Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening wherever you happen to be.
Today’s session of the WSIS Forum 2021 is organized by the South School on Internet Governance and Centro de Capacitación en Alta Tecnología para América Latina y el Caribe.
Thank you for very much your support.
It was almost exactly a year ago today that the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, and almost overnight our world switched to digital. But unfortunately this transition was not universal. The world was divided between those who could continue to work, study, and socialise online – and those who could not even access basic services – the almost half of the world’s population that is still off line. Two thirds of the world’s school children do not have an Internet connection in their homes, yet the schools of nearly a quarter of a billion pupils are closed due to COVID-19.
And it is just not education that is out of reach. COVID-19 has stalled or reversed many of the development gains that were achieved before the pandemic, further undermining progress on the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.
No country is immune to the challenges of the pandemic and the digital transformation that is sweeping the world. However, developing countries and especially people living in remote rural areas face specific challenges and are disadvantaged due to lack of connection. In many locations, for instance, the existing infrastructure is not ready yet to connect all the unconnected.
In addition to infrastructure roll-out, the digital gender divide, lack of digital skills, language and content, and affordability are major barriers to connection.
Connecting the world is ITU’s mission. Success in achieving this rests on collaboration. We all need to work together – bring our own specific competencies to the table and avoid duplication and pool or resources.
The WSIS Forum is an excellent example of this. When the pandemic hit, we launched the WSIS Stocktaking COVID-19 ICT Case Repository, which has collected more than 300 projects to date. I encourage you to make your own submission and tell us how you are using ICTs to help communities respond to and recover from this crisis. We will present these projects in a new updated report during this year’s Forum.
Every crisis has a silver lining. The virtual format of the WSIS Forum has given us an opportunity to scale the event to a wider community and be even more inclusive. It has resulted in new opportunities and increased participation, including from developing countries and Small Island Developing States. We have had better participation for the regions – especially Latin America, and we have achieved gender balance.
I look forward to hearing from today’s distinguished panel on how to strengthen collaboration and cooperation nationally, regionally, and internationally – and between the public and private sectors. Thank you very much for being with us today.
Let’s all work toward ensuring an impactful use of the WSIS Action Lines in advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals and build a digital infrastructure that is safe, attractive, and affordable so that everyone everywhere can benefit from essential digital services.
Thank you.
