Message from the Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT)

The Partner2Connect Digital Coalition remains one of our key global multistakeholder initiatives over the past few years.

To help realize its noble mission, in 2023 the Telecommunication Development Bureau embarked on a series of regional matchmaking roundtables to ensure that the needs or priorities of individual countries and regions are matched with partner pledges as a way of operationalizing the many pledges that had been announced. These roundtables, which were held as part of ITU’s Regional Development Forums and attended by a total of over 1,000 participants worldwide, also provided an opportunity for the announcement of new pledges.

The matchmaking roundtables are crucial for guaranteeing tangible impact on the ground and enhancing people's quality of life through universal meaningful Internet connectivity.

We are committed on translating promises into concrete actions that result in significant impact for the ordinary citizens, communities and countries across the globe as a result of digital transformation.

As mandated by the membership at ITU’s 2022 World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC-22) held in Kigali, Rwanda, the BDT is committed to get concrete results for the benefit of countries out of the Partner2Connect Coalition on a win-win basis. We are recording, monitoring, tracking and will regularly report on the milestones as our engagement evolves.

I look forward to strengthening our impact for a better world.

Dr Cosmas Luckyson Zavazava
Director, ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau