers that constitute Internet addresses globally since 1998 initially through
an agreement with the US Department of Commerce to undertake functions of the Internet
Assigned Number Authority (IANA).72
In 2014, the US Department of Commerce relinquished its oversight role of ICANN and the
organization initiated a transition process towards a fully independent transnational and inclusive
body with the responsibility of assigning domain names and numbers. In addition to other
stakeholders (such as IETF), ICANN has introduced government participation through the creation
of the Government Advisory Committee (GAC) that is composed of over 140 governments. GAC’s
mandate is to ‘provide advice particularly on matters where there may be an interaction between
ICANN's policies and various laws and international agreements or where they may affect public
policy issues’.73
The World Wide Web Consortium (3WC) is an international community that develops open and
voluntary standards for building and rendering web pages to ensure the long-term growth of the
web. W3C is also focusing on technologies to enable web access anywhere, anytime, using any
device. This includes Web access from mobile phones and other mobile devices.

71 https://www.Internetsociety.org/who-we-are/our-community-and-partners
72 Sylvain, O. (2015). Legitimacy and Expertise in Global Internet Governance. Journal on Telecommunications and High
Technology Law 31. Prior to 1998. It was the US Department of Defence in association with the University of Southern
California Information Sciences Institute that administered Internet identifiers.
73 https://gacweb.icann.org/display/gacweb/Governmental+Advisory+Committee

20
 International fora on Internet governance

The World Summit on the Information Society

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was initiated in 2003 by the UN in order to
create an evolving multi-stakeholder platform to address ICT governance issues through a
structured and inclusive approach at the national, regional and international levels. Its goal is to
achieve a common vision, desire and commitment to build an inclusive and development-oriented
global Information Society.
The Summit, held in two phases in 2003 and 2005, developed a multi-stakeholder process including
governments, international organizations, Internet and technical communities, non-profit
organizations, the private sector and civil society. Since 2005, a series of WSIS-related events is
being held on an annual basis. These are re-branded as WSIS Forum, and are hosted by the ITU and
co-organized by UNESCO, UNCTAD and UNDP (see Annex A for a summary of the main WSIS
events).
WSIS has strengthened the role of states in Internet governance, while at the same time retains an
inclusive and multi-stakeholder nature, addressing challenges, such as the digital divide (the
inequality in access to information and communication) and discussing the opportunities of the
new information and communication environment.
The WSIS Geneva Declaration of Principles emphasizes the importance of the ethical dimensions of
the Information Society, viewing ICTs as an avenue of progress with respect to the realization of
human rights and fundamental freedoms. According to the Geneva Principles, the same rights that
people have offline must also be protected online.74 The United Nations General Assembly has
expressed its support to the multi-stakeholder process of WSIS calling for close alignment between
the WSIS process and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.75
The Geneva Plan of Action also identified eighteen areas of activity (or Action Lines), including
agriculture, on which governments, civil society, businesses and international organizations could
work together to achieve the potential of ICTs for development.
e-agriculture is one of the Action Lines identified in the Geneva Plan of Action of WSIS. On
agriculture, the Plan of Action called stakeholders to (i) ensure the systematic dissemination of
information using ICTs on agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries, forestry and food, in order to
provide ready access to comprehensive, up-to-date and detailed knowledge and information,
particularly in rural areas; and (ii) to promote public-private partnerships to maximize the use of
ICTs as an instrument to improve production (quantity and quality).
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) was assigned the responsibility
of organizing follow-up activities related to e-agriculture. FAO conducted an extensive survey on
the subject of the action line, and then together with the Founding Partners, launched the e-
Agriculture Community of Practice in 2007 as part of this follow-up.76

74http://www.itu.int/net/wsis/docs/geneva/official/dop.html
75 UNGA Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 16 December 2015 70/125. Outcome document of the high-level
meeting of the General Assembly on the overall review of the implementation of the outcomes of the World Summit on
the Information Society.
76 E-Agriculture’s founding partners include the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR);

Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Development (CTA); FAO; Global Alliance for Information and Communication
Technologies and Development (GAID); Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR); Global Knowledge Partnership
(GKP); Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, (GIZ); International Association of Agricultural

21
In 2014, on the basis of a report provided by FAO, a WSIS event (WSIS+10 High Level Event),
reviewed progress on the Action Line e-Agriculture, underlining a number of future challenges,
including ICT application content, capacity development, gender and diversity.77
The WSIS also promoted the development and implementation of national e-Agriculture strategies
with the aim of providing reliable and affordable connectivity and integrating ICTs in rural
development to support food security and hunger eradication. The meeting encouraged all
stakeholders to:
(i) foster collaboration and knowledge sharing in agriculture via electronic communities of
practice, including the e-Agriculture Community;
(ii) promote the creation and adaptation of content in local languages and contexts to
ensure equitable and timely access to agricultural knowledge by resource-poor men and
women farmers;
(iii) foster digital literacy of institutions and communities in rural and remote areas;
(iv) promote the use of ICTs to reinforce the resilience capacity of states, communities and
individuals to mitigate and adapt to natural and man-made disasters, food chain challenges,
socio-economic and other crises, conflicts and transboundary threats, diseases, and
environmental damages; and,
(v) support inclusive, efficient, affordable and sustainable ICT services by promoting Public-
Private Partnerships in cooperation with cooperatives, farmer organizations, academia, and
research institutions.

