BDT Director Doreen Bogdan-Martin, gave remarks on ITU and UNICEF's Giga school connectivity initiative to the 9th Smart Africa board meeting. The meeting was attended by 10 Heads of State of African nations, and many more representatives of countries across the continent.
Ms Bogdan-Martin drew attention to the fact that out of 3.7 billion people who remain unconnected to the internet, 960 million people are in Africa. Furthermore 9 out of 10 school-age children in Africa – aged 3 to 17 years old – do not have Internet access at home. The digital divide perpetuates cycles of inequality and poverty, as children and young people on the continent fall further behind their peers and are left without opportunities for improving their lives and those of the people in their communities.
The Broadband Commission's report on “Connecting Africa through broadband" estimates that $100 billion dollars will be required to bring broadband to all Africans by 2030. While these amounts are significant, estimations from the World Bank predict a loss of $10 trillion in earnings for today's young generation alone due to school closures, loss of learning opportunities, and expected economic effects. Ms Bogdan-Martin underlined ''It is clear that the cost of inaction will be even higher and its consequences will be quite severe to recover from.''
The Giga initiative aims to connect every school to the internet, and empower children and young people without opportunities for improving their lives and those of the people in their communities. ''Giga has allowed us to leverage each other's networks, assets, human capital, channels and resources. It has also allowed us to maximize our outreach capacity and global presence to not only advocate, but also act upon the school connectivity challenge we all want to address,'' stated Ms Bogdan-Martin.
She invited Board Members not only to continue the dialogue, but to lead conversations and action toward school connectivity, including by convening Ministers of ICT and Ministers of Education for regional coordination as an urgent priority for 2021. She urged, ''This will be a unique opportunity to develop innovative approaches and new models of collaboration for connectivity and digital solutions in this final Decade of Action to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.''
