Internet Governance Forum USA
Opening Keynote
Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Director, ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau
14 July 2021
Madame Secretary,
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen
It is my great pleasure to join you for the opening of the 2021 U.S. Internet Governance Forum.
I think it is fair to say that right now, we are all living through very challenging times.
Over the past 18 months, we have seen the dial on broadband connectivity shift sharply from 'desirable' to 'essential'.
In the face of lockdowns and quarantine restrictions, ready access to digital infrastructure has become a basic requirement for fully-fledged participation in society, and the economy.
For those of us lucky enough to enjoy a fast, affordable connection, access to the internet has quite literally been a lifeline.
But let us never forget that nearly half of humanity still does not have this access.
And that hundreds of millions more struggle with internet connectivity that is simply too slow, too expensive, or too inaccessible to make any significant difference to their lives.
This is not just a 'developing world' problem. Here in the US, analysts estimate that 25% of the population still lacks a home broadband connection, and the FCC reports that even where broadband is available, 100 million Americans choose not to subscribe.
Around the world, we see a similar picture, with certain groups especially disadvantaged: rural dwellers, women, indigenous communities, persons living with disabilities, and of course people on low incomes.
One of the greatest challenges ahead will be finding ways to deliver affordable, safe and meaningful connectivity to all the world's people.
The UN Secretary-General's Roadmap for Digital Cooperation launched last summer represents a significant milestone in our efforts to develop shared strategies to drive full digital inclusion.
This roadmap calls for universal affordable connectivity by 2030.
It's a formidable challenge, because the latest ITU data show that progress in rolling out connectivity to underserved areas is actually slowing.
We estimate that connecting all unconnected by our 2030 deadline will require a huge global investment, in the vicinity of $428 billion.
So, as we look to how to achieve our vision of a fully connected planet, I think one thing is absolutely certain – no-one can do this alone.
Reaching the 3.7 billion people still offline, and the hundreds of millions more suffering chronic digital exclusion, requires new thinking, new financing models, new multistakeholder partnerships, carefully targeted actions, and innovative, responsive and adaptable policies and regulation.
Right now, we have a unique opportunity to rethink and reshape policy principles and regulatory best practices to guide post pandemic growth.
We need to nurture more inclusive and collaborative approaches across a growing number of stakeholders.
And most importantly, in our efforts to tackle the persistent and growing global digital divide, we need to put people at the core of our policy and regulatory decisions.
At ITU, multistakeholder partnership has always been at the very heart of the way we work.
ITU is unique as the only UN agency with a membership comprising not just 193 governments but more than 900 leading tech companies, universities and international and regional organizations from around the world. ICANN, ISOC and the Regional Internet Registries are all members of ITU, and we have been developing and implementing impactful multistakeholder projects with public, private and civil society partners for many decades.
ITU has a long and prized tradition of consensus-driven decision making.
Our global technical standards work is a highly collaborative process, driven by experts from the private sector, then ratified by our Member States.
We hold online open consultations for all stakeholders to provide inputs to international Internet-related public policy issues.
Right now our Council Working Group on Internet is consulting on issues related to the role of the internet in mitigating the impact of COVID-19.
And as many of you will know, we also regularly hold World Telecommunication Policy Fora – or WTPFs – on issues of pressing concern to the digital community.
The 6th WTPF is scheduled for mid-December this year, to look at harnessing emerging technologies to reboot the SDG process and tackle global challenges like the COVID pandemic as you may have seen in the SDG progress report launched last week. COVID has set the world back on many fronts, and there is an urgent call for transformative action to leverage technology and innovation.
At the UN level, ITU has stepped up. And we are responding to this call, by co-leading a number of transformative initiatives with a broad range of stakeholders.
One bold new multistakeholder partnership of which I am especially proud is our Giga initiative with UNICEF and others to connect every school on the planet to the internet, and every young person to information, opportunity and choice.
Since its launch in late 2019, this project has been accelerating fast. In 2020 we welcomed 10 partners including organizations like Ericsson, Dubai Cares, and the Musk Foundation.
