 As a participant, you're free to use the chat during the session. For any comments you may have questions addressed to speakers should be inserted in the Q&A function. And if time allows, we will be addressing some of these questions. You can upvote a question by clicking the thumbs up icon next to a question and Zoom will automatically sort them by the number of upvotes so they become more relevant. During the session, we provide captioning services that you can activate by clicking on close caption in the bottom bar of the Zoom interface. No, actually it says interpretation in my, but then I just updated to the latest Zoom. So far right on the bottom bar of the Zoom interface you should see a chance to get interpretation now in Arabic, English, French, Russian, Chinese and Spanish and international sign language. So to listen to the available interpretation channels, I'm sorry I said the wrong thing, but anyway, because I was talking about the captioning before sorry, interpretation in the bottom bar of the Zoom interface select the language you want to hear. If you want to hear the original audio just select off. Off means you're just listening to the floor. Participants in the language channel will hear the translated audio and also the original audio at a lower volume to hear only the interpreted language click mute original audio. Now let me introduce our superb group of panelists today. So I will start with our host Doreen Bogdan-Martin who's director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau. Thank you so much Doreen for everything. Next we have Ms. Yolanda Cuba of MTN group. She's vice president for the Southern and East African markets for MTN. Next we have Ms. Rula Ghani, the first lady of Afghanistan. We're very honored to have you here and we're not gonna call you your excellency, I promise. Then we have Ms. Lady Mariam Jam who is an entrepreneur and activist, founder and CEO of IM The Code, pioneer in system change, a technologist and SDG goalkeeper, member of the Generation Connect Visionaries Board. So a very active person. We're very much looking forward to hearing you. Thanks so much for being here. Now, is the minister here? I'm not sure she is, but we are expected. Oh yes, great. I see you, thank you so much. Ms. Ursula Osu Ekufulu is the minister of communications and digitalization for the Republic of Ghana. Thank you so much for being here. Very important to have you. Look forward to your intervention. Next we have Dr. RS Sharma who is the former chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. Mr. Steven Spengler, the ESOA chairman and CEO of Intel SAT, our satellite guru. Then we have our space guru, Mr. Badri Yunus who's deputy associate administrator for space communications and navigation at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration known as NASA here in the United States. They've been very busy lately. And then we have three really great young people who are here to participate, members of the ITU Generation Connect, Mr. Ali Altobani who's a young leader from Bahrain, Mr. Francis Xavier Inyangot from Uganda and Ms. Sofia Val who is from Brazil. So welcome to our young leaders as well. Now finally, we have Jim Rogers. Jim is a graphic designer and illustrator who has participated in all of these road to Addis events and he will be doing a visual representation of these conversations in real time. And we will go to him at the end and see the drawing he has done as we've had this conversation. You'll be impressed and amazed. So let's get started here. Oops, sorry, my logistics are a little clumsy. A lot to keep track of here because there's so many great speakers. But let me introduce Danala Oladapo who is ITU's Generation Connect Engagement Manager. Take it away, Danala. I'm so happy to be working with you again. Thank you so much, David. This is gonna be such an exciting event and I'm sure everyone's gonna have questions and comments. So please feel free to tweet using the hashtags ITWTDC hashtag wrote to Addis and if you're part of the Generation Connect community then use Generation Connect hashtag. I'm just typing it out in the chat right now. It'll be great to sort of hear your comments and any questions you have for any of the speakers. I'll also try to keep an eye on the chat to make sure we may have some time during the program to ask the speakers directly some of your questions or to share some of your comments. Back to you, David. Oh, okay. I think I jumped a gun and we missed our video so let's play the video now. What is leadership? What are great leaders made of? Throughout history, great leaders have succeeded at setting direction and mobilizing people towards a shared vision. Great leaders are able to recognize the differences in those they lead and inspire them to be better than they think they can be. But ultimately, leadership is about people, about human connection, about trust, and above all, about service. What kind of leadership is needed to connect the unconnected? Lead by example, lead to transform, lead to dream, lead to empower, lead to inspire, lead to connect. Well, that's a good, actually well-timed lead-in for my introduction of Doreen for her opening remarks. So Doreen, please take it away. Thank you so much, David. And I just, I love that video. So good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, everyone, and welcome to our lead to connect, redefining leadership and its role in connecting the unconnected, which is our next stop on the road to Addis. Looking back through history, great leadership has emerged to address oppressing social need. Leaders have often had a defining quality in common, the ability to identify a problem and mobilize communities to work with them in creating solutions. We again find ourselves at the cusp of such a situation. Digital connectivity has become an unquestionable prerequisite for fully fledged participation in economies and societies, yet 3.7 billion people are left without this vital resource. In our journey towards a landmark WTBC, we have identified leadership as a key component in our efforts to bring this vital resource to the reach of everyone everywhere. We look towards leaders from all walks of life to provide the vision and the guidance that will mobilize global will and direct action towards achieving meaningful universal connectivity. Leaders represent the will of the people. So my question and indeed my challenge to all of you today is how can effective leadership bring us closer and faster to our collective vision of a connected and sustainable planet that presents equal opportunities for all? In this session, part of ITU's Global Symposium for Regulators 2021, we will discuss what constitutes a great leader and what skills might be required from tomorrow's leaders. A good starting point would be the UN Secretary General's second oath of office that he took last week when he promised to inspire hope that we can turn things around that the impossible might be possible. The attitude is never to give up. We will certainly need to channel that never give up attitude as we strive to connect the unconnected. And as the director of the ITU's Telecommunications Development Bureau, I am committed to leading change and to joining forces with other leaders. Now, like many of you, I'm very excited to get inspired by the exemplary and demonstrated leadership qualities of our distinguished and amazing guests and panelists. With that, I wanna thank you all for being here and back to you, David, thank you. Thank you, Doreen. Yes, I think we're gonna be impressed today. So now we're going to hear from some of our speakers one at a time. Let me start with Ms. Rula Ghani, the first lady of Afghanistan. Thank you again so much for being here. As the first lady of Afghanistan, you've helped redefine the role and status of women in your country and beyond by advocating for women's rights, for internally displaced people, for equality and for peace. Thank you for that. So in the course of all that and in your life, which leader from the past or the present has inspired you and tell us a little bit about why? First, I would like to thank