Partner2Connect Web Dialogue on Focus Area 2
ADOPTION: Empowering communities
[Launch of Partner2Connect Pledging Platform
& Focus Areas Action Framework]
Welcome remarks
Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Director, ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau
16 March 2022
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening, everyone.
It gives me enormous pleasure to join you today for the launch of the next key building blocks in our ground-breaking Partner2Connect Digital Coalition, happening on the eve of the UN LDC5 part 1 event.
Partner2Connect is a global, leadership-level multistakeholder effort, constructed in close cooperation with the Office of the Secretary-General's Envoy on Technology, and in line with the UN Secretary General's Roadmap for Digital Cooperation.
Why do we need this new initiative?
We need it because recent history has shown us just how catastrophic it is to be unconnected, or digitally excluded!
Right now, almost 3 billion people are still without any kind of connection.
And many, many more struggle with connectivity so rudimentary or costly that it adds very little value to their day-to-day lives.
With 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and targets fast approaching it's clear that business-as-usual strategies to connect the world will not cut it.
We need to be bold, creative, and to put in place new kinds of hybrid partnerships between traditional and new players so that everyone, everywhere, can enjoy equitable, affordable access to life-changing digital platforms and services.
Partner2Connect has four main Focus Areas:
- ACCESS: Connecting people everywhere
- ADOPTION: Empowering communities
- VALUE CREATION: Building digital ecosystems; and
- ACCELERATE: Incentivizing investments
These areas address the core elements vital to nurturing thriving digital markets, and will frame all of our P2C actions.
Today, we're launching two critical new elements of the Partner2Connect vision.
The first element is the P2C Focus Areas Action Framework, which will serve as the guiding document for the Coalition.
This Framework has been developed by our dedicated P2C Working Groups and Focus Area Leaders, with the expert support of P2C's Knowledge Partner, the Boston Consulting Group.
The second element is our all-important Partner2Connect Pledging Platform.
We will use this platform to mobilize connectivity commitments from global, regional, and national partners.
The action framework and pledging platform directly respond to the call for accelerated action around digital development in the Secretary-General's Roadmap for Digital Cooperation. It also reflects in a very timely manner the many 'calls to action' around digital issues that we see in the draft Doha Programme of Action for the LDCs, which will be tabled for endorsement tomorrow.
I'll leave it at that David and hand back to you for an in-depth presentation of our Focus Areas Framework, as well as announcements on important incoming early pledges from some of our Coalition Leaders.
