Connectivity is now a foundation of human development, shaping access to education, health, jobs, services, and participation in civic life. The 2030 Agenda recognizes connectivity as an important enabler for several SDGs, including inclusive, quality education (Goal 4); gender equality online (Goal 5); economic growth and decent work (Goal 8); industry, infrastructure and innovation (Goal 9), reduced inequalities (Goal 10) and access to ICTs and the Internet (Goal 17).

Still, 2.2 billion people remain offline, and digital divides mirror and deepen analogue inequalities across countries and across socio-economic groups. Among those who are connected, a significant share is only connected by 3G networks (up to 28% in low-income countries) and faces high costs to access ICT services (up to 9.4% of monthly GNI per capita in low-income countries).

While the need to connect everyone with sufficient quality and safety, at affordable prices, is recognized in most digital development agendas at the national and international levels, including the WSIS+20 outcomes, governments and operators cannot drive the connectivity agenda without reliable, timely and accurate data.

The statistical framework to measure progress towards universal and meaningful connectivity (UMC), proposed by ITU and endorsed by the G20, considers statistical indicators across six enabling dimensions: quality, availability, affordability, devices, digital skills, and safety/security.

Event information

ITU, in collaboration with the Permanent Mission of Spain to the United Nations and the National Statistics Institute of Spain, and with the financial support of the European Union, is organizing the in-person event Universal and meaningful connectivity: strengthening national systems for ICT statistics, which will take place on 5 March 2026 in New York, United States of America, as a side event during the 57th session of the UN Statistical Commission.

National statistical offices, together with telecommunication regulators, digital policy ministries and agencies, and private sector operators, are key actors in the ICT statistics ecosystem. However, despite growing calls for investment in ICT statistics, many LDCs and SIDS still face capacity and resource constraints to compile the necessary data—limiting evidence-based digital policymaking.

The event will explore why better data is essential to accelerate progress towards Universal and Meaningful Connectivity (UMC), and how countries and partners can strengthen ICT statistics to inform effective digital policies.

The event will highlight:

Initiatives to measure universal and meaningful connectivity through harmonised indicators.
Efforts by countries to improve ICT statistics, with a preliminary assessment of their capacity in this domain.
Financing initiatives and other institutional arrangements that could be scaled up.

This event will also aim to increase awareness among the statistical community – and other partners such as development banks, bilateral development agencies and private donors – about the measurement frameworks for digital policies, provide a forum to exchange good practices and find solutions to fix the bottlenecks for compiling ICT statistics.

To participate, advance registration is mandatory, following the link below:

The working language of the event will be English only.

Target audience

Heads of national statistical offices and statistics departments of international organizations attending the UN Statistics Commission
Development banks
Bilateral development agencies
Private donors active in statistics

Timetable

Read their bios here.

Background of the project

With the financial support from the European Union, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is organising a series of regional and subregional workshops. These workshops will convene policymakers and statisticians to deliberate on metrics for gauging progress towards Universal and Meaningful Connectivity (UMC), analyse the persistent socio-economic and geographical divides, and harness data effectively to refine, monitor, and assess digital policies.

Contacts