UNGIS Side Event @HLPF 2021

Good morning, good evening, good afternoon, welcome and thank you for joining this side event organised by the United Nations Group on the Information Society (UNGIS) with the kind support of the Russian Federation. 

The event will look at the importance of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) Action Lines in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

It was the first session of the World Summit on the Information Society which took place in Geneva in 2003 that recognised the role of ICTs as a tool for world-wide good.

Now, after 18 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, no one can doubt the foresight of the summit 18 years ago, or how the principles laid down then have stood the test of time!

Never before has there been so much reliance, appreciation and emphasis placed on the important role and capacity of ICTs, which has given billions of people around the world the ability to continue their work, studies, care of others and remain connected to their loved ones. 

And yet, not everyone has been able to benefit. Digital divides are increasingly apparent between the rich and the poor, urban and rural, young and elderly, as well as on gender, persons with disabilities and indigenous people. For almost half of the world’s population, ICTs are still out of reach, unaffordable, unattractive, unsafe, too complicated or not in the local language. I hope and believe that the increased awareness of the importance of getting everyone connected, brought about by the pandemic, will make it sooner rather than later that everyone everywhere benefits from the technology. Only then will the SDGs be achieved.

The UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) has warned that the pandemic has erased years of progress on some of these goals. Our task now, with the coordination of UNGIS, is to ensure that ICTs and the WSIS Action Lines help recover the progress made. 

Last month, I had the pleasure of moderating a WSIS Forum 2021 Ministerial Roundtable and it was gratifying to hear how national efforts to implement the WSIS Action Lines and the SDGs have helped countries weather the crisis and cope with the pandemic. The ministers recognized ICTs as the backbone of building back better after the pandemic and emphasized the necessity of collaborative efforts across government, regulators, private sector, development agencies, civil society and academia. This spirit of multi-stakeholder cooperation has always been at the heart of the WSIS process and it has become even more crucial now to harness ICTs and address the world’s most pressing challenges, including COVID-19. 

So the WSIS Action Lines are now more relevant and important than ever, helping governments, international organizations and the private sector understand and implement the correct policies, strategies and approaches needed for SDG achievement. They also serve as a reminder of the importance of cooperation across the public and private sectors, regionally and internationally – a cooperation which, I am pleased to say, has been in evidence throughout this year’s WSIS Forum which had a cumulative attendance of over 50,000 from government, civil society, academia, private sector and regional and international organisations from over 180 countries, confirming its position as the world’s largest gathering of the ‘ICT for sustainable development community.’

Effective collaboration within the UN system is now very important with so many UN organisations making use of ICTs to progress their goals. To ensure this, UNGIS has developed a dialogue on the role of digitalization in the Decade of Action. The heads of UNGIS members pooled their insights and knowledge on the transformative potential of digital technologies in achieving the SDGs, helping to raise global awareness of these vital issues. It will be important we all contribute our specific competencies for the common good, pool our resources and make sure we avoid duplication of effort.

ITU and the co-organisers of WSIS Forum have been working with all WSIS Stakeholders to strengthen the alignment of the WSIS Process with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We have submitted contributions on the WSIS implementation activities to the High-level Political Forum, and I am pleased to see this year’s voluntary national reviews emphasise the importance and application of ICTs in achieving the SDGs. 

It is now up to us all to seize the opportunities this challenging time has created, to build upon the lessons learned and put the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development back on track.

I wish you an interesting and productive discussion and look forward to our collaboration in the weeks and months to come.

Thank you.

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