P2C milestones

The year 2023 was a very important one for Partner2Connect. The Coalition continued to grow, mobilizing resources and partners to advance the cause of universal, meaningful connectivity and sustainable digital transformation. In the spring, at the LDC5 Conference in Doha, Qatar, P2C set out once more its commitment to support the implementation of the Doha Programme of Action at the session held during the Private Sector Forum. P2C also launched a pledging campaign to activate resources and connectivity projects specially targeted towards these countries. In March, P2C announced it had received its 600th pledge, which was submitted by the Digital Child Rights Foundation, and later in May at the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD), the Coalition helped raise awareness on the importance of ICTs to support LDCs in addressing their development challenges.

At the regional level, efforts to highlight implementation and matchmaking continued throughout the year with the P2C roundtables held at the Regional Development Forums in Africa, Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, and the Arab States.

At the global level, on 17 September on the eve of the United Nations SDG Summit, P2C was recognized as an example of a game-changing solution for SDG 17 – partnerships for the goals. In October, ITU reached pledge number 800 at the Regional Development Forum in Africa. The pledge was submitted by SAP⁸, and brought the total financial value of pledges received by October 2023 to USD 31.88 billion.

Also in October, ITU together with UNHCR and partners launched the Connectivity for Refugees Initiative, which seeks to advance the digital inclusion of more than 20 million displaced people and their host communities. P2C is a central part of this initiative, closely contributing to the pledge submission process.

The Coalition also launched the new Global Advisory Board in the autumn, whose inaugural members include the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the P2C champions ZTE⁹, Amazon and Microsoft.