Radiocommunication Advisory Group
Opening Ceremony
Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Director, ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau
29 March 2021
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening.
Chairman of the Radiocommunication Advisory Group, Eng. Daniel Obam, Vice Chairs, my fellow elected colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,
I am very pleased to join you for the opening of this 28th meeting of the RAG, and I thank my colleague, Mario Maniewicz, Director, ITU Radiocommunication Bureau, for inviting me to say a brief hello at this meeting. We are in the midst of our Regional Preparatory Meeting for WTDC-21 for Africa, as some of you may know.
As BDT Director, I am delighted to note, and even stress, the ever-closer collaboration between my bureau and the BR.
We all know how vital your work is in ITU's 'commitment to connecting the world'.
We truly take pride in working together as One ITU to advance the goal of global, equitable connectivity for all.
Over recent months we concluded our Last Mile Connectivity Toolkit and have ramped up our school connectivity Giga initiative, in which BR experts provided detailed insights on options for spectrum availability to support our goal to connect every school to the internet.
BR is also our partner in the Policy and Regulation Initiative for Digital Africa (PRIDA) helping in development the guidelines and participate in the workshops.
That collaboration is not limited to Africa but to all regions, where we work together to organize regular spectrum management workshops, training sessions, not to mention supporting the Regional Radiocommunication Seminars.
I would be remiss if I did not mention WTDC Resolution 9. We have always been privileged to have your contribution on ITU-D Resolution 9 on the participation of countries, particularly developing countries, in management of spectrum. It remains an important guiding element in infrastructure development work.
We also welcome the contributions of the BR in on both our International Center of Digital Innovation and Youth task force.
And we also thank the BR and all of you for the Network of Women (Now). We have been inspired by your efforts and have created our own NoW for ITU-D in the run up to the WTDC.
As we strive to connect the 3.7 billion still unconnected, it's going to take the whole of our membership and the whole of the ITU with the 3 sectors working together in sync to support countries.
We look forward to the continued involvement of the BR in the preparations for the forthcoming World Telecommunication Development Conference, a conference that we hope will ensure that we deliver on ITU's Connect 2030 agenda and make good on our SDG pledge to 'Leave No-One Behind.'
I wish you a very successful meeting.
Thank you.