you to include me in this group of high-level specialists of telecommunications. I might look at first long as first glance like the odd person, a grandmother who does not know much about the state of the art communication technology. Still, communication is my daily bread and butter. And as I complete my seventh year as first lady, I may have some insight to share. And I certainly look forward to learn considerably from the rest of the panelists. You asked me what inspires me in my activities and my initiatives. No one in particular and everyone. As a journalist in my youth, I sought to understand the world around me. I love to figure out the mechanisms that influence and govern the society. For me, every person has something to offer and every situation is an opportunity to learn. When I started my mandate of first lady, the country was still reeling from four decades of violence and insecurity. The very fabric of society had been torn away and those who suffered most were the women. I saw my task that of encouraging the rebuilding of the community. In this post-conflict phase, I started talking about pre-conflict Afghanistan, about the harmonious society where differences between urban and rural, between rich and poor were not a reason for discrimination, where oral culture bridged the gap between illiterate and scholars and where women were respected and had their role to play. Basically, my goal was that everybody reconnect with everybody else and acknowledge that they are all part of the same community that they all belong in Afghanistan. The new tools of communications played an important role in re-establishing this connectivity. Despite the rugged mountainous terrain of the country, cell phones quickly became ubiquitous and the SMS feature, very inexpensive, fostered regular communication with those family members who worked or lived abroad. Desktop, laptops, and tablets only made their way as access to electricity increased, but the most valuable tool of connectivity has proven to be the smartphone, a small computer that fits in your hand that can be charged whenever there is power and that opens up a world of information at your fingertips and that features some very helpful applications such as WhatsApp. Whenever I host an event big or small, we always end up creating a WhatsApp group so that all the participants can remain in touch and create their own community. Another advantage of connectivity, especially for traditional women who are constrained to stay at home is that it allows them to interact with the outside world and engage in gainful employment without leaving home. It makes them feel that they too have their place in society. With the forthcoming launch of government digital services, it is imperative that all of women acquire digital skills. They cannot, it should not be left out. As we speak, a small group of women, IT specialists are working on a program that would address this issue. And I cheer you on. This is what nation-building is all about. And digital development can become one important tool in our development inbox. Thank you. Thank you so much. And in fact, we're, the speakers today are using a WhatsApp group. So don't know what you're talking, we definitely know what you're talking about. And I couldn't agree more. Mr. Yunus, early this year, NASA smoothly landed another rover on Mars, really impressive. And more recently, China also has landed a rover on the red planet, pretty incredible. So projects of this kind are making science fiction a reality, but they're also so complex and demand enormous coordination, preparation, and really the execution is challenging. So it's a clear example of also international group leadership because you have so many participants in this and leading very vast teams. So what kind of leadership style have you learned is necessary for creating success with such high performing disperse teams as those at NASA? And maybe what can we learn from that as we work to connect the world? Thank you, David. First, let me thank you for inviting me to be on your panel. It's so great and so humbling to be in the presence of such an esteemed panel. So thank you for the opportunity. And as far as your question is concerned, we at NASA are definitely very proud of all of the dedicated personnel that brings their best to the workplace every single day, not only for the projects that make news headlines, but also many, many others that have lower profile and don't generate as much press. You have rightly noted the complexities in planning, designing, launching and operating there in exploration missions to the lunar region and other part of our solar system, in particular to Mars. Mission such as perseverance, curiosity and many, many other, you know, orbiters and rovers. All of these missions have demonstrated that when challenged human beings are capable of accomplishing the unimaginable. Provided that they are guided by a visionary leadership that inspires dedicated teams of experts to dare to dream and to believe that they can make their dreams a reality. That's what we do at NASA. And to paraphrase former US President John F. Kennedy's words from 1962, we choose to return human beings to the moon and continue our exploration of our galaxy, not because these activities are easy, but because they are hard and because the goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills. These endeavors simply are not possible without a leadership style that's capable of inspiring and maintaining the focus of numerous teams responsible for the different aspect of any space missions including communication navigations that's talking about connectivity and connecting the unconnected. Without common nav, all you have are expensive pieces of junk in space. We also need the spacecraft propulsion and control and the data analysis. At NASA, we strive to cultivate leaders who dare to dream big and to articulate a clear imaginative vision, take measured risks and promote a collaborative teamwork. The environment that unleashes their team's expertise be that technical or otherwise and creative skills to achieve that near impossible as we continue to be at the forefront of space exploration on behalf of the country, on behalf of humanity, working very closely with other nations and other space agencies. Our goal is to serve humanity. Thank you. Thank you so much. Minister Ousos Ekuful, we're gathered today to talk about leadership and how lessons from inspiring leaders like yourself can be applied for connecting the unconnected. So drawing on what's been happening in Ghana and your accomplishments as a leader, what has been your approach as a leader to achieve digital transformation in Ghana? Thank you very much. And it's a pleasure to be with you on this very important occasion. For us, we found that as the cliche goes, leadership is everything and cause is effect. Leadership is cause and everything else is effect. And so without providing the right kind of leadership, you're not going to get much done. And you need to involve everyone else also in the decision-making process. And so you take the bold decision based on a multi-stakeholder leadership approach to the digital economy governance, involving full and active participation by governmental agencies, the private sector, civil society, the technical community, international organizations and all stakeholders. Because the ultimate objective is to get everyone to own the process and to be part of the development of whatever initiative it is. So my approach has been to steer innovation, guide towards achievement, drive change and deliver results and steering innovation. We identified a key challenge with lack of connectivity and whole populations, particularly the rural populations inadequate homegrown technology solutions and lack of digital skills as a challenge. And so pulling governmental agencies, mobile network operators and a telecoms equipment vendor together. We developed a rural connectivity solution that takes advantage of 800 megahertz spectrum to backhaul UMTS up to low-scutter populations and rural communities with a range of about 25 kilometers. And at least