BDT Director Doreen Bogdan-Martin participated as one of the leaders in the High-Level discussion on “How Tech Companies Cooperate to Address Threats and Global Crises", co-hosted by the Office of the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Commemoration of the United Nations 75th Anniversary, the UN Department of Global Communications, the International Chamber of Commerce, Facebook, and the World Health Organization.
Other distinguished speakers included Fabrizio Hochschild-Drummond, Under Secretary General; Melissa Fleming, Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications; Dr Soumya Swaminathan, WHO Chief Scientist; Mourad Wahba, Associate Administrator, UNDP; Charlotte Petri Gornitzka, Deputy Executive Director, UNICEF; Kelly T. Clements, Deputy High Commissioner, UNHCR; Ute Klamert, Assistant Executive Director, WFP; Reena Ghelani, Director Operations and Advocacy, OCHA; Dr Gottfried Ludewig, Director General Digitalization and Innovation, German Ministry of Health; Nick Clegg, VP Global Affairs and Communications Facebook; Andrew Wilson, Permanent Observer to the United Nations, International Chamber of Commerce; John Frank, VP UN Affairs, Microsoft; Jacobo Cohen Imach, Senior Vice President – General Counsel Legal and Public affairs, MercadoLibre; Sue Duke, Vice President, Global Public Policy and Economic Graph, LinkedIn.
Ms Bogdan-Martin noted that the COVID-19 crisis has thrown into the light the absolute vitality of digital connectivity to individuals, communities and countries. Recognizing the importance of digital resources to this crisis, ITU set up a number of initiatives to leverage the power of digital.
She described that ITU quickly set up the REG4COVID platform, which serves as a global repository of emergency actions that the digital community has been taking to ensure the continued availability, accessibility and resilience of networks and resources. The Broadband Commission also rapidly defined a three-pillared Agenda for Action to support ICT-led post-COVID recovery. Furthermore, Ms Bogdan-Martin mentioned that ITU quickly leveraged relationships with global telecoms operators to partner with WHO and UNICEF to deliver health messaging via mobiles to billions still lacking an internet connection.
COVID has meant that unconnected children lost access to life-changing educational opportunities. In this vein, Ms Bogdan-Martin explained that ITU is working to accelerate its Giga initiative with UNICEF and others, to connect all schools to the internet. “Schools could also serve as hubs for a broader range of digital services that could improve the resilience of whole communities," she said.
Due to ITU's unique hybrid membership and involvement with multiple stakeholders, Ms Bogdan Martin pointed out that ITU is “ideally-placed to help the broader UN system build bridges to all parts of today's complex digital ecosystem, now that ICTs are universally recognized as a key enabler of the SDGs."
