December

New commitment to digital cooperation

Our Seoul Statement, issued jointly with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), underlined the need for responsible AI to advance human well-being. Our joint commitment was a highlight of the International AI Standards Summit 2025 in Seoul, Republic of Korea, which brought together senior leaders from government, industry and the research community to strengthen collaboration and drive convergence on AI design, governance and technical standards.

Following our joint mission to Chad in November, we held a high-level roundtable discussion with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), mobile telecom industry association (GSMA) and the Government of Luxembourg on expanding digital access and affordability for displaced people and their host communities.

Our Partner2Connect (P2C) Digital Coalition has wrapped up 2025 with pledges topping USD 80 billion, with a total of 1,051 pledges submitted by 486 entities across 149 countries to extend digital benefits to some of the world’s hardest-to-reach places and communities. At the P2C Annual Meeting for 2025, partners reiterated their shared commitment to expanding global connectivity and highlighted new collaborations to give everyone a digital future.

The Giga Learning Hub delivered training through the ITU Academy on sustainable public procurement for school connectivity, reaching a total five sessions in person and online for the year, helping strengthen capacity for 128 delegates from 52 countries.

Approaching the end of this fruitful year, we took stock of two decades of digital progress and reviewed the achievements of multi-stakeholder cooperation stemming from the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in 2003-2005. Our Digital@UNGA WSIS+20 Edition event brought together representatives from government, industry, civil society and youth representatives highlighted ambitious new opportunities for people-centred digital cooperation.

The UN General Assembly concluded its WSIS+20 overall review, endorsing WSIS as a key cooperation mechanism to build a people-centred digital future.