Anita Gurumurthy, Executive Director of IT for Change, provided input to the 2023-24 Inter-Sessional Panel on 'Data for Development' by UNCSTD, held in Lisbon, Portugal, on 6 November 2023.
The submission reflects on the UNCTAD Issues Paper, emphasizing a paradigm shift towards addressing data flows with equity. It explores the distinction between equality and equity and highlights the crucial role of equity in achieving data for development. The document delves into the challenges posed by Big Tech's control over data and the evolving dynamics of the AI industry. It discusses the inequity issues in data for development, focusing on policy gaps, technological dependencies, and the dominance of certain nations. The need for a new social contract for data, emphasizing data as a common good, is underscored. The document calls for an update in human rights regimes regarding data rights and suggests recommendations to the CSTD for fostering a global data governance agenda that prioritizes equity. The proposed measures include establishing a global data contract, reorienting economic laws, enacting regulations for tech corporations, allocating public finance for data infrastructure, promoting public-community models, and harmonizing data governance with consumer, competition, and labor laws.
Read Anita's inputs here.