 Greetings from the Commonwealth of Learning, or CALL. CALL is an intergovernmental organization established by Commonwealth heads of government when they met in Vancouver in 1987. We are very privileged to be in beautiful British Columbia and thank our hosts, the Government of Canada, for making this possible. What does CALL do? Our mission is to help Commonwealth Member States and institutions to harness the potential of distance education and technologies for expanding access to education and training. I was happy to learn that you have chosen to focus on gender equality and youth in the Commonwealth, two themes that are very close to CALL's heart. We have a very young Commonwealth where 60% of the population is under the age of 30. And when I think of young people like you, technology and learning come to mind. Two keys that could open many other doors. Technology and knowledge are multiplying at a rapid pace, even in developing countries. The number of mobile subscriptions worldwide is approaching the number of people on Earth, which is almost 7 billion. Studies estimate that mobile penetration has reached 90% in developing countries. Internet usage has also increased and 40% of the world's population is now connected. Two-thirds of them are from the developing countries. As heads of government and foreign ministers, I know you will be making important recommendations in your communique on how to improve the situation of young people in the Commonwealth. Let me share with you three examples of CALL's work that might trigger off ideas that could help shape those recommendations. First, the low-cost and high ownership of mobile phones has provided CALL with an opportunity to engage many young people, especially women, in rural areas. Through CALL's lifelong learning for farmers program, rural women have used their basic mobile phones to learn and to access opportunities for livelihoods. Here is Valar Mati from India. She could not complete primary school, but learned the intricacies of financial management and goat husbandry using her mobile phone and she learned in her own language. Today, she is a business correspondent for a major commercial bank and makes enough money to support herself and to send her children to school. Second, CALL's APTIS or the Classroom Without Walls is a technology innovation that is reaching the unreached. It uses solar power and a wireless router, so you don't really need connectivity and yet it provides teachers and students access to good quality digital materials such as Wikipedia for schools and a whole library of free books and videos. This low-cost device has provided valuable learning opportunities to young people in rural areas without any internet access. In the aftermath of Cyclone PAM, which as you know devastated many Pacific islands, the Ministry of Education deployed APTIS to ensure that young people could continue to learn even when their schools were closed. Third, CALL has employed appropriate technologies to help youth develop technical and vocational skills. One partnership in Kenya led to the development of a construction and building course meant for young people. This is Eunice Maganga who was a participant of this course. She wanted to be a construction worker like her father and because of this training was able to contribute to her family income and pay for her college fees for further training. I hope these examples have demonstrated the ways in which the creative use of appropriate technologies can create learning opportunities for young people, particularly women and girls. More than ever before, youth in the Commonwealth will need to continue to learn, unlearn and relearn many different things during the course of their lives. You will need to be lifelong learners if you are to contribute to the sustainable development of your society. During your deliberations today, please consider the value that learning and technology can have for empowering women and youth in the Commonwealth. So your Excellencies, Commonwealth Heads of Government and Honorable Foreign Ministers, thank you for listening and good luck with your deliberations.