Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening. Thank you for joining this thematic workshop on inclusive and responsible digitalization in the city. This is the first Mayor’s meeting at the WSIS Forum, I would like to thank our partners Geneva Cities Hub and the Government of Switzerland for making this possible. I welcome this initiative and look forward to strengthening this partnership next year exploring different formats of engagement with Mayors in the context of Smart Cities.
We know that digital innovations are having far-reaching impacts on almost every aspect of urban development. Different digital technologies are converging to create new opportunity for tackling global challenges including sustainability and climate change.
The global pandemic has further accelerated the process of digitalization when governments, businesses and families are all relying on digital technologies to carry out day to day tasks, stay connected with one another, and access important public services such as healthcare.
As we keep on pressing forward with digitalization, we are gradually losing sights on two very important factors.
First, it is the fact that a large part of the world’s population is at risk of being left behind. And second, it is the fact that the environmental cost and impacts of digitalization are largely unaccounted for.
ITU statistics show that almost half of the world’s population are still offline. The lack of digital skills and affordable Internet remain to be the key barriers to increasing global Internet uptake particularly in developing countries and the least developed countries.
At the same time, we are also seeing a clear gender disparity when it comes to Internet uptake. The accessibility of ICTs and digital technologies also comes into question especially among minority groups including the indigenous population, people with disability and more.
The environmental cost of digitalization in city is often being overlooked. We know that the energy consumption of data centers and digital connectivity are growing at an alarming rate. More ICT devices are also being produced and disposed of, further contributing to the global challenge of e-waste. Without meaningful intervention, it will lead to the release of more carbon emissions, accelerate global warming and worsen the global climate crisis.
This is why today’s conversation is so important. The central promise of WSIS is to promote the use of ICTs and digital technologies for the development of all. We need to bring attention to the fact that if we were to realize the full potential of digitalization, we will need to take urgent steps to ensure that it is both inclusive and sustainable.
It means that digital technologies and ICTs need to be accessible to all regardless of gender, age, ability and location, and that they are deployed in an environmentally conscious and sustainable manner.
Creating an inclusive and sustainable digital transformation is a strategic priority shared not only by ITU but the United Nations as a whole.
This is reflected in the United Nations Secretary-General’s Roadmap for Digital Cooperation report where he calls for the international community to focus on building an inclusive digital society and developing human and intuitional capacity through digital cooperation at a global scale.
ITU is working proactively in creating an enabling environment for facilitating digital inclusion and sustainability in cities and communities.
The International Girls in ICT Day is an advocacy campaign led by ITU that aims to encourage more girls and young women to engage in ICT careers and studies. ITU is also among the most recognized international body to provide technical guidance for improving the accessibility of ICTs and minimizing their environmental impacts through standardization.
ITU has also been leading a broad collaboration among governments, businesses, the academia, industries, and other city stakeholders that aim to promote and support sustainable digital transformation in cities at the policy level through the United for Smart Sustainable Cities initiative, or simply U4SSC.
U4SSC is an excellent example of our commitment to align the development of technology with important global targets, such as the Sustainable Development Goals. To this day, U4SSC has already supported over 100 cities worldwide in achieving a sustainable digital transformation.
Today, we are very honoured and delighted that we will be joined by the city mayor of Tunis, Ms Souad Abderrahim from Tunisia, and the city mayor of Kigali, Prudence Rubinginsa, from Rwanda. They will be sharing with us their insights on how opportunities and challenges that digitalization has brought to their cities.
I also want to take this opportunity to thank all of the other esteemed speakers and moderators for joining us in this thematic workshop.
Without further delay, I will give the floor to our moderator of the session.
Thank you.