By the end of this year, we expect to complete mapping for 1 million schools in 36 countries; connect at least 1,000 schools in each of our first 17 priority countries; and put in place the financial framework for an innovative 'connectivity bond' to raise vital investment dollars.
We are also working with UNICEF on the implementation of the roadmap recommendations on global connectivity, and working on a digital capacity-building support progamme with UNDP (MSN and joint facility).
And of course we partner with many other UN agencies, from WHO on digital health, to ILO on digital employment opportunities, and UN Women and the International Trade Centre on our EQUALS global partnership for digital gender equality.
Our new youth initiative, called Generation Connect, is also actively bringing the essential contributions of young people to the table, and stimulating broad global dialogue around the many emerging issues related to youth and technology.
Large multistakeholder projects like the Giga universal school connectivity initiative require a coordinated response at the international level, but equally importantly, they rely heavily on national and community or grassroots actions.
That is why National IGFs such as this one are so important in energizing stakeholders through dialogue, and helping formulate informed and effective actions.
ITU has been a staunch supporter of the IGF since its inception in 2005, alongside the WSIS Forum, as outcomes of the Tunis Phase of the World Summit on the Information Society.
Since then, these two platforms have worked side by side, complementing each other's role, with the IGF focusing on the governance aspects of cyberspace, and the WSIS Forum on the developmental aspects.
Now, as we look ahead to the shape of a future IGF-Plus, as foreseen in the UNSG's report on Digital Cooperation, I look forward to strengthening this partnership and helping drive broader participation from developing countries, from LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS, from civil society organizations, and, of course, from across our increasingly diverse global ICT sector.
In his second-term address last month, Secretary-General Guterres stressed his commitment to a strengthened IGF empowered to bring all stakeholders together around the implementation of the Digital Cooperation Roadmap.
In reaffirming his commitment, he observed that we must never lose sight of our goal: an open, free and secure digital future that embodies full respect for data protection, privacy, and human rights.
Today's annual meeting of the IGF-USA perfectly reflects that vision, with key sessions on so many of the burning issues of the day, from data privacy, security and digital identity to online markets, digital supply chains, and the growing challenge of content moderation over social networks. Looking forward to the discussions.
I do want to recognize the collaboration and strong support that ITU always enjoyed from the IGF-USA and other US-based members of the digital community, including the Internet Society, ICANN, the registries, leading US tech companies, and of course the US administration, which is one of our most proactive Member States in ITU's work.
There is much to be proud of – but with COVID pushing forward a new wave of digital transformation, none of us can afford to rest on our laurels.
Just as the pandemic has reinforced our human interconnectedness, it has also shown us the vital importance of digital interconnectedness, and what it really means to be offline in our increasingly digital age.
We've heard that the digital divide is becoming the 'new face of inequality'.
It is in our power to stop this from happening.
Universal connectivity would mean that no child need miss out on school, that no individual need lose their job, and that no community need be disadvantaged simply through lack of a broadband connection.
When the multistakeholder community came together in 2003 and 2005 to formulate the WSIS principles, it was with the belief that we had something special that needed to be protected and nurtured through multistakeholder cooperation – 'one Internet, without boundaries, connecting us all'.
More than 15 years later, with the Internet now a critical part of our lives, and our economies, we face new challenges around security and privacy, online hate speech, and even the potential fragmentation of the Internet as we now know it.
We must continue to advance and advocate for the principles we affirmed as a community in 2005.
As before, the key to overcoming these challenges lies in coming together and working collectively, in a spirit of openness and cooperation.
With our exceptionally diverse membership, ITU embodies the WSIS principles of multistakeholderism, and I can assure you we are not going to step back from that commitment to inclusivity.
I know that we can count on the support and active participation of US-IGF stakeholders in ITU's ongoing global efforts to build back better for a safer, more connected, and more sustainable world. A world where everyone has digital access that is safe, attractive, and affordable, and where everyone is digitally empowered to build a better future for themselves, and their communities.
Thank you.