costs. And so the solution was successfully piloted in about 300 sites and we're currently rolling it up to cover 20% of the unconnected population in 2016 sites to save about 8,000 unsaved communities close to 4 million population with both voice and data connectivity as their excellency indicated. Digital technology is indispensable now to development and we must provide for inclusivity. And so we've developed this solution and then we're also focused on providing digital skills through innovation to support startups as a driver of economic competitiveness and growth in modern economies. Expecting that all startups will lead to the formation of new firms that focus on the development and introduction of new technology. These technology-based firms then transfer new knowledge on new ideas for products and processes into commercial applications. We're not reinventing the wheel. And so we learn from others experiences and customize it to our own needs and work with it. We're also pushing government to use its purchasing power to support these startups and applications as the largest consumer of goods and services. And so we've worked with our national ID is a local homegrown product. Our digital address system is a local homegrown product as well. We're also focused on gender inclusion. And I say I make no apologies for that because I'm biased in favor of providing digital skills to women and girls. So we've taken the ITU girls in ICT day to another level. And instead of having one event, we have three or four in various communities and have introduced mentorship because we have to lead by example as well and show the young girls that it is doable and the women working in technology in their daily lives. And so they can also aspire to be like them. And we've received tremendous feedback about how beneficial it has been in shaping the career choices of the young nine to 16 year olds that we work with. And they also believe that it's not just the man's world but they can engage with technology and also be part of the fourth industrial revolution. And so on digital skills as well, our tagline is that we will leave no one behind and we're working in collaboration with the ITU, Cisco, NORAD, the Norwegian Development Corporation to run the digital literacy skills program to train up to above 14,000 Ghanaians, a third of whom are women with basic intermediary and advanced literary skills. Tag-edited women entrepreneurs such as hairdressers, dressmakers, artisans, master trainers of coding, clubs, technology, innovation developers and IT security personnel. And some as leadership nations, communities and organizations, the kind of leadership needed to enable this transformation is one that invest in upscaling, supporting and motivating in the face of steep learning curves and highly cognitively demanding challenges. Thank you. Thank you so much. Ghana's progress in recent years has really been impressive. So congratulations on that. Dr. Sharma, when you led the telecom regulatory authority of India, you focused heavily on orderly growth and consumer protection in telecom and broadcasting. You've also held a lot of other important leadership roles, including helping establish the world's largest identity system and currently managing the national digital health mission in your country, which I'm sure is extremely demanding right now. So what has been the most important leadership lesson you have learned in all that? Thank you, David, for inviting me to speak. And before I begin, I would like to thank ITU and WTDC team for hosting me. And I look forward to this discussion with distinguished panelists and young leaders from ITU. Now, the most important lessons which I've learned through my career in the government, one is that you should navigate through uncertainty and have the courage of your customers. We, you know, one example from Aadhaar, the digital identity system in India, we set out to create Aadhaar, a unique digital identity for 1.2 billion people of our country. The objective seemed impossible. Nobody had attempted it on the planet. Biometrics were never used for anything other than forensics and crime detection. We crossed all hurdles which are natural in the largest democracy in the world. Today, Aadhaar, or this digital identity, has become central to the public service delivery in India and has contributed immensely to the empowerment of the people by providing them a digital and verifiable identity, which is being used in myriad ways from delivery of food grains to mobile sims in a paperless way. We have increased financial inclusion to 82%. And that means 82% of the adults in this country have a bank account from 17% a few years back. And that has been possible through the use of this digital identity. Multiple artifacts and services like authentication, which are 56 billion authentications have been done thus far. And electronic KYC, which is 900 billion, which is a paperless KYC, and digital consent artifact. The second lesson which I've learned from the again the same project is that you have to find your own path. In technology, you should find your own path and not go as per the path traveled by others. We can leapfrog in many ways in digital technology space. As we have fewer legacy systems, Adhar was created as a foundational digital identity. The first identity without eligibility in the world and as the number and not at the card. This enabled us to create a frugal, robust online and anytime anywhere authenticable artifact. Now from the telecom space, I have to share with all my friends here is that think of people first with the buying of the industry and the intent of the government, mountains can be moved. Before I joined the telecom industry as the regulator, wireless internet connections stood at 70 million and a cost of one GB of data was US dollar four in 2014. By empowering industry to innovate and disrupt through technology. Today we have seen a 10-fold jump in the wireless internet connections to 740 million and a cost of one GB of data is down by 95%, which is just 20 cents per GB per user and per user consumption of wireless data is highest in India. More recently, we have created a digital platform for monitoring COVID vaccination in our country. We call this platform as COVID, win over COVID through intelligence. This platform enables people to book appointments for vaccinations and provides a vaccination certificate which is digitally verified. We have vaccinated about 280 million people thus far. Yesterday, actually we clocked 88.4 million vaccinations in a single day. Today also our, you know, vaccination has reached already 5 million. It provides a real time dashboard of all the, you know, vaccinations being done in the country in an online manner. So this is essential and this has provided transparency, convenience and of course a very systematic way of organizing vaccination. So these are some of the lessons which I would like to share with my friends here which actually have enabled people to utilize the digital connectivity which is as Doreen pointed out is extremely, extremely important. