FUTURECASTERS: GLOBAL YOUNG VISIONARIES SUMMIT
Closing Ceremony
15.30, Friday, 10 January 2020
Assembly Hall, Palais des Nations, Geneva
Closing Remarks
Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Director, Telecommunication Development Bureau,
International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
FerMUN Futurecasters
Teachers and professors,
Distinguished colleagues,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Well, WHAT a stupendous three days!
At Wednesday's opening – in the beautiful Human Rights & Alliance of Civilizations Room – your FerMUN SG asked: Do you dare to?
I have certainly seen how you rose to that challenge.
Working via eight Committees and two Youth Assemblies, you've been creative – and you've been bold – crafting ambitious resolutions that seek to harness technology to overcome some of our biggest global challenges.
I've been following your discussions with great interest. In your deliberations you have shown an impressive level of sensitivity to:
- cultural and linguistic issues,
- as well as great insight as to how technology might be employed to address these issues.
I loved the UNHCR Committee's discussion around multilingual online learning interfaces that could ensure refugee children get the chance to continue their education while in transit camps.
The UNESCO Committee was on a similar wavelength, advocating for ethical frameworks to govern the way AI platforms could be deployed in learning – to promote education for all.
In our ITU Committees you argued for international codes of conduct for digital financial services, to ensure we empower more people through mobile money while protecting vulnerable individuals from unscrupulous conduct. You also took on the very thorny issues around online privacy.
The exciting, untapped potential of ICTs to help redress and mitigate the global climate emergency focused the minds of the UN Environment Committee.
The threat of cyberwarfare and the need for international frameworks for de-escalating cyber conflict topped the agenda in the Security Council.
The ILO Committee considered the future of work in the digital era, and the need to help developing countries nurture digital skills and boost digital investment, while helping communities adapt to potential income loss linked to automation.
Financial support to help poorer nations leverage the enormous promise of e-health platforms and accelerate progress towards SDG 3 was one of the vital issues discussed by the WHO Committee.
And the ITU Youth Assembly on gender looked at issues of concern around online violence and harassment, and proposed the creation of a new organization dedicated to promoting gender equality in the tech field.
In short, you all have demonstrated such a confident grasp of UN issues, debating protocols and international collaboration that I am tempted to take a couple of weeks off and leave you in charge!
Futurecasters,
Ladies and gentlemen,
These debates have been instructive, and they've been a lot of fun too. But for ITU, their value goes far beyond that.
These issues, and how well we manage them, will define the shape of the world you inherit from us.
Just as digital platforms are evolving at lightning speed, so the disruptive effects of ICTs are also transforming our world faster than at any other time in human history.
It is the young – it is you – who will both reap the benefits AND bear the brunt of this transformation.
Already, a full half of the global population is under 30.
And nearly half of all young people live in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 40% of the population is now under 15 years of age.
That's already a huge youth demographic, and it's getting bigger.
But while the young population has grown by almost 140 million over the past 20 years, so too has youth unemployment.
And for those young people who DO have jobs, many more are working in informal jobs than people of my own generation.
At our opening ceremony, Fabrizio Hochschild spoke movingly about migration. It's worth noting that 70% of migrant flows comprise people under the age of 30.
And according to UNHCR, over half the world's refugees are now children.
As ITU's first crop of Futurecasters Young Global Visionaries, and the first true generation of digital natives, I encourage you to continue to actively think about how we could use the power of ICTs create the world that we want.
A world where everyone, no matter where they live, what their gender or what language they speak, has access to the same basic rights and opportunities. A world where every young person has the chance to prosper and realize his or her dreams.
Distinguished Futurecasters,
Before I hand over the floor, let me extend my heartfelt thanks to some of the people who have worked so hard to make this event the best FerMUN ever.
First and foremost, I want to recognize our extraordinary, tireless and inspirational FerMUN Director, Florence Baudry. Florence, please stand and take a bow.
My warmest thanks also go to FerMUN President Philippe Launay, and to his colleagues Alan Ackroyd, Jean-Loup Kastler, Sophie Zory, and Sceckhspeer Fergach. You are all, quite simply, amazing.
I commend Gessienne Grey for her truly outstanding leadership as this year's FerMUN Secretary-General. Gessienne, please stand and take a bow.
Congratulations to
- Anaëlle Cathelineau, our DSG for Chairs, who also led our special session on Child Online Protection yesterday;
- to Sima Buchnak, DSG for Delegates;
- to Mariam Barry, Head of Admins;
- and to the rest of the FerMUN Board: Jeremy Vial and Océane Plaza in Communications;
- Imtinane Mhoumadi, Head of Translation;
- Ruben Crawford, Head of Interpretation; and
- Marion Lambert, Head of the Solidarity Fund.
On the ITU side, very special thanks and appreciation go to Sylvia Poll, our fantastic ITU FerMUN team leader;
- Carla Licciardello and Fanny Rotino who organized the special session on Child Online Protection;
- Halima and Elena who led yesterday's Teachers' Roundtable; and
- Monica Albertini, Matthew Clark and Victoria Knight in Communications.
Let me also take a moment to thank all the ITU experts who gave freely of their time to assist on content issues, and of course the internal ITU services that supported this huge event, from Repro and Graphic Design to Badging and Registration, Security, Interpretation, and of course the energetic team at the ITU Cafeteria.
2020 Futurecasters,
Ladies and gentlemen,
This has been a watershed summit for ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau, marking the launch of a new Global Youth Strategy that will ensure that the essential voice of young people is consistently included in our key debates and deliberations.
For us, this ceremony may mark the end of FerMUN 2020, but it also marks the beginning of something bigger, something that all of you here have been instrumental in forging over the past three days. Something that I hope you will continue to be a part of.
Thank you for your energy, your enthusiasm and your insight, and congratulations on a truly outstanding FerMUN Futurecasters 2020!
