The Digital Services and Applications programme offers Members the tools to leverage digital technology and ICT applications to address countries’ most pressing needs and bring real impact to people – with an emphasis on increasing availability and extending services in areas such as digital health, e-Agriculture, eLearning, as well as cross-sectoral initiatives to accelerate sustainable development. Below you can find what we do, our mandate and a selection of important ITU resolutions concerning ICT Applications.
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OUR CONTEXT
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In the global digital age, information and telecommunication technologies (ICTs), and particularly mobile solutions are the most transformative influences of our time. They hold the capacity to connect people throughout the world regardless of location or socio-economic background. However, despite rapid expansion, benefits of the digital revolution still remain out of reach for a large section of the global population – with many promising digital innovations and affordable, high-impact ICT applications not accessible to those who would benefit the most.
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OUR MISSION
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To better utilize the power of ICT4SDG, the ICT Applications programme – in collaboration with strategic partners from UN specialized organizations, academia, private sector, and other ecosystem stakeholders – supports ITU membership to bring proven solutions to scale at national level, and increase availability and impact of promising ICT applications, in underserved areas in particular. Priority are high impact areas for sustainable development, such as: digital health, e-Agriculture, eLearning, as well as specific cross-sectoral initiatives that optimize resources and maximize impact through the use of multifunctional, interoperable technology platforms.
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OUR WORK, TOOLS AND METHOD
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To effectively harness ICT applications for socio-economic development, the programme facilitates
• development of national sectoral digital strategy (incl. toolkits, guidelines, capacity building, action plans, evaluation)
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• deployment of innovative ICT/mobile applications to improve the delivery of value-added services, leveraging strategic
partnerships as catalysts
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• knowledge and best practice sharing through studies, research, awareness raising, connecting stakeholders in converging
ecosystems |
• addressing emerging technology trends – such as big data, artificial intelligence, etc – by collecting and sharing of best practices
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OUR MANDATE, RELEVANT DOCUMENTS AND RESOLUTIONS
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Access the ICT Applications programme mandate and objective as stated in the ITU-D 2017 World Telecommunication Development Conference Final Report, through: WTDC 2017 Final Report,
Objective 4.2 (2017 Buenos Aires Action Plan)
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VALUE PROPOSITION
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The positive impact of ICTs on the world can be profound. To address the most pressing issues of countries and achieve the goals of the 2030 Agenda, a change in mind-set is needed, away from a fragmented, piece meal approach of operating in siloes and creating one-off solutions. The trusted approach of the ICT Applications programme combines technical expertise, high-level strategy, multi-stakeholder and systems approach to innovation – allowing ITU members to fully leverage the potential of ICT for development, with focus on:
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Focus: Facilitating digital (sector) transformation at a systemic level, using ICT to reengineer existing processes to improve efficiency, usability, and cost effectiveness.
Through a comprehensive approach that grounds national vision and sector strategy in a participatory process, we facilitate the creation of appropriate digital architecture and a portfolio of client/user-centric solutions that respond to the most pressing needs.
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Focus: Bringing relevant solutions and proven ICT applications to scale nationally.
Through raising awareness, building capacity and fostering an enabling environment, we support countries in overcoming the challenge of limited scope or small-scale pilots, and help implement and institutionalize large-scale projects at the national level.
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Focus: Identifying and facilitating development of solutions that work and bring impact to the national context.
Through setting innovation hubs and benchmarking frameworks for innovation, we support members to influence the innovation lifecycle, steer demand and supply to foster the creation and adoption of high-impact and evidence based innovations.
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Focus: Supporting members to invest and deploy cross-cutting projects and cross-sector integrated digital infrastructure and platforms to maximize impact of digital investments.
Through a whole-of-government approach and a SDG Digital investment framework that identifies commonalities between different verticals – rather than the prevalent “app” or siloed approach – we foster the development of a cross-functional and interoperable digital infrastructure and platforms.
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CONTACT US
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For further inquiries contact us via email through
ICTapplications@itu.int.
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