Ministerial Meeting of the Landlocked Developing Countries
UNCTAD-15 Pre-Event
Remarks
Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Director
ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau
2 September 2021
Good morning, good afternoon, good evening,
Excellencies,
It gives me great pleasure to join you at this preparatory Ministerial session ahead of UNCTAD-15, to share some thoughts on how we can help every Landlocked Developing Country not just dramatically improve its connectivity, but harness the powerful transformational effects of that digital access to change lives.
COVID-19 has brought into sharp focus the urgent need to bring online the 3.7 billion still unconnected.
LLDCs need to be a key focus of these efforts, because ITU data shows that only 27% of the population in LLDCs is using the internet, against a global average of 51%.
That low level of connectivity is further exacerbated in rural areas, with access hovering around just 16%. Women are also much less likely to be online, with only around 1 in 5 women in LLDCs accessing the internet, compared with 1 in 3 men. Add to that high connectivity costs and low levels of digital skills, and we have a complex raft of factors contributing to the persistent digital divide, creating new inequalities and amplifying existing ones.
That needs to change fast, because all signs indicate that the ''new normal'' for our post-COVID world, will be digital.
UNCTAD's own Technology and Innovation Report 2021 urges all developing nations to prepare for a period of “deep and rapid technological change that will profoundly affect markets and societies."
Digital technologies can play a powerful role in getting the SDGs back on track, and in helping LLDCs meet the goals and aspirations of the Vienna Programme of Action for Landlocked Developing Countries for the Decade 2014–2024.
So what do we need to do to get infrastructure, services and digital skills into all the LLDCs? Technology is playing a key role in building economic opportunities for communities around the world.
With an estimated $428 billion needed to connect 90% of those currently offline, it is clear that no-one is going to be able to do this alone. Multistakeholder partnership will be crucial.
Through more proactive, inclusive partnership and collaboration, we can find new ways and coordinated policy responses across all sectors, to overcome chronic connectivity barriers, to dramatically level-up affordable access to technology, and to empower local people with the digital skills to use that technology.
Harnessing the power of partnership is at the heart of a new ITU-led global Partner2Connect Digital Coalition, which has a strong focus on LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS. It will bring together various stakeholders around concrete connectivity commitments to connect the unconnected.
The first fruits of that collaboration will be presented at ITU's World Telecommunication Development Conference next June. We affirm our solidarity with you to see LLDCs fully access life-changing, enabling, digital platforms and services, using ICTs as vehicles for trade, investment, finance and general development.
This is because 'leaving no-one behind' to us means 'leaving no-one offline'.
Thank you.
