BDT Director Doreen Bogdan-Martin participated in a panel discussion on ''Rethinking structural transformation in African LDCs in the era of technological advancement and innovation'', during the Africa Regional Review Meeting in preparation for the 5th United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC5). The event was hosted by the Government of Malawi, Chair of the LDC Group, in collaboration with the UNOHRLLS and UNECA.
While discussing the role that ICTs can play to enable accelerated, inclusive and sustainable growth for African LDCs, Ms Bogdan-Martin noted that emerging technologies are rapidly transforming development actions across all sectors, and industries.
She stated, ''Digital technologies hold great promise for breaking down old barriers. But digital access – or its lack – also brings with it the risk of widening social and economic gaps between those who are connected, and those who are not.''
To illustrate the gap of digital access in LDCs, she pointed to ITU data that show that while overall mobile coverage for the African continent stands at 88% of the population, in LDCs 17% of the rural population still has no mobile coverage at all, with a further 19% covered only by a 2G signal.
Africa has the most expensive broadband in the world. Ms Bogdan-Martin highlighted affordability as a key issue to digital uptake. She emphasized that policy and regulation can play a major role to address this issue, including by considering strategies to drive price reductions and discounts on capacity, airtime and devices. She also encouraged the consideration of alternative funding models for complementary access solutions – ''for example, through greater levels of infrastructure sharing; accelerating deployment of universal service funds; and creating the right conditions for private sector investment.''
Another major issue is the lack of digital skills. Ms Bogdan-Martin highlighted ITU initiatives to address this, including through its Giga initiative with UNICEF for school connectivity, Digital Transformation Centres in partnership with Cisco, and the Smart Village initiative with the Government of Niger.
Bringing the transformational power of digital to the world's Least Developed Countries will be a priority focus of ITU's next World Telecommunication Development Conference, which will take place in November 2021, hosted by the Government of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa. Ms Bogdan-Martin invited participants to take part in this event and join ITU to ''forge a digitally-enabled future for every African.''
Other distinguished panellists included the Right Honourable Dr Saulos Klaus Chilima, Vice President of the Republic of Malawi and Minister of Economic Planning and Development and Public Sector Reforms; Mr Mario Pezzini, Director, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Centre; Mr Ken Shawa, Senior Economist, Regional Office for Africa, International Labour Organization (ILO); Ms Naria Santa Lucia, General Manager Digital Inclusion and Community Engagement, Microsoft Philanthropies; Ms Boutheina Guermazi, Director of Digital Development Department of the Infrastructure Practice Group, World Bank Group. The event was moderated by Ms Maria Torres Macho, UN Resident Coordinator in Malawi, and the lead discussant was Mr Farrukh Alimdjanov, Industrial Development Officer within the Innovation and Digitalization Division at the UNIDO Department of Digitalization, Technology and Agri-Business.
