Learnings and Trends from the UNCTAD eCommerce Week 2022

The global policy community — including high-level government representatives — turned its attention to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) eCommerce Week in April, which focused on data and digitalization for development. UNCTAD is a U.N. agency supporting 195 countries on trade, finance, and development issues. 

This year's UNCTAD eCommerce Week was based on the Digital Economy Report 2021, which examined the implications of growing cross-border data flows, especially for developing countries. The 2021 report calls for reframing and broadening the international policy debate on data.

Therefore, with anticipation, we at the Datasphere Initiative followed several sessions and participated in 6 panels. 

The emerging concepts and trends discussed will dominate policy making in the years to come. So, it’s worth checking how they might impact your data governance and management plans in the future.

Here is a round-up of some of the cross-cutting themes about data we spotted arising from debates that are relevant to the CDO community:

1. There is a need for new policy concepts on data, but implementation will be key.

The Swiss-coined concept of “Digital self-determination” was presented in a session on “Digital self-determination – an alternative approach to data governance issues.” This conversation emphasized the need to balance people’s desire to control their data while recognizing how sharing data can significantly benefit society. The Government of Switzerland intends to leverage its concept of Digital Self-determination and create incentives such as a code of conduct for trustworthy data spaces so that the potential of data is better realized. 

The “Designing data governance solutions for the Global South” session introduced Japan’s Data Free Flow With Trust concept. The discussion highlighted the need to implement this concept through evidence-based examples and a multi-stakeholder exchange on policy making. 

The “Overcoming barriers to trust in cross-border data flows” session demonstrated the complexity of trust as a policy goal and the need to unpack the risks and benefits of policy frameworks.

The Datasphere Initiative was conceived based on a new concept, the “Datasphere,” a notion we define as “the complex system encompassing all types of data and their dynamic interactions with human groups and norms.” We believe this concept will help us approach our relationship with data more holistically to responsibly unlock its value for the benefit of all. The concrete actions the Datasphere Initiative is taking to implement this vision were presented in the special session “Unlocking the value of data for all through the Datasphere Initiative.”

2. There are too many assumptions and analogies in policy debates on data.

In several sessions, speakers contested the analogy of “data as the new oil,” reflecting how the analogy isn’t appropriate because data is different. Data’s non-rival nature makes it challenging to measure its value, as explored in the report We Need to Talk About Data, shared by the Datasphere Initiative during debates. Exchanges highlighted how data is a new asset — not only economic but also social — implicating rights and inclusion. Calls were made in sessions such as “The AfCFTA and data governance frameworks in Africa” to take a step back, understand policy goals and clarify intentions to ensure greater precision in regulating data and addressing global and national development goals.

3. Only creating national champions may not be the best approach for fostering data-driven industries. 

Speakers at the session on “Promoting inclusive data policy through capacity building” introduced several structured inequalities within the data economy. They highlighted how lessons learned from capacity-building projects show that developing countries desire to have their own data-driven industries and platforms. However, not all countries are well equipped to meet these goals due to access and infrastructure challenges, and market size. 

Other sessions also reflected that theme, bringing forth the concept of data poverty and noting how developing countries tend to be data exporters rather than data importers. The remedies put forward to address these inequalities were mixed and discussed in the session titled “Whether ‘data localization’ and ‘national champion’ approaches would lead to an inclusive digital economy?” The discussion emphasized a need for holistic and multifaceted policy tools and approaches to building robust national data industries.

4. While data is a driving force of the digital economy, patchwork regulatory frameworks persist. 

The session “Cross-border data transfers for inclusive growth of the digital economy in Southeast Asia” offered examples from Cambodia on the growth of e-commerce during the COVID-19 pandemic. The government has introduced offline consumer protection laws and set up a digital economy and businesses committee. However, leveraging the value of data remains a challenge due to divergent regulatory regimes. Speakers presented efforts to develop common and conducive regulatory frameworks. 

The session titled “Understanding the development impact of digital services trade” shared analysis from a number of studies by GIZ, the World Bank, and partners on data frameworks. The discussion underscored that regulation is not enough without institutional frameworks, effective implementation of rules, and investment in skills and underlying infrastructures to enable connectivity.

5. Increasing numbers of data policy initiatives are taking shape with a hunger for connecting geographic, sectoral, and stakeholder silos.

In the session “Democratizing digital intelligence: Maximizing the value of data for businesses in emerging markets,” the discussion underscored the need to address the problem of silos not only among actors at regional and international levels but also across sectors. The fragmented approach to gathering and leveraging data leads to different principles, regulations, and languages. 

An array of policy initiatives, technical tools, civic initiatives, studies, consultations, and events were shared and promoted during the sessions, including the Global Data Barometer, the State of Open Data Report, and the Data Values Project. Some of these organizations and initiatives are captured in the Datasphere Governance Atlas, the first flagship publication of the Datasphere Initiative, which maps organizations worldwide working on data governance. 

You can also find a complete list of sessions and recordings on the eCommerce Week website. Digital Watch, an initiative of the Geneva Internet Platform, has also prepared reports from the discussions.