BDT Director Doreen Bogdan-Martin opened the first Giga Africa Ministerial Round Table. Giga is ITU and UNICEF's joint initiative to connect every school on the planet to the internet, and every young learner to information, opportunity and choice.
Ms Bogdan-Martin noted that since global lockdowns started rolling out due to the COVID-10 pandemic, more than 190 countries closed schools. This has affected about 94% of learners worldwide and created the largest mass disruption of education in history.
Although governments reacted by shifting to online learning, two in every three children and young people around the world do not have fixed broadband access at home. In Africa, nine out of ten school-age children aged 3 to 17 years old do not have internet at home.
However, ITU research shows that where connectivity is available and affordable in Africa, young people are enthusiastic adopters of digital technology. Africa is the continent with the youngest population in the world, where 40% of young people aged 15 to 24 are already accessing the internet. ''We need to find ways to empower them to use digital tools and platforms, so that they can harness the power of technology to transform their lives, the prosperity of their families and communities, and the future of their nations,'' said Ms Bogdan-Martin.
Giga is already working with governments on the African continent to map schools and create investment opportunities for blended public and private sector finance to build the infrastructure needed to provide universal and sustainable access to every school. In the case of Rwanda, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Niger, and Zimbabwe, efforts are advancing through the development of a pilot implementation approach called “Giga Accelerate".
''Through this approach, we are testing innovative technologies and business models to support affordable connectivity to rural and hard-to-reach areas; real-time quality of service monitoring; the positioning of connected schools as 'nodes' for extending connectivity into the broader community; new ways to raise funds and pay for connectivity services; and the deployment of digital learning solutions, in support of UNICEF's Reimagine Education initiative'', explained Ms Bogdan-Martin.
She congratulated the efforts of African leaders, and said ''I am confident that together we can not only deliver on individual country goals, but achieve our collective vision to scale Giga to serve the entire African continent, and finally realize our dream of a connected and empowered Africa.''
Learn more about Giga here.
