telecommunications sector. The telecommunications sector in Ethiopia is now open both for local and foreign private investments. The first multinational telecommunications operator has been granted a new operating license in June 2021. The process to award the second new telecom operator license will be launched soon. In addition, Ethiopia has recently announced a bid for organization of ITU. This bid is open for all companies, whatever it is, technology, standardization, and regulatory policy together, made by infrastructure management and left generation technological capabilities. The decision to liberalize our telecom sector was reached from background. Our latest vision is to bring digital to every person in the sector. It is timely that the partner to connect roundtable will take place during the ITU's World Telecommunication Development Conference scheduled for June 2022 in Addis Ababa. This conference will provide a unique opportunity for the telecom world to meet, listen, and interact with key decision makers and share perspectives on the role of the telecommunications sector in economic and social development. The conference also offers a valuable opportunity to exchange knowledge and experience of organizational, operational, and regulatory issues to help shape the emerging landscape and explore how regulation and policy can support and guide the global digitalization process. As you know, member states of the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development six years ago. The telecom sector is part of this global transformation initiative and is playing a vital role in the implementation of the SDGs. The partner to connect digital coalition will therefore have an important part to play. I look forward to seeing you at the ITU's World Telecommunication Development Conference in June. I thank you. What a great thing to have President of Ethiopia with us. I see Sweden, the UK, Rwanda, Nepal, India, great to have you all with us. Okay. In November of 2020, the ITU launched the Road to Addis series as an effort to build momentum, engage stakeholders, and provide an inclusive platform to discuss some of the key themes that will be addressed at WTDC next year. The ITU identified six enablers which made the core thematic content of the Road to Addis series. Each session was focused on one of the core enablers. And they will accelerate connectivity for sustainable development if we understand each of them. So after almost a year of these great discussions in this segment, we're going to look at the key outcomes of the Road to Addis series and launch the Connectivity Road to Sustainable Development booklet and introduce the partner to connect digital coalition. Now we're going to start with a short video that summarizes some of the highlights and memorable moments of the Road to Addis 2020-2021. So let's watch that video now. In November 2020, we launched the Road to Addis series to build momentum towards ITU's World Telecommunications Development Conference in 2022 and to provide an inclusive platform for all stakeholders to advance our call for universal meaningful connectivity. We identified six enablers of connectivity for sustainable development to make this an inclusive and action oriented series to shape the digital development agenda with the active participation of youth. Almost a year later, we want to celebrate the achievements of our journey to reflect on the lessons gathered along the road and to look ahead. Seven successful events, 61 panelists and thousands of people following the Road to Addis series online. We navigated the perilous waters of COVID together, had fun together, we learned together and we got inspired by moving stories that showed us the importance of connectivity to learn, to work and to communicate. I am grateful to everyone who made this journey possible and I'm proud to now close this chapter and start a new one. We have not yet arrived at our destination, but we need to keep on going. We must look ahead and move faster to bridge the digital divide by 2030. The series has led to a common understanding that progress can be achieved through multi-stakeholder collaboration and that the direct leadership of governments, policymakers and the regulatory community is essential to achieve meaningful and universal connectivity. Are you ready to join me? Let us work together. Let us dream together. Let us start a new chapter together. Let us partner to connect. Okay, let's start partnering to connect. For this session, we're going to hear from six really great young leaders who will each summarize one of the six Road to Addis sessions. Each of them are members of the Generation Connect community of the ITU. Let me quickly tell you who they are first and then we will go through and ask each one of them to talk about the sessions that they are expert at. First, let me introduce to you Jesse N. Gray, who is a young leader in Generation Connect. Emma Randall, another Generation Connect young leader. Danola Oladapo, who is an engagement manager at the ITU and works closely with the Generation Connect community all the time. Ali Altoblani, a young leader with Generation Connect. Jannati Nakamara, who is the CEO and co-founder of Solar Net Metering Uganda. And finally, Ellen Taylor, youth engagement with Generation Connect. So thank you all six of you for being here. Oh, and I didn't say what you'd each talk about, but I'll get to that when we get to you. Sorry. Okay, so Jesse N, we're going to start with you on the session on partnerships. So what were your key takeaways from that session? As SDG 17 tells us, partnerships are the connective tissue that link the 2030 development agenda. And the session really brought home that their absence would truly impact the attainment of our goals. The session on partnerships highlighted the fact that partnerships for connectivity must be inclusive. They must be fit for purpose and action oriented. And they should be designed to make a difference for individuals, families and organizations. They have to be also resilient, adaptive, and ready to evolve in rapidly changing environments. Furthermore, youth must be one of the key stakeholders to include in the design of partnerships for connectivity, not only as idea generators, but also as partners in implementation. The private sector, including telecommunication companies, other service providers and freelancers also absolutely needs to be mobilized. And finally, partnerships for connectivity should also look at the demand side of the equation and recognize that while people need access to technology, they also need skills to be able to use it and mobilize its full potential. So how can your community use what we learned and move forward with all that great inspiration? I think that crucially this session really motivated participants to engage in new partnerships for connectivity to accelerate the achievements of the SDGs. So what it told us was a reflection on successful partnerships and it helped us identify major gaps which require new partnerships. It even explored and reshaped some of the principles and foundations of partnerships. So for me, the main message is ITU is ready to help the global community forge new partnerships. We're ready to help create links and make the necessary introductions to partnerships from government and industry to provide regulatory advice and expertise and to showcase projects and initiatives on the world stage, for example, at WTDC. So if we want to make a change now, this is how it's through these partnerships that we will be able to engage the next generation, connect the world and achieve the SDGs. Wonderful. Thank you so much, Jesse-Ann. Okay, Emma, talk to us about the inclusion session. So the Road to Addis Connect to Include session brought together our diverse group of speakers to discuss the need for digital inclusion and strategies to achieve this. There was a focus on inclusion for groups where data shows there are large digital divides including women and girls, youth and elderly, persons of disabilities, children, Indigenous people and those living in remote areas. So digital exclusion results in amplifying social, economic and educational inequalities. And the major takeaway from the session was that communication and ICT access should be considered a right and not a privilege. Digital inclusion means access to affordable, high quality infrastructure, as well as digital literacy and education for all. And the key thing that emerged from the session is that it's important that we have a human-centered approach both in our design and use of technology in order to close existing digital divides. You have further thoughts about how the community can take this going forward? So personally, as an engineer and a graduate student working in engineering education, I'm in a space where I see the application of inclusive design principles every day. And I think that my time working with the incredible people of Generation Connect and the Road to Addis series has really deepened my own understanding of meaningful engagement and digital inclusion. And a key element from Connect to Include, which I'll definitely bring forward myself in my work, was the discussion around the difference between designing technology with people instead of for people. And I think this comes back to that necessity for technology to be human-centered from design to implementation. And so to your question, contributing by sharing this value of inclusion and universal design both as a goal in itself, as well as a strong enabler to meet the sustainable development goals, is how I think we can each contribute. Thank you. Really, really good. Inclusion is so critical. Okay, Danala, you've been at every single one of these sessions, but tell us about the financing one. A key question we explored in the Finance to Connect session was, what will it cost to connect the world? At this time when the world is still grappling with the economic effects of dealing with this global pandemic, how and where can we find the money to ensure that no one's left behind of the global digital transformation? How can more decision makers, governments and private actors start to see connectivity as priority when there's so many pressing issues in the world right now? One of the speakers highlighted the need for fast broadband to be universally acknowledged as basic infrastructure. New ways of funding, including tapping into blockchain were also mentioned, but ultimately I think everyone agreed that it will take new models of multi-level, multi-stakeholder resolve and collaboration to really push the needle sustainably. One of my favourite parts of the session was when we actually discussed where youth coming to all this, many young people faced with structural and economic realities which limit their access to electricity, tech devices and connectivity. You should be seen more as part of the supply and not just of the consumer side of connectivity. We can't have a discussion about anything without mentioning blockchain and crypto, let's certainly know that. But how do you think you and your community can take this and move it forward even more? The way I see it, young people just have to be included in the financial decision making processes. Those with the money are usually higher up in the power dynamics, which has historically meant that youth are left out of finance decision making processes, especially when it comes to digital development. I wish this could be kind of turned in his head and young people across the world start to really be invited and included to participate and have a voice in this critical investment decisions. Great, thank you so much. Okay, Ali, on leadership, tell us about that session. First of all, I would like to say that I was honoured to be a part of the leadership session from the road to add a series. This session was dedicated to examining leadership lessons from great leaders and exploring the leadership principles required to connect the unconnected. There were a couple of key takeaways from this session that not only inspired many of us, they also shaped a new perspective of leadership in our minds. This session reminded me that being a leader involves navigating courageously through uncertainty. As a youth representative looking for a future leader, I myself should be politically active and use technology to expand popular participation. As for connecting the unconnected, leaders are interested in driving forward the agenda of universal connectivity should enable this transformation by mobilising people to invest in programmes dedicated to upskilling population, to flattening steep learning curves and filling up the void and awareness and adoption of ICTs. Achieving global broadband connectivity will also require a focus on inclusion, innovation and responsibility. Leaders working towards this goal must not forget the importance of social and environmental contracts. All these things do fit together. There's no doubt about that. So how would you and your community take this as leaders, how will you take this learning forward and do even more? The community, the world and I need to do one very simple thing, take action. With this knowledge, I aim to make a difference. I aim to make a difference not by gaining followers but by creating more leaders, by dreaming unapologetically big because the common denominator of the greatest leaders of all times has been their visions and their will to achieve something that is bigger than oneself. But remember leadership without action is no leadership at all. When addressing unimaginable challenges, shine by not only talking about your vision but by acting on it. I have chosen my driving force in order to achieve digital transformation. And that force is leadership. And now it's about time you choose yours. Back to you, David. Very good. Thanks so much, Ali. Okay, Jannati, wonderful to have you joining us from Uganda and also great to have you talking to us about innovation because you are an entrepreneur. So what happened at that session? What did you learn? Thank you, David. I had a chance of taking part in the innovate to connect session and the session embraced opportunities offered by the digital innovation ecosystems, entrepreneurship and innovation. It was noted that through entrepreneurship driven innovations, sustainable solutions can be created to meet the needs of the population both locally and globally. And there are some key takeaways. So what happened at that session? So I would like to thank you. Thank you, Jannati. Thank you. Thank you, Ali. Thank you again. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Ali. Thank you. Thank you, Ali. makers. So what will you and your community do to take that and move even further with that? Obviously, you've been doing a lot. But what do you want to add to that? The community should recognize the need to strengthen digital competencies by providing digitally trusted training. They should also democratize technology in a way that is accessible and affordable to everyone. Everyone should be able to take part in it. And as an entrepreneur myself, I think it's important for entrepreneurs to continuously test their products and be willing to accept feedback and to work on their products until they improve it. They should also look at the bigger picture in every situation. Not getting it right the first time doesn't mean failure. You should continue trying until you get it. Finally, as an entrepreneur, I think it's important to embrace the challenges that you face in building a successful business. And we should look at these challenges as a stepping stone to grow and to progress and to take up space in the world of entrepreneurship. Thank you. Spoken like a real veteran. Thank you so much, Jananti. OK, Ellen, this is sort of a layup, as we say in the US. I know you're in Canada. But hey, youth, you work on youth in this job at ITU. You are youth. What did you learn about youth? Thank you, David. As a celebration of International Youth Day, our Youth to Connect session captured inspiring discussions under the theme of empowered youth shaping the digital agenda. I had the great pleasure of co-moderating this session with you, David. And together, we facilitated three discussion segments. In our first segment, we heard experts emphasize the importance of youth entrepreneurship and seeing youth as equal partners in achieving the 2030 sustainable development goals. Our second segment focused on including marginalized and unconnected youth in the digital development dialogue. Today, there are 2.2 billion children and youth under the age of 25 who do not have an internet connection at home. Our incredible panelists discussed inclusion as a key enabler of connectivity and how we must equip youth with a holistic skill set and affordable access to connectivity in order to bridge this digital divide. Lastly, in our final segment, we discussed the integral role of capacity building initiatives by young people for young people. Bridging the youth digital divide is possible if we all come together and give youth a seat at the table. So what particular ideas do you have about taking this and moving forward even faster? Great question. To answer, I think I can reflect on my experience with the Generation Connect team and as the co-moderate of the Youth to Connect session. I have been and continue to be inspired by my fellow young leaders and well-established professionals who made a commitment to inspire and amplify young voices. I hope to use what I learned through these experiences to encourage my community of students, friends, and young leaders to engage in the critical reflection around youth and digital inclusion. We need to ask ourselves, what does it mean for youth to be meaningfully engaged? How do we get to the intersection of capacity, connectivity, and accessibility? Ultimately, I want to engage in this critical reflection with my community to lead with optimism and promote innovative ideas that address some of our biggest and most complex problems. Innovation is often found at the edges. I believe that broadcasting this message of hope will bring those at the edges to the center and create a powerful, intergenerational, and collaborative force to bridge the digital divide. Back to you, David. Thank you so much. What a great group of interventions. You all are incredibly important to this effort and very inspiring to me and, I think, to everyone watching. So thank you so much. I just want to remind the audience, you can put questions and comments into the Q&A box at any time, so please feel free to do that. Now, we're going to move on to hear from Jim Rogers. Now, and see something that Jim Rogers has done. Those of you who've been part of the Road to Addis series are, I'm sure, aware and quite pleased by the fact that Jim has done these amazing illustrations for every single session, and he's now kind of drawn them all together and captured them in one big graphic, and we'd love to have him show that to us now. So welcome, Jim. Hi, David. Hi, guys. Yeah, as mentioned, Jim Rogers is a UK-based illustrator and the pleasure of visually recording all the sessions over the past year. And for this session, I was asked to compile everything as an overview of some of the ideas and concepts that we've covered. Now, it captures so much over the past seven sessions that I couldn't possibly feature everything, but I've put together this quick video that hopefully captures the essence of everything that we've talked about. Hopefully you really enjoy it. See, I'm afraid there were some issues with the resolution there, which I'm so sorry about. I don't know if we'll have time to fix that, but anyway, you can tell Jim is an incredible recorder and illustrator of what's happening when we do these sessions and he drew it all together with that great graphic. So thank you so much, Jim. Another thing we've been doing with the Road to Addis series is at the end of every session, we've asked all of our speakers to tell us the one word they would use to describe what they'd like to see coming out of the World Telecommunications Development Conference next year. So we've now arrived at the time when we're gonna unveil all those words, we put them in word clouds each time. Now we're gonna see the macro word cloud and find out what words were the ones that you all use the most, all the speakers. So let's play that animation and see what we found with the words. Okay, inclusion and innovation, two words we heard a lot about just a minute ago are the prevailing words. Again, there's a little issue with the video and sorry about that. You know how it is when you're on a global Zoom call, you never can really quite be sure how it's gonna go, but innovation and inclusion couldn't be more important. So now one of the key outcomes of the Road to Addis series has been, is now gathered in an electronic booklet called the Connectivity Road to Sustainable Development. Now let me bring back Doreen who will talk to you about that booklet. Thank you, David, such inspiring takeaways from our six repertoires. I think you give us reason to be optimistic about the future, thank you so much. It's a pleasure to present the Connectivity Road to Sustainable Development. It really summarizes and captures well, I think the discussions of the first chapter of the Road to Addis that you just heard about from our six young leaders. It's a journey that we started together last November. During that first session, we launched our Generation Connect, our initiative to engage young people around the world to encourage their participation as equal partners alongside the leaders of today's digital change. We spoke about the effects, of course, of the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of engaging women, girls, marginalized groups, the role of innovation. We just saw innovation as one of the top two words coming out of all of these events. So the role of innovation to spur more effective partnerships for digital transformation and the need to advance digital cooperation by working as one, as one UN to achieve universal connectivity. I do want to, David, thank, well, thank you. Thank the Road to Addis Repetures who presented today. And of course, the panelists from all over the globe who joined us and of course the many, many participants that have participated in this journey. This is the closing of just the first chapter, but stay tuned because chapter two actually starts today with the partner to connect digital coalition. So please do check out the first chapter summary, the connectivity road to sustainable development. It's on the Road to Addis website and we'll post the link in the chat. Back over to you, David, thank you. Thanks so much, Doreen. So today, about half the world's population remains unconnected. And the digital divide has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, as all of you know, which is a huge challenge for all of us even still, which is why we're here on Zoom and we couldn't see you in person at Microsoft's office in New York. And the pandemic and this whole digital divide continues to be a gigantic challenge, particularly for the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing states. So what is the response of the global community to this challenge? And how can we as stakeholders and all the different stakeholders work together to extend universal access to digital connectivity? It is so urgent. So the first part of this next segment is gonna be dedicated to the launch of the connectivity in the least developed countries status report 2021, which is a joint publication of ITU and the UN office for the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing states. In the second part, we'll introduce ITU's partner to connect digital coalition, multi-stakeholder alliance to foster meaningful connectivity and digital transformation in the hardest to connect communities, including those in LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS. We will also explore how this leadership platform will help mobilize new resources, partnerships and commitments to drive the implementation of meaningful connectivity and digital transformation projects across the four partner to connect digital coalition focus areas. And now Courtney Retray, who is high representative for the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing states and Doreen will talk about the report. First, we're going to hear from Courtney. So please join us Courtney. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you very much, David. Can you hear me okay? I'm assuming that I can be heard. Well, let me just say hello to everybody, all the excellencies, young youth rapporteurs, ladies and gentlemen. I just start by saying that if there were any doubt about the impact of poor digital connectivity in the least developed countries and COVID-19 has certainly given us all of the evidence that we need. For millions living in the least developed countries, the LDCs, there is no remote learning, no access to government services online, no access to online shopping. The lack of infrastructure and digital capability in these countries continues to cripple their response to the pandemic. And therefore today's update report, I think could not be more timely. You know, three years ago, the ITU and my office, the UN OHR LLS launched the report achieving universal and affordable internet in the least developed countries. The focus of that report was on the potential of ICTs to accelerate human progress and to bridge the digital divide. So I'm pleased to launch today's update alongside my colleague Doreen of the ITU. Someone in the chat asked about the size of the digital gap. Well, our initial report found that about 17.5% of the population in LDCs were online, only 17.5%. However, today we can report that a quarter of people in these countries are now online. Now, this is progress, but obviously it is far too slow. Almost everyone in the advanced economies in the developed countries is online. The digital divide therefore remains significant, stubborn, and it stunts the growth of LDCs. Although broadband access and infrastructure improvements are progressing, the real issue in today's update report relates to usage. Three quarters of people in the LDCs have access to connectivity, but they are not in a position to use it. They are being blocked by the high price of internet services and of devices, a lack of digital skills, and also a lack of relevant local content. And moreover, too many people in these countries don't know what the internet is and what benefits it could bring. Examples of good practice are out there and must be shared. In Bangladesh, for example, the mobile operator Axiato uses specially equipped buses featuring computers and internet access to provide digital literacy and training to women and girls in remote areas. This is the sort of innovation that we need to meet the SDGs, to close the gender gap and to bridge the digital divide. For those who are online and the growing number coming online, the issue of the speed of the internet must also be urgently addressed. We are all well aware of the increasing use of data for businesses and governance and the popularization of video conferencing for learning, work, and providing medical advice. Such applications require access to broadband and in particular, fixed broadband as the latter can transfer large amounts of data quickly and at a lower per unit price and mobile broadband. Yet still there are few fixed broadband subscriptions in LDCs relative to mobile broadband. So consequently, LDCs are missing out on the economic benefits of fixed broadband as they are below the penetration threshold at which these benefits can be felt. A large part of the problem is a lack of competition, market competition, which has stifled the introduction of fixed broadband and led to high prices. As today's report highlights, LDCs have also found it difficult to attract the private sector, particularly international companies into investing in middle mile infrastructure such as data centers and cloud services, as well as hardware assembly and manufacturing. More private investment will be required as LDCs are constrained in their ability to make the public investment required to develop broadband networks. They simply don't have sufficient domestic public resources. In addition to their limited fiscal space, many of them are grappling with debt sustainability issues which restrict their borrowing capacity. There is therefore a need to mobilize external private capital, such as through blended finance, official development assistance and public private partnerships, but we must also find a way to tap into the large portfolios of financial assets under management that are invested by international capital markets. It is my hope that initiatives such as the Partner to Connect Coalition will deliver concrete and practical solutions for the vulnerable communities in LDCs, landlocked developing countries and small island developing states. So as we look forward to the fifth UN conference on LDCs next January in Doha, Qatar, I want to engage with existing coalitions to see how we can spur meaningful connectivity and digital transformation in hardest to connect communities. As with so many issues, COVID-19 has acted as an MRI scan on our systemic weaknesses in the digital space. The digital divide must be urgently free in order for the LDCs to improve and thrive. And as today's report underlines, progress so far is too slow and the upcoming fifth UN conference on LDCs must be our catalyst to add urgency, innovation and tangible outcomes to our stated aims and ambitions. Thank you. Thank you so much, Courtney. And we're going to continue this discussion quickly with a video and then come back to both Courtney and Doreen. So let's watch the video about this report. Connectivity in the least developed countries status report 2021. Although the vast majority of the one billion people who live in least developed countries are covered by a mobile broadband signal, only 25% are online. Internet connectivity is an enabler of economic and social development and is a lifeline during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially for businesses, schools, hospitals and other essential services. How can we connect to the 75% of people living in LDCs who are still offline? The connectivity in the least developed countries status report 2021 identifies several recommendations to boost internet connectivity and usage in least developed countries, including raising awareness of the benefits of being online, improving digital skills for everyone, expanding connectivity to rural communities, making connectivity and hardware more affordable. Connectivity is a critical determinant of every country's future growth and prosperity. Working together, we can ensure that everyone can truly benefit from today's life changing technologies. Learn more in the connectivity in the least developed countries status report 2021. www.itu.int slash connectivity-4-LDCs. Great, and I think we'll get that URL into the chat for you as well. Let me now invite Doreen back to join us in the data room where she will tell us some of the key findings from the report. Thank you, Doreen. Thank you. Thank you, David. And of course, thank you, Undersecretary General. Courtney, welcome to the connectivity in least developed countries status report data room. This is where we're gonna dive into two of the key findings of the report. Courtney called it the sort of MRI scan. So let's see what we found in our MRI scan. I hope you can see the slide clearly. So they summarize the connectivity challenge in LDCs