- The World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC) held between 6–16 June adopted a forward-looking agenda to address the global connectivity gap. WTDC was held under the theme ‘Connecting the unconnected to achieve sustainable development’.
- The Kigali Action Plan agreed at the conference charts a course for digital development that aligns closely with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out by the United Nations for 2030. It also defines the workplan of the ITU’s Development Sector (ITU-D) until the next WTDC.
- Public-private partnerships were at the forefront of the conference’s Partner2Connect Digital Development Roundtable; since its launch, the Coalition has to date mobilized over 500 ground-breaking pledges.
- Adopting the Kigali Declaration, delegates underscored their collective commitment to universal and meaningful connectivity and approved new Regional Initiatives. Also agreed were various new ITU-D resolutions and new sets of Questions to be investigated by the two ITU Study Groups focused on development issues.
Newly adopted resolutions aim to:
- Ensure every school is connected to the Internet through the joint ITU-UNICEF Giga initiative (Resolution on Connecting every school to the Internet and every young person to information and communication technology services)
- Confirm the Partner2Connect Digital Coalition as the primary platform to foster new partnerships around meaningful connectivity and digital transformation globally, focusing on the hardest-to-connect communities (Resolution on The ITU Partner to Connect Digital Coalition (P2C))
- Drive efforts to advance digital transformation for sustainable development, recognizing the enormous potential that ICTs have to create positive, meaningful and lasting change (Resolution on digital transformation for sustainable development)
- Create a thriving environment for entrepreneurship and digital innovation ecosystems to help accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (Resolution on fostering telecommunications/ICT-centric entrepreneurship and digital innovation ecosystems for sustainable digital development)
