BDT Director Doreen Bogdan-Martin participated in an STI Forum 2021 side event organized by the Office of the Secretary-General's Envoy on Technology, to present an overview of the progress made together with partners in the implementation of the Secretary-General's Roadmap for Digital Cooperation.
Other distinguished panelists who presented informative insights were Ms Maria-Francesca Spatolisano, Assistant-Secretary-General and Officer-in-Charge of the Office of the Envoy on Technology; Mr Vint Cerf, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist, Google; and Ms Nnenna Nwakanma, Director, Chief Web Advocate, Web Foundation. H.E. Ambassador Mohammad Koba, Chargé d'Affaires, Permanent Mission of the Republic of Indonesia to the United Nations provided welcoming remarks.
Ms Bogdan-Martin recognized that the COVID-19 pandemic ''has brought to the fore our rapidly growing digital dependence and, in so doing, has highlighted our urgent need to come together around digital issues as part of our One UN strategy.'' She outlined activities underway to support the implementation of the Roadmap, including ITU and UNICEF's work to establish a baseline framework for universal, affordable and meaningful digital connectivity (with the support of the Office of the Secretary-General's Envoy on Technology); a partnership between ITU, World Food Programme, UNHCR, and GSMA to promote coordination and scalability in emergency telecommunications; the ITU-UNICEF Giga initiative to connect every school to the internet; the Multi-Stakeholder Network on Digital Capacity Development, and more.
In conclusion, Ms Bogdan-Martin affirmed that ''In this final Decade of Action, connecting the world has never been so important, and multistakeholder collaboration holds the key to our success.''