and suggest where we need to focus to connect the remaining three out of every four people that are still offline in LDCs. So the first chart shows how the 46 LDCs are doing in terms of internet affordability on the horizontal axis and then in terms of mobile broadband network coverage on the vertical axis. So the countries on the left of the vertical red line, I hope you can see that. And above the red horizontal line are those that have met the both the internet affordability target and the universal coverage target that was actually set as part of the SDGs in SDG9C which had actually set a deadline of 2020 to have universal and affordable access by 2020 in LDCs, clearly a target that we did not achieve. What you can see here is that only two LDCs, Bhutan and Bangladesh have actually met both targets, Bhutan more affordable than Bangladesh but Bangladesh has lower coverage. So two countries have actually met the two targets. These are the two green diamonds that you saw on the previous slide. Six LDCs have achieved one of the two targets and these are the yellow diamonds if we can go back to that previous slide so we can still see those diamonds or we'll post the slides perhaps that might be easier. So we have six LDCs that achieved one of the two targets Myanmar and Cambodia, excuse me at the 2% affordability target, Lesoto, Rwanda, Timor-Leste and Yangman meeting, you've been 95% coverage target and then these blue diamonds show that we still have work to do in 38 LDCs where the coverage is insufficient and the access is too costly. Now we can move to the next chart. I think this is crucial and it does speak to what Courtney was saying. We need to think beyond internet access and to identify and address other barriers to connectivity. And yes, we do need novel approaches. I saw that comment in the chat. Only 25% of the population as we said in LDCs are online which means 75% are still offline. And what you can see from this chart is that 24% of people cannot access because they're not covered by the mobile broadband signal. So we still have work to do on the infrastructure side to be able to address this coverage gap but the remaining 51% that are covered by a mobile broadband signal and could therefore connect to the internet, but they don't. Okay, and so that's what Courtney referred to as the usage gap. And this shows that access to a mobile broadband signal is a necessary condition to getting people online but it's not sufficient in itself. So our new LDC connectivity report is examining those root causes of this wide user usage gap beyond the lack of affordability. Of course, that includes the lack of access also to devices. Devices can be prohibitively expensive. The lack of skills, big barrier, the lack of relevant content in local languages and other challenge, the lack of awareness. This may be a surprise, but many people still don't know what the internet is or what it can be used for. And I think that's a surprise to all of us connected but it's still an issue. As you can see, all of these points reinforce the four focus areas of the partner to connect digital coalition, connecting people everywhere, empowering communities, building digital ecosystems and incentivizing investment. And this report lays out some key recommendations that we can take forward to tackle these challenges. But of course we're keen to hear from you so keep posting questions and comments in the chat and we're gonna hear from our great panelists in a moment. So back to you, David. Thank you and thank you to you Courtney. Thank you so much Courtney. Thank you Doreen and the two countries that achieve both goals were Bangladesh and Butan, which is really important to know. Now let me just move right on. We've got a very dense program and we got a lot going on. And now we're gonna hear from his Excellency Bob Lohman-Weber who is the prime minister of Vanuatu who knows a lot about these issues and who will share the key learnings from his country's integrated approach to digital transformation and particularly some of the things they're using digital for around healthcare. So welcome your Excellency. Ladies and gentlemen, I have this great honor to deliver this video address on behalf of the government and people of the Republic of Vanuatu. Mr. Moderator, let me assist this opportunity to thank the International Telecommunications Union through the Office of the Director of ITU, Development Bureau for such a successful initiative raw to others, to build momentum towards the World Telecommunication Development Conference. Vanuatu celebrated its 40 years of independence on 30th July, 2020. In the same year, Vanuatu graduated from the least developed country status to developing country status. It was indeed a successful story. Vanuatu government since December, 2013 has adopted a universal access policy. The outcome of this policy has been tremendous. Our population coverage for mobile voice has increased to 98.8%. Similarly, broadband coverage has increased to 86.2%. Despite this figures, we still see many areas for improvement. In the area of empowering communities, Smart Island is a strategic approach that the government of Vanuatu is currently embarking on with the support from ITU, ATP, UN, CDF, and other partners. In the area of building digital ecosystem, Mr. Moderator, our approaches are guided by our national ICD development framework that acts as a strategic framework guiding our national efforts in building our digital economy. Mr. Moderator, today as a country, we are looking into having our second in the national submarine cable. This will eliminate a single point of failure from our only cable, connecting Vanuatu to the world via Fiji. Last but not the least, our committed efforts to incentivizing investment has been one that is strategically mold towards best practice and is built around green technology promoting our green and blue economy. In closing, allow me to commend the ITU and all its members of a truly and wholehearted collaborative efforts using our unified approach as well as our endless commitment to ensure that the road to others will bring forth the key issues that the WTC will deliberate to bridge the connectivity gap. I thank you, Mr. Moderator and God bless you all. Thank you so much for joining us. A real honor to have you here. Now let me turn the podium over, the digital podium over to His Excellency, Yankova Diattara, the Minister of Digital Economy and Telecommunications of Senegal. And I got it wrong before it wasn't Vanuatu although we heard great things about what's happening in Vanuatu, I was particularly excited about the second cable there, by the way. But this healthcare intervention will be especially explained here by His Excellency, Yankova Diattara of Senegal. So please take it away and really pleased to have you here. Thank you very much, Mr. Moderator. Excellency, Madame la Présidente de la République d'Italie. Excellency, Monsieur le Premier ministre de la République de Vanuatu. Madame, Monsieur les ministres. Madame, la Directrice du Bureau du Dévelopement des Télécommunications, donc Dorine Bogdan-Martin. Monsieur le Président de Microsoft, Brad Smith. Madame, Monsieur Avoron, titre, grade et qualité, cher participant. Je voudrais ou d'abord exprimer mon réel plaisir à participer à la réunion du partner to connect dans le cadre de la série de manifestations en route pour Adis. A l'entembre de mon copo, j'adresse mes vies félicitations et mes remerciements à l'Union internationale des Télécommunications pour l'opportunité qui m'est offerte de partager mon parcours, donc notre parcours de transformation digital du Sénégal, ainsi que nos enseignements de l'intégration des TIC dans le secteur de la santé. En effet, l'utilisation du numérique a un caractère primordial pour atteindre les objectifs de développement durable pour les députés par les nations unies. Ainsi, dans son programme quinquennal, 535, le chef de l'État du Sénégal, son excellence maquistale, a consacré la société numérique inclusive comme troisième initiative présidentielle avec l'ambition de promouvoir une société apprenante et une économie de l'innovation. À ce titre, le Sénégal a mis en place la stratégie Sénégal numérique 2025, qui a pour vision en 2025 le numérique pour tous et pour tous les usagers au Sénégal avec un secteur privé dynamique et innovant dans un écoursicel performant. Dans cette topique, les préalables pour la réussite de la transformation digitale constituent la mise à niveau du cadre juridique et institutionnel, le renforcement du capital humain et la confiance numérique. Les axes de stratégie, la stratégie Sénégal 2025 se focalisent sur les questions d'accès au réseau au service numérique de la transformation digitale de l'administration, du développement d'une industrie, du numérique innovante, créatrice de valeur et d'emploi. Et enfin, de la diffusion du numérique dans les secteurs socio-économiques. L'accès à l'infrastructure est primordial. Il estimule l'innovation numérique cargurise l'essor d'une économie numérique compétitive et inclusive et active l'investissement mais surtout permet l'écoulusion des services émergents tel que l'internet des objets, les big data, l'intelligence artificielle, les services financiers numériques, la funtech, le commerce électronique et favorise surtout la création d'emploi. Des avances importantes sont réalisées. Il s'agit du plan national ou très haut débit avec la fibre optique et les services cargés. L'accès universel pour une couverture des zones desservées. La promotion de la loi sur les startups, la startup acte, l'implantation du parc des technologies numériques et quatre datacenters tier trois publics et privés. Mme. Zemecier, dans le secteur de la santé, le Sénégal est en train d'opérationnaliser la stratégie nationale digitale de la santé avec des projets telles que la plateforme nationale de gestion des dossiers de santé de l'usage partagé avec une carte santé universelle sécurisée. L'utilisation a grande échelle de la télémercée. Le dispositif digital de gestion et le contrôle des médicaments, la plateforme d'interconnexion des acteurs de santé communautaire. La pandémie COVID-19 a donné l'opportunité au secteur de numérique d'apporter une contribution importante pour l'équipement et la connectivité des centres de traitement des épidémies. Le secteur privé a offert son expertise avec les plateformes et solutions digitales pour la gestion des centres d'appel. Donc le suivi des patients de la gestion hospitalière et les tableaux de bords décisionnels, les pritings des requêtes du ministère de la Santé. Actuellement, la plateforme numérique d'inscription pour la vaccination a permis de repartir les patients et de réduire les piles d'attente de faire l'analyse et les suivis de la vaccination. Le Sénégal, grâce au numérique, a mis en place un certificat vaccination avec QR-Code valable partout pour permettre de faciliter les voyages internationaux et qui servent de passe sanitaire. Mme. M. Je ne serai terminé sans remercier encore une fois à renseignement l'UIT à travers la directrice donc des vies, des filles et également, souhaiter plein succès à nos travaux. Je vous remercie de votre aimable attention. Thank you so much, Your Excellency. Really great to have you here as well. Now, let's watch a video about the partner to connect Digital Coalition. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, ITU has redoubled its efforts to help countries rapidly expand connectivity to reach the 3.7 billion still offline. Building on the outcomes of the ITU Road to Addis digital development series, in coordination with the Office of the Secretary-General's envoy on technology and in line with the UN Secretary-General's roadmap for digital cooperation, the partner to connect Digital Coalition is a multi-stakeholder alliance to foster meaningful connectivity and digital transformation in hardest to connect communities, including those in least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing states. Based on the principles of inclusion, partnership and SDG-focused digital development, partner to connect will serve as a leadership platform to mobilize new resources, partnerships and commitments across four focus areas. Connecting people everywhere, empowering communities, building digital ecosystems and incentivizing investments. Time is running out in this decade of action. We must join forces now and work together to extend universal access and empower 3.7 billion people to make use of digital connectivity to transform lives, communities and societies. Visit www.itu.int.com slash partner to connect. Great. Wow. So we're going to dig down into the four focus areas. But before we do that with some really terrific speakers, let me just mention that experts from the ITU are here in the session and would be happy to answer any questions that you put into the Q&A box or the chat. So please feel free to do that. And now I'd like to invite and introduce Mr. Nick Reed, the CEO of Vodafone Group. Really great to have business representative at such a high level and we have other great business representatives coming up shortly. So Nick, would you please talk to us about the first focus area, connecting people everywhere and why it matters to you? Your Excellencies, it's an honor to be speaking here at this vital and timely events. Partner to Connect is about bringing people together, about making connections. And for the past astonishing 18 months, it is these vital connections that we have kept us going as individuals, as businesses, as governments. However, half of the world remains unconnected. Today, 3.4 billion people live within mobile broadband coverage, but do not use it. This is 3.4 billion people without access to vital public services. The extensive information and learning materials the internet has to offer, broader financial inclusion, and ultimately a wealth of entertainment. In Sub-Saharan Africa, only 10% of the population is using 4G, even though half of the population is covered by a 4G signal. Despite being in range of good broadband, they are being left behind. If we do not act now, connected versus unconnected will become the new dividing line in our society. This is why I'm so proud of the Partner to Connect initiative. Vodafone will chair the Connecting People Everywhere focus area and take action on three priorities. First, we will be bold on increasing smartphone ownership. We know that many cannot access the internet because smartphones are too expensive. In Sub-Saharan Africa, a basic 4G phone costs 63% of the average monthly income. We will take a cross-partner approach to addressing this issue. This includes a new UN Broadband Commission Working Group supported by Vodafone's ongoing Africa.Connected campaign. Imagine the progress we could unlock if everyone owned a smartphone by 2030. Second, we must invest in the demand for broadband. This starts with teaching digital skills both in schools and in the community, but it extends to investing in local startups that will create an inclusive digital ecosystem. Both will only be achieved through the partnership. Finally, we must put sustainability at the heart of our efforts. Our ambition to close the digital divide cannot be at odds with our responsibility to address the climate crisis. The whole digital ecosystem, from cell tower to the app to the cloud, must contribute to the net zero target. Again, this can only be achieved through active partnership. The connecting people everywhere focus area will take practical steps to address the real barriers to internet access. It will ensure our actions are sustainable. It will drive partnerships that don't just talk, they act. Vodafone looks forward to working hard to achieve real progress towards universal, meaningful connectivity. Thank you very much. Thank you so much, Nick. Thank you for being here. I'm gonna just mention there could be, you might be able to get better audio if you have any issues. If you turned on the interpretation when we had our great French speaker before, go to the interpretation bar selector at the bottom of your Zoom interface and select off. I think it might improve your English audio. So we're also very happy that UNICEF is part of this session represented by Ms. Charlotte Petri-Gornicka, a veteran of the Road to Connect series. Charlotte is the assistant secretary general and UNICEF deputy executive director for partnerships. So please tell us about the focus area number two, which is empowering communities. