Foreword

In 2021, ITU launched the Partner2Connect Digital Coalition with a clear objective in mind to provide a global multistakeholder platform to mobilize and announce new resources, partnerships and commitments to achieve universal meaningful connectivity.

Having access to the Internet and information and communication technologies (ICTs) has never been more important. The COVID–19 pandemic taught us that connectivity is fundamental for individuals to work, learn, trade, and communicate. But while it is widely recognized that ICTs have tremendous potential to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the harsh reality is that 2.9 billion people are still totally offline, while hundreds of millions more lack the affordable, accessible, and reliable connectivity that would meaningfully change their lives.

Partner2Connect (P2C) has been developed in close cooperation with the Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology and the UN Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS), and in line with the WSIS Action Lines, the SDGs, and the UN Secretary-General’s Roadmap for Digital Cooperation. It aims to foster meaningful connectivity and digital transformation globally, in the hardest-to-connect communities, including those in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs), and Small-Island Developing States (SIDS).

The P2C Focus Areas Action Framework is the coalition’s guiding document. Developed by our Working Groups and Focus Area Leaders with the support of P2C’s Knowledge Partner, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), it is the result of an extensive and inclusive process of consultations, and summarizes the key elements that need to be addressed to achieve universal, meaningful connectivity and digital transformation for all: the what, the who, the why and the how.

All of the focus areas have an equal weight in the framework. Simply having access to connectivity is insufficient if people are not equipped with the devices or skills to use it. And once people are connected and using the Internet safely, we need to make sure that connectivity can be used for to drive value creation and the digital transformation of societies. Knowing the magnitude of the financial gap required to achieve all this is equally important, as are the financial models required to fund investments in meaningful connectivity.

I thank all our partners and supporters who, believing in the transformational power of this coalition, have already stepped forward and submitted a pledge to bridge the digital divide. And I invite those who have not yet done so to make a solid and substantial commitment to universal digital inclusion through our P2C Pledging Platform. We need all your engagement, energy, expertise and resources so that, together, we can create a world where the life-changing power of connectivity is put within reach of everyone, everywhere.

Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Director, Telecommunication Development Bureau, ITU