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Hugely impressive. Steven, you have a wealth of experience not only in telecommunications and satellite but also in the media broadband government and internet sectors. You've led teams that drive innovation, business development and strategy. So describe your own leadership style and what do you think has made you successful? Well, thank you, David. And of course, thank you to the ITU for allowing me to participate in this, you know, very important discussion today. I think there are two parts to your question. One is a personal leadership style and then also, you know, what does it take to be successful as a leader? And you know, in thinking about this and reflecting on my own style I thought about connection and connecting to people and how important that is. And when you're leading a team in an organization connecting, listening, encouraging and powering, being as transparent as possible is the best way to bring a group and a team and people forward in the same direction. So that's an underlying style that I think I've tried to emulate over the years but of course it's developing always. But in terms of success as a leader I think there are three things and there's one thing has already been very prominent in the video and that's showing the way, giving the vision, providing the purpose and mission in addition to the strategy for whatever you're trying to do. And I'll say this is incredibly important today for our younger leaders and younger employees that we have in the company. Young people want to be part of something important. They want to have a purpose, they want to have a mission and this is so important to enable them. The second part is bringing people together. Bringing teams of people, diverse teams including as many types of perspectives as possible really creates a powerful dynamic in an organization. People of different genders, ages, functional responsibilities, ethnic backgrounds. It is really important to solve problems to develop new ideas to see the future because these perspectives in the digital world are so critical. And the last thing I'd say is enabling, delegating, supporting the power of individuals and powers of teams really is maximized when you give them the ability to act and you empower them and let them move. Of course with empowerment comes accountability in decision-making, but it's that enablement in letting people go which really creates fantastic results in an organization or to advance a mission. Thanks so much, very, very pertinent point. Thank you. I should just mention we're running a little behind so be succinct as possible. Lady Mariam Zhang, you are a technologist, a CEO, an educator, an entrepreneur and a pioneer in system change. So excited that you're here. You've won all kinds of accolades for your work on innovation, advancement of the UN SDGs and you're writing a book. So you've also been a source of inspiration for many people especially women and young girls around the world. So as a leader, where do you find your own inspiration? And what motivates you? Well, David, I want to say thank you so much for having me. I'm a very proud member of the Generation Connect visionary board. So I thank ITU for allowing me to sit on the board. Well, to answer your question I think my heart is full of gratitude just by being on this panel with amazing people that I've been looking up to for very, very long time especially with Dorian and her leadership it's really fascinating what we see at the ITU. I think I stand here as a testimony to the fact that being born poor, being uneducated, marginalized neglected and trafficked as a young girl doesn't need to be a barrier for a purposeful life and learning how to code seven coding languages in two years in my local library in Surrey in Guilford but I become a lady recently. It's really fascinating story. And I think that's what drive changed for me that the possibility for a young woman like me born in Senegal in 1970s to end up in the UK being on the panel with you all. It's really a story that I think every young girl growing up across the world should have the opportunity to do so. I think what drive changed for me is I'm very impatient and I think the wait is too long and that's why I create I am the code which is the first African movement aiming to teach one million women and girls to learn how to code by the year 2030 because I learned how to code seven coding languages in my local library. I was taking the bus every single day to go to local library. I didn't have Cambridge degrees. I didn't have Oxford degrees. I didn't have the big degrees and the big education the world leaders have. But one thing I had is that I was impatient for change. I wanted to make sure that as I grow up as a woman as I get my influence and my seat on this world I wanna make sure that we create change systems. That's why I'm very proud today to work in Afghanistan in 69 countries where we are the first African organization to go and teach young women in China, in Japan, in Brazil, all across the world how to learn how to code. Coding is a feature and connectivity is a human right. When a young woman today sitting down in the council estate of Britain or sitting down in a Madari slum in Kenya or refugee camp in Kakuma in Kenya that have connectivity, we're always in our time. So if we are going to get the leaders of tomorrow who will be joining you on Zoom we need to make sure we give them connectivity. We must not wait anymore for people to beg for connectivity. We must give them connectivity like if they were drinking water. So that's what I'm calling for ITU. So thank you so much for having me but what I've changed is I'm very impatient. That comes through and I love your energy and I love connectivity like drinking water that is the right way to think of it. Thank you so much. Okay, Yolanda Cuba, follow that but I think you can. You've had a hugely admirable career you're one of the key young business leaders in Africa one of the most important business women in your part of the world for 20 years, an executive in telecom and finance and you recently gained one of the top positions in your organization. You've called yourself a hands-on leader an avid learner and a fearless decision maker. So I buy all that but surely you've made mistakes. So what are some mistakes you've made that young people could learn from? Yeah, firstly, thank you for having me on this panel. I think I'm acquiring everyone around just the quality and the content that is being actually shared here and thanks to we for making sure that we're having this. I guess, I mean, when one looks at mistakes I mean, you don't actually select and reflect a lot about what mistakes should people be avoiding. However, one of the things that I did do is that at the beginning of my career at 23, 24 I actually dreamt too small, you know listening to Lady Jamie now, you know that's the one thing that actually changes the trajectory of your life. If you start off dreaming too small that even when you achieve your goals it doesn't feel like you stretch enough you've arrived at where you supposed to be. So the first thing I would tell anybody is dream unapologetically big, right? It is up to other people it's other people's luxury to criticize how big you're thinking about yourself the kind of vision you have for yourself it is not a privilege that you have. So from that perspective, if we start with that in mind saying I can dream anything and I can define how far I wanna get to then you actually are gonna be able to change the world. So in other words, me it's everyone must sit there and say I refuse to be denied my right to dream. And in addition to that just add a little bit of competence to it add a little bit of consistency to it add a little bit of real dedication to what you're doing and then say, how do I add a dash of impatience to it? And then you will get to where you wanna get to. So that's the first thing I would say. The second thing I would say is about the midway through my career I did make a choice that was not congruent with my purpose. And I struggled when I was in that company I was super successful in that company. However, when your purpose and what you are doing in your work environment are not congruent no matter how much money you get no matter how many praises you get how many promotions you get you will never be happy. And that's the one thing I would say to everyone is be clear on what your purpose is sit back, take the time, the homework time to actually understand yourself and say I would only work in environments where I can truly, truly bring the best out of myself every single day. And it will actually enhance my own purpose because through that you just don't actually achieve what you wanna achieve for yourself but actually it helps accelerate the vision for everyone else around you. Again, listening to everyone that spoke here the passion that came through is because you can see the different congruence between what they do and their own personal purpose. So for me to be truly outstanding you actually have to be congruent with your purpose. That's the advice I would give. Those are the two. Wonderful, thank