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Thank you, ITU, for convening us all. We know we need, we know it takes a village to raise a child. So I think that guides everything we do. So I'm very pleased to start with that. Empowering communities has been chosen as one of the focus areas for the partner to connect coalition. This will absolutely help us to deliver against one of the 12 commitments in the UN secretary general's common agenda report to improve digital cooperation. And the common agenda report also names GIGA, our joint initiative with ITU as a central element of our efforts to deliver digital inclusivity. And let me share an update with you on the progress GIGA has made. And it is important obviously to remember the goal. The goal is to connect every school in the world everywhere to the internet. And of course, the end game of that is that every young person needs to be connected to information, to opportunity and choice. And we know that schools are more than just schools. And let's also remember the scale of the challenge. Nearly 1.3 billion children today do not have appropriate access to the internet for learning. And they are effectively excluded from the promises of the digital age. And we all know that COVID-19 has not made it easier, really exacerbated the problem. But if we can address the situation, the benefits are immense. So GIGA, through the partnership with ITU which bring its experience and track record in developing telecommunication regulation and policy and UNICEF's global reach and expertise on facing children and young people. Currently, we are working in 19 countries and GIGA maps school connectivity in real time. It creates models for innovative financing and supports government contracting for school connectivity. And since its launch, we've mapped nearly 1 million schools. We connected over 3,000 schools and we have mobilized over 200 million US dollars. You know, that sounds a lot, but we need to mobilize much more. According to ITU, it's 428 US billion dollars that are needed to really connect every school. So this challenge has led to that as one layer of this financial stack, UNICEF and ITU are proposing a 5 billion GIGA connectivity bond. And this will provide financing for the last mile connectivity and also catalyze large-scale investments. And we're on a journey here. We need governments to, and I would say private sector even more, to provide multi-year commitments to serve as the backing for this bond. And if you have ideas on how we can do this together, please reach out. We will put our contacts, Doreen and Tim in the chat because we really need to get this financing for connecting every school. And of course it is about working with young people with their opportunity and choice. And this is a concrete tangible partnership that has derived from this initiative. Thank you for the opportunity to share. Thank you, Charlotte. Very concrete proposal and plan there. So that's super exciting. You guys are moving forward with that project to connect the world schools, really exciting. Now we're gonna hear from a representative of UNDP, United Nations Development Program. We have with us Ms. Usha Rao Manari, Undersecretary General of UNDP and Associate Administrator. So Usha, please take the floor and tell us about the focus area number three, Building Digital Ecosystems. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you very much, David. And thank you to our partners in ITU. It is a pleasure to be here. You know, I wondered about what to say, but let me start this way. Prior to the pandemic, digital transformation, digital connectivity was considered, if you will, a nice to have. The pandemic taught us that it is a necessary to have or a must have. Pandemic also taught us a number of key lessons from where we sit. One, that quicker and more effective response from countries occurred when they were established digital infrastructure and connectivity. Early implementers reached as many citizens through their social protection programs, for example, as late starters, about 39%. Number two, digital responses unfortunately and still today in 2021 suffer from fragmentation and isolated pilots with weak scalability. And that's the reality in LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS. And finally, digital transformation can make inequality worse if it is not done with an intentionally inclusive lens. And this is a very important point for us in UNDP. Based on this, actually, we believe that we need to create a digital ecosystem that brings together key stakeholders on the one hand and takes a holistic, integrated and dot connected approach to digital transformation. As I said, digital platforms are implemented in isolation. They really shouldn't be. They're often spread across different ministries or parts of society without any linkage or interoperability, which is a real deterrent. Working with partners to think strategically about how governments can pursue digital transformation in an integrated way at the national level as the minister from Senegal said is a necessity. So where do we come out on this? We believe there's five key building blocks in creating a digital ecosystem, clearly infrastructure. Mr. Reed talked about this. The prime minister from Vanuatu talked about this. It's extremely important. Second, government participation and leadership in the process. Again, the minister from Senegal talked about a national digital strategy, which is exactly how you start connecting. Third, regulation to enable a digital ecosystem, a business environment, financing, private sector participation innovation to enable this as well. And finally and importantly, the participation of people, communities and particularly youth. I listened in this morning, David to this excellent youth session. Essentially, I think where we are now is that digital inclusion has to go beyond accessibility and affordability and included option. It has to create a situation where there is much higher level of inclusiveness. So what are we asking for? Strategic leadership in governance from governments and intergovernmental organizations, investment in innovation from the private sector, intellectual contributions from academia and other members of society. And finally, an active engagement from civil society, particularly youth. I look forward to working more with all of you and I thank you for this opportunity. Thank you so much, Usha. And your point about the necessity, the urgency of integrating digital efforts into all other parts of government and really of society is absolutely critical. So thank you. We're gonna go now to our fourth focus area on incentivizing investments and what better group to have here with us to talk about that than the United Nations Capital Development Fund. And we have with us Executive Secretary of UNCDF, Preeti Sinha, who's also a veteran of the Road to Addis series. So thank you so much, Preeti and welcome. Yes, thank you, David. Great to be here. And yes, congrats to ITU for pulling this together. We were there with you in April. So happy to be on the journey together. Also big congrats on the LDC connectivity report to the OHRLS and everybody involved. So let me take this moment to focus on incentivizing investments. At UNCDF, we aspire to really serve as a catalytic financing agency for the LDCs in particular. So these are 46 countries. They have about a billion people that they cover. This is the focus for us. So I'm listening to everything that was said. I want to focus on how to deliver innovative digital services to the people. This starts from financial inclusion, mobile money payments, but then all sector approaches through agri tech, insurance tech, weather tech. And what that enables is of course better lives. So we've been involved in this for a number of years. And here now we pledge to look at at least 25 countries and create digital transformation in those countries. So that is our current objective. We've outlined that in our new strategic plan for the 2022-2025 next four years coming up. So the way UNCDF does it is that we address the market system approach. We look at the enabling environment that's needed first in order to bring investments in. So an example would be in Uganda. We combined with the National Planning Commission to create a technology working group that helped design Uganda's digital strategy. And that then led to investments into Uganda's telecom and ICT infrastructure and then the businesses there. One great example of this investment was there was a coffee exporter who had 6,000 coffee farmers giving him product. And we helped an MTN put up a tower there and you have to guarantee the tower because MTN was not convinced that it would be revenue generating. And we created a guarantee structure of just 100,000 K for a tower. And we found that in six months that all the coffee farmers have then access to the digital network. And then there was a fintech that provided all services so that they could be mobile and connected to the digital payment system. So these are some of the ways in which we look at really driving investment that can really catalyze and change lives. We also heard from several heads of state here. I'd like to add the voice of the Solomon Islands as well where we work very closely with the prime minister in Solomon Islands. And we have something called the digital, inclusive digital economy scorecard which sort of looks at how the country has done digitally. And that again helps incentivize investment. So in case of Solomon Islands we are in touch with a company called Be Mobile. And Be Mobile is a provider to about 54,000 customers and we are looking to solarize the gears and switches in the network of this mobile provider. So as we do that by the end of this year you'll have a cleaner, greener telecom provider and we're very proud to be working with Solomon Islands on that. So therefore incentivizing investments that accumulate in, culminate in digital economies is a key driving force at UNCDF. And I think I'll leave you with those examples and really believe in this mission and really looking forward to growing this as the LDC connectivity report set. And we also focus at the far end of training especially women to use and access the mobile networks. So over to you, David, thank you. Thank you, Preeti, very concrete examples. Thank you. And thank you also to Nick, Charlotte and Usha for helping us go through the four focus areas of the partner to connect digital coalition. We are now approaching the end of this first part of today's event, but as you probably know the United Nations Secretary General has made a huge priority of connecting the world as part of achieving the SDGs. So his special tech envoy, Ms. Maria Francesca Spattorisano is here with us today to make some special closing remarks and thank you so much for being with us today Francesca. It's my pleasure. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, my thanks to ITU for inviting me to speak here today as well as for continuing commitment to the Secretary General Digital Corporation agenda. And I have been deeply inspired by the discussions during this first session, the energy of the young leaders of Generation Connect, the commitment of the tech leaders and CEOs, the vision of the heads of states and ministers that have spoken. Not to mention the unity of purpose we just saw the one UN approach shown by all my colleagues, all the parts of the United Nations system. This session really reflects the best of the multi-stakeholder approach that we so urgently need for digital cooperation. Indeed, it's only by working together as you have all said that we can truly answer the United Nations Secretary General's call for the international community to, and I quote here, protect the online space and strengthen its governance. His conviction that we must better steer the digital space was outlined in his roadmap for digital cooperation issued last year and was reinforced through his common agenda that he presented earlier this month. In particular, the fundamental objective that the United Nations continually champion is that of universal connectivity, that is we must bring everyone in the world online in an affordable, meaningful, and safe way. This transformative goal is also the cornerstone of the Secretary General's proposal for a global digital compact in 2023 that he announced in his common agenda. So the partner to connect platform would be instrumental, I'm sure, in helping us to achieve this universal connectivity. It should continue to build on the important work already done in implementing the roadmap, including through the inclusive roundtable process that many of you contribute to already and focus, of course, on outcome-oriented actions and initiatives. In so doing, it will serve as a critical building block for our joint journey towards the compact in 2023. The Office of the Envoy of Technology will also partner with you to bring all the different work streams and discussions together. Partner to connect, of course, also other ongoing initiatives and global meetings help build the global digital compact. A compact in which we all, governments, private sector, civil society, pledge to realize the universal connectivity to protect human rights online, it's important, and ensure a trustworthy and secure online space and much more as outlined in the roadmap so that together we can achieve a more open, free and secure digital future for all. Let me conclude with one observation. Beyond broad visions and ambitious hopes that we must not lose sight of, of course, is our ultimate focus, and that is real people, real results as many of you have already said. Achieving universal connectivity cannot just be a slogan or a word, it must be backed by concrete progress, serious financial commitments, and broad reaching programs. We must ensure that all our efforts remain true to the people we serve. The 3.8 billion that remain today is still offline. And this large part of the world population who despite being connected, that lacks the skills, safety, security, or full opportunity and empowerment online. This is why we are here today and I'm confident we can do if we partner together. Thank you for your attention. Thank you so much, Francesca. And it's really a great point and part of what's made me so excited about this whole series to see all the parts of the UN working together and other entities, nonprofits, private enterprise. We're gonna hear more about that after a break, which we're gonna have in just a minute. But let me now turn to Doreen for her closing remarks of this part of the session. We still have much more to come, but Doreen, tell us where we are. Well, thank you, David.  