World Conference on International Telecommunications

The global multi-stakeholder process for the governance of the Internet proposed by WSIS is not
unchallenged. A number of countries advocate for a stronger role of governments in Internet
governance through a multilateral model in the context of the World Conference on International
Telecommunications (WCIT).
WCIT, convened by the International Telecommunications Union in 2012, aimed at discussing the
International Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs), which are the rules for the exchange of
telecommunications traffic across borders that were last negotiated in 1988.78
At the Conference, a number of countries supporting multilateralism in Internet governance made a
series of proposals related to Internet issues, such as access to Internet, IP addressing,
cybersecurity, SPAM, IP interconnection, regulation of operators and Internet traffic.79 Other
countries favoured the multi-stakeholder approach, advocating that Internet issues should not be

Information Specialists (IAALD); Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA); International Fund for
Agricultural Development (IFAD); International Centre for Communication for Development (IICD); United States
National Agricultural Library (NAL); United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA); the World
Bank.
77 e-agriculture 10 year Review Report. Implementation of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Action

Line C7.ICT Applications: e-agriculture. http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4605e.pdf

78 ITRs facilitate the exchange of international telecommunications traffic across borders focusing on operator

competition, mobile telephony roaming fees, and transparency.

79 EU Telecom Flash Message 2/2013. Cullen International http://www.cullen-

international.com/asset/?location=/content/assets/regulatory-intelligence/regulatory-news/wcit-12_post-
mortem_culleninternational.pdf/wcit-12_post-mortem_culleninternational.pdf

22
discussed in WCIT. These countries also expressed their concerns that a number of the proposals
would affect the Internet architecture, operations, content, security and the global interoperability,
The differences between delegations resulted in a highly political debate over the role of
governments in the governance of the Internet with the ITRs but also over human rights, privacy
and the freedom of speech.80 With the end of WCIT, although 89 countries signed the revised treaty,
55 countries decided not to sign it. Although most proposals on internet governance and
architecture do not appear in the final text, the treaty provides for a greater role of the WCIT in
Internet issues.81

Human rights, privacy and ethics

Principles and human rights

There is no international binding agreement on online human rights and often the debate centres
on the freedom of expression and access to information – both fundamental human rights in the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Many countries provide guidelines with
information about rights and freedoms in the context of ICTs.82
Nevertheless, according to a 2011 report of the UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur,
countries are increasingly censoring information online through blocking or filtering of content,
imposing impermissible restrictions on legitimate expression, disconnecting users from the
internet, and not providing adequate protections to privacy and data. In other countries, even
though individuals may have access to online content free of censorship, Internet access may not be
widely available for the majority of the population. Both aspects of access affect the right to
freedom of opinion and expression.83
Mass surveillance practices are also an important issue. In 2013, the Special Rapporteur on the
promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression issued a report
suggesting that nations’ laws on surveillance were inadequate or non-existent. Although concerns
about national security and criminal activity may justify the exceptional use of communications
surveillance technologies, such inadequate national legal frameworks create a fertile ground for
arbitrary and unlawful infringements of the right to privacy in communications and, consequently,
also threaten the protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression.84
In June 2012, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution preserving human rights on the
internet, affirming that people have the same rights online that they have offline—in particular
freedom of expression which is applicable regardless of frontiers and through any media of one’s
choice. 85

80 World Bank Group (2016). Digital Dividends. World Development Report 2016.
81 http://www.internetsociety.org/wcit
82 For example, Council of Europe Guide on Human Rights for Internet Users, adopted in 2014.
83 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression.

UNGA A/66/290, 10 August 2011.

84 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression,

Frank La Rue. Human Rights Council, A/HRC/23/40, 17 April 2013.

85 The promotion, protection and enjoyment of human rights on the Internet. Human Rights Council, A/HRC/20/L.13 29

June 2012.

23
The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) – a multi-stakeholder platform that enables the discussion of
public policy issues pertaining to the Internet under the UN – has provided a framework on how
human rights should be interpreted to apply to the Internet environment, and the Internet policy
principles which must be upheld in order to create an environment which supports human rights to
the maximum extent possible. The Charter of Human Rights and Principles for the Internet covers
the whole spectrum of human rights drawing on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and
other covenants that make up the International Bill of Human Rights at the United Nations (see
Annex B).86 The 2011 report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, and the 2012
landmark decision by the UN Human Rights Council on human rights and the internet have both
affirmed the value of the Charter.87

