P2C milestones

This first year of the Coalition has been marked by a number of very important moments and achievements. The journey started in September 2021 at the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York where Partner2Connect was launched. Soon after, the Coalition began gaining traction, receiving expressions of interest from hundreds of supporters who came together to create this global platform to mobilize multilateral action to close the digital divide. With the support of the Boston Consulting Group, Partner2Connect’s Knowledge Partner, four focus areas were identified:

• ACCESS: Connecting people everywhere
• ADOPTION: Empowering communities
• VALUE CREATION: Building digital ecosystems
• ACCELERATE: Incentivizing investments

Partner2Connect Focus areas

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In parallel, four working groups (one per focus area) with over 200 participants were created; 19 focus area leaders were appointed; a web dialogue series was launched, and a consultative process was established to define key actions to advance the objectives of the Coalition, and develop the Focus Areas Action Framework. This is the Coalition’s guiding document, which summarizes the key elements that need to be addressed to achieve universal meaningful connectivity and digital transformation for all. The Framework was launched in March 2022 together with the online pledging platform, which provides the technological tool through which all pledges and commitments to P2C can be submitted and visualized.

Three months later, at ITU’s World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC-22), P2C organized the first ever Digital Development Roundtable engaging hundreds of speakers and participants across 18 sessions and announcing over 360 pledges valued at USD 18.55 billion. In Kigali, Resolution 88 ⁹ on P2C was adopted to implement and scale pledges, mobilize new resources and partnerships, and report and share experiences.

Soon afterward, at ITU’s Plenipotentiary Conference in Bucharest in October 2022, P2C announced that it had reached the milestone of 500 pledges worth USD 28.4 billion made by 247 entities, including 94 governments. During the same month, the Coalition launched a process to comply with the mandate received at WTDC-22 on monitoring and reporting on the implementation of pledges in order to ensure accountability, progress and impact. The process is supported by the P2C Self-Reporting Form, an online tool designed to capture the utilization of all pledges submitted to the platform. At the time of writing, 202 pledges had been reported on by 99 entities. The year culminated with the P2C Annual Meeting on 8 December at ITU Headquarters in Geneva where pledgers and stakeholders gathered to share progress on implementation, announce new commitments, and think collectively about P2C’s plans for the immediate future.