ITU-D Study Group 2 Plenary and Rapporteur Group Meetings
Opening Remarks
Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Director, ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau,
18 October 2021
Dr Ahmad Sharafat, Chair of Study Group 2,
Ms Roxanne McElvane Webber, Chair of TDAG,
Ms Fleur Regina Assoumou Bessou, Chair of Study Group 1,
Vice-Chairs of Study Group 2,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is a pleasure to welcome you to these ITU-D Study Group 2 Plenary and Rapporteur Group meetings. Glad I didn't have any technical glitches today.
I thank you again for your active participation and commitment, as always.
I am counting the days until we can meet and chat again in a physical setting.
Let me start by congratulating you for the launch of your output reports, which reflect your dedication and efforts during this study period.
The reports, accompanying videos have been well received around the globe.
Given that we are at the close of this study period and fast approaching the WTDC, I encourage you to have productive exchanges this week and zoom in on your reference of your Questions.
I was pleased to follow related Study Group 1 discussions last week and the advancement towards consensus on its revised terms of reference.
Of course, we always rely on your expertise and critical insights to shape our future activities, that will serve as a base for important discussions and decisions at the next WTDC.
Towards this, the mandates of both Study Groups, give us the opportunity to dig deeper into areas which are critical to digital developments likely to happen in the next WTDC cycle.
For Study Group 2 in particular: applications and services for smart cities and e-health; confidence and security; using ICTs to monitor and mitigate the impact of climate change and disasters; human exposure to EMFs; and looking at different aspects of devices – combating counterfeit and theft, conformance and interoperability, safe disposal of electronic waste.
All this goes to the heart of the issues the world is grappling with and of course the concerns of consumers, and being people-centric, which is critical to everything that we do in framing future strategies.
I would like to remind and encourage you to nominate candidates to the positions of study group chairs and vice-chairs and for positions of rapporteurs and vice-rapporteurs after the WTDC next year.
We need a committed team and expertise to continue the good work of the study groups.
I do want to thank you for support with two important initiatives, Generation Connect and the Network of Women for WTDC, which ultimately help to bring more diverse voices to the table.
Finally, I also urge you to join us in our Partner2Connect Digital Coalition, which is possibly the biggest partnership initiative we have undertaken. We are seeking commitments to connect the unconnected.
This will be a gamechanger for us and will also build on the work that you do in the study groups to extend meaningful connectivity and digital transformation.
All this will culminate at WTDC next year and I can't wait for your involvement in these initiatives.
I strongly believe that building partnership starts at home. And in this case, our home is ITU.
I know that time is of the essence so without further ado, Mr Chairman, back to you.
Thank you.
