Side event to the STI Forum - Achieving the SDGs: Unlocking the full potential of ICTs

Side event to the STI Forum - Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals: Unlocking the Full Potential of ICTs

6 June 2018, UNHQ, USA

Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning and thank you for joining us at such an early hour. 
Welcome to this session on Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals: Unlocking the Full Potential of ICT, sponsored by the International Telecommunication Union and GeSI, the Global e-Sustainability Initiative.

As you all are aware, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes that "the spread of information and communication technology and global interconnectedness has great potential to accelerate human progress, to bridge the digital divide and to develop knowledge societies.

Indeed, ICTs are vital in driving progress towards achieving each and every one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. ICTs are already empowering billions of individuals around the world – by providing access to education, healthcare, e-government and mobile banking among many other.

The number of mobile subscriptions, for example, has risen to almost 7.75 billion. And the number of devices connected to the Internet by 2020 is projected to reach 50 billion.

The challenge we see is to bring this connectivity to the rest of the world – the other half of the world's population still with no access to the online world - and particularly in the Least Developed Countries – so that everyone can benefit from ICTs in terms of social and economic progress.

To give you an example, access to financial services and financial literacy which are essential to lift people out of poverty. Saving accounts, for example, can help people use funds acquired during better times to cover harder times. But what do you do when you don’t have a bank account? Today, more than 2 billion adults do not have a formal bank account, most of them in developing economies. But of these, 1.6 billion most likely have access to a mobile phone. 

That is why ITU launched a global partnership with the World Bank Group, the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to accelerate digital financial inclusion in developing countries through the use of mobile phones.

We should also use the technology to help people living in rural areas to be more productive and sustainable, and reduce the pressure in cities. This means that we need to bring connectivity to the rural areas, something that is commercially challenging. However, innovative solutions are in sight with several projects underway, such as low earth orbiting satellites and high altitude platforms. All these will need to be coordinated by ITU and will need to comply with ITU standards.

Smart cities. Smart villages. Climate monitoring. Digital financial inclusion. Emergency telecommunications. These are all areas where information and communication technologies can make a big difference. But only if the power of ICTs is brought to all nations, all people and all segments of society.

At ITU, we have developed a roadmap of how the activities of our three sectors: the Radio, Standards and Development, can contribute to the achievement of the SDGs, linking these activities closely to the World Summit on the Information Society WSIS Action Lines. This will certainly remain a focus of ITU's work for the following years.

ITU is working toward the necessary spectrum allocations, especially for future mobile services, technical standards for interoperability and interconnection, and the policy and regulatory environment that will promote innovation while avoiding market dominance and ensuring consumer protection.

To achieve these goals we will need to continue leveraging the power of public private partnerships, as well as the huge potential of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) – we need their expertise, innovation and investment. 

With ITU's diverse and broadening membership - ITU’s membership consists of 193 governments, 450 private sector companies, 150 universities, civil society and other regional and international organizations- and the support and commitment of the thousands of experts working in ITU, and in close partnership with other bodies such as the long-standing and successful ITU-GeSI collaboration, I am sure we will be successful in unlocking the full potential of ICTs to achieve the SDGs.

Only by collaborating together will we move forward towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals - from vision to action, and transform the digital revolution into a development revolution.

I wish you an enjoyable and very informative session.