you so much. Really great bunch of comments and we'll hear from all of our speakers again in a minute. Before that we're gonna have a quick poll so let's get the poll questions up on the screen. First question we'd like all of you to respond to is what leadership style do you consider most effective to achieve and then here's a I think easy one, maybe not. Are you satisfied with current leaders around the world? Do you think the world is moving towards a more cooperative or individual type of leadership individualistic? And what do you think the role, how important is leadership in connecting the unconnected? So if you'd quickly answer those questions we'll see how you respond. Get a little temperature check on the hundreds and hundreds of people who are out there right now. Very exciting how many people are here. So just give you a second for that. Number one. Yeah. And then a satisfied channel. Do you think that the world is moving towards a more? Okay. Do we have any results yet? Usually the moderator doesn't get to answer the questions but I was able to do today. So I did. I am just so amazed at the bunch of people we have here today. All right. Okay. The leadership style that you, this group of several hundred people considers most effective when trying to achieve a seemingly impossible challenge is a cooperative leadership style. That is gratifying to see. Although some of the other answers certainly empathetic is a good one. So I'm glad that scored highly and strategic was came in at number two. Are you satisfied with current leaders? No, I didn't think you would be. We need better leadership. That's why we're doing this today. So, okay. We're all, we're mostly in agreement on that 86%. Do you think the world is working? Okay. This is interesting. Exactly split on what kind of leadership style the world is moving towards. I think that's probably a fair response. Hate to say it. I wish I could say that the answer was more cooperative but that isn't really the case. So being honest, we've come up with a good answer there. On a scale of one to five, how important is the role of leadership for connecting the unconnected? 85% said it was very or the most important thing in making it happen. So there you go. Good for you. I think we did well on that. Now we've got a round of really exciting interactions between our young leaders from the Generation Connect community and our more veteran seasoned leaders. So I'm going to go straight to our first young leader Sophia Val of Brazil. Sophia, you're an international relations graduate. You're passionate about finding solutions and innovations in politics which positively impact society. I'm sure you too are unhappy that we don't have more cooperative leadership in the world. You're also a technology enthusiast and an active supporter of women and girls in tech. So what message do you want to send to people of your generation for leveraging tech to bridge the gender and the digital divide? Thank you, David. First of all, I want to say that is an honor to be able to participate in this event with so many inspired people. I love hearing all of you, especially for me to be a young good woman. So I think the main message I wanted to leave for the young people of my generation who like me are looking for social change is that we must be political active. So technology is a tool that can be amazing for us to expand popular participation and give voice to people, so especially marginalized groups. But in order for us to overcome gender, digital or any other divide, we as young people need to mobilize and engage in politics, which I think that now you're striving to do that as the path to change. So I believe that through technology, this horizon is getting closer and closer. So that's my message to all the young people. Sophia, thank you so much. Ms. Ghani, so you've contributed a lot to women's and girls empowerment using ICTs. You talked about this before, championing programs that target STEM education. So how do you think technology can accomplish what would otherwise be impossible and break the gender digital divide, not only in Afghanistan, but across the world? Well, one thing for sure is that knowledge is power. And this is something people need to know. And knowledge can be acquired through technology, through all the various platforms that exist. And it really empowers people. You see now in education, there is no need to learn too much to memorize so many things. What is needed is to know how to use the knowledge that is there in the internet and in other places. So what I would say to young people, I mean, there is a slogan I used to have a magnet on my fridge that said, this is your world. Shape it for someone else will. So if you really want your world to be something, if you have a very definite idea how you want it to be, you need to work for it. Thank you so much. Ali El Tablani, welcome. You're currently studying finance at the American University of Bahrain, where you also are vice president of university's student council. You're passionate about global development and digital inclusion. You've led many teams in various competitions and events. So how do you, despite your youth, lead and inspire others in your generation to accomplish what would otherwise be impossible? Thank you, David. It's an absolute pleasure to be here among all the influential leaders. See, inspiration is an exciting and energizing human sensation. To be an inspiration to others, to mentally motivate others to feel or do something requires you to be visibly and emotionally engaged with what you're doing. Sometimes that can feel very scary. What if other people don't think I'm serious enough or professional enough? In fact, leadership through inspiration demonstrates great confidence and a high level of courage and commitment to getting things done and getting them done really well. And that's what I aspire to do on a daily basis. If you are truly inspired, if you really believe in your vision, it will come across as genuine and heartfelt and it will make a difference. And that makes me the leader I am. See, inspiration is a powerful thing. It opens doors to possible options that might not be visible unless everyone on the team is inspired to think creatively and outside the box. So it comes down to you being able to find that confidence, that courage and commitments and trust me, every individual has that in them. Just got to want it bad enough to find it. As a leader, you may think of gaining followers, but that is not what you wanna do. You need to aim to create more leaders, project your value and greatness onto others. Yes, they will rise, but you will even higher in their eyes and that is how you lead to inspire. Thank you, David. Wow, thank you, Badri. Okay, I want you to respond to that and tell us what lessons on group leadership, team effort and resilience you've taken from the Perseverance project that you've been involved in and how do you think about inspiring young people? Thank you, David and Ali, this is a good perspective. Definitely, inspiring others is a critical role of any leader. Leaders, in order to inspire others, they have to have a great vision and they need to be able to communicate that vision. So from my perspective, the most valuable lessons are shared vision and effective teamwork. The Perseverance did not just come out of nowhere, it builds on a history of accomplishment and plenty of lessons learned. Throughout all of these things at NASA, our leaders have learned to provide a forward-looking vision and inspire others to adopt their vision or that vision as their own. At NASA, we believe in the power of coherent teams and the capability and the knowledge of the many very often outweigh the knowledge and the capability of the one. Leaders, especially what we do here at NASA, we need to foster diversity and we empower and reward team members to be creative and innovative in exploring new options and solutions. Our leaders need to encourage their team to work together and to believe that they are all in it together. They all succeed or fail together. Leaders need to establish an atmosphere of mutual