Digital connectivity is no longer a nice to have. Providing the remaining 2.9 billion people with meaningful and safe access to the Internet is an urgent imperative, as the opportunity cost of not doing so might hinder the socio-economic progress of nations. Even among the 4.9 billion counted as 'Internet users', many hundreds of millions may only get the chance to go online infrequently, via shared devices, or using connectivity speeds that limit the usefulness of their connection. ICTs form the backbone of today’s digital economy and they have an enormous potential to fast forward progress on the SDGs and improve people’s lives in fundamental ways.
Achieving universal connectivity is at the heart of the UN's work to achieve a more open, free and secure digital future for all and a key priority in the UN Secretary-General’s Roadmap for Digital Cooperation. To achieve the Roadmap’s goal of ensuring that every person has safe and affordable access to the Internet by 2030, including meaningful use of digitally enabled services, implementation of its recommendations on global connectivity has focused on ensuring a ‘people-centred’ approach in leaving no one behind. In this context, the Partner2Connect Coalition and the multistakeholder partnership model it represents is critical in implementing the Roadmap by catalyzing concrete joint efforts to accelerate connectivity.
This report introduces the Partner2Connect Focus Areas Action Framework, which is the guiding document of the P2C Digital Coalition. The framework attempts to tackle the challenge of universal meaningful connectivity by looking at it from the perspective of four Focus Areas. The first Focus Area is related to ACCESS: Connecting people everywhere, and it covers the provision of affordable, resilient and trustworthy connectivity for all. The objective of this Focus Area is to facilitate attainment of universal and affordable connectivity through resilient infrastructure deployments that ensure ubiquitous network coverage including “last mile” and hardest-to-connect uneconomical areas. The key issues to address here revolve around three pillars: Infrastructure, Affordability and Cybersecurity.
The second Focus Area is related to ADOPTION: Empowering communities, and it looks at getting all people meaningfully and safely connected. By taking a people-centred approach, the key pillars under this Focus Area (Skills, Digital inclusion and Relevant / local content and services) seek to ensure that communities are digitally skilled and empowered to use digital technologies, content and e-government services safely, inclusive and equally.
The third Focus Area of the Action Framework relates to VALUE CREATION: Building digital ecosystems. This area covers the needs for adequate leadership to accelerate the digital transformation of societies through thriving local ecosystems, with an emphasis on relevant local content, services and digital businesses. The key pillars under this Focus Area (Digital innovation and entrepreneurship, Applications and services, and Digital economy) call for an inclusive whole-of-ecosystem approach that nurtures entrepreneurship, innovation, start-ups, SMEs, trade, and job creation, through collaborative policy and regulation practices supported by data.
Finally, through its fourth Focus Area, ACCELERATE: Incentivizing investments, the framework looks at innovative approaches to leverage existing and new forms of investment. The objective of this Focus Area is to structure innovative financing models and streams as well as adaptations to public policy and regulation to incentivize and facilitate public and private sector sustainable investment for financing meaningful access and affordable connectivity. The key issues to be addressed are grouped around three key pillars as well: Innovative financing, Project viability and Investor constellation.
As we strive to bring online the 2.9 billion people still offline and to improve the connectivity of those already online, setting goals and monitoring progress towards those are vital. P2C will rely on existing indicators and targets: the ICT-related targets in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework; the targets of the ITU Connect 2030 Agenda; the affordability targets of the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development; and the universal and meaningful connectivity targets for 2030, to be announced by ITU and the Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology in Quarter 2 of 2022. P2C efforts will contribute towards those targets.
The Focus Areas Action Framework presented here goes beyond the analysis of specific gaps. It also proposes some interventions and policies to fill those gaps. The Framework also outlines the overall structure under which pledges for the P2C Coalition can be made to mobilize resources and commitments. The examples of pledges provided in this Framework have been drafted based on existing language in ITU documents and resources and are intended to serve as an illustration of how pledges could be framed under the different Focus Areas and pillars.
The final section of the report provides an overview of the next steps for the Coalition including the Partner2Connect Digital Development Roundtable at WTDC, which will take place from 7-9 June in Kigali, Rwanda. It also highlights ITU’s overall coordinating role in helping track and monitor the pledges submitted through the P2C’s online Pledging Platform.