BDT Director Doreen Bogdan-Martin joined Jean-Yves Art, Senior Director, Strategic Partnerships, Microsoft, to discuss the importance of broadband access for rural areas and currently underserved populations, and cooperation between public and private sector to close the broadband gap. They shared perspectives on how governments, civil society, and industry must partner to build resilient and sustainable digital economies.
Almost half the world's population still remains unconnected to the internet, and hundreds of millions are who are labelled as ''connected'', struggle with poor connectivity, with access too slow, too costly, or simply too difficult to access.
Ms Bogdan-Martin highlighted that ''divides exist within the divides''. It is not just a simple digital divide between developed and developing nations, but within these gaps there are additional disparities, for example between rural and urban communities, and in terms of gender.
Bridging the digital divide, Ms. Bogdan-Martin explained, requires multi-stakeholder cooperation. Governments need to set enabling frameworks to attract needed investments, business interests are required, and it is necessary to work with local communities to craft policies that actually respond to their needs.
Emphasizing that people's needs to be kept in focus, Ms Bogdan- Martin also noted that content needs to be created in local languages, to be accessible. Furthermore, efforts to provide infrastructure for connectivity should be accompanied by the delivery of digital skills to enable societies to have meaningful connectivity.
She stated that we need to ensure we no longer operate in a siloed fashion, and instead look at digital as a cross-cutting enabler. Mentioning the urgency of connectivity that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to light, she said, ''I think we're at this critical moment for connectivity, where the understanding is finally there. The excitement about the potential is finally there. But we need to get it right."
To move forward on digital transformation, Ms Bodgan-Martin urged, ''status quo is not at an option. No more business as usual. This is the moment for the industry and governments to be innovative, to be bold, also to be action-oriented.'' In this vein, she noted that the UN Secretary-General Digital Cooperation Roadmap provides a good framework for stakeholders to rally around.
“Digital is here to stay'', reiterated Ms Bogdan-Martin. Connectivity, and going digital, will give us the chance to stay on track to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
