BDT Director Doreen Bogdan-Martin participated in the Africa Regional Preparatory Meeting for WTDC-21, jointly organized by ITU and the African Telecommunications Union (ATU), and hosted by Burkina Faso.
Ms Bogdan-Martin commended the gathering momentum, as ambitious new infrastructure projects and new technologies drive ever-faster digital transformation across the 54 countries of the African continent.
She recognized that the African Union's Digital Transformation Strategy for Africa 2020-2030 has laid out a comprehensive roadmap for multi-stakeholder ICT-led development, and highlighted the crucial role of such multi-stakeholder cooperation in achieving progress.
At the launch of the Network of Women for WTDC-21 in Africa, Ms Bogdan-Martin underlined the need to further integrate women's creative potential in work to leverage ICTs for development. She said, ''effective development solutions for diverse populations require diverse voices in all stages of thinking, planning and execution.'' This is one of the many reasons why the Network of Women aims to boost women's leadership and participation in the work of ITU-D, and ultimately in the digital sector at-large.
Representatives from the Generation Connect Youth Group in Africa shared the work they have been engaged in over the past month with delegates of the RPM. Ms Bogdan-Martin expressed optimism for their work, and stated ''With its young demographic, entrepreneurial spirit and unrivalled potential for growth, Africa is the next great digital frontier.''
Stressing the need for digital solutions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, Ms Bogdan-Martin reaffirmed that ''the importance of digital technologies in enabling the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Africa's Agenda 2063 to transform Africa into a powerhouse of the future, has never been clearer.''
