Ayden Férdeline — ILF Ambassador Progress Report

I am now in month 11 of my Interledger research ambassadorship. Since my last update in July, I have principally been stewarding the work of the UN Internet Governance Forum Dynamic Coalition on Digital Financial Inclusion. We have convened five times since then, and we are making good progress towards a statement of principles that will be launched in Riyadh next month. In addition, I led the Parliamentarian Track at the recent Interledger Summit in Cape Town, where we provided elected representatives with bespoke programming, allowing them to explore the opportunities and challenges associated with building digital public infrastructure and in fostering responsible open payments.

Dynamic Coalition on Digital Financial Inclusion

From the earliest days of the Internet Governance Forum there was a view that working groups of some kind would need to be formed to provide reports and/or recommendations to the plenary body. However, because the establishment of formal subcommittees would create an administrative burden for the UN, a compromise was reached whereby “governing coalitions” of “civic cooperation based on mutual self-interest between government and non-governmental actors” would be formed. In this sense, Dynamic Coalitions serve the IGF’s role of policy-setting by being deliberative spaces within the IGF whereby interested stakeholders may discuss policy issues provided they comply with specific criteria directed by the UN to their relevance, capacity, and structure. The Dynamic Coalition on Digital Financial Inclusion has been careful to meet these requirements and is not an advocacy or narrow interest group, but an independent space for evidence-informed policy recommendation development.

As a consequence, while officially I am the chair of this working group, I see myself more as a rapporteur capturing the perspectives of our members and various subject matter experts, helping us reach consensus on recommendations. Since my last report in late July, we have met virtually four times, held an in-person consultation at the Interledger Summit in Cape Town, and to move us forward quicker, I also interviewed subject matter experts one-on-one to identify areas of agreement and contention. I am very grateful to all of our members, particularly those from the Interledger community, who have joined every call and actively shared their perspectives.

The Dynamic Coalition on Digital Financial Inclusion works openly and transparently: all of our meetings are transcribed (by me! so apologies for any typos) and these transcripts can be found on the IGF website. For ease of reference I am sharing here links to recent transcripts and the anonymized one-on-one interviews:

• Meeting of August 29, 2024 with guest Victoria Coker – Slides | Transcript
• Meeting of September 30, 2024 with guest Xiaoji Song – Slides | Transcript
• Meeting of October 16, 2024 (no external guest) – Slides | Transcript
• Meeting of October 26, 2024 (Interledger Summit) – Recording
• Meeting of November 6, 2024 with guests Judith Hellerstein and Dr. Muhammad Shabbir Awan – Slides | Transcript
• Summary Notes from Expert Interviews (Anonymized)

We have also began reaching out to and interacting with other Internet Governance Forum Dynamic Coalitions, most recently with the Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility and Disability, to gather cross-IGF insights and to grow awareness of our efforts.

In addition, I participate in the biweekly meetings of the Dynamic Coalition Coordination Group to keep UN DESA, the IGF Secretariat and other stakeholders updated on our progress. I also join the meetings of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group’s Working Group on IGF Strengthening and Strategy in an observer capacity to understand the direction that nation-states and intergovernmental organizations are channeling for the IGF and other, similar multilateral and multistakeholder initiatives, to take.

What's next? We are on-track to publish an initial report next month in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, at the annual Internet Governance Forum. I will share this resource with the Interledger community once it is available.

Parliamentarian Track at the Interledger Summit

This year’s Interledger Summit hosted a Parliamentarian Track, which brought parliamentarians from across Africa into the heart of the conversation on digital financial inclusion. Co-curated with the Honorable Neema Lugangira, a Member of Parliament from Tanzania, together with the African Parliamentary Network on Internet Governance (APNIG), this track sought to deepen multistakeholder dialogue and strengthen collaboration between policymakers and the Interledger community on the development of responsible, interoperable payment systems.

Read this blog post on the Interledger website about how I hope these discussions can shape future legislative agendas and the regulatory frameworks that will govern digital finance and inclusion efforts across the continent.

I believe that to make progress on the issues that matter to our community, we must engage with elected officials who hold a range of views. While I may not agree with every official on every issue, I believe that good faith engagement – including when individuals hold different positions – is essential to us making progress.

What's next? The Interledger Foundation is in negotiations with APNIG to potentially sign a Memorandum of Understanding that may expand upon the scope of activities that both parties jointly engage in.