Personal data protection and privacy

Governments collect large amounts of personal information for civil registries, social security,
housing records and tax purposes. The collection of biometric data for passport issuance for
identification purposes adds to a wealth of personal data that is collected, stored and managed by
states through ICTs to increase efficiency and reduce bureaucracy. Often, governments face
challenges to ensure a proper balance between the privacy rights of their citizens and national
security.
With the rapid expansion of software and a web search engine companies, social network platforms
and e-commerce, users disclose personal information that, although makes service delivery and
social networking more efficient and relevant, results in a massive amount of identifiable
information that is owned, controlled and used by digital service providers.
A challenge for privacy is the expanding use of Big Data – data that is subject to complex automated
discriminatory technologies – that can classify users and customers into categories according to
their preferences, income, ethnicity, political views and other sensitive characteristics. The Internet
of Things that connects devices to the Internet, can also result in detailed user profiles and poses
similar privacy challenges.
Many States have rules that ensure that personal data is protected – about 107 countries have
privacy laws in place as of 2014 with half of them being developing countries.88 These legal
frameworks define the purposes for which personal data can be collected legitimately, and
establish rules for its proper management and protection from misuse. For example in the EU, the
Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications (ePrivacy Directive) builds on the EU telecoms
and data protection frameworks to ensure that all communications over public networks maintain
respect for fundamental rights, in particular a high level of privacy, regardless of the technology
used. This Directive was last updated in 2009 to provide clearer rules on customers' rights to
privacy and another revision is currently under preparation.89

86 See Charter of Human Rights and Principles for the Internet at

https://www.intgovforum.org/cms/dynamiccoalitions/72-ibr
87 United Nations Human Rights Council, 2012, Resolution A/HRC/RES/20/8: Promotion and protection of all human rights,

civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, UN General Assembly: OHCHR.
Rue, Frank, 2011, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion
and Expression. Human Rights Council: UN General Assembly, A/HRC/17/27, May 16, 2011.
88 UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development). 2015. Information Economy Report:

Unlocking the Potential of E-Commerce for Developing Countries. Geneva: UNCTAD

89 https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/online-privacy. The ePrivacy Directive adopted in 2009 requires

Member States to ensure that users grant their consent before cookies (small text files stored in the user's web browser)
are stored and accessed in computers, smartphones or other device connected to the Internet.

24
In 2013, the OECD published its Guidelines on the Protection of Privacy and Transborder Flows of
Personal Data, revising work originally carried out in the 1980s to enhance privacy protection in a
data-driven economy.90 The Africa Union Convention on Cybersecurity and Personal Data
Protection provides for establishing legal frameworks aimed at strengthening fundamental rights
and public freedoms, particularly concerning the protection of data.91 At the international level, in
2015 the United Nations Assembly adopted a resolution on the right to privacy in the digital age
and appointed a special rapporteur on the right to privacy to ensure its promotion and protection,
including in connection with the challenges arising from new technologies.92
The UN Global Pulse, an innovation initiative of the United Nations Secretary-General to harness
safely and responsibly the potential of Big Data for sustainable development and humanitarian
action, has developed a set of Privacy Principles in consultation with its Data Privacy Advisory
Group. The Group comprises of experts from public and private sector, academia and civil society,
and provides a forum for a continuous dialogue on critical topics related to data protection and
privacy and to how privacy protected analysis of Big Data can contribute to sustainable
development and humanitarian action.93
The issue of protecting personal information collected, stored and managed by ICTs becomes more
complex, as personal data are being processed and transferred on a regular basis across national
borders. There is no international binding agreement on cross-border digital data flows and in
many countries although data protection and privacy laws are based on a common set of principles
they are locally adapted and often do not comply with each other.94
Instead, digital data transfers, as well as digital trade, are often governed by bilateral, multilateral
or plurilateral agreements. For example, The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation initiated the Cross-
border Privacy Enforcement Arrangement Privacy Framework to underpin the free flow of
information in the Asia-Pacific region to improve consumer confidence and ensure the growth of
electronic commerce.95
The US and the EU initiated a framework for transatlantic data flows – especially personal data of
European consumers – in 2000 (Safe Harbor Agreement). In 2016, a new arrangement – the EU-US
Privacy Shield – was negotiated establishing clear safeguards and transparency obligations on US
companies that import personal data from the EU.96 In other cases, countries establish rules that
require the local storage of citizen’s personal data. #

Trade in digital goods and services

Trade in digital goods and services is governed by the World Trade Organization (WTO). The
Information Technology Agreement (ITA), originally signed in 1996, is an agreement whereby 82
WTO Members have agreed to extend zero tariffs to information technology products. Fifty of those
WTO Members agreed at the Nairobi Ministerial Conference in December 2015 to further expand

90 OECD (2013). The OECD Privacy Framework. http://www.oecd.org/internet/ieconomy/privacy-guidelines.htm

91 African Union 23rd Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the Union (2014). African Union Convention on Cybersecurity
and Personal Data Protection
http://pages.au.int/sites/default/files/en_AU%20Convention%20on%20CyberSecurity%20Pers%20Data%20Protec%2
0AUCyC%20adopted%20Malabo.pdf
92 UNGA (2015). The right to privacy in the digital age. A/HRC/28/L.27, 24 March 2015
93 http://www.unglobalpulse.org/privacy-and-data-protection
94 World Bank Group (2016). Digital Dividends. World Development Report 2016.
95 http://www.apec.org/Groups/Committee-on-Trade-and-Investment/Electronic-Commerce-Steering-Group/Cross-

border-Privacy-Enforcement-Arrangement.aspx
96 http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-16-216_en.htm