respect, trust and cross communications. Coherent teams with the right level of diversity and expertise are so critical to any mission success. Most of all, leaders need to inspire team members to explore the boundaries of their imagination and to believe that their imagination has no limit and that they can realize anything they can imagine. They need to dare to dream and work on making their dreams a reality. You all, especially the young folks, you have to believe that you can accomplish anything you set out to accomplish if you are true to yourself and you follow your passion. Most of all, you need to know the person residing within, your weakness, your strengths. You need to work on resolving your weakness and on exploiting your strengths. Never be afraid to ask for help. Seek knowledge from those who know can only increase your knowledge and capability. You have to believe in yourself. Actually, I believe in you. I believe in this internet generation. You have to challenge yourself to take on the most difficult task early on in life. Because especially in college, if you do that, you'll have it easy for the rest of your life with the hardest problem becoming much easier to resolve. You've seen it, you've been there. However, if you decide to take on, to take it easy early on in life, then later on, after college, during your professional life, even the smallest problem can become extremely challenging to resolve. As I said earlier, I believe in this internet generation, you can acquire knowledge so very easily. The knowledge is at the tip of your fingers. You just need to punch a number, Google something, and you get all of the information. When we were growing up, that was not possible. Every time we needed to learn something, we had to run to the library, go to the index card, look for a book to find out the book has been borrowed by someone else and we had to wait for a month or so. So many nights, we spent that sleepless night wondering about the answer to something because we couldn't get the reference to find the solution. You have it. You have so much knowledge and information available to you. All you need is to believe and to dream big and follow those dreams and make them a reality. That's what we do at NASA and that's what we've been doing for years and we will continue to do. However, people like us pretty soon will retire, pretty soon will be in the past. The future is yours to shape it the way you want to and we are counting on you and the entire next generation to take over where we left off and to continue the journey to explore the unknown. Thank you. Thank you, Badri, and it's so true. I'm of the same generation, I'm even older than you, I think, and it's amazing how long it used to take to figure out the most elementary things that today we can get an answer to in 30 seconds. It's incredible. Let's go to another inspiring member of the young generation, Francis Xavier, Indian God of Uganda. We're so happy to have you here today, Francis. So Africa is the world's youngest continent with almost 60% of its population under 25. Youth is a tremendous force of change in the region and we love that you're a part of that. You're a computer engineering student. You have a passion for digital tech and ICTs. You also have a passion for helping and empowering young entrepreneurs. So what concrete advice would you give to other who want to help transform Africa through technology? Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. As David introduced, my name is Francis Xavier. I'm working with young people and organizations empowering young people in technology and entrepreneurship. It's quite an experience and I enjoy what I do. And I talk about the challenging conventional wisdom about leadership in Africa in context of connectivity and digital entrepreneurship. But before we dive in, I want to salute the young and senior leaders with us and their respective capacities doing a very good job. 3.5 billion people under the age of 30 and it's the world. It's the biggest record the world has recorded. It's strangely true that Africa has the youngest population with 60 under 25 years. The importance of youth in helping to build our future society cannot be understated. Young leaders in ICT have played a very important role in fostering improved connectivity as well as socioeconomic development throughout the world, including sub-Saharan Africa. Young leaders must look into the future with optimism because the ICT sector is providing a lot of opportunity in the e-commerce, e-governance. Social media provides voices to those social groups and the most marginalized. Modern information and communication technologies can help process more efficient, quicker and cost-effective information. The advice I want to give to the young leaders in the world today is to empower entrepreneurs and use digital technologies. Youth in the digital innovation hubs to innovate, they should look to try new things. For the collaboration there in young leaders, you must be human. These are very important for nourishing and strengthening the long-term health of the ecosystem. System collaboration is also a very important thing for young leaders in Africa. Another thing that the youth in leadership should process is the digital skills. You should try and gain a lot of skills in digital entrepreneurship. Try and learn new technologies from the internet and also never fear to consage. I look forward to engaging with every young leader in the world today. Over the past three months, I have had one of the best experiences working with organizations trying to empower youth in digital innovation and entrepreneurship such as the MasterCard Foundation. Innovation and entrepreneurship, young Africans in the continent are rising to the challenge and creating local solutions for their committees. Young entrepreneurs are pivoting their businesses to respond to the challenges that have emerged as a result of the pandemic. This is what every young leader in Africa should look to do. Diverging technologies and digital tools to improve supply and distribution chains, support patients and families, and developing data management and forecasting technology is all what we need as young Africans. These are the skills that we should learn and these are the things we should look forward to to contribute towards the ecosystem of the technology in Africa. I'm very cognizant of the inequalities that may exist such as connectivity. There is also maybe lack of affordability, there is also a problem with affordability of internet in Africa, but this should not be the limiting factor to what we can accomplish. Let's look forward, let's try to dream big and let's use what we have, what our governments have provided us with the right to access the internet. As long as you're above 18, governments have always provided a policy that you can use the internet to learn and do everything you want to improve the world. I always have a passion to change the world with every resource I have at hand. I look forward to inspiring more young people in the world and in Africa especially with digital skills and through the initiative that I ran, blueprint digital services where we teach the young ones how to code and we give them the ability to be able to think innovatively outside the box and see how we can scale the ideas of the young people to cause a very, very sustainable impact in the world today. Thank you so much. I submit to you, David. Thank you, Francis. Lady Mariam Jean, continuing on our conversation, this portion about leading to transform, you like Francis share a passion for coding. You learned to code seven language, seven coding languages from your local library. Wow. You created the I am the code movement and you aim to transform the lives of one million women and girls globally by empowering them to use their talent to quote decode the problems of humanity. That's a great way to put it and you believe they can be drivers of change. So similarly to you, what is the advice you give to young girls and what will our advice will you continue giving them even as they learn to code and achieve some of the things you're