Smart Sustainable Development Initiaitve (SSDM)
Third Advisory Board Meeting- Second Cycle
Washington, United States of America
Speech by
Mr. Brahima Sanou,
Director, ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau
15 March 2018
Excellencies,
Dear colleagues, dear friends,
I am pleased to welcome you in Washington. I would like to thank you for joining us today for the 3rd Meeting of the Advisory Board.
Allow me to start by conveying special thanks to our distinguished Vice-Chair, Mr José Toscano, and our Board Members, Mr Gonzalo de Dios and Mr Samer Halawi, Intelsat, for hosting our 3rd Advisory Board meeting. José, Gonzalo, Samer, my dear friends, I thank you and your team for all the efforts you made to welcome us today.
Since the launch of this Initiative, we have achieved great progress and shared many good moments, and we will continue to do so over these two days.
I know that in the past 9 months you have been working very hard as members of the Advisory Board. I commend the good work by the Working Groups that is evident in the reports that will be presented this afternoon and tomorrow.
Dear friends,
As you know, last year was a landmark for the Telecommunication Development Sector with the convening of the World Telecommunication Development Conference in Buenos Aires Argentina under the "ICT for Sustainable Development Goals" - ICT④SDGs. WTDC-17 enabled ITU members to hold substantive discussions on reshaping the future of the ICT Sector and repositioning the ICT Sector in the new ecosystem.
The Buenos Aires Declaration adopted at this WTDC carry’s our vision for the future and sends a strong message from the ICT community to the world about our contribution to the attainment of the SDGs. More specific to the theme of this Advisory Board, the conference reaffirmed the importance of ICTs in disaster risk reduction and management, and emergency telecommunications. The Conference also adopted a Study Group Question and a resolution in this area.
I must state that to achieve our objective, cooperation with partners, industry players and stakeholders is crucial. I am confident that the important work you have accomplished in the working groups so far and the concrete recommendations, checklist and models you have identified will enable us to move our agenda forward and achieve our goals.
We need to now think of the next steps and how we could support countries:
- In facilitating the smooth trans-border movement of telecommunications equipment in and out of countries affected by disasters.
- Develop a network of volunteers portal,
- Promote the Disaster Recovery Insurance Facility (ITU/DRIF) and raise awareness on these excellent outcomes as widely as possible.
I can assure you that this work will be integrated into the work of the BDT related to both sustainable development and emergency telecommunications. As representatives of the Initiative, I count on you to promote the SSDM Initiative and communicate on our good work!
Dear colleagues, dear friends,
I won’t take more of your time, I look forward to hearing more about your great achievements and contributions to the work of the Initiative. I am confident that the steps we will agree on will bring us closer to the objectives that we intend to achieve.
We have a unique opportunity to make a difference and I count on you to make it happen!
Thank you!