25
the list of products that would benefit from duty-free through the so-called ITA Expansion.
Signatories of the ITA represent 97 percent of the world trade in information technology products.
Both the original ITA and the ITA expansion eliminated import duties on products used as carrier
media (e.g. CDs, DVDs, etc.) and trade in software and data, but include no further provisions
concerning digital goods.
The WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), by setting
minimum standards for the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights, provides
much of the legal framework necessary for international trade in intangible digital products. TRIPS
disciplines on the non-discriminatory availability of Intellectual Property rights such as undisclosed
information, copyright (including for software), patents and trademarks in WTO Members provide
the framework in which the use rights to IP-protected digital products can be traded in the form of
IP licenses, and which in turn shape much of commercial transborder information flows.
The WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) has an Annex on Telecommunications
that supports all other ICT enabled services and ensures that any suppliers of committed services
will have reasonable and non-discriminatory access to telecom networks and services they need. A
wide variety of services also benefit from bound commitments to cross border supply, some of
which are not subject to any of the restrictions that may be listed in schedules, if applicable.
Many of these result in legal bindings on cross-border information flows and trade that is
electronically delivered, both for ICT services, themselves, as well as for a significant number of
ICT-enabled services. If necessary, governments may be able to avail themselves of exceptions to
the GATS obligations in the interest of e.g. protecting privacy and preventing cybercrime or fraud,
subject to disciplines to reduce the trade restrictiveness of the measures used.97
Increasingly, regional trade agreements contain specific chapters or sections on electronic
commerce.98 Such trade agreements are increasingly utilized to govern information flows including
personal data transfers. For example, the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) E-Commerce chapter is
the most comprehensive chapter on electronic commerce in regional trade agreements to date. It
includes a number of commitments in order to facilitate trade in the digital sphere, while it also
provides for commitments on consumer protection TPP requires its signatories to allow the cross-
border transfer of digital information in line with national policies that provide for the protection of
personal data. TPP signatories have also agreed to seek to achieve compatibility among privacy
regulations. 99

97 GATS Article XIV specifies that any inconsistent measures taken must not only be "necessary", but also are "subject to
the requirement that such measures are not applied in a manner which would constitute a means of arbitrary or
unjustifiable discrimination between countries where like conditions prevail, or a disguised restriction on trade in
services".
98 Of the RTAs notified to the WTO to date, around a quarter contain provisions on electronic commerce. Cf. WTO Regional

Trade Agreements Information System http://rtais.wto.org/UI/PublicMaintainRTAHome.aspx

99 Aaronson, S.A. (2016). The Digital Trade Imbalance and Its Implications for Internet Governance. Institute for

International Economic Policy Working Paper Series, Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington
University, April.

26
 Annex 1
The World Summit on the Information Society

- First Phase of the WSIS, Geneva 2003 - the Geneva Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action
In 2003, WSIS agreed on the Geneva Declaration of Principles and the Geneva Plan of Action. The
Geneva Declaration of Principles underlined the objective:
to build a people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented
Information Society, where everyone can create, access, utilize and share
information, respecting human rights.
The Principles also laid down the foundations of a multi-stakeholder process for Internet
governance characterized by the effective participation, partnership and cooperation of
governments, the private sector, civil society, international organizations, and the technical and
academic communities. 100
The Geneva Plan of Action identified eighteen areas of activity (or Action Lines) on which
governments, civil society entities, businesses and international organizations could work together
to achieve the potential of ICTs for development. These Action Lines put emphasis on the role of the
public sector and other stakeholders in the promotion of ICT, information and communication
infrastructure; the importance of access to knowledge, capacity building and building of an enabling
environment, as well as issues related to cultural diversity and the ethical dimensions of ICT.101
Emphasis was also placed on ICT applications that could benefit all aspects of life, supporting
sustainable development, in the fields of public administration, business, education and training,
health, employment, environment, agriculture and science within the framework of national e-
strategies.

Second Phase of the WSIS, Tunis, 2005 – Implementation and working definition of Internet
governance
In 2005, WSIS set up an implementation mechanism at the international level for the Geneva Plan of
Action through the endorsement of The Tunis Commitment and the Tunis Agenda for the
Information Society. It was agreed that implementation of the Geneva Plan of Action will be
moderated or facilitated by UN agencies when appropriate, with ITU, UNESCO and UNDP playing a
leading facilitating role.102
In Tunis, WSIS participants discussed further on the governance of Internet. The discussion was
based on a report by the Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG), established by the UN
Secretary General. WGIG also provided a working definition of Internet governance as:
the development and application by governments, the private sector and civil
society, in their respective roles, of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-

100 WSIS (2003). Declaration of Principles Building the Information Society: a global challenge in the new Millennium.
Document WSIS-03/GENEVA/DOC/4-E
WSIS (2003). Plan of Action. Document WSIS-03/GENEVA/DOC/5-E.
101 WSIS (2003). Geneva Plan of Action WSIS-03/GENEVA/DOC/0005
102 Second Phase of the WSIS (16-18 November 2005, Tunis), Tunis Commitment WSIS-05/TUNIS/DOC/7; Tunis Agenda

for the Information Society. WSIS-05/TUNIS/DOC/6 (rev. 1). http://www.itu.int/net/wsis/docs2/tunis/off/6rev1.pdf