We're all coming together and a special thanks to Maria Francesca. It's been such a great pleasure for us to collaborate with you and the tech and OIT team to advance the digital cooperation roadmap. We do count on your close collaboration to help drive this partner to connect forward so that it can be a mechanism, as you noted, to support the Secretary General's digital compact. I think it will help to build on the work that we have already done to implement the roadmap. It will be that critical building block, I think, towards the compact. David, I think what we have heard so far today, lots, so many great things, thank you, and also incredible things in the chat. The importance of these human-centered approaches to connectivity from design to implementation, thinking beyond technology, beyond infrastructure. We got to go beyond. We have to tackle those demands, high barriers, the skills, the literacy, of course, the need for investment, innovation, inclusivity, including young people. And great that our young leaders were so inspiring to us today. The importance of multi-stakeholder, multilateral collaboration. I think that unity of approach that Maria Francesca just mentioned is also critical. And of course, I think the imperative of the Partner to Connect Coalition that we're launching today has actually been all the more affirmed by our previous speaker. So a big thanks to Nick, to Usha, to Charlotte, and to Preeti. Partner to Connect has been designed to serve as the platform to mobilize action, right? As Maria Francesca said, it's got to be about action. So we need action to close the digital divide. Of course, in coordination with the UN Secretary General's common agenda and the roadmap for digital cooperation. We can all work together, I'm sure, under Partner to Connect to advance the SDGs and to foster meaningful connectivity and digital transformation. And I think global projects as Charlotte just highlighted like Giga or a partnership with UNICEF to connect to every school on the planet to the internet and some other initiatives that were also mentioned. Those are great examples of what can be done when we come together. And I think this is only just the beginning. So as we kick off Partner to Connect, the preparatory process kicking off here, we welcome all of you to join us. We welcome expressions of interest, join the working groups and really help us shape the actions needed to advance our common objectives. We'll post in the chat the email where you can reach out if you're interested. And with that, I will stop speaking. My voice is struggling today and turn back to you, David, thank you. Thank you, Doreen. Okay, thanks everybody for your participation so far. It's been an amazing session and we are not finished yet. We're gonna have a short break and then we're gonna come back for a deep dive into each of the Partner to Connect focus areas. And we're gonna have some amazing speakers including Hans Vesberg, the CEO of Verizon, Vince Cerf, one of the inventors of the internet, top ministers from Trinidad and Tobago, Belarus, secretary of public innovation for Argentina, board members of the Generation Connect communities and a whole bunch of other great speakers, the managing director of the UN Technology Bank for least developed countries. So really, tons to come. We're gonna take a short break. Like I said, we'll be back at quarter after. So that's in about seven or eight minutes. We'll see you then. Please keep putting your questions in the Q&A. You can do that even during the break because we will get to some of those. So don't hesitate to ask questions even still and we'll see you back in just a couple of minutes. In November 2020, we launched the Road to Addis series to build momentum towards ITU's World Telecommunications Development Conference in 2022 and to provide an inclusive platform for all stakeholders to advance our call for universal, meaningful connectivity. We identified six enablers of connectivity for sustainable development to make this an inclusive and action-oriented series to shape the digital development agenda with the active participation of youth. Almost a year later, we want to celebrate the achievements of our journey to reflect on the lessons gathered along the road and to look ahead. Seven successful events, 61 panelists, and thousands of people following the Road to Addis series online. We navigated the perilous waters of COVID together, had fun together, we learned together, and we got inspired by moving stories that showed us the importance of connectivity to learn, to work, and to communicate. I am grateful to everyone who made this journey possible and I'm proud to now close this chapter and start a new one. We have not yet arrived at our destination, but we need to keep on going. We must look ahead and move faster to bridge the digital divide by 2030. The series has led to a common understanding that progress can be achieved through multi-stakeholder collaboration and that the direct leadership of governments, policymakers, and the regulatory community is essential to achieve meaningful and universal connectivity. Are you ready to join me? Let us work together. Let us dream together. Let us start a new chapter together. Let us partner to connect. ITU members connect the world. The ITU family is growing ever more diverse to deliver on the promise of the digital economy. With 193 member states and more than 900 members from leading companies to SMEs in areas as diverse as telecoms, internet, broadcast, satellite, software, artificial intelligence, fintech, utilities, automotive, smart cities to regulators, universities, R&D institutions, international and regional organizations. ITU members come from every corner of the globe. Africa, Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Commonwealth of Independent States, Europe, and regional and international. Nowhere else in the world will you find such a rich and diverse network of expert and leaders in the global ICT ecosystem. So what are you waiting for? Become a member. Go to www.itu.int forward slash join. What is leadership? What are great leaders made of? Throughout history, great leaders have succeeded at setting direction and mobilizing people towards a shared vision. Great leaders are able to recognize the differences in those they lead and inspire them to be better than they think they can be. But ultimately, leadership is about people, about human connection, about trust, and above all, about service. What kind of leadership is needed to connect the unconnected? Lead by example. Lead to transform. Lead to dream. Lead to empower. Lead to inspire. Lead to connect. What does it mean to be connected? To be connected is being part of something bigger without physical barriers. To be connected means to have a bond with someone or something that is established on common goals, interests, aspirations, or even feelings that leaves you with a good impression. We are connected when we can communicate with anyone, anywhere. It means to be open-minded, to have an opportunity to express my potential and build the inclusive and innovative digital world. Being connected is being part of something much bigger and discovering new ways to change our world by sharing values and ideas, believing in each other to achieve our goals. For me, being connected means being able to use technology to bridge the gaps that both exist and divide our society today. What does generation connect mean to you? Marvelous. Partnership. Hope. Inclusion. Enliving. Inspiring. Innovation. Networking. Sharing. Interconnecting. Change megas. Exchange. Innovation. Opportunity. Empowerment. Connecting the unconnected. Okay, hey, welcome back everybody. Thank you for sticking with us. I see there are many, many hundreds of you who have been here, almost all of you stayed. That's great, and we'll get more as we go forward. So with our distinguished speakers in this next session, we're gonna explore in detail the key objectives and commitments for each partner to connect focus area and set up the foundations for the preparatory work that will follow for the coalition on the journey towards WTDC in June 2022. The ITU's Partner to Connect Digital Coalition is based on the principles of inclusion, partnership, and SDG-focused digital development. It recognizes that progress can only be made through a multi-stakeholder and partnership-based approach and that the leadership of governments, policymakers, and the regulator community is essential to achieve meaningful and universal connectivity, not to mention the business community as well, and journalists even like myself. The coalition will work to ensure that people everywhere and in particular in least developed countries, landlocked developing countries, and small island developing states can access and use digital connectivity to transform lives, communities, and society. And it will all focus on four areas. One, connecting people everywhere, two, empowering communities, three, building digital ecosystems, and four, incentivizing investments. So in order to understand that and how we got to those focus areas and some key information about it, I'm pleased to welcome Mr. Michael Wilms, Partner and Director of Technology Media and Telecommunications at BCG. So Michael, the floor is yours. Thank you, David. And let me start by congratulating Doreen and the ITU for setting up this Partner to Connect initiative. It's really a great endeavor. And it's a very bold endeavor to drive digital inclusion globally. And I'm proud to announce that we at BCG will become a knowledge partner of the Partner to Connect program. The Digital Inclusion Challenge is substantial with a need to connect, as was said earlier, 3.7 billion people. And with COVID, this challenge is more urgent than ever, especially, of course, in the LDCs. Globally, billions of people are not accessing the internet and using the digital services. The challenge to close this digital divide is a many faceted challenge, spread over the four key focus areas of the Partner to Connect program. Let me highlight some of the key facts about the LDCs, which are also featured in the report that Doreen announced earlier today. 3G coverage in the LDCs is only about 75% compared to 96% in the rest of the world. However, even in the covered areas, only about a third of people actually use the internet. Besides divisive affordability, other factors also play a role here, as Doreen mentioned earlier as well. There's a very low level of digital skills. About 14% of people can execute basics digital skills like copying files. And only 2% of people in the LDCs transact online, compared to 24% in the rest of the world and over 60% in OECD countries. This also in part explains the last factor I'd like to highlight, the very low level of investment into these countries. Only about half a percent of the venture capital investments into Asia, Africa, and Latin America actually makes it into the LDCs. And of course, these kinds of venture capital investments often enable innovations and services that then again drive demand for using the internet. Clearly, all of these challenges are interlocked, and each challenge makes solving the other more complex again. Moving to the next slide. To solve these challenges, we clearly need to address both supply and demand across three layers, consumer services, infrastructure and connectivity, and content and services. And one of the things that we've learned about connectivity and getting people to use the internet is that you actually need to experience it first before you get the amount of willingness to pay. However, that experience, that first experience needs to be good and relevant. For instance, Facebook may not be all that relevant for a farmer, and that's a rural Mali, but market prices for maize in the town only five hours away are very relevant. And this implies that solving the digital divide requires careful step-by-step, but still fast improvement of demand and supply across these three layers for many different specific situations. If we get this right, we'll see a further cycle of initial demand, sparing investments in network, services, and the willingness to also buy devices, which in turn will then spur more demand for more services and drive the economy. As an example in the work we gave out outlined earlier by UNICEF, we found that the vast majority of unconnected schools can be connected economically with the right public-private partnership and by also mobilizing the community. As Brad mentioned as well, partner to connect is set up exactly to drive such solutions by leveraging the experience and commitment of a broad set of partners. What I really like about the four focus areas is that they each already span multiple areas of this playing field as lay out on the chart, and does it has very natural points of cooperation, precisely what is needed to craft the plan we need. Now we'll hear more from each of the four focus areas. David, back to you. Thank you, Michael, and I'm really struck by one statistic, which is not even the main thing you meant to emphasize. Obviously we need to bring the less developed countries into a level with the rest of the world, but if only 25% of the world's population, even in the affluent countries is transacting online, it suggests huge opportunity for global growth once we digitize society. So that's very exciting to me. We're gonna bring everybody into a world which is much more digital. So thank you very much. We're really pleased to have BCG on board as a knowledge partner. I'd like to remind everyone that if you wish to get involved with the coalition, please contact the partner to connect team at partner2connectatitu.int. This link will also be in the chat. So after this great introduction from Michael, let's go to our eminent discussion leaders to talk about the challenges and opportunities of the four focus areas in partner2connect. So for this segment, I'm really pleased to welcome Mr. Hans Vestberg, Chairman and CEO of Verizon who's joined us in the past with the Road to Addis series. We also will have his Excellency, Hassel Bakas, Minister of Digital Transformation of Trinidad and DeVego. Her Excellency, Ms. Michela Sanchez-Malcom, Secretary of Public Innovation of the Chief of Cabinet of Ministers from Argentina. His Excellency, Mr. Constantine Shulhan, Minister of Communication and Informatization of the Republic of Belarus. Mr. Joshua Setipa, Managing Director of the UN Technology Bank for LDCs. And finally, Mr. Vint Cerf, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist at Google and Founding Chairman of the People-Centered Internet. Really great to have all of you here. So I'm going to turn to you first, Hans. When you think about these partner2connect focus areas, which ones do you see as most critical to ensuring impact? Thank you, David, and congratulations to ITU for kicking off these great initiatives on the Road to Trinidad. It's just great. When I think about it, it's a multifaceted problem as we've heard so many times right now. I think I usually talk about it as Doreen and many others are talking about it. It's about accessibility, affordability, usability of the technology, and there are different challenges wherever you are. As we heard from many of the latest researchers, when it comes to broadband, especially mobile broadband, it's a vast coverage of mobile broadband and all the population of the world, but it's very low usage because of what we heard from a colleague from BCG talking about illiteracy, expensive handshift, affordable plans. So you need actually to focus on all of them. And what we did in the beginning of the year was of course in collaboration with the World Economic Forum launched the Edison Alliance, which includes private, public, multi-stakeholder. Of course, ITU is included, GSMA, several countries, and CEOs of the largest technology companies in the world. What we want to achieve is of course to include one billion more people the next coming years based on the technologies that we're rolling out, especially focus on education, healthcare, and financial inclusion. Because it's more clear than ever that we need sort of an SDG-18. And that's just mobility broadband and cloud, which is the 21st century infrastructure. I fought for a goal 18 for a long time, but as we all know, it became 17. This sad situation with the