 Please take your seats. The program is about to begin. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Jason says he's on. Good morning. If our guests could please take their seats, we'll be starting the program momentarily. If our guests could please take their seats, we'll be starting the program momentarily. Can you not hear it? If our guests could please take their seats, if we can encourage our guests to please take their seats. Do you want to do it with a microphone? Should I'm starting? Okay. Hello everyone. If everyone will be turning up the microphones, but please take your seats so we can get starting. Thank you for contributing. We would like to encourage people to come into the room and take their seats. We know it's very loud in here. We'll be starting the program in a minute. Please come on in. Bring your coffee. Oh this is, you guys can get quiet. This is great. Okay. I, we are very happy to have you all here. That's why the UK is committed to ensuring that online space remains free, open, peaceful and secure. This cohort's work on internet shutdowns and e-governments will help us deliver this goal. The UK is proud to be taking part in this summit. Joining together with partners to deliver stronger and more successful democracy. It is a pleasure to be with you here all today to mark the launch of the Summit for Democracy's Technology for Democracy cohort. It is critical that all technological developments ensure human rights are centered and protected. In 2022, we documented 187 internet shutdowns in 35 countries. This was the highest number of countries we've documented in one year since we started this campaign. Black men scrubbed down on protests using internet shutdowns. We did also document shutdowns during active projects, examine related shutdowns and intellectually related shutdowns. 28 incidents of shutdowns in 14 countries coinciding with some form of violence against people. There were three large crimes perpetrated against people in these countries, including medical torture, rape and apparent war crimes by governments or security forces, which is very concerning. And this further highlights the fact that internet shutdowns allow perpetrators to cover up human rights abuses with impunity. Imagine not talking to your own family and to your loved ones for two years. Imagine this is where your family and friends and loved ones are in a war-burning where there is indiscriminate attacks against civilians. And I'm talking about scratch with the Black Virgin and about my own family. The Black Virgin has been under complete communication blackouts since the start of the war. And it has been very difficult to know who is killed and who is alive and who has died of starvation and famine. Black men should stop imposing internet shutdowns. They are unnecessary, they are disproportionate and it's enough for us to condemn it on human rights. The cohort partnered with the Internet Society to enhance the pulse platform's internet shutdowns portal, bringing together information in a clear, simple and easily accessible way. Through pulse, everyone can find out what's going on and play a leading role in advocating against internet shutdowns wherever they are. To protect democracy in this increasingly digitalized world, we need to harness technologies in order to advance our democracies, even as we watch the way that new and emerging tech can undermine and even pervert genuine political participation around the world. It's been a great honor for us to be part of the Keep It On movement to stop internet shutdowns around the world. And now as part of the Tech for Democracy cohort, we can join with other members of civil society and like-minded governments to stop internet shutdowns even before they occur and to limit their length and their impact if they do. We understand in a world too well how fragile democracy and freedom can be. That is why we have been proud to co-lead the Technology for Democracy cohort. As a digital country, we want to highlight the positive impact of technology on democracy. Technology can make democracy more inclusive, it can make democracy stronger, it can make democracy more transparent. And we all know the more inclusive democracy is, the stronger democracy is. I want to thank all stakeholders who contributed to the work of the cohort and I want to assure you that our work will continue. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Each component in the process is called a building block and each block has a very specific job. A building block could be a platform, a piece of code, a protocol or an application. When we stack these building blocks, they create the digital foundation for the vital services we all rely on. At GovStack, we take the guesswork out of building these stacks, helping governments to create digital services that are scalable. Anaya wants to register for a child healthcare program. She confirms her ID number and the building blocks get to work. The information mediator helps all the blocks speak to each other safely and securely while the other blocks do the jobs they're designed for. From checking Anaya is Anaya to sending a message to let her know that registration has been successful. The same building blocks can be reused to help Sahil apply for an electronic voucher to buy his son a school textbook. That's the magic of building blocks. You don't need to create bespoke solutions to everything people find. Leaving time to focus on the things that matter. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you.