BDT Director Doreen Bogdan-Martin participated in an online global dialogue on “Digital Inclusion for All", during the 59th Commission for Social Development (CSocD59). The event was a result of a partnership between the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) and ITU. It gathered high-level technical experts, and representatives of Governments, civil society, academic institutions and the private sector to discuss the urgency of addressing digital inclusion for all.
Ms Bogdan-Martin gave opening remarks along with H.E. Ms María del Carmen Squeff, Ambassador of the Permanent Mission of Argentina to the UN and Chair of the 59th Commission for Social Development; Ms Daniela Bas, Director, Division for Inclusive Social Development, UNDESA; Ms Shamika N. Sirimanne, Director of the Division on Technology and Logistics, UNCTAD; and Ms Yu Ping, Senior Programme Officer, Office of the Envoy on Technology.
In her remarks, Ms Bogdan-Martin underscored that ''we have reached an inflection point in our mission to connect the world.'' Getting the remaining 49% of people online will be no small feat. To endeavour on the task ahead, she urged the international community to adopt a collaborative and cross-sectoral mindset. She described the need to work together to get networks out into rural areas where it might not have been profitable to go, and stated— ''the bottom line is that we all profit enormously from bringing that half of our planet still unconnected into our global digital community. We need their voices, their participation, and their engagement, if we are truly to harness the potential of digital to achieve our SDGs.''
In this regard, Ms Bogdan-Martin pointed to importance of putting in place the right regulatory policies to create investment-friendly enabling environments, and also focus on implementing a 'Whole-of-Government' approach that can deliver meaningful digital services at scale, and with greater return on investment.
She mentioned that certain communities – women, persons with disabilities, the elderly, and those with poor literacy, rural and remote – experience the most acute forms of digital exclusion. She also noted that ''ICTs have tremendous scope to open up a world of new opportunities and possibilities for these and other marginalized groups.''
Emphasizing that partnerships will be key to pave a digitally inclusive path forward for the 3.7 billion people that remain unconnected and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, Ms Bogdan-Martin invited stakeholders to join ITU's World Telecommunication Development Conference 2021 in November. She said, ''I look forward to forging new partnerships, pioneering new ways of collaborating, and working actively with all of you to harness the power of digital to 'build back better' and shape a digital future for all.''
