BDT Director Doreen Bogdan-Martin delivered a presentation on “SDGs and ICTs: Digital as the Drive of Global Development" at the Pacific Telecommunications Council 2021 on 19 January. The following day, she participated in a panel discussion on ''Global Policy Shifts, Local Implications.'' Other distinguished panellists included: H.E. Takuo Imagawa, Director-General, Telecommunications Business Department, Telecommunications Bureau, MIC, Japan; H.E. Milica Pejanovic-Djurišic, Ambassador of Montenegro to the United Nations; and Mr Robert Pepper, Head of Global Connectivity Policy and Planning, Facebook.
Pointing out that 3.7 billion are unconnected to the internet, and there remain 88 countries where meaningful access to the internet is still unaffordable, Ms Bogdan-Martin stated ''sometimes it takes a crisis like COVID to remind us how profoundly transformational, an internet connection can be.'' Reaffirming UN Secretary-General António Guterres' call for the international community to use the COVID crisis to ''build back better'', Ms Bogdan-Martin additionally urged the need to ''build back better with broadband''.
In her presentation on SDGs and ICTs, she stated that in ''today's world, leaving no-one behind means leaving no-one offline.'' She underlined the crucial role of ICTs to accelerate progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. She also noted that getting equipment to populations is important, but it is not just about infrastructure— “'we also need to ensure networks and services are physically available, are financially affordable, and are accessible and actionable by the people who need them.''
During the panel discussion on Global Policy Shifts, Ms Bogdan-Martin was asked in which area of global ICT policy she observes the greatest shift. She recalled how hard ITU had to work to get ICTs mentioned in the text of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals; just five years later, now, digital connectivity is universally recognized as absolutely fundamental to efforts to achieve the SDGs. The UN Secretary-General's Roadmap for Digital Cooperation also calls for a new era of multistakeholder collaboration to bring connectivity to the remaining 49% of the global population. She said, ''I believe we are at an inflection point, because work to define new digital policies and regulatory frameworks work over the next year or so will be critical to achieving our goal of a connected planet.''
In this vein, Ms Bogdan-Martin highlighted that participants at ITU's Global Symposium for Regulators in September 2020 were very clear that fifth generation collaborative ICT regulatory measures and tools need to be the new gold standard for regulators and policy makers as they strive to maximize digital inclusion.
''As we prepare to 'build back better', our ICT policy and regulatory frameworks need to be fit-for-purpose. They need to be up-to-date, flexible, incentive-based and market-driven to support digital transformation across sectors, and across geographical regions. In short, they will need to be up to one of the greatest challenges of our time, and that is to leverage the power of digital platforms and infrastructures to build the resilience we need to protect us against future global emergencies,'' said Ms Bogdan-Martin.
Read the PTC'21 Featured Participant Interview with BDT Director Doreen Bogdan-Martin here: https://www.ptc.org/2021/01/doreen-bogdan-martin-featured-participant-interview/
