ITU-Cisco Joint Event
Digital Transformation Centres Initiative
Opening remarks
Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Director, ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Here we are at ITU Telecom 2019, one of the global hubs of the ICT4D community. So I think I hardly need to try to convince any of you that ICTs are a uniquely effective tool for making a positive transformative impact on people's lives.
ICTs create new types of jobs, improve efficiency and productivity, promote social inclusion, and are a vital source of information and knowledge.
ICTs have also grown into a powerful platform for education, offering a portal to global knowledge resources and giving millions of people access to learning and qualifications, regardless of where they live, and often without the associated high costs.
I passionately believe that ICTs represent the most powerful catalyst for development that humanity has ever had at its disposal.
Quite simply, ICTs are the 'magic key' that can unlock the door to a new era of sustainable global growth and prosperity.
Today, half the world is online.
But raw connectivity alone will not solve our development challenges. Research shows that lack of digital knowledge and skills have emerged as a major barrier to internet uptake and digital inclusion, especially in developing countries.
Indeed, where network coverage is available and services are affordable, lack of digital skills has become the number one obstacle keeping people offline.
A recent survey of Least Developed Countries reveals that many governments now recognize the urgent need for digital skills development. In Zambia, for example, 54% of respondents identified lack of skills as their main barrier to Internet use. Our data indicate that of the relatively few people in LDCs who have the possibility to connect, only 1 in 4 will take advantage of that access, simply because they lack the skills and confidence to do so.
Digital skills now rank among the most sought-after skills in today's labour market. The World Economic Forum found that an overwhelming 94% of companies and organizations reported that the digital skills gap is one of their most pressing challenges.
In ITU, we have been working on capacity building through digital skills development for quite some time. Our network of Centres of Excellence and our ITU Academy programme together offer a comprehensive range of general and specialized courses on all aspects of ICT, delivered through face-to-face, online and blended learning methodologies.
International Girls in ICT Day, established back in 2010 to promote technology studies to school-age girls, has reached an estimated 380,000 girls through over 11,000 events in more than 170 countries.
The Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, of which ITU is a founding partner, set a target mandating minimum proficiency in digital skills for 60% of the world's youth and adults.
And most recently, the Skills Coalition of the EQUALS Global Partnership for digital gender equality released its excellent report revealing that women and girls are 25% less likely than their male counterparts to be able to leverage basic digital skills, and four times less likely to know computer coding.
It is against this background that ITU began talking to Cisco about a new collaboration initiative to build on the very fruitful and long-standing partnership between our two organizations based around the Internet Training Centres Initiative where we established 71 Internet Training Centres in 59 countries.
Today's announcement of plans set up a network of Digital Transformation Centres will further strengthen the effectiveness of our current activities.
These DTCs will :
· Deliver basic digital skills training to enhance digital literacy and foster uptake of digital tools among those at the bottom of the social pyramid.
· Deliver intermediate digital skills training to provide users with job-ready skills, improve workplace effciency and enhance chances of employability.
· Improve the capacity of policymakers to design and implement digital skills programmes with the overall objective of enabling a successful national digital transformation process.
· Conduct train-the-trainer programmes on digital skills to ensure scalability and self-sustainability in digital skills capacity development.
· Train SMEs in the field of digital technologies, innovation and entrepreneurship.
Ladies and gentlemen,
This is an exciting, important and timely new initiative, and I wish to warmly thank Cisco and commend them for its continued outstanding commitment to putting ICTs at the heart of our efforts to the attain the SDGs. I welcome others to join us in this effort.
Thank you.
