Expert-Informed Working Groups Setting the Stage for IX Summit of the Americas
Photo by fauxels
by cameron gil
In early April, the Summit of the Americas Secretariat confirmed the Organization for Social Media Safety’s (OFSMS) place and opportunity to participate in several key working groups related to the IX Summit of the Americas.
The Secretariat formed these working groups with an eye on incorporating the network of civil society organization experts across the Americas. The purpose was to produce a cornucopia of recommendations and suggestions fit for the political actors and heads of state that will assemble in Los Angeles, this June. Together, as representatives for our organizations and with our diverse set of knowledge, we set out to fulfill the goal of bettering the Summit’s substantive output for governments, policy makers, and observers. Each working group produced a guiding document, a concise summary of what the civil society experts believe needs to be discussed and included in any agreements spurred on by the heads of state.
Importantly, the format of the three working groups to which OFSMS contributed reflected a network of experts across the entire sub-region of Canada, the Caribbean and the United States. The diversity of backgrounds and insight enabled the organizations’ representatives to identify pillars consisting of policy recommendations, notes pertinent to ongoing social change, valuable conceptual frameworks for governments, and more which incorporated the regional realities of the Americas. Not all parts of the working groups’ sub-region, and all of Americas in our minds, are at the same level of digital transformation, health infrastructure buildout, or democratization. However, the network effect of the workshops enabled a more nuanced list of recommendations and ideas for the political actors to consider during their formal meetings during and after the IX Summit of the Americas.
OFSMS participated rigorously in the three thematic subregional working groups: Digital Transformation, Health and Resilience, and Democratic Governance. Part of the recommendations from these working groups reflect OFSMS’ leading mindset to identify how social media can inhibit civil society, regress democratization, and impede physical and mental health of millions. Although not all participating countries have the same characteristics, social media is prevalent in the lives of all peoples across the Americas - directly and indirectly. Interceding now, on the behalf of millions, in these guiding documents for political actors and policy makers allows the lived experiences of those exposed to social media dangers (hate speech, propaganda, health disinformation, mental health threats, human trafficking, and more) to prevent future harm elsewhere. Participation in expert-led working groups like those at the Summit of the Americas takes us all one step closer to inhibiting the spread of the ongoing epidemic of social media-driven dangers. The same can be said for the contributions of other expert civil society organizations. In many ways, these workshops are the tables where at experts need to ensure their attendance and participation. By the time the heads of state assemble, most of the work will be done. Many key suggestions and concepts raised in these working groups will be baked into those formal discussions among national leaders.
Although the working groups convened, via Slack, to meet and share our contributions there were several technical setbacks that can be lessons for future efforts at organizing civil society actors and producing a nuanced guiding document in a short period of time. Notably, each working group formed its own process for selecting a lead organizer, document manager, and the working group representative to speak at the IX Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles. Several groups used a decentralized means for members to submit their formal recommendations and thoughts, while others used the commonplace cloud-based Google Docs for live, coordinated editing. Fortunately, and the most important piece, the working groups consisted of organizations which wanted to participate in a collaborative manner towards a common goal. The inherent momentum of collaboration reduces the inertia of discontent and friction. Working group members did not aim to silence one another’s expertise, but rather, find how the many different knowledge sets, experiences, and data-informed practices could aggregate. This aggregate produced, like many efforts to tackle shared issues across the Americas, a more fruitful set of recommendations for policy makers and governments to implement as soon as possible. For example, the national and sub-national governments observing this Summit can, right away, better inform their policies and procedures with actionable steps to address social media motivated harm. Even if that is a recognition of how mental health is negatively impacted by social media, observers now have a resource to identify what has been unarticulated in their home. Favourably, the collaborative momentum persisted across the working group phase and, at the time of writing this article, will elevate many solution-driven perspectives to the issues the assembled heads of state can act upon - if they too come together with an eagerness seen among their Summit’s working group members.
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Cameron Gil is a member of the Pacific Council and is Director of Student Advisory Councils at the Organization for Social Media Safety.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Pacific Council.
