WSIS Forum 2020
WSIS Action Line C6 (Enabling Environment)
Acting now: new and innovative policy and regulatory approaches for digital market development during and after the pandemic
Thursday 30 July, 13:00-14:00 CET
Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Director, Telecommunication Development Bureau, ITU
Dear colleagues,
It is a pleasure to welcome you to this WSIS session on “new and innovative policy and regulatory approaches for digital market development."
This is a topic that could not be more timely in the face of the current pandemic.
As the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres has said:
“The COVID-19 pandemic has plunged us into an acute health and economic crisis, the severity of which has not been seen in nearly a century.
The socio-economic impacts will likely unfold for years to come, halting and reversing progress on poverty eradication, food security, gender equality and other Sustainable Development Goals.
The pandemic has exposed and exacerbated vulnerabilities and inequalities within and among countries."
In the face of that very bleak warning, we in the digital community need to ask ourselves: how can digital technologies help?
The COVID crisis has underscored the vital importance of connectivity. For those of us lucky enough to enjoy a fast, always-on connection, digital technologies are helping us weather the storm.
Resilient fixed and mobile broadband networks have proved fundamental to maintaining economic and social continuity.
And when we finally beat this virus, its transformational effects on society seem certain to endure, as many of the new digital habits we have adopted from necessity seamlessly become part of the “new normal".
As the need to be able to access reliable digital infrastructure that supports the widespread use of digital technologies becomes increasingly important, so is the need for innovative policy and regulatory approaches that enable digital expansion to bolster social and economic resilience everywhere.
I want to particularly stress that word 'everywhere', because the UN SG reminded us that this pandemic has exposed and exacerbated vulnerabilities and inequalities within and among countries, and particularly countries where connectivity is very far from universal.
Populations unserved or partially served by broadband cannot benefit from distance learning, cannot telecommute to work, cannot shop online for necessities, and most crucially of all, cannot access healthcare information and medical services online.
And while large enterprises are able to benefit from well-established digital solutions already in place –– this is not the case for many small and medium enterprises, particularly in developing countries.
The experts who took part in the “ITU Economic Experts Roundtable" on the impact of COVID-19 on digital infrastructures agreed that the digital divide must be counted as one of the key factors limiting the ability of countries, communities and companies to use digital technologies to mitigate the consequences of crises like the current health emergency.
Bridging this digital divide needs to become one of our most urgent global imperatives.
As we strive to respond, and to recover, it is time to re-examine many longstanding assumptions, and to work more collaboratively to develop radical new approaches that can measurably fast-forward digital connectivity for sustainable development.
Today's session constitutes a piece of a larger puzzle that we all have to construct together.
As we heard during the GSR Leadership debate earlier this month, we need bold actions, but most importantly of all, we need collaborative actions.
Thank you, and I look forward to an inspiring discussion.