27
 making procedures, and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the
Internet.
The WGIG report also highlighted the respective roles and responsibilities of governments,
intergovernmental and international organizations and other forums, as well as the private sector
and civil society from both developing and developed countries.
Although the role of the private sector was underlined as ‘taking the lead in day-to-day operations,
and with innovation and value creation at the edges’, it was recognized that governance includes
social, as well as economic and technical issues, such as security and safety and developmental
concerns, which warrant involvement of the public sector.
The Tunis Agenda recognized that the authority for Internet-related public policy issues is the
sovereign right of States, while the private sector has had, and should continue to have, an
important role in the development of the Internet, both in the technical and economic fields. Civil
society, intergovernmental and international organizations were encouraged to continue to have
an important role at the community level, the coordination of on Internet-related public policy
issues, and the development of technical standards and relevant policies respectively.
The Tunis Agenda also proposed the establishment of new forum for multi-stakeholder policy
dialogue, the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), as a platform for discussion of Internet governance
issues. IGF (hosted by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs) provides a space for
various stakeholder groups to discuss public policy issues relating to the Internet, exchange
information and share good practices. While there is no negotiated outcome, the IGF informs those
with policy-making power in both the public and private sectors.103

WSIS+10 High Level Event, 2014 – a review of implementation

The WSIS+10 High Level Event in 2014, coordinated by the ITU in close collaboration with all UN
Agencies under their respective mandates, provided an opportunity for a 10-year review of
progress on the implementation of previous World Summit outcomes. Discussions also focused on
gaps and challenges, as well as on areas for future actions beyond 2015.104
The High Level Event reiterated their commitment on the Geneva Plan of Action of 2003 and the
Tunis Agenda of 2005, recognized significant progress, but also underlined challenges.105 The Action
Lines of the Geneva Plan of Action were enhanced (including the Action Line related to ICT
applications on agriculture) in order to reflect technological progress in ICT and the rapid growth of
Internet.
In terms of governance, the High Level Event called for encouraging people-centered and inclusive
governance models, the development of national ICT policies, e-strategies and regulatory
frameworks that enable sustainable development.

103 http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/
104 Before this High Level Event, in 2013 UNESCO, in partnership with ITU, UNCTAD and UNDP, organized a First WSIS+10
Review Event. Both events providing a substantive contribution for the on-going WSIS+10 review, which concluded at the
United Nations General Assembly in 2015. UNESCO (2013). Towards Knowledge Societies for Peace and Sustainable
Development First WSIS+10 Review Event.
http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CI/CI/pdf/wsis/WSIS_10_Event/wsis10_outcomes_en.pdf
105 WSIS+10 Statement on Implementation of WSIS Outcomes and the WSIS+10 Vision for WSIS Beyond 2015.

http://www.itu.int/net/wsis/documents/HLE.html

28
WSIS Forum 2015 – Sustainable Development Goals
The WSIS Forum 2015 built upon the outcomes of the UN General Assembly Overall Review of the
implementation of the WSIS outcomes (UNGA Resolution 70/125), which recognized the necessity
of holding this Forum on an annual basis and called for a close alignment between WSIS and the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) processes. The WSIS Forum will therefore serve as a key
platform for discussing the role of ICTs as a means of implementation of the Sustainable
Development Goals and targets, with due regard to the global mechanism for follow-up and review
of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The United Nations Group
on the Information Society (UNGIS) developed a new tool to map how ICTs may contribute to the
implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).106 This mapping exercise draws
direct linkages between the Geneva Action Plan and the SDGs aiming at strengthening the impact of
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for sustainable development.

106WSIS Forum (2015). WSIS -SDG Matrix: Linking WSIS Action Lines with Sustainable Development Goals.
http://www.itu.int/net4/wsis/sdg/Content/wsis-sdg_matrix_document.pdf

