Transforming Education Summit
Giga: Transforming Through Digital Connectivity
Opening Remarks
Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Director, ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau
17 September 2022
H.E. José Manuel Bar Cendón, Secretary of State for Education of Spain,
H.E. Adrian Hauri, Deputy Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations,
Mr Fayaz King, Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good afternoon,
It's an honour to address such a distinguished group of leaders and to welcome you to this discussion on Giga, the ITU-UNICEF initiative to connect every school to the Internet, and every young person to information, opportunity and choice.
Digital learning is critical to larger systemic efforts to transform education and lifelong learning, to make it more inclusive, equitable and effective.
The COVID pandemic showed us that universal access to broadband internet is foundational to building resilient learning environments.
But going even further, the capacity to use digital teaching and learning resources is also foundational to efforts to continually improve educational outcomes by transforming the way teachers teach and learners learn, as well as to expanding access to learning to those being left behind by traditional education frameworks.
Yet right now, the ability to leverage digital resources is far from equitably distributed.
UN figures confirm that 1.3 billion children have no access at all to the Internet at home.
Many hundreds of millions more suffer from levels of connectivity woefully insufficient to meet the demands of a modern 'online classroom.'
And only around half of the world's schools have any kind of internet connection.
In a world where the privileged among us have come to expect instant access to information as a 'given', far too many children are being left behind because of being digitally excluded.
They are excluded when they miss out on the schooling that would transform their future prospects simply because they cannot take their classes online.
They are excluded when they miss out on being able to use a search engine to do that important research for a project.
And they are excluded when they miss out on the opportunity to develop the digital skills that will open doors to future employment opportunities.
We cannot allow a simple lack of access to digital resources to blight the futures of children around the world, when access to online learning could offer them, their families and their communities so much.
That's why ITU and UNICEF joined forces to create Giga, a unique global partnership with the bold ambition to connect every school in the world to the internet by 2030.
As the UN Secretary-General has observed, education and digital technology are two great enablers, and equalizers.
Giga has been making impressive progress over the past three years, working with many key partners around the world, including the incredible partners with us in the room today.
To understand the scale of the problem and where resources are most needed, we've already mapped the location of over 1.1 million schools in 50 countries.
We're now working actively in 19 countries to bring schools online, and have, to date, connected over 5,300 schools in Sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia, and Latin America & the Caribbean, providing online access to two million students and teachers.
I'm proud of these achievements, and grateful that Giga has already attracted such dedicated and effective partners. But this is just a start. We still have a great deal of work ahead of us.
In this session, you will hear from H.E. Adrian Hauri, Deputy Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations, and from H.E. José Manuel Bar Cendón, Secretary of State for Education of Spain, whose countries are providing much-needed financial and political support to further the Giga mission.
You will also hear from some very inspiring partners about their practical experience with: mapping school locations and connectivity status; developing innovative financing models; and connecting schools and their surrounding communities.
We are also grateful today for the presence of some key private sector partners, including my long-standing colleague Heather Johnson from Ericsson, our first corporate partner and committed ally in bridging the digital divide with their Connect to Learn Program.
I'm grateful to all of our Giga partners for their vision, energy and commitment.
For me, it's hard to think of a more worthy ambition than that of bringing the transformational power of the internet to the world's young people.
Imagine a world where no child's future prospects need be compromised simply because of lack to access to education and information.
That's the Giga dream, and we hope that many more of you will join us in making it a reality.