working towards? Thank you so much. I'm so inspired with what Xavier just said. I know Uganda very well. I've been working there for quite a while now. So David, equality is a commitment. And I think for me, what really what I wanna say to young people, if I'm here today, talking to you all is because progress is possible. And I think as Nelson Mangala said, it's always impossible until it is done. I'm just a voice of a movement. In 2014, I went to Davos and I gave myself a clear commitment. I knew it was a big commitment and thank God, we had world leaders who believed in what I was saying. And I think sometime it just takes one person to believe in what you can do. I knew that in 2030, I'll be 56 years old and I'll be sitting down and standing at the United Nations and telling the whole world that I taught one million women and girls to learn how to code. But coding was not just the purpose. But what was the purpose? Also give them digital skills. Make sure they're answering the questions Africa has today. African is coders, African digital people who are extremely literate to actually build all the industries we have in the continent. It is so big that we can't, we have not even answered the questions yet. So I'm just participating. What I'm doing right now, David, is a service to humanity. I don't owe anything to the world. The world owes me. I suffered as a child. I came from a terrible childhood where I suffered and today I see the same thing with young women and girls growing up across the world. From Brazil, from fabulous to slums of Nigeria and Kenya. And I just ask myself as a human being as a woman today who's influential in the global world and I've got a position in the world where people are listening to what I'm saying. In 1970s, 1980s, if you ask me that I will be sitting down next to Tim Berners-Lee who invented the web, I will not believe that. If I'm gonna be sitting today next to all of you including Dorens who's hitting the ITU, I wouldn't believe it. So I think what we need to think about in this session today, transformation, text time. At the same time, when we include people in the conversation, give the voice of, give the voices. People need to be given the chances to do something. The United Kingdom gave me the chance to have safety, to have information in my brain, to go to my local library to learn how to code, to understand from Python to Java, how to build the application website. So I can code in my sleep. But how did that happen? It happens because someone gave me an environment. So what we need to do today is give people a chance, an environment, but also change the systems in our countries. Not just talk about it, but actually do something about it. So the best is yet to come for the world. But my hope for this session today is that people like Xavier in Uganda, so many young people growing up across the world, amazing ideas, amazing passion and drive. Just like myself who is now sitting down here today, talking to you, we need to make transformation, an imperative decision in our policies, whatever we're doing, risk killing people, giving people the skills they need. The world needs right now people who are skilled. We need women and girls and boys growing up all across the world. As of two days ago, the UNHCR mentioned that 82 million refugees across the world. How do you include those people in the global workforce? I don't know, David. I don't have the answer. But my participation as a woman in tech, as a woman of influence and talking to policymakers, government, private sector investors, I will tell them, please, equality is a commitment. Commit yourself, do something about this. Otherwise, in 2030, we will leave people behind. Thank you. Thank you. It's so perfect to have you here because you're such a great example of leadership. I'm feeling like following you myself right now. So Francis, going back to you, and by the way, we're running late. So everyone try to be a little bit more succinct, just for the record. So Francis, you at WISIS World Summit on the Information Society in the forum 2021, you talked about the use of ICTs for inclusive, resilient and sustainable societies and economies. Now, satellite technology is fundamental for providing information and services for global communications more important every day. So how do you think the satellite industry can help lead the change towards universal meaningful connectivity? Thanks so much, David. My name is Francis once again. In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, we've come to realize that connectivity is a very important factor for all of us, not only the youth, but everyone in the world. We need to stay connected so that we get feed of the information and everything that's transpiring in the world. Well, satellite communications are one of the emerging technologies. Though they have been there for quite a while, but in Africa, they present a very important function. One thing I am very cognizant of the satellite connectivity is that it can provide global latency in near real-time. Everybody can download and upload content at almost the same speed and almost the same bandwidth. This is the equality I talk about when I'm preaching about equity and equality in the digital age. Expanding access to the internet and the phone networks is what the satellite community is all expecting. Satellites enable people to get better and affordable access to the broadband internet. This is a prerequest for closing the digital divide. At present, many regions in Africa only have 2G network internet access, if at all. The rest of the world is talking about the 5G with rumors of the 6G already. Many people communicate mainly through text. Technically, capability for providing broadband from space has grown continuously since the launch of the first satellite. Therefore, in Africa, we are waiting excitedly for the satellite to cover, to expand its footprint across every region and connect every village. As I said in the previous speech I gave, that digital, there is a lot of inequality that comes along with connectivity, especially in Africa. But with the emergence of technologies like satellites, we have hope that emerging wireless technologies that satellites promise to connect the unconnected, one with fast connectivity, that is 40 times as fast as it is now. Connect more than 100 people, connect 100 times more people as it is now and use 90% less energy. We understand satellites operate on a technology of having an array of solar panels to power its operations in the orbit. This is the technology we need in Africa. We need to protect the world while also having the best connectivity while ensuring that we're protecting the environment as well. I thank the researchers who are operating the satellite technology. The head of our city, I'm glad Mr. Sivishenglad is here today, he's going to affirm to us that there is good news within the satellite industry that the cost of launching a satellite is dropping. This is all what we're going to celebrate. And as Africa, we believe that we contribute mainly to the 3.7 billion majority of people who are not connected. But today, as we have leaders, as we discuss a lot of potential in the connectivity and the leadership, we believe that Africa is going to reduce its statistics from 3.7 billion majority and have almost everyone connected within the next few years. I thank you and I submit. Thank you. Thank you, Francis. Thank you so much. Now continuing now, Steven, we want you to respond to that. You lead one of the world's largest satellite companies. And as Francis mentioned, this is an industry going through tremendous innovation and change. Costs are coming down, new entrants are coming in. We don't even need to name them because they're in the news every day. So how do you think the satellite industry is going to lead the way towards universal connectivity by 2030? I think Francis said it very well. Satellite really plays an essential role in bridging the digital divide in providing that global connectivity, ubiquitous connectivity that's so needed to really bring broadband everywhere. And satellite does things that other