29
 Annex 2

Charter of Human Rights and Principles for the Internet

UN Internet Governance Forum

The Internet Rights and Principles Dynamic Coalition (IRPC) is an open network of individuals and
organizations based at the UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) committed to making human
rights and principles work for the online environment. Since the 2009 IGF in Sharm El Sheikh IRPC
has been working to outline how human rights standards should be interpreted to apply to the
Internet environment, and the internet policy principles which must be upheld in order to create an
environment which supports human rights to the maximum extent possible.
The Internet offers unprecedented opportunities for the realization of human rights, and plays an
increasingly important role in our everyday lives. It is therefore essential that all actors, both public
and private, respect and protect human rights on the Internet. Steps must also be taken to ensure
that the Internet operates and evolves in ways that fulfil human rights to the greatest extent
possible.
To help realize this vision of a rights-based Internet environment, the 10 Rights and Principles are:
1) Universality and Equality
All humans are born free and equal in dignity and rights, which must be respected, protected and
fulfilled in the online environment.
2) Rights and Social Justice
The Internet is a space for the promotion, protection and fulfilment of human rights and the
advancement of social justice. Everyone has the duty to respect the human rights of all others in the
online environment.
3) Accessibility
Everyone has an equal right to access and use a secure and open Internet.
4) Expression and Association
Everyone has the right to seek, receive, and impart information freely on the Internet without
censorship or other interference. Everyone also has the right to associate freely through and on the
Internet, for social, political, cultural or other purposes.
5) Privacy and Data Protection
Everyone has the right to privacy online. This includes freedom from surveillance, the right to use
encryption, and the right to online anonymity. Everyone also has the right to data protection,
including control over personal data collection, retention, processing, disposal and disclosure.
6) Life, Liberty and Security
The rights to life, liberty, and security must be respected, protected and fulfilled online. These rights
must not be infringed upon, or used to infringe other rights, in the online environment.

30
7) Diversity
Cultural and linguistic diversity on the Internet must be promoted, and technical and policy
innovation should be encouraged to facilitate plurality of expression.
8) Network Equality
Everyone shall have universal and open access to the Internet’s content, free from discriminatory
prioritization, filtering or traffic control on commercial, political or other grounds.
9) Standards and Regulation
The Internet’s architecture, communication systems, and document and data formats shall be based
on open standards that ensure complete interoperability, inclusion and equal opportunity for all.
10) Governance
Human rights and social justice must form the legal and normative foundations upon which the
Internet operates and is governed. This shall happen in a transparent and multilateral manner,
based on principles of openness, inclusive participation and accountability.

31
 Annex 3
G20 Digital Economy Development and Cooperation Initiative

I. Overview: Global Economy in a Digitized World

1. During their meeting in Antalya in 2015, the G20 leaders recognized that we are living in an age
of Internet economy that brings both opportunities and challenges to global growth. In 2016, the
G20 will address ways to collectively leverage digital opportunities, cope with challenges, and
promote the digital economy to drive inclusive economic growth and development.
2. The digital economy refers to a broad range of economic activities that include using digitized
information and knowledge as the key factor of production, modern information networks as an
important activity space, and the effective use of information and communication technology (ICT)
as an important driver of productivity growth and economic structural optimization. Internet, cloud
computing, big data, Internet of Things (IoT), fintech and other new digital technologies are used to
collect, store, analyze, and share information digitally and transform social interactions. Digitized,
networked and intelligent ICTs enable modern economic activities to be more flexible, agile and
smart.
3. The digital economy is experiencing high growth, rapid innovation, and broad application to
other economic sectors. It is an increasingly important driver of global economic growth and plays
a significant role in accelerating economic development, enhancing productivity of existing
industries, cultivating new markets and industries, and achieving inclusive, sustainable growth.
4. While recognizing existing national, regional, and global strategies on digital and internet issues
between and among different stakeholders, the G20 Digital Economy Task Force (DETF) has taken
the unique advantage of the G20 to help address both opportunities and challenges brought by
ICTs, and propose some common understanding, principles and key areas for the development and
cooperation of the digital economy. The G20 promotes communication and cooperation among its
members and beyond to make sure strong, vibrant and connected ICTs will enable a thriving and
dynamic digital economy, which drives global growth and benefits for all.

II. Guiding Principles: A Compass for Navigation

5. G20 members agree on the following common principles to promote the development of and
cooperation in the digital economy:
 Innovation
Technological innovation in ICTs as well as innovation in ICT-driven economic activities is among
the key driving forces of inclusive economic growth and development.
 Partnership
In order to improve cooperation, address common challenges, and advance the global digital
economy, closer partnership among G20 members can help share knowledge, information and
experiences, so that differences can be narrowed and various interests can be advanced through
constructive dialogues. The G20 recognizes the Internet is an important part of modern information
network that sustain digital economy. Internet governance should continue to follow the provisions
set forth in outcomes of World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). In particular, we affirm
our commitment to a multistakeholder approach to Internet governance, which includes full and
active participation by governments, private sector, civil society, the technical community, and

