TDAG Side Event- Partner2Connect Digital Coalition
Opening Remarks
Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Director, ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau
11 November 2021
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good afternoon, good morning and good evening.
A warm welcome to this side session on Partner2Connect at TDAG.
As I mentioned in my opening statement on Monday, we are at a decisive moment in history.
In the face of the COVID crisis, the world has come to realize the central role of connectivity in our daily lives.
There's no going back.
Yet, all of us here today know that billions remain digitally excluded.
And we can change that picture.
But we cannot do it alone.
It has to be through partnerships.
When we came together at our TDAG in 2019, we decided that this upcoming WTDC was our opportunity to change the picture, to move from words to action, and impact. To dive in and tackle the real development challenges on the ground.
Partner2connect was constructed around your request to have a development segment during WTDC that would be concrete and action focussed.
At this WTDC we will expand our scale and reach, and put partnership front and centre of the connectivity agenda.
This is why ITU has been so pleased to collaborate closely with the Office of the Secretary-General's Envoy on Technology.
My colleague and friend from the Tech Envoy's Office is with us today, and UN-OHRLLS.
Through Partner2Connect we aim to bring meaningful connectivity and digital transformation in the hardest-to-connect communities, with a focus on, but not limited to Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries, and Small Island Developing States.
Partner2Connect is built on the principles of inclusion, partnership and SDG-focused digital development.
It is an opportunity for the ICT sector to finally take a holistic approach mobilize resources needed to connect half of humanity that is still offline.
I believe Partner2Connect will be a real gamechanger. But that will only be possible if we are all a part of it.
Today we will hear from some stakeholders who have stepped forward to join our cause for universal connectivity through Partner2Connect.
We envision this as a step forward in fostering international cooperation and advancing the resource mobilization efforts of ITU-D.
The Partner2Connect Digital Development segment, will take place on scheduled to take place at WTDC from 7 to 9 June 2022. And it will serve as a milestone in garnering pledges and commitments.
The four focus areas are: Connecting people; Empowering communities; Building digital ecosystems; and Incentivizing investments, are all part of our overall conference theme of ''Connecting the Unconnected for Sustainable Development''.
