Interview with Bernadette Lewis

Secretary General, Caribbean Telecomunications Union - CTU

1.- I have a special question: why not all the Caribbean countries are grouped together in LAC region, in relation to the Internet Governance topics?

Well, I think that there are some conditions. The CTU regards the Caribbean as any country touching the Caribbean. But when we look at the regional –Latin America and Caribbean- organizations we see that many Caribbean countries are not actively participating in the organizations of the region. What happens in fact is that many of the regional organizations tend to represent Latin America, and the Caribbean comes afterthoughts. Mostly all the proceedings are carried out entirely in Spanish, but there is a significant number of English language speaking countries in the Caribbean, and not always the regional organizations pay attention to this, so it is a problem. I have to say that LACNIC makes quite a difference in that, they have really reached out the Caribbean, they are making a consistent effort to include the Caribbean. Another problem is that most of the Caribbean countries are weak economies, with very small organizations, and there are not enough resources to attend consistently the fora outside the region, for example international meetings, includes a lot of costs. I think that one of the important aspects of the LACNIC strategy is that they have actually gone into the Caribbean, instead of making the Caribbean go to America. So, it is very important to help these countries to participate. The CTU has more than twenty countries, and we tend to work both with LACNIC and ARIN, and even ICANN as well. Both LACNIC and ARIN try to provide the same services, and they are making a lot of outreach in the region, they are both making a lot of capacity building, and CTU enjoys working in partnership with both organizations, and that is why we have been able to mobilizing lot more participation at LACNIC, at ARIN and at ICANN as well. The CTU has been working to really mobilize the Caribbean community to participate in fora such as this [the Preparatory Meeting for IGF at Rio].

2.- Do you consider that the IGF –both the regional and the global- has helped you to reach your achievements related to the Internet development in your region?

Well, the CTU has established the Caribbean IGF, and we have fed what comes out into the IGF. We have worked very closely with LACNIC, and IAN, and the ICANN, and ISOC. We have created in the Caribbean IGF a multistakeholder platform for collaboration, in addition we have been able to focus on the things that are of immediate concern to the Caribbean, because we have recognized that the whole spectrum of Internet Governance concerns is wide, is just phenomenal in terms of all the different aspects, so by opposition we started from what can we address for which we can make meaningful changes or advances, and so this is how we have addressed the IG. Some of the battles, some of the issues are definitively out of our realm, in terms that we don´t have at the Caribbean the level of technical expertise to participate at in-depth aspects at the fora, what we still make our recommendations in terms of how that will affect us, and we also participate in the whole politics formulation processes . We are having our fifth Caribbean Internet Forum at the end of August in Saint Kitts and Navis, and we have some tremendous successes coming out of it: we have a Caribbean Internet Governance Policy Framework  completely based on the work we have done in the different fora, we are presenting it now at the next Caribbean IGF in two weeks. We are in the process of publishing a handbook to guide governments on how to install IPV6, we are strongly promoting the installation of IXPs throughout the region , we have installed three IXPs in the region, which is a direct result of the work we have done in the IGF, as IXPs is one of the things that we are pushing. But the important thing is that this is not the work of a single organization, it takes multiple partners working together towards a common goal, if we are going to make any progress. The CTU itself does not have all the resources we need to do many of the things we are talking about, so we partner with other organizations to come to some sort of consensus.

3.- So, you are reaching concrete results that produce a real impact on the development of the Internet for all?

That´s right, and we are also looking at content now, that is our next issue. That is something that we need to focus on, the creation and the proper dissemination of content .
Content creation is something critical, is going to be our priority. Something significant is that the region -the Caribbean- is on the bring of economic collapse, and moving to the Information and Knowledge Society is vital, so we need to bring to the governments minds the importance of Internet Governance as it relates to surviving as a region.

That is why the understanding and appreciating of the importance of Internet Governance is something that we have to underscore, we have to emphasize. The CTU is about to embark on an ICT Innovation Road Show, we are going to twenty countries in the region, because we recognize that it is important not only to have access to the technology but what people do with it, how the Internet is going to help in economic and social development. So we will be going country to country, we will be customizing the Programme in each country, Internet Governance is a significant feature of the whole Programme, we will have LACNIC, and ARIN, ICANN and ISOC, all of them will be going with us through the region building public awareness, pointing to the governments that we need to and how can they really capitalize all the potential of Internet. In some cases it means a completely new way of thinking, because we have a baggage of colonial thinking that we brought we us, and when we are trying to apply it to something –like Internet- that is completely different it does not work. So, in some cases it is going to require that we abandon these practices because they no longer work. For example, we no longer have jobs in the agricultural market, but ICT presents an opportunity for different types of jobs.

That cultural changes are hard to achieve, is not an overnight, you have to change mindsets, this is significant and that is why we are determine to go to each country and to customize de programme to meet the specific needs in each market.

And what are the topics that you are working at in each country?

We are looking at business incubators for ICT innovation, we are looking to the whole issue of promoting to incorporate ICT in business to make them productive, valuable an sustainable. We have a significant sector that is focus on youth, because we have a lot of young people full of enthusiasm and we have to help it to become productive. All of this is oriented to the idea of productive use, beneficial use. And at a regional level, we are all small countries, and ICTs give the opportunity to get all together, ICTs are the tools now available to make it happen. So that is the sort of message that we are spreading through the region, that this is the opportunity for our small countries in the region for functional integration enabled by ICTs, that ICTs provide marvelous opportunities. And this is part of the creation of intellectual capacity. To rethink the way we are using these technologies, and this is not something that must only happen inside the countries, if we can apply the ICTs to engaging our intellectual capacities outside the countries this is very important , and it means that the whole notion country, of nationality and citizenship changes.

4.- Do you think that there are common issues among the developing countries, in relation to this topic of Internet Governance?

I think that the challenge is that we are consumers of technology, we tend not to be creative even in terms of how we use what we have. And we need to spark that spirit of innovating. You are investing money in the technology, lest make sure we get the maximum out of it. And it cause a certain curiosity about a piece of equipment that is performing a particular function in a particular way, we have to start asking ourselves what else can we do with it, and if we use it in this way ¿is it going to help solve some more problems?, and that sort of innovative thinking is absolutely necessary. I believe we have the intellectual capacity and we need to start thinking differently, we can do it, it is just a case of changing our minds. We have to be sure that the educational system supports the kind of innovations we are talking about, ICTs are not the answer by themselves, there are a whole lot of attendant systems and processes that have to support you deriving the benefits from the technologies, and this is the kind of ideas that have to be spoken and have to be articulated with governments. For example is not just a case of putting up computers in the schools, they are whole lot of other things that must be done to make sure that you get the maximum benefits.

5.- What do you think about electronic government and electronic governance as a topic related to take benefits from ICTs?

Yes, this is important, this is one of the topics we will are touching through the region. The CTU´s view is that the governments must be early adopters of the technologies. They must use the technologies to bring the citizens closer, when you engage your citizens in this way they learn to use the technologies, they get familiar with them and they can start thinking well if governments can do this why cannot I?, this is something that we must pursue.