Remarks by Malcolm Johnson, ITU Deputy Secretary-General
Opening of the ICTs for Developing Countries and Least Developed Countries special track: Connectivity in LDCs
4 April 2022
Good morning, good afternoon, good evening and welcome to this special track on ICTs for Developing Countries and Least Developed Countries. I am pleased that the ITU Council last week agreed that this should be the theme for next year's World telecommunication and information Society day. We look forward to that.
Many thanks to UN Technology Bank for Least Developed Countries for partnering with ITU and helping to promote digital technologies in LDCs. Technology Bank's acting Managing Director, Dr Taffere Tesfachew, thanks for being with us today. We are also honoured to have Bangladesh's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Ambassador Mustafizur Rahman, thank you for being with us ambassador, as well as other distinguished representatives from developing and least-developed countries. Many thanks to all of you for joining us.
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in strong growth in global connectivity, driven mostly by increases in developing countries where Internet penetration has climbed more than 13 per cent since 2019. ITU data shows that in LDCs, the average increase has exceeded 20 per cent over this period.
This is a welcome development, and we need to build on this momentum, but unfortunately there are still too many people in LDCs unconnected —especially in the rural areas.
Last year, ITU and the UN Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States published a status report on connectivity in LDCs. It found that at current trends, Internet usage would reach just less than a third of the population by 2025.
The pandemic has impacted LDCs in unprecedented and disproportionate ways. This is now being compounded by the effects of the war in Ukraine, which as the UN Secretary-General said recently, is threatening to exacerbate economic and social vulnerabilities as well as food shortages.
The poor usage levels is not only due to connectivity problems or course. The lack of digital skills, lack of awareness of the benefits of connecting, and the affordability are major deterrents as well as lack of availability of energy supply.
Taking affordability, for example, a new study released by ITU and the Alliance for Affordable Internet last month shows that entry-level fixed or mobile broadband Internet costs more than 2 per cent of gross national income per capita in all except four of the world's 46 least developed countries.
Even when people in low- and middle-income countries do have access to basic Internet connectivity, it is often not sufficient enough to provide adequate access to essential health, education and employment services.
To address these challenges, ITU has built a network of partnerships with sister UN agencies, Member States, and public and private stakeholders. Under the project names of Giga and the Partner2Connect Digital Coalition, the objective of ITU's initiatives is to foster meaningful connectivity and digital transformation in the hardest-to-connect communities including schools.
Forging the right multistakeholder partnerships and alliances can achieve far-reaching results, especially if each brings their own specific competence and expertise to the table.
The WSIS Forum embodies this approach to collaboration. This special track will give us an opportunity to think about the practical ways to make a real difference to the lives of people in developing and least-developed countries by looking at key issues—from affordability to digital financial inclusion.
In two months from now, we will have a chance to put this in practice at ITU's much anticipated World Telecommunication Development Conference set to take place in Kigali, Rwanda, from 6 to 16 June. The theme is “Connecting the unconnected to achieve sustainable development", and the output of WTDC will feed into the fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC5).
The first part of the LDC5 last month was successful in adopting the Doha Programme of Action. So let us seize this moment to ensure that LDCs are placed at the top of the international agenda. And let us continue to harness the power of ICTs for developing and least-developed countries.
Thank you.