COVID has actually concluded that we just need to see that every citizen in the world have the same chance wherever they're born, wherever they are. And that's the enormous task. That's why the road to address the part of the connect is important. The Edison Alliance that we have launched, they work with the Broadband Commission because no one alone can do it. And of course the company I represent, we invest heavily to see that that digital inclusion happens, but mainly folks in the US because of our Jewish heritage. But as a person and as a leader, I'm very focused to see that this happening, whatever vision I had for the SDG-18 some five years ago, and now we just need to make it happen. So the time is now, I think that all these four areas are equally important because it's not one solution. It's a multi-stakeholder solution. And we have so many of them right now and the time is really to do it right now. Thank you for your great energy as always, Hans. Couldn't agree with you more about the SDGs. At least though now, we have a secretary general who talks about digital development every time he thinks about anything, he is himself an engineer. So I think we kind of made up for the lack of that SDG goal by having this great SDG. So let me now turn to his Excellency Hassel Vakis to provide his remarks. Good morning and thank you, David and to the ITU for this opportunity to bring a perspective from Genedad and Tobago in the Saudi Caribbean. The government of Genedad and Tobago its real goal is to recognize broadband as one of the public good. The same way in which you have electricity, you have water, broadband would represent that type of right for all of the citizens in Genedad and Tobago. And to get to that point, we have to embark on a significant transformation. That type of transformation and very much in concert with this theme of this conference is the fact that we have to do this collaboratively. There's no one mind show, there's no way we can do this individually or so even as a government because our role really is to get to a point of having a digital society. So when you look at it from that perspective, you can see why we have to collaborate as much as possible. All of the projects that we've been involved in and this ministry has been formed with that specific focus really involve social inclusion. So it's going to be led by this ministry but we have to collaborate with everyone our regulators, the ISPs or private people all the access everywhere. All of the people in civil society we're working even currently with some people of the disabled all those kinds of things differently abled all of that is happening and so we have to communicate with those people as well. We need to create a digital economy. And again, the government can't do this on its own to create a digital to participate in the digital economy. We need to collaborate specifically with the private sector and also with our international partners. It'll be very, very difficult to do this again on our own. The infrastructure that is required to put it together, they know how because remember this type of transformation involves people, process and the systems all working collaboratively for this to work. And so when we look at it from that perspective and having the customer at the end of it being the prime focus all of the things that are necessary for the integration so that has to happen in a collaborative sense with all of the people that we need if it just won't work on its own. Without that type of partnership we really would not want to allow us to get to the full common use of digital technology. Really the plan is to make people's lives better and the only way we're going to be able to do that again is to properly employ the technology that we have. In closing the ministry of digital transformation which I lead, the very essence and philosophy is to be a partner and enable, create an advocate, something to provide sustenance. And this is the rule that the government must play if we want to create that digital society. We're building the digital society which can fully participate in the digital economy and we must fully support our people as they create the processes and the systems to enable that robust network to happen and for us to get to a point of digital excellence. It's really good to be able to bring that perspective to you and thank you very much. Thank you so much. I love to hear a government minister talking about the citizens as customers. That is really, really great. I want to just emphasize, please put questions in the Q&A box. We will have some discussion as part of this session. Next I'd like to go to Ms. Mikayla Sanchez-Malcom who as I mentioned before is in charge of innovation in the cabinet of ministers in Argentina. So please go right ahead. Hey, good morning and good afternoon to everyone. First of all, I would like to thank the International Telecommunication Union for the invitation to participate in this very important space and in this conference too. The COVID-19 pandemic reinforced the role of information and communication technologies while highlighting their essential character in all aspects of their life. Ensuring high quality and accessible connectivity for everyone is vital today more than ever. In this new reality, the lack of connectivity inevitably leads to lack of opportunities and social exclusion. Without quality access to connectivity, pre-exciting gaps are bound to widen foreign harming vulnerable populations. For the Argentine government, the main objective of our telecommunication and ICT policy is the universalization of access to services and connectivity and expansion of its social and surrogate coverage. Guaranteeing access to connectivity therefore means promoting the inclusion of people regardless of their gender, age, socioeconomic status or place of residence. One of the fundamental pillars of our work is Plan Connector which focuses on public investment in connectivity. The plan has the objective of providing universal access to broadband and consistent of four pillars. First, the expansion of the Federal Optic Fiber Network, their activation of the satellite plan with the construction of our shared stationary satellite of their satellite fleet, the satellite of high performance in KA-1 called ARSAT-SSU-1. And otherwise, we are working on the update of the National Data Center, Development and Hybrid Cloud and updating Open Digital Television. However, investment in infrastructure is necessary but it's not enough. It must be complemented by the development of digital skills as an essential component of digital inclusion strategy that democratizes the access and use of technologies. That's why we promote many initiatives such as Punto Digital Program which are free public spaces to promote internet access foster digital skills and facilitate recreation and job training. There are already more than 600 points all around Argentina and we plan to incorporate more than 100 in these few years. In addition with that, we developed the Virtual Learning Platform aimed to train in the population in various areas digital inclusion, citizenship and labor rights and skills. On the other hand and guided by the convention to achieve the gender equality in all areas we launched the Center of Shenders in Technology which aimed at generating inclusion policies that contribute to reducing the gender gap in the ICT sector through public-private collaboration that include the most important technological frames worldwide. Additionally, public policies also contribute to the construction of a digital ecosystem accessible to all citizens through constants, improvements and investments in open government accessibility to information and the strain thing of digital identity. All of these policies are developed with federal criteria in a country with marked geographical imbalance that promotes the development of all potentials in our country. Thank you. Thank you so much. So now let's move from Latin America to Eastern Europe welcoming His Excellency Constanzean Shilhan as I mentioned before he is Minister of Communications and Informatization of Belarus.  Up, got an unmute there. We can't hear you, you're muted, Minister. Well, there you go. I'm sorry. Good afternoon, my dear colleagues. I'm glad to welcome you to the meeting of a partnership for connection. The Republic of Belarus for many years has repeatedly been working with the International Union of Electricity so I want to express my confidence that today's events will also be no exception and will contribute to further successful and promising development of partner relations. The Republic of Belarus is a socially directed state. In the questions of digitalization and development of promising technologies it is aimed at the goal of sustainable development, recommendations of the International Union of Electricity and International OVC. To achieve these goals, the Republic of Belarus is formed and successfully implemented a state program of digital development of Belarus for the 21st and 25th years. It is aimed at ensuring the introduction of modern information, communication and forward production technologies in various industries, national economy and the sphere of sustainability of the society. The implementation of its event is closely connected with the achievement of the national level of the goal of sustainable development in the period of 2030 containing the resolution of the General Assembly and the Organization of United Nations from September 25, 2015 and the formation of our world as a agenda in the area of sustainable development in the period of 2030. The Republic of Belarus is on the right to be proud of its achievements with the importance of the main indicators of the Tsur. As an example, this is the capture of the population of the network of the 100th electric connection of the 3rd generation. It is 99.9 percent, and the capture of the population of the network of the 100th electric connection of the 4th generation is 95 percent and continues to increase in the form of an active network construction in the regions. At the same time, in 2016, this indicator was only 68.5 percent. Our country is actively preparing to develop the network of the 5th generation of their commercial operation. Today, with all the 100th operators, developed and experienced zones, regulatory bodies, the preparation of key solutions based on the task set in the program of actions of our government is completed. This is the protection of the capture of the population of the networks of the 4th and 5th generations at 99.9 percent at the end of 2025. Also, the active transition of the fans to the multi-service platform due to the construction of the blockchain-optical line of communication directly to the consumer. The number of fans of the stationery wide access to all the Internet in the Republic has already made 3.27 million fans. The number of fans of the 100th electric connection is 11.7 million when the population of the country is 9.3 million people. The number of fans has increased by 125 percent. With the reduction of modern technologies the speed at which the population can get access to Internet networks is growing. If five years ago, almost 70 percent of the fans in the Republic of Belarus used access to all the Internet at speeds of up to 10 megabits per second, then now 67 percent of the fans have reached a speed of up to 10 megabits per second and, at the same time, from 67 percent to 25 percent of the fans access to all the Internet at speeds of up to 100 megabits per second and more. In 2016, 67 percent of the population of the Republic used the Internet. As a result of the 20th year the share of the population using the Internet has increased by 85 and 1.10 percent. By the end of 2022 this indicator will grow up to 87 percent. The achieved results provide a stable position in Belarus in international ratings so that, in our opinion, it is obvious international recognition of the results of our work, effective planning and implementation of the national digital development program. According to this report of the International International Information and Communication Technology Index, the Republic of Belarus took 32nd place from 176 countries in 2017. It has increased to 21 points in 10 years. Also, the Republic of Belarus is the leader in the prognosis of European countries in 2020 at the level of penetration of the volcanic-optic line of 28.4 percent. In conclusion, I would like to note that the work carried out is a direct result of constructive cooperation with the International International International Information and Communication Technology Index. The Ministry of Information and Communication of the Republic of Belarus in particular supports the idea of creating a digital coalition and establishing a digital ecosystem and the stimulation of investing in all countries of the world to eliminate communication infrastructure for further development of digital economy. Thank you for your attention. Thank you so much for that very interesting information about Belarus. Excellent. I would just suggest people who turned their interpretation on might want to turn it off. It might potentially improve the audio going forward. So Joshua Setipo is our next speaker. As I mentioned before, he's managing director of the UN Technology Bank for LDCs. So Joshua, take it away. Thank you very much, David. Let me also start by thanking the ITU and particularly Yorin for inviting the Technology Bank to this important discussion, but also to congratulate and colleagues for this initiative. I should also congratulate our colleagues at the office of the higher representative for these developed countries and then loved developing countries and smaller developing countries on the launch of the LDC state of connectivity report earlier today. As we've heard from previous speakers and also in earlier discussions, a number of recent reports on connectivity including the SG's roadmap for digital connectivity have indicated that almost half of the world's population is still unconnected and that the digital divide between these countries and the rest of the world is widening, particularly in the LDCs where less than 20 percent of people remain unconnected with limited or zero access to the internet. And the current COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the scale of this challenge. There are millions of children that remain cut off from classes from regular in-person learning or from learning at all contribute to the 3.7 billion that remains unconnected today. And to enable this, there are several factors that need to be addressed which will help in connecting them connected by providing access affordable and meaningful internet as well as enhancing digital skills. Addressing these challenges requires financial investment, it requires multi-stakeholder partnerships, better facilitated connectivity, empowerment of communities and build digital ecosystems in the LDCs. The year technology bank has been conducting technology needs assessments in the LDCs over the past two years. At the top of the list of priorities that countries have highlighted is connectivity because as we know connectivity underpins almost the achievement of all the SDGs. Without connectivity, we cannot make any meaningful progress on the SDGs. Now, the heavy lifting comes in when we now have to mobilize resources to actually address the challenges around connectivity, the financing part in particular, the policy reform process that will ensure the creation of ecosystems that facilitate private sector investment that will ensure that investments are made that enhance connectivity. And in our view, there's a number of very key areas that we have to focus on and this has already been addressed in one or the other in the previous interventions, but let me just