17th Internet Governance Forum: A compact to build a better digital future for all

By Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau and Secretary-General-elect, ITU

Thinking about the many challenges facing the world today, I recall the words of former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the first World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) back in 2003.

“Technology has produced the Information Age,” he said. “Now it is up to all of us to build an Information Society.”

Every one of us has an active role to play in the digital transformation reshaping our world. We are, in his words, the “makers of our own destiny.”

The 17th Internet Governance Forum, taking place this week, comes at a watershed moment.

Governments are searching for ways to rapidly extend connectivity to more citizens. The tech sector is experiencing its own period of disruption. And the UN system is preparing to negotiate a shared vision of what the world’s digital transformation needs to deliver.

The Global Digital Compact envisions an open, free, inclusive, and secure digital future for all.

It’s a bold vision in a world where one third of humanity has still never connected to the Internet, and where hundreds of millions more people find themselves marginalized through lack of ready and affordable access to broadband-enabled devices and services.

It’s a bold vision when the risks associated with digital technologies continue to multiply in the face of poorly coordinated responses to problems that require collaborative global solutions.

Yes, it is an ambitious vision. But it is a vision we must embrace, urgently, and as a global community – because to not do so would mean wilfully squandering the greatest opportunity humanity has ever had to create a fairer, more prosperous, and more inclusive world for all.

Digital technology is a uniquely powerful enabler.

Through digital, we can put the life-changing power of education within reach of all. We can empower the socially and economically excluded. We can ensure that everyone, everywhere has access to basic health care.

We can harness data-gathering and modelling to mitigate the climate crisis.

And we can turbo-charge human knowledge through collaboration in science, engineering, agriculture and more – across borders, across time zones, and even across language barriers.

A global imperative

We will not attain the 17 SDGs without the power of digital technologies. As we approach 2030, this is patently clear.

But how will future generations judge us if we fail to use the tools so readily available to us to build a better world for all?

At the same forum last year, I urged delegates to embrace the theme of ‘Internet United’ and think about our digital future as one community. The recent ITU Plenipotentiary Conference (PP-22), in the same vein, urged us to connect and unite.

That’s what the new Digital Compact aspires to do.

The United Nations is the right place for us to come together to forge a shared vision of our digital future.

And the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) – with its unique membership comprising 193 governments and over 900 members from the global technology sector – is the right UN organization to mobilize the broader digital community and bring all voices to the table.

Our collaborative culture, and the relationships we’ve established at every touchpoint of an increasingly complex digital ecosystem, are resources that the whole UN family can draw on to help shape a meaningful and durable Digital Compact.

Our duty to future generations

I was there for the birth of the Internet Governance Forum in 2005, during the Tunis Phase of WSIS, and I recall the international goodwill and spirit of optimism that ushered in a new era of multistakeholder consultation and dialogue around our digital future.

Today, we find ourselves at another inflection point. Networks and services that we shaped collectively, through digital cooperation, are now, in turn, reshaping our world.

We have a duty to future generations to guide that evolution – to ensure outcomes that are beneficial, not destructive – so that people are empowered by technology’s positive potential, rather than cowered by its dark side.

As Kofi Annan told WSIS delegates in 2003: “While technology shapes the future, it is people who shape technology and decide what it can, and should, be used for.”

We, the international community, have an opportunity, and an obligation, to work together to forge a digital future where access to a fast, safe, inclusive, and affordable Internet is a given, not a privilege.

Based on Doreen Bogdan-Martin’s opening remarks to the Internet Governance Forum on 29 November 2022.