32
international organizations, in their respective roles and responsibilities. We support
multistakeholder processes and initiatives which are inclusive, transparent and accountable to all
stakeholders in achieving the digitally connected world.
 Synergy
Since the digital economy touches almost all economic and social sectors and is closely related to
other topics in the G20, particularly innovation and the new industrial revolution, it is the common
aspiration of G20 members to create synergy among discussions of these topics in order to avoid
duplication and ensure consistency.
 Flexibility
The G20 recognizes the importance of flexibility given the different concerns and priorities of
members.
 Inclusion
The G20 members should work together with all stakeholders, to bridge all manner of digital divide
and foster entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic activity, including further development of
content and services in a variety of languages and formats that are accessible to all people, who also
need the capabilities and capacities, including media, information and digital literacy skills, to make
use of and further develop information and communications technologies. Accordingly, we
recognize the vital importance of the principles of multilingualism to ensure the linguistic, cultural
and historical diversity of all nations. Digital inclusion and the use of digital technology to enhance
inclusion should remain key elements in promoting the digital economy to ensure that no one is left
behind, regardless of their gender, region, age, disability or economic status. The G20 members
recognize the potential of the digital economy to facilitate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda
for Sustainable Development.
 Open and enabling business environment
The G20 recognizes the critical importance of private sector on digital economy as well as of
enabling and transparent legal, regulatory, and policy environments, and fostering open,
competitive markets. Recognize the importance of enforcing competition and consumer protection
laws in the digital economy, which are conducive to market access, technological innovation in ICTs
and the growth of the digital economy.
 Flow of Information for Economic Growth, Trust and Security
G20 members recognize that freedom of expression and the free flow of information, ideas, and
knowledge, are essential for the digital economy and beneficial to development, as reaffirmed in
paragraph 4 of the Tunis Commitment of WSIS. We support ICT policies that preserve the global
nature of the Internet, promote the flow of information across borders and allow Internet users to
lawfully access online information, knowledge and services of their choice. At the same time, the
G20 recognizes that applicable frameworks for privacy and personal data protection, as well as
intellectual property rights, have to be respected as they are essential to strengthening confidence
and trust in the digital economy. The security of ICT enabled critical infrastructure needs to be
enhanced, so that ICTs can continue to be a reliable driving force in accelerating economic
development.

33
III. Key Areas: Unleash Greater Potential of Digital Economy
In line with the above principles, the DETF identifies priorities for cooperation in digital economy,
to provide favorable conditions for its development, boost economic growth, and ensure digital
inclusion. To this end, members are encouraged to:
6. Expand broadband access and improve quality
 Accelerate network infrastructure construction and facilitate interconnection. Promote the
establishment of Internet Exchange Points (IXPs). Encourage all countries to make Internet
access central to development and growth initiatives.
 Promote broadband network coverage, and improve service capacity and quality within a
legally predictable competitive environment. In particular, explore ways to expand high-
speed internet access and connectivity at affordable price.
7. Promote investment in the ICT Sector
 Improve the business environment through policy frameworks that facilitate research,
development and innovation (RDI) as well as investment, including cross-border
investment in the digital economy. Welcome Public Private Partnerships and commercial
equity investment funds as well as social funds to invest in ICT infrastructure and ICT
applications. Encourage development of open source technologies and other technologies.
 Encourage the organization of investment information exchange events among ICT
companies and financial institutions, and mutual investment in the ICT sector among G20
members.
8. Support entrepreneurship and promote digital transformation
 Encourage internet-based RDI and entrepreneurship through an enabling, transparent
legal framework, programs to support RDI and well-functioning capital markets for
innovative enterprises. Support developing and emerging countries to build capacities in
digital technology and internet-based entrepreneurship.
 Take advantage of the internet to promote innovation in products, services, processes,
organizations and business models.
 Encourage the integration of digital technology and manufacturing, to build a more
connected, networked, and intelligent manufacturing sector. Take advantage of ICTs to
improve education, health and safety, environmental protection, urban plan, healthcare
and other public services. Promote the continued development of service sectors such as e-
commerce, e-government, e-logistics, online tourism, and Internet finance and the sharing
economy. Promote digitization of agricultural production, operation, management, and
networked transformation of agricultural products distribution.
 Create conditions for broadband providers to promote expansion, innovation, consumer
protection, and competition, including examining the possibilities of introducing policies
to prevent anti-competitive blocking, throttling, or prioritization of data by commercial
broadband networks. We note the important regulatory and legislative processes in some
members on the open Internet in the context of digital economy and the underlying
drivers for it, and call for further information-sharing at the international level on the
opportunities and challenges.
9. Encourage e-commerce cooperation
 Promote cross-border trade facilitation for e-commerce by using trusted digital means,
such as paperless customs clearance, electronic transaction documents, mutual
recognition of digital authentication, electronic payment and online payment. Meanwhile,