conclude by highlighting three. The first is the power of partnerships. Private public partnerships are very central to this and if there's ever any doubt on the power of partnerships, we just have to remember that almost 15 months ago we didn't know anything about COVID or within 15 months we have I think at last count there are over 10 vaccines that are different stages of development to deal with COVID and that could not have been possible if it wasn't for partnerships, within the private sector, between governments and those that hold the innovative capacity and investment capacity. So if public partnership, private partnerships have worked in the case of the vaccine for COVID, definitely they will work in addressing the challenges around connectivity. The second key area relates to financing. Innovative instruments around financing are what is required to address this and the role of multilateral development finance institutions to mitigate risk for the private sector, blended financing initiatives is what will help us at least help the LDCs and other developing countries be able to begin to see progress in attracting levels of investment that will help towards bridging their best divide. Last but not least is also engaging or utilizing funding models such as the education outcomes fund to significantly improve learning and employment outcomes by tying funding to measurable results that bring together governments, donors and implementing partners and of course investors to achieve concrete targets there for learning and skill development and of course employment. This in our view would begin to generate enough progress that could result in significant closing the gap. Last but not least and to reiterate what has been said before, every 10 years the international community or the development partners meet with the least developed countries to engage on strategies for the next 10 years but also to review progress in the preceding 10 years. In January next year that meeting will take place in the Oatata. It's an opportunity for the development partners and the LDCs to come up with significant and effective strategies on how this issue can be addressed because without connectivity a whole range of the SDGs will never be achieved so it is an opportunity to come up with a very practical list of measures and interventions with a very strong participation by the private sector on strategies on how to address this. I thank you very much for this opportunity. Thank you Joshua. The work your bank does is extremely important. Really glad to have you here. So our next speaker really lives up to his title of Chief Internet Evangelist of Google. Among many other things he does, he's also founding chairman of PeopleCenter and Internet which is part of living up to his title and we're very happy to have him with us. Vint Cerf please let's hear from you Vint. Well thank you so much David and thanks to ITU and especially to Doreen for organizing this. I love that Road to Addis I think is a perfect metaphor because when we get there we want all of these capabilities to be present and available and useful. Let me point out that the internet is itself a grand collaboration. It doesn't work unless everybody connects and everybody agrees to transfer traffic from one place to another on a global scale. Also I mentioned one very interesting partnership arrangement cable communication the undersea cables especially are expensive and partnerships have been necessary in order to implement them. Although ironically the costs are starting to come down for implementing cable and now we're finding some companies including my own building their own cables and then finding partners to make use of the excess capacity. I want to draw your attention to something which we have not talked about at least in this session and that's the consequences of connectivity and the consequences of lack of connectivity and there are they are manifold. The thing that I want to emphasize is that if we are going to make use of these technologies then they have to have a number of important properties and one of them is safety and I would argue that at this point we have not succeeded in making the internet as safe as it should be in order to be beneficial and so there need to be consequences for the abuse of this technology. The motivation that I and others had was to lower the barriers to access to and use of this technology but I think what I didn't fully appreciate at least not 50 years ago was that in the process of dropping the barriers down you made it easy for the good guys and the bad guys to make use of this platform. So now we have the challenge of dealing with the consequences of the abuse of these systems and it leads me to conclude that some kind of differential traceability is going to be needed in other words if somebody's going to do something harmful and it hurts someone that's in another jurisdiction we're going to have to have real collaboration on an international basis in order to track people down who are harming others on this technology. So that's a consequence of connectivity and food safety. A lack of connectivity however has economic consequences the failure to be connected to the system and the failure to be able to use it interferes with people's well-being and interferes with their level of education and their awareness it interferes with their ability to get important and useful information when they need it and so in the end of course my calculus says connectivity is better than no connectivity and I think that's what we're hearing from the partnership to connect as well. I'd like to suggest to you a couple of things that we should keep in mind as we look forward towards the next 10 years one thing that's become very obvious is new technologies keep showing up for example hollow fiber in order to reduce the latencies of optical fiber networking which is an active research program at the University of Southampton. What about low earth orbiting satellites of course we've heard a lot about them but more recently they are real they are in in operation and they are making it almost impossible to avoid access to the internet which from my point of view is Google's chief internet evangelist is a huge help to solving problem of course there's Starlink and OneWeb and Cooper and others that's a very important evolution and I think we're going to see continued innovation in the technology space and we should be very attentive to that because it may help us solve some of the challenges that we see lying ahead. Last point I thought I would make however is the way in which these systems can be made useful interestingly governments can sometimes make the technology of the internet more useful more quickly than even the private sector can and that is to provide services to the citizens of the country deliberately doing that to make the system useful will create incentive for getting connected to it it will create incentive for the private sector to invest in it and as that utility becomes more apparent then we will see more private sector agents providing products and services to serve the general population the private sector and the government. So I will stop there and thank everyone for all of their thoughtful comments so far I'm really looking forward to the conversation that we will have in the remaining time available. So much insight about partnering to connect from all of you thank you so much. I see that we have someone on the floor Kate Wilson who would like to make a comment so can we activate Kate's mic please and could she please identify herself I hope that's gonna work could somebody tell me if that's gonna work or shall we just continue with something else there she is hello even a video tell us who you are I can't hear you though I think say something again oh she is still muted at least you're muted even though you don't show as muted in the zoom but try try to try again maybe you're muted by the uh by the operators this must be the most common phrase used in the last 16 months which is you're muted you're on mute yes it's the oh good any more let's try again oh no I'm still seeing the little red microphone button I'm sorry well I don't know what we can do Kate maybe we'll try to come back to you there's somebody else I believe who would like to comment from the floor Maximo Torero can we get his mic to work and hear what he has to say I hope hi can you hear me yes we can okay thank you so much so thank you very much for this initiative and and the success of the world telecommunications development tell us who you are Maximo if you would oh I am the chief economist of FAO the food and agriculture organization of the united nations so the major topic that I want to raise here is importance of connectivity as a precondition for social inclusion I understand what I think being mentioned but if you don't have access then you don't need to worry about how to access and what is the content so for me we need first have to have access and has connectivity as a precondition and that can become together with the complements that are needed to assure that you don't use things wrong and that there is inclusion but for social inclusion you need pre-connectivity if not that's not going to work so in that sense the the partner to connect digital coalition is central because it helps to include the disease and seeds which has been showing in the especially in the last 18 months of the COVID-19 how much the inequality could be raised if we are not ready for that and FAO as the agri-food system organization has to play a role on this and that's where we have to facilitate the way in which we can bring digital technologies for transformation but this has to come back to the investments that are needed to be able to achieve this connection and that's the $428 billion that we are trying to to attract to be able to give universal or affordable access to the digital networks to all by 2030 in rural areas especially in LDCs LDCs and seeds so we need to find the way in which we can attract that financial mechanism in place through different mechanisms but that needs that investment needs to happen because an investment that will create a huge economic return we have been doing estimations of the potential impact behind the return of access to ICTs in digital agriculture and the returns are enormous so there is the numbers are correct and they could be the returns that we're trying to do. Now this requires to build up the digital public goods alliance as an important player to identify and promote digital services to address laws perceived relevance and attractiveness to contents of user in rural areas so again the supply side is central the connectivity also the demand side that it was mentioned before and for that we need to break certain barriers and that's the barriers of capabilities and there are ways in which we can do that today especially in the agricultural sector through digital technologies through videos through other mechanisms that will allow people that even don't know how to read and write being able to have access and break these capability barriers even using upward intergenerational mobility working with with the children the schools working with it with the youth so that they can also support the process of breaking this barrier so the man and supply will play a role together but digital infrastructure clearly today is lagging behind and the numbers that you presented clearly show that and that's where we need to break and need to change we need to collectively sustain support to digital cooperation with all partners and provide initial interoperable data services in the pre-competitive space as a digital public good to the risk increase resilience for the most vulnerable provide digital finance services attract the startups and improve digital rural transformation we have launched the 1000 digital villages initiatives international pattern for digital food and agriculture and we have signed the Rome call for artificial intelligence ethics so with all these initiatives together with our in-work in the country levels we are ready to help and support but it's essential that we work together to convert into the investment plans to deploy this type of digital technology so that everybody can have access to it so FAO stands firmly committed to working in partnerships for better production better nutrition better environment and better life leaving no one behind and digital technologies play a crucial role there is evidence for that we just need to move forward and bring the mechanisms in place to assure the supply and the demand today thank you thank you Maximo really interesting stuff and I love the SDG logo as part of your logo that the way it rotates is super cool now let's go back to Kate and see if we can hear from her this time no unfortunately I still can't hear you I am I wonder if you could type something in the I don't know what we're going to do here let's we'll try a different oh we got you here there you are different microphone but not as good but it'll probably work for the purposes of this um thank you all so much um maybe we'll say connectivity and your ability to use a good mic system is quickly identify yourself too Kate if you would yeah I'm Kate Wilson I'm the CEO of the digital impact alliance I'm very excited to be here today with friends and partners from around the world on the partner to connect initiative we believe that connectivity is critical to accelerating national digital transformation which is the focus of our work and we're proud to lend our efforts to support partner to connect in your efforts we have seen that COVID has driven political will but as ASG Spadelsano said earlier today now is our time for action and while all four areas are key we really like to focus our efforts on supporting ITU and all of the partners on two specific areas building digital ecosystems and how we can incentivize investments in particular on building digital ecosystem as a coalition supports efforts in this area we encourage all partners to keep the principles for digital development which we are proud to steward at the forefront of your efforts these nine living principles endorsed by almost 300 global organizations including many of those on this call today and all global donors provide a frame for framework for the partner design about how to do digital built on best practices that have been built by the community one of those key principles is to reuse and improve so we really encourage the digital ecosystem actors represented on this call to build on existing frameworks that already exist such as the ICT for STG framework which we have built with colleagues of the ITU and then is now being embraced and embodied in the GovStack initiative that is being led by the ITU dialed the governments of stonia and the governments of journey we believe that working together this digital ecosystem that is built on top of core connectivity can really help test different approaches to national digital stacks and really make sure that all the connectivity that is being turned on by partner to connect can really be used to drive further seamless services that citizens can use for so many of the things that they need from getting educated as this initiative is focused on to receiving health alerts to vote and more digital public infrastructure is critical to build on top of the connectivity that is also fundamentally required in order to do that we really think that this focus on incentivizing investments is so key digital access over the last 20 months has become a fundamental human right but we really aren't financing it that way we think that financing and funding mechanisms for connectivity are really key this is the core foundation and so we're highly supportive of the five billion call but let's be honest it's probably not