It is a pleasure to join you for today’s launch of this digital platform and I am very pleased to contribute to this excellent initiative.
I have had a long association with the Commonwealth and have experienced first-hand what a powerful network the Commonwealth is for promoting sustainable development across the world. For me that strength can be summed-up in three words: collaboration, coordination, and cooperation. These principles are at the heart of ITU’s efforts to harness cutting-edge digital technologies in support of sustainable development, including advancing health for all and ITU has collaborated with the Commonwealth in many initiatives.
ITU is the UN’s lead agency on information and communication technology with a membership of 193 Member States, including all Commonwealth countries, as well as over 900 sector members mostly private sector telecom and Internet companies as well as over 160 universities.
Much has been said about artificial intelligence. Advances in AI hold great promise for the health sector, and that has been on display throughout the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. But to fulfill that promise, these advances need to be deployed safely, efficiently, and at scale – hence the need to set common international standards to ensure interoperability and benefit from the consequent economies of scale. Standards setting is part of ITU’s core mission.
For example, the
ITU-WHO Focus Group on “AI for Health” plays an important role in this area by working towards the standardization of a framework for benchmarking ‘AI for Health’ algorithms. The need for this platform was identified at ITU’s second annual AI for Good Global Summit in 2018. It builds on a long history of collaboration with WHO including the landmark initiative
“Be He@lthy, Be Mobile”.
The ITU-WHO Focus Group is open to all and is a great example of what multi-stakeholder partnerships can achieve with researchers, engineers, practitioners, entrepreneurs, and policy makers working together to develop international standards and save lives. Most recently, an ad-hoc group has been created which will review the performance of AI and other digital health technologies in combatting the pandemic.
Of course, people will only be able to benefit from these technologies if they have access to broadband communications, and as we know almost half the world’s population is still not connected to the Internet especially people living in rural areas and remote communities. In addition, affordability, lack of digital skills and lack of relevant content in the local language continue to be major barriers to connection.
Another fundamental pillar of ITU’s mission is to maintain the international treaty on the use of the radio spectrum and satellite orbits. Last year, our World Radiocommunication Conference opened the path for the introduction of new technologies such as low earth-orbiting satellite networks and high-altitude platforms stations that have the potential to bring low cost connectivity to the rural and remote areas.
Bringing affordable connectivity to these communities is essential if the UN Sustainable Development Goals are to be achieved, including ensuring health and well-being for all.
ITU thanks the Commonwealth Centre for Digital Health for inviting us to play an active role in this initiative. We look forward to exploring how we can work together to advance knowledge and technology transfer, and capacity building.
Thank you.