​​​The third edition of the ITU Global Innovation Forum took place from 28 to 30 October 2024 at the Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valletta, Malta. The forum identified key strategies to help close the “digital innovation gap." 

The three-day event emphasized the importance of collaboration, knowledge sharing, and capacity building to bridge the innovation gap and advance socio-economic development. 

The forum was opened by H.E. Myriam Spiteri Debono, President of Malta.

​The 2024 edition of the World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Symposium (WTIS-24) emphasised the need for quality and timely data for effective decision making to achieve universal and meaningful connectivity (UMC).

The Symposium, organized by the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) of International Telecommunication Union (ITU), brought together over 250 participants from 83 Member States, international experts, policymakers, business leaders, regulators, statisticians and researchers to discuss emerging trends, challenges, and collaborative solutions to improve the measurement of UMC – the possibility to enjoy a safe, satisfying, enriching, and productive online experience at an affordable cost.

“Unless we measure our progress toward universal and meaningful connectivity, that progress will be hard to track. We must invest in producing high-quality data which generates insights that enable more informed decision-making," said Dr. Cosmas Luckyson Zavazava, Director of ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau. “It is of high priority that we focus on bridging data gaps," he added.

The BDT Director opened the ITU Digital Skills Forum 2024 in Manama, Bahrain, held from September 17-19. In his opening remarks, he emphasized the critical importance of digital skills and the need to bridge the digital skills gap to empower citizens in the digital age. During the Forum, he launched the ITU Digital Skills Toolkit 2024, a comprehensive guide designed to assist ITU members in developing effective national digital skills strategies and policies. 

See press release​

The BDT Director, together with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the European Union (EU) announced a EUR 4 million 'Capacity Development for Digital Transformation' project during the ITU Digital Skills Forum, held in Manama, Bahrain, from 17-19 September 2024. Funded through the EU Global Gateway, the project aims to train policymakers and government officials to strengthen their abilities to support a human-centric digital transformation.​​