going to cover everything that we need to do to invest in building digital skills building innovative policies that have really brought citizens together to put in privacy and data use that has built a trust together and fundamentally incentivizing many of the digital products that we still need as his excellency bach has said earlier this digital economy calls on all global actors private sector government financial institutions to work together in new ways to coordinate financing across digital needs and sectors only then do we believe we'll have the digital connectivity and digital and public infrastructure that will truly serve citizens and open up a new innovation opportunities for local innovators to build the services that they need for themselves I just want to really again celebrate this group and and delighted to be here today with you thank you and thanks for patience on the connectivity challenges thank you for your patience and getting you on there too Kate thank you so much okay we're going to hear from these panelists again in a minute as we continue but we're bringing in a new group which is so critical and has been critical through the entire road to add a series which is the generation connect community so we're going to hear from four board members from the generation connect visionaries board so we've we've ended we're ending here with youth we began much of the whole project with youth youth have been part of every single session on the road to add us so the four board members we're going to be hearing from our miss Mabato Motsumai founder of the affer Lucianist miss Sinead Boval founder of way Mr Ted Chen co-founder and CEO of Evercom Singapore and Shailene Geotishi who's a senior analyst at New America so I hear you all I see three of you now I hope we'll get all four of you on there and the one oh Mabato you're our first one so let's go right to you talk to us about the focus area number one connecting people everywhere thank you I think just starting in we have had this conversation around half of the global population being disconnected and the aim to increase um digital connectivity and I know not connectivity as well uh in LDCs and islands and remote areas but it's also important to dismantle uh technological social environmental and economic barriers towards connectivity uh the previous speakers spoke about how we use um how we need to ensure demand and supply right how we need to ensure that there is a matching amount of demand to create the supply for connectivity citing that sometimes farmers will need um connectivity needs as people in urban areas uh I have a slight pushback or a battle in that um in the COVID in the uh COVID time that we're in the restrictions that have been imposed particularly for landlocked countries and other islands created a need for entrepreneurs and other technocrats to look within for solutions uh because there were barriers to imports and barriers to movement right and farmers in rural areas started developing different associations and creating and enhancing their market access increasing the amount of food security through the power of connectivity so it's also important that in doing so in creating communication connect connectivity anyway connection everywhere we are aware that the consumer behaviors and the the consumer demands aren't necessarily the same but we have to understand them intimately to help dismantle these social structures also notable that the coalition report has cited that this is a social and social good and requires a shared responsibility across across all actors we must also be cognizant of the design of exclusion in the first place for us to be disconnected in many places and not connected everywhere so appreciating um that globally a lot of the raw materials and the raw supplies do come from LDCs in order to help inform and build the necessary infrastructure that we see for smart cities and the like however these raw materials that are coming out of these areas aren't necessarily being reflected so a lot of LDCs aren't necessarily enjoying the fruits of the supplies beyond the direct the direct economic incentive of the said raw supplies right so we need to ensure that systemically and we need to understand the exclusion the designed exclusion in why certain societies and areas are disconnected and through this understanding this deep and intimate understanding of exclusion we work towards building resilient digital and technological systems across the world and LDCs and islands just as a last piece it being cognizant of time I believe that it's important for all state state and non-state actors to evaluate in any possible determinants of course that are breathing into this digital divide and also take a bit of investment not just into the infrastructure in itself but the other infrastructures that influence it so electrification research and development um looking at the potential brain drain of knowledge of knowledge that is moving away from specific countries into other countries that help inform that are connectivity based in terms of economies and work towards developing an inclusive knowledge-based economic processes that are determined largely by ensuring connectivity so when we do this work and creating connectivity everywhere we want to ensure its relevance in in economic development we want to ensure its relevance in social social structures and we also need to ensure its relevance in environmental wellness as well thank you thank you Mabathos thank you so much Shanaid focus area two is empowering communities talk about that thank you thank you so much for your prompt and it has truly been an honor to listen to and to learn from so many different perspectives here today on how we can get our future with technology right and how we can ensure that everybody is included in that future so as we've touched on today and throughout this past year during the road to Addis discussions we know that the first step in empowering youth in communities is resource allocation so without basic digital tools digital inclusion is virtually impossible and as it stands today two-thirds of young people under the age of 25 don't even have access to the internet and that's just the starting point and so we're at risk of getting left behind and this does mean that we have a steep hill decline when it comes to empowering youth in communities through digital inclusion but through private and public partnerships like the ones we've talked about today and throughout this year I'm confident we can achieve resource allocation and when it comes to resources in particular I'm really calling on the tech community to recognize its role in building a future that works for everyone it's my generation that's often called digital natives but it's largely the tech sector that has benefited from our eagerness so I hope the tech community sees the pathway to digital inclusion and empowerment as not just a responsibility but as an opportunity the second step in ensuring youth are empowered through digital inclusion is of course skills development and tech literacy resources without proper knowledge or skills on how to use them won't get us very far and again this will largely rely on private and public partnerships but as we've heard today and throughout this discussion companies and governments like are mobilizing to ensure that the skills pipeline is built and finally as we've as we've heard today resources and skills they're critical and they're necessary for empowering communities but they're not entirely sufficient as Doreen and Courtney Rattray highlighted earlier access to broadband and usage of broadband aren't the same and 51% of people in the least developed countries who are covered by broadband don't use it so from affordability to lack of awareness of what the internet is to access not being gender neutral it's critical that we recognize and identify the unique sociocultural barriers barriers to access that may be region specific and finally and arguably the most important and often overlooked but something I like to highlight every time I'm invited to speak is that empowering youth and communities means we have to be invited to the conversation where the future is being created and an invitation it's not just an opportunity for a better outcome for everyone but it's also a reflection of decision-makers commitment to today and to tomorrow so it has been a pleasure to co-create with all of you today thank you co-creating it is um ted focus area number three building digital ecosystems yeah it is a pleasure to be part of the conversation and it is an honor to be speaking here as a generation connect board member on the focus area of building digital ecosystem I've summarized a few key takeaways below from the earlier discussions and provide some comments on where youth worldwide could play a significant role in improving the various pressing challenges that was mentioned by many speakers so first everyone agreed that digital connectivity and ecosystem can transform lives communities and societies in this area we see initiatives such as you know the itu generation connect that aims to connect youth globally identify young leader in various local communities and transfer the society at the grassroots level as a 430 on the 30 entrepreneur myself I've also seen other young entrepreneur that created companies that uplifted their communities created high quality jobs and transformed sectors to be more sustainable you know just imagine what generation connect can do if we identify and bring these young people leaders across different communities together and connect them to the right stakeholders at the global scale second it is also mentioned many times that communications and ICT access should not be a privilege it should be a right to everyone you know we have made progress as shown in the connectivities in the least development countries report yet we all agree that there are still far too many people around the world who cannot participate in this new digital economy so it's getting left behind so this is another area where I think youth could also play a significant role there are about 1.2 billion young people worldwide which make up about 16% of the global populations many of them are digital native as mentioned by by my other fellows in the global connect grew up with mobile phones and are extremely passionate about various aspects of the sustainability development goals in engage them effectively the youth alone can provide a foundation to support and potentially scale any digital ecosystems in many areas and finally the esteemed speakers from UNDP mentioned on the building blocks for digital ecosystem which are infrastructure government participation and leadership regulations and naval digital ecosystem to move private sector participation and participation of people community and youth yet she also mentioned that there are far too many isolated pilots worldwide with weak scalability and through my youth engagement work worldwide and especially in the Asia-Pacific region during the COVID-19 pandemic I've seen many young leaders are instrumental in building up the local digital ecosystem is in their communities this is where a platform such as partner to connect digital coalition could further support these local communities by connecting them to a global platform where you know we can facilitate and help them better collaborate and and and form better partnership at the international level thank you thank you so much Ted um Shilin focus area number four instead of rising investments take it away thanks so much David and distinguished colleagues good morning good afternoon and evening thank you all for for having me today in three minutes or less I'm hoping to contribute some insights at the at the near end of a very enriching discussion so I hope I will be able to make some contributions here building on pretty seen as great comments earlier today around sort of service oriented and market development strategy as David mentioned the focus of my remarks center around incentivizing investments needed to connect the world this is no short task so I encourage attend these three visit the finance to connect session that was held in April of this year which included a great depth of detail around this topic and featured my fellow panelists and generation connect visionary board member Mabato and I'm going to drop that link in the chat for the attendees I will aim to elevate some of those messages today um and hope that you all will have some time to review some of those materials the ITU study connecting humanity states that the investment of roughly four hundred and twenty billion US dollars is required to connect the remaining three billion people above the age of 10 by 2030 which is only in nine years substantive ITU findings have suggested that a 10 percent increase in broadband boost for capital GDP um well will help reach this goal that amount exceeds the annual GDP of many countries that lack this level of access so I think you know it's imperative for the private sector to help lead in this space especially in the market development uh uh approaches that PT and Hans and Bennett described and I'm excited by what I've heard over the course of the day from many of our industry leaders at the same time you know I think a key reason why connectivity gaps exist is due to a lack of market incentives or public market failures so you know as was as was shared in the previous session these public private intergenerational inclusive partnerships across government industry academia civil society and david the media both traditional and new I believe are critical to ensure that the right incentives for financing digital inclusion are strong enough to the point where those who wield the power and money to finance these necessary investments are motivated to act now along these lines as a generation connect visionary uh board member I'd definitely be remiss if I didn't uplift the global public private coalitions of youth that have rallied around digital inclusion goals especially the un major group for children and youth and the world economic forums global shapers community both of which I'm honored to be a member of Ted touched on this in his remarks I also echo my about those comments from the finance to connect session and hope that attendees will work with these existing global coalitions of youth and local coalitions to empower them with agency to jointly advance the financial incentive advocacy policy and strategy implementation approaches that we've discussed today I also think it's really important that we substantively engage youth in these kinds of discussions leveraging proven tools like co design which is well known in the public interest technology community as a researcher and a writer focused on emerging technologies I I I also see the expansion of digital inclusion and the acceleration of some of these industry 4.0 technologies like AI and blockchain and internet of things as potentially synergistic here keeping in mind the potential downsides been to mention I was very excited to see mention of cryptocurrency elevated during the finance to connect dialogue in April and I want to share in the chat a story of the power of cryptocurrency for for youth that I found pretty inspiring recently and I think you all might as well I we have to walk before we run it's true but I think now more than ever these technologies are maturing and in that narrative context we may be able to further incentivize digital inclusion investments as a public prior private priority that can stand out in a world filled with many competing priorities especially when it comes to money quickly I wanted to use the last of my time to just elevate the importance of ensuring that these public private financial incentives for investments lead to equitable and fai