Mobile World Capital Event:
“Giga: Recent Milestones Towards Universal School Connectivity"
Welcome Remarks
ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin
¡Hola!
It's really great to be back at the Mobile World Capital stand, and to see our founding partner, UNICEF, the government of Spain, Regional Government of Catalonia and the City of Barcelona represented here today.
Thank you to the Mobile World Capital Foundation for bringing us all together here at Mobile World Congress.
We're here because we believe in the power of connectivity for transforming education.
Brianna Salvador from José Vicente Cáceres Basic Education Center in Cortés, Honduras say it best: “Reimagining education means that it no longer only has to be in books or on the blackboard, that we can also have fun while we learn, think and dream, grow our imagination."
Brianna is one of the more than 30,000 students in remote, marginalized and rural communities in Honduras whose lives have been transformed by Giga.
Less than 6 per cent of the country's schools are connected, so Brianna is lucky. And she knows it. She wishes that Giga could reach all parts of the country because, as she put it, “all children have the same rights." This includes the millions of school-aged refugee children who are currently missing out on formal education around the world.
Here, too, Giga is showing the way, through the Mapping Refugee Schools pledge made to both ITU's Partner2Connect Digital Coalition and to the UNHCR's Global Compact on Refugees.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Every school we map, every school and every student we connect gets us closer to our goal.
Last year, Giga made important strides towards connecting every school to the Internet by the end of the decade: 2.1 million schools mapped across 140 countries, employing advanced technologies such as machine learning and satellite imagery; 90,000 schools in 22 countries are reporting real-time connectivity; 34 countries are now Giga countries, receiving advanced connectivity support from Giga.
And that's not all.
The Giga Technology Centre in Barcelona is up and running.
This hub for developing open-source tech innovation around school connectivity is also a space for convening the city's vibrant connectivity ecosystem.
Giga's headquarters has been established in Geneva, Switzerland, where we're ramping up activities in learning, financing, contracting and knowledge exchange.
It puts Giga at the heart of Geneva's financial, tech and international development scene.
Giga's success depends on solid, multi-stakeholder collaboration with committed partners like Spain and Switzerland.
Our heartfelt thanks to them for their invaluable support.
Let me also thank the Giga team, which brings global expertise from across ITU and UNICEF in mapping, modeling, financing, and contracting — our four key areas of action.
The cooperation Giga fosters between governments and industry — in the United Nations (UN) system and in communities — is what makes things possible on the ground.
Giga stands out, not just as an initiative, but as a lasting commitment to closing the education gap and digital divide.
2024 is the year we move from start-up within the UN system to scale-up.
I would like to thank you all for being with us and supporting us on our journey.
And remember Brianna's words: All children have the right to learn, to dream, and to grow their imagination.
Thank you.
