Digital Technologies and Youth Empowerment:
A conversation with the Secretary-General of ITU
Keynote Address
Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin
April 19, 2023
Hi everyone,
It's good to be here with you today at the Graduate Institute...
When we think about digital technologies, it's always important to think about how we got to where we are today. So let me go back to 58 years ago today.
Fifty-eight years ago, to the day,
Electronics Magazine published an article called “Cramming more components onto integrated circuits."[i]
It predicted that the number of transistors would double each year- a principle that would become known as Moore's Law.[ii]
Gordon Moore passed away just last month[iii], leaving behind him a theory and forecast that came to embody a digital revolution driven by faster, smaller, and cheaper electronics.
And just a few weeks ago, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the very first “personal, handheld, portable" cell-phone call, made on 3 April 1973 by ITU Award Laureate Martin Cooper.[iv]
Fast forward to today, where we have more mobile phones than people.
Another important milestone happened 41 years ago in 1982, when ITU set up the Independent Commission for World-Wide Telecommunications Development, led by the late Sir Donald Maitland, a former UK diplomat and Permanent Representative to the United Nations.[v]
Three years later, the
Missing Link report came out and made a compelling case for universal connectivity as the bedrock of economic and social prosperity.[vi]
As a way forward, the Commission set the goal that by the early part of the twenty-first century, nearly all of humankind should be within easy reach of a telephone service.
But what was to be understood by “easy reach"? In rural areas, this came to be defined as at least one telephone within one or two hours' walking distance of every person by the year 2000. Can you imagine?
All these years later, the digital revolution has changed the lives of billions of people around the world for the better.
Yet one third of humanity is still offline, and it is our mission at ITU – the UN agency for digital technologies – to ensure that these technologies can be shared universally, safely, and sustainably.
Because digital has become indispensable in today's world, and young people know that better than anybody.
Globally, 75% of people aged 15 to 24 use the Internet.[vii] They're the engine of connectivity – and so many are already driving positive change with tech.
Like Dilanaz from Türkiye, who founded a youth-led collective to combat online gender-based violence.[viii]
Or Boniface from Malawi, who is working to protect his community from hazardous e-waste by developing effective government policy.[ix]
And Louai from Tunisia, who is here with us today. At 18 years old, Louai built his own tech start-up to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic using robotics[x] and machine learning.[xi]
But not every young person has the same opportunities as Dilanaz, Boniface, or Louai.
In the Least Developed Countries, less than half of young people were using the Internet in 2022, even if they are getting online faster than the rest of the population. They live in digital darkness.
And it's not just young people in LDCs.
During COVID-19 lockdowns, 1.3 billion school-aged children struggled with remote learning around the world, because they didn't have a quality fixed-broadband connection at home.[xii]
That's too many missed opportunities – for employment, education, entrepreneurship.
Learning losses from COVID-19 could cost this generation of students close to $17 trillion in lifetime earnings.
Climate, conflict, pandemic – young people face an onslaught of challenges.
That's why tackling digital inequality is one of my top priorities as ITU Secretary-General: so that everyone can share in the opportunities that come with connectivity – no matter where they live, how much they earn, or how old, or young, they are.
One of my first initiatives after taking office in January was to launch ITU's first-ever Young Professionals Programme.
We want to bring in talented young candidates from underrepresented demographics – countries that often find themselves on the wrong side of the digital divide.
Providing such opportunities is also the idea behind Generation Connect: the overarching initiative of ITU's Youth Strategy.
Hundreds of young people from every world region are engaging, empowering, and collaborating through Generation Connect to co-create solutions for a more inclusive, sustainable and connected future.
Beyond ITU, the whole United Nations system is increasingly looking to young people for your courage and creativity in solving humanity's most pressing problems.
I saw this first-hand at this year's session of the Commission on the Status of Women, which recognized the need to expand digital literacy and skills among young people – to ensure inclusion, employability, and to help them navigate safely online.
And young people – and Generation Connect – will be among the key stakeholders at the SDG Digital Day that ITU and other UN agencies will convene on the margins of the SDG Summit that will take place in New York in September to review the implementation of the SDGs.
The digital world is evolving at warp speed and our institutions and policies need to keep up.
Young people see that need – in many ways, my generation didn't 20 years ago – and they're not afraid to step up, speak out and embrace it full-on.
So, I look forward to our conversation, and to working with our next generation here in Geneva and beyond– to ensure digital progress is sustainable, inclusive and truly felt by every single young person.
Thank you.
NOTES
[i]
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/4785860
[ii]
https://www.gatesnotes.com/Remembering-Gordon-Moore
[iii]
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/newsroom/news/gordon-moore-obituary.html
[iv]
https://twitter.com/ITUSecGen/status/1642830644840374275
[v]
https://www.itu.int/hub/2022/06/four-decades-global-connectivity-report-wtdc/
[vi]
https://unctad.org/system/files/non-official-document/tdb_ede4_2020_s02_DoreenBogdanMartin_en.pdf
[vii]
https://www.itu.int/en/mediacentre/Pages/PR-2022-11-30-Facts-Figures-2022.aspx
[viii]
https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/feature-story/2023/03/spreading-digital-literacy-and-radical-love-to-combat-online-gender-based-violence
[ix]
https://www.itu.int/itu-d/sites/digital-impact-in-action/
[x]
https://www.thenationalnews.com/uae/education/coronavirus-uae-school-pupils-aim-to-develop-fleet-of-robots-and-drones-to-detect-covid-19-rule-breakers-1.1103950
[xi]
https://globalscholars.yale.edu/news/yale-young-global-scholars-alumni-worldwide-help-fight-against-covid-19
>[xii]
https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/12/1078872
