Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Secretary-General, International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
Keynote at the
5th National Communications Conference Ministerial Panel on
Connectivity, Digitalization, and Innovation,
Republic of Mozambique
[As prepared for delivery]
Your Excellency,
Daniel Francisco Chapo, President of the Republic of Mozambique,
Professor Américo Muchanga, Minister of Communications and Digital Transformation,
Distinguished colleagues,
ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning!
I am so honored to address you again.
As some of you may know, this year, the ITU marked our 161st anniversary under the theme: “Digital lifelines: strengthening resilience in a connected world."
For some, that may be a simple slogan.
But here in Mozambique, it is a lived experience.
Cyclone Idai, which made landfall in March 2019, remains one of the worst natural disasters on record in the Southern Hemisphere.
Idai devastated much of Mozambique's critical infrastructure, including communications networks, affecting nearly two million people, and resulting in the loss of more than 600 lives.
ITU supported response efforts through the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster, rapidly deploying satellite equipment that helped restore critical communications and coordinate response efforts on the ground.
Some years later, in 2023, the longest-lived cyclone in recorded history hit Mozambique twice over the course of five weeks.
But this time, a new early warning system enabled authorities to track Cyclone Freddy well in advance and take action, resulting in a much lower impact on people and property.
Today, early warning systems are driving anticipatory action nationwide, saving lives, protecting livelihoods, and building resilience before disaster strikes.
To me, there is no better demonstration of Mozambique's commitment to digital lifelines and to strengthening resilience through: connectivity, digitalization, and innovation.
These three priorities are not separate agendas.
They build on one another.
Connectivity creates opportunity.
Digitalization transforms that opportunity into services and economic growth.
And innovation turns those foundations into solutions for the future.
Today, Mozambique is making important progress in all three areas.
When countries invest in all three, with people and planet at the center, they create the conditions for truly sustainable digital transformation.
Let me begin with connectivity: the foundation upon which everything else is built.
Without connectivity, there can be no digital transformation.
No digital public services.
No digital economy.
No meaningful participation in the AI age.
That is why universal, meaningful connectivity remains the foundation of a resilient digital society.
Currently, while more than 80 per cent of the population is covered by a mobile signal, only around 20 per cent are actually using the Internet.
Closing that gap is one of the most important digital development challenges of our time.
And Mozambique is taking important steps to address it.
With electrification approaching 60 per cent, helping create the conditions for greater connectivity today and for the technologies of tomorrow.
Submarine cables, from SEACOM to 2Africa, are strengthening Mozambique's connection to the global digital economy.
And as a gateway between Southern Africa, the Indian Ocean and global markets, Mozambique is well positioned not only to benefit from digital transformation, but to help drive it across the region.
ITU is proud to support your ambition of achieving Internet for All by 2030.
Together with UNICEF through Giga, we are helping geolocate nearly 3,000 schools — the first step towards bringing every school online.
And through tools such as the Connectivity Planning Platform launched at this year's Global Symposium for Regulators, we are helping countries connect communities more effectively.
Because meaningful connectivity is not only about infrastructure.
It is about ensuring that every person, every school and every community can participate in the opportunities of the digital age.
The second priority is digitalization.
Once people are connected, the next question is simple: How do we use technology to improve people's lives?
Digitalization is how connectivity is translated into impact.
It is how citizens access services more easily.
How businesses participate more fully in the economy.
And how governments deliver better outcomes for the people they serve.
Mozambique is already demonstrating what that can look like.
In February, at the first National Conference on Digital Transformation, you set out a roadmap towards a modern, citizen-centred digital society and launched a series of flagship initiatives aimed at improving digital service delivery.
More recently, the government issued its first licences to digital platform operators and service providers, helping lay the foundations for a digital economy that is trusted, competitive and secure.
This same commitment can be seen in your goal of establishing a Community Multimedia Centre in every district by 2029.
Today, more than 80 community multimedia centres already reach close to 12 million Mozambicans, bringing connectivity, digital skills and public services closer to the communities that need them most.
Together, these efforts are helping transform digitalization from a policy ambition into a practical reality for citizens across the country.
They are also helping advance President Chapo's vision of a Mozambique that is both meaningfully connected and future ready.
ITU is proud to have contributed to the National Digital Transformation Strategy, and we look forward to supporting the development of the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy as Mozambique prepares for the next stage of its digital journey.
The third pillar is innovation.
Because the true measure of success is not how many people are connected.
Nor how many services are digitalized.
It is what people are empowered to do with those opportunities.
Whether they can solve problems.
Build businesses.
Create jobs.
And shape a more prosperous future for their communities.
This is where innovation becomes so important.
And here too, Mozambique is making impressive progress.
VaMoz Digital!, the partnership between Mozambique, the EU, and ITU is a shining example.
By strengthening digital infrastructure, building institutional capacity and supporting start-ups, the initiative is helping create new opportunities for entrepreneurship, employment and economic growth.
Importantly, it is also helping ensure that innovation is inclusive, by expanding digital entrepreneurship opportunities for girls, young people and persons with disabilities.
Mozambique is also participating in the ITU-led AI for Good Innovation Factory and Sandbox initiatives, giving innovators access to open datasets, frontier models and compute resources to develop and test AI solutions that address local challenges while remaining interoperable and aligned with international standards.
These efforts are helping build an innovation ecosystem that does more than adopt technology.
They are helping Mozambicans create it, adapt it and use it to address the country's own priorities and challenges.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Mozambique's progress in connectivity, digitalization and innovation reflects many of the priorities identified by African countries at last year's ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference: Resilient infrastructure, trustworthy AI, digital trust and safety,
thriving innovation ecosystems, and sustainable financing.
Together, they add up to far more than the sum of their parts: A connected, resilient and inclusive digital future for all Mozambicans.
It is a vision that Minister Muchanga shared at the conference last year.
And it is a vision whose importance extends far beyond Mozambique.
The next five years will help determine who benefits from the next generation of technologies
Mozambique has an opportunity not only to adopt those technologies, but also to help shape how they are used across Africa.
That is why Mozambique's voice matters in global digital discussions.
The months ahead offer important opportunities to bring that voice to the global stage.
The first comes in July, at the inaugural UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance in Geneva.
There, governments and stakeholders from around the world will come together to discuss how we can maximize the benefits of AI while ensuring that it remains inclusive, safe, secure and trusted.
African perspectives must be part of that conversation.
That is why I encourage Mozambique to participate actively in this platform, coordinated by ITU and UNESCO.
Immediately afterwards, ITU will host the AI for Good Global Summit together with the WSIS Forum.
These are further opportunities for Africa to help shape global discussions on AI, digital development, standards, skills and innovation.
The second major moment is the Plenipotentiary Conference in Doha, where Mozambique will have the opportunity to help set the strategic direction of the ITU for the next four years.
Excellencies,
At the end of every subsea cable, within every school we put on the Giga Connectivity Map, at the core of every digital policy you adopt this year, there are people.
The student who can apply for higher education or their first job online.
The entrepreneur with the resources to prototype a new solution.
The policymaker with the capacity to ensure that AI benefits all Mozambicans.
In the end, everything we do in connectivity, digitalization and innovation comes down to people.
And to the better lives and futures that these technologies can help create.
The future being built here in Mozambique is not only more connected.
It is more resilient.
More inclusive.
More innovative.
And more full of opportunity.
Above all, it is a future in which every Mozambican has the opportunity not only to participate in the digital age, but to help shape it.
That is a future worth building.