34
 strengthen cooperation to prevent barriers to market access and other barriers. Attention
should be given to issues relating to taxation, such as ensuring the efficient payment of
appropriate taxes for international e-commerce, taking into account in particular the Base
Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) issues. Improve international efforts to measure e-
commerce, and the macroeconomic consequences of digital economy.
 Strengthen cooperation in protecting consumers’ rights and develop dispute resolution
approaches, ensuring options for consumers that are adapted to the characteristics of e-
commerce within the national framework of laws and regulations provided that they are
consistent with member’s international legal obligations.
 Build confidence of users which is an essential element of the digital economy by ensuring
the respect of privacy and protection of personal data.
10. Enhance digital inclusion
 Use a variety of policy measures and technical means to bridge the digital divides between
and within countries, in particular between developed and developing countries, regions
and groups, including between men and women, and promote universal access, including
open access to the Internet with equal digital opportunities for all. Promote the broadband
connectivity among the poorest citizens, especially the poorest 20 percent of citizens, and
citizens from low-density areas and strive to provide universal and affordable access to the
Internet in least developed countries. Reaffirm the goal of ensuring the next 1.5 billion
people are connected and have meaningful access to the Internet by 2020 in accordance
with the Connect 2020 agenda.
 Promote the use of technology in primary and secondary education as well as in non-
formal education, including in libraries, museums, and other community-based
organizations to reduce disparities between income levels and promote development of a
workforce for the digital economy. Strive towards ensuring an increased number of
primary and secondary students have lawful access to educational content, and broadband
connectivity as well as digital tools in their classrooms.
 Promote digital technologies for societal benefits such as food distribution, education,
health, subsidy distribution, governance.
 Recognizing that the digital economy may pose risks and challenges in terms of skills
shortages and mismatches and rising inequality for those who might be left behind
because they lack skills, it is important to promote the dissemination of digital skills and
more competitive workforces through cooperation among academic institutions and
technical schools, libraries, businesses and community organizations. Improve digital skills
of all people, the youth as well as the elderly, women and men, persons with disabilities,
the illiterate and vulnerable populations as well as those in low income and developing
countries, to enable their participation in the digital economy to unleash the potential of
creating opportunities for quality job creation, decent work provision as well as for income
growth and improving welfare. Strengthen cooperation in protecting labor rights.
11. Promote development of MSMEs
 Promote policies that support micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to use
ICT technology for innovation, improved competitiveness, and new distribution channels
in markets.
 Promote affordable digital infrastructures needed for the digitization of MSME operations.
 Encourage MSMEs to provide ICTs goods and services to the public sectors and to
participate in global value chains.

35
  Encourage participation in efforts, such as the Global Enterprise Registration initiative, to
make transparent and simple the business registration mechanisms.

IV. Policy Support: For an Open and Secure Environment

The G20 aims to encourage exchange of views, promote mutual understanding and strengthen
cooperation in policy making and regulation. To this end, members are encouraged to:
12. Intellectual Property
Recognize the key role of adequate and effective protection and enforcement of intellectual
property rights to the development of the digital economy, as reaffirmed by paragraph 26 of the
G20 Antalya Communique.
13. Promote cooperation with respect to independent choice of development path
Encourage members engaging in international cooperation to reduce, eliminate, or prevent
unnecessary differences in regulatory requirements to unleash the digital economy, recognizing
that all members should chart development paths that are consistent with their international legal
obligations and their development situations, historical and cultural traditions, national legal
systems, and national development strategies.
14. Cultivate transparent digital economy policy-making
 Develop and maintain open, transparent, inclusive, evidence-based digital economy policy
making which takes into account the full input of all public and private stakeholders.
Solicit their comments publicly before laws, regulations, policies and other instruments
are deliberated, developed and implemented.
 Encourage publishing of relevant, publicly available government data, recognizing the
potential to boost new technology, products and services.
 Encourage intelligent public procurement schemes to support the production of innovative
digital services and products by the private sector, whilst keeping the need to be market
led.
15. Support the development and use of international standards
Support the development and their use of the international standards for technological products
and services that are consistent with the international rules including WTO rules and principles.
16. Strengthen confidence and trust
 Promote the availability, integrity, confidentiality and authenticity of online transactions.
Encourage the development of secure information infrastructure to promote trusted,
stable, and reliable internet applications.
 As part of our efforts to address security risks, threats and vulnerabilities in the use of ICT,
including those to ICT-enabled critical infrastructures, endeavor to strengthen
international collaboration, capacity building and public-private partnerships, including
through constructive discussions in relevant international fora. Support and encourage the
use of risk-based technical standards, guidelines, and best-practices to identify, assess, and
manage security risk by both the public and private sectors.
 Jointly combat cybercrime and protect ICT environment by strengthening international
cooperation on these issues in online transactions.

36
17. Manage radiofrequency spectrum to promote innovation
Recognize the importance of efficient management of radiofrequency spectrum to achieve the full
potential of the mobile revolution in the time of digital economy.

V. Way Forward: Actions to Make a Difference

Recognizing that the digital shifts underway are reshaping economies and societies today and will
continue to do so in the future, the G20 agrees to cooperate and continue to work closely on these
matters. In this regard, the G20 will:
 Encourage multi-level exchanges, involving stakeholders such as governments, the private
sector, civil society, international organizations, technical and academic communities as
well as other parties such as industry organizations and worker organizations to share
views and promote cooperation in digital economy.
 Encourage G20 members to exchange experience on policy making and legislation, and
share best practices among members.
 Encourage training and research cooperation in digital economy issues to benefit the
developing countries of the G20.
 Welcome and encourage efforts made by the United Nations, UNCTAD, UNIDO, ILO, IMF,
ITU, OECD, World Bank Group and other international organizations to develop better
metrics for important policy issues like trust in the digital economy, e-commerce, cross-
border data flows, and the Internet of Things, as practical, relevant and appropriate.
 Look forward to IOs including the OECD and interested members, intensifying efforts to
measure the digital economy in macroeconomic statistics through conducting a voluntary
"good practices" survey of national statistical organizations, and organizing and hosting a
workshop for statisticians and digital companies on source data to measure the digital
economy.
 Interact actively with other engagement groups such as the B20, L20 and T20 to exchange
views among industry, business, civil society, and academia to pool ideas on how to
promote a sound digital economy.

37