technologies can't and can't do effectively and cost effectively. And you're absolutely right. The innovation that's been going on in the sector has driven costs down. It has increased connectivity in terms of its power and the performance. We're going through dramatic change. But I do want to emphasize that satellite alone isn't the solution. The solution to broadband connectivity globally is a multi-technology solution. It has multiple players across the board. It is about public-private partnerships. It's a multi-stakeholder approach to solve these problems because as Francis noted, you have to have power. You have to have solar on the ground. You need local entrepreneurs to help facilitate the development and deployment of services in local communities in various parts of the world. So it's a very collaborative effort. Satellite plays a key enabling role in terms of making sure that the service is there at the right cost and right performance. And I'll say one last thing. And I think it's very important to what Francis said. Satellite is increasingly integrated with the global infrastructure. And that means that the future satellite services are going to be 5G based and that enables 5G to be delivered anywhere. That is the value of a satellite service's ubiquity. And so in time, we'll be able to make a significant jump from that 2G reality in many places today to 5G services everywhere. Thank you so much. Let me just make one comment. We are really running late. We have to wrap this session at the half hour, no matter what, just everyone please be aware of that. We've got a few more elements to continue with. We definitely don't wanna miss any of it, but please be succinct. So Ali, you're a young leader. How do you think young people, especially those listening to us right now can help lead the efforts for connecting the unconnected? And we'll follow you with Dr. Sharma, who will answer a similar question. First of all, we want you all to realize what you're capable of as the youth. You are all youth representatives of the world. And that's something special. Because I've said it before, and I will say it again, IT, ICT may be the future, but so is our youth. And you need to truly embrace that. You as the youth are our hope to a better future. And only through your determination and commitments, we can achieve success, a world that is truly connected. As a youth representative, I want you to find and unleash the leader in you. Communicate, contribute, engage, participate, start somewhere, take your first few steps, and I assure you they won't be your last. As Franklin Roosevelt said, we cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future. And that is what we aim to do here at the ITU. Generation connect, projects, initiatives, activities, you name it, each one makes a difference. So what are you waiting for? Remember, you're never too young to change the world. And as Mr. Bedri said earlier, we believe in you. Thank you, Ali. And I'm sitting here at 10 miles from Franklin Roosevelt's home in Hyde Park, Dr. Sharma. So what do you think is the role of young people in helping lead the efforts to connect the unconnected? Yeah, thank you, David. And I just want to second what Ali just now said, that youth is the future. You know, like Uganda, you know, like other countries in Africa, India is also a very, very young country. You know, 50% of our population is below 25. 65% of our population is below 35. So therefore, what is important for us is to ensure that the new digital technologies, they empower the youth. And they actually, youth in turn, empowers the society. They contribute to the society, connect to the society. That's very, very important. And actually, in India, we have realized that if you involve the youth, they can become hugely catalytic agents for the change. We have involved them in a number of projects. One is, we started what is called Wi-Fi Access Network, which means that we want to take connectivity to every doorstep in the country. And we are mobilizing the youth to actually become the change agent for providing that connectivity. We have the common service centers at 250,000 locations in our country. We have 600,000 villages in our country. And therefore, on every two and a half villages, there is a common service center. And this common service center is actually operated by a village-level entrepreneur, which is usually a young person and who provides digital services to the community. So he not only earns his livelihood, he also provides the necessary help for those who are digitally unconnected or digitally not enabled so much as others are. Therefore, to actually provide that kind of leadership, to provide motivation and to provide inspiration to those people, those young persons of our country is actually the way forward. And I'm sure technology today is a great, great, great achievement. And the stage at which it is, it is really able to do many things which we were not able to do. For example, we have undertaken what is called a national digital health vision, whereby we seek to deliver digital health services, health services in a digital manner using ICT. And there are multiple areas where we will actually digitally use technology. And as I said before, some of the developing countries actually have a tremendous advantage because we don't have to traverse the same path which the Western countries traversed. We can leap from, and actually because we have no legacy systems, we can begin on a clean slate. And that actually enables us to leap from. And what is important again from an international perspective is that that knowledge, which one country has the knowledge must be shared with all other friendly, all other countries in the world so that we do not end up reinventing the wheel, but actually continue giving this message of enabling the digital technologies to improve the lives of our fellow countrymen and our fellow citizens of the world. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Dr. Sharma. Sophia, you come from Brazil, which is a huge country, a huge country going through enormous changes. So what can other countries learn from Brazil, Brazil's own digital transformation journey in your experience, in your opinion? Thank you, David. Brazil is a country belong to a developing region with two face men, basic and structural problems related to internet access, mainly. So however, despite the existing challenges, Brazil is increasingly advanced in terms of innovation and technological transformation. So for example, in 2014, the Marcos Civil de Internet was approved, which is the law that regulates use of the internet in Brazil. And last year, the LGBT, that is the general data protection law inspired by the European Union's data protection law was passed, which was a huge step for us. And I believe that the main lesson that Brazil offered is to demonstrate the central role that the state has in stimulating digital transformation. And this involves a lot of institutional modernization, both in the process of regulation and the law creation, as well as encouraging development in innovation through business incentives. So one example is the creation of the legal framework on first startups sanctioned this year, which encourages the creation of startups companies focus on innovation. And in addition, big part two is that Brazil created digital government strategy for the period of 2020 to 2022, organized in goals and initiatives that guide the transformation of the government through digital technologies, which take job for public policies and servers of better quality, simpler, accessible to any time and place and lower costs for the citizen. So I believe that, like I said in beginning, even though Brazil still face problems related with connectivity and digital inclusion as many of the development regions, we now increasingly have a digital transformation strategy. And the most important strategy that should focus on inclusion and equality because we can talk about transformation without giving opportunities to everyone participate in this transformation. So yeah, that's it for me. Thank you so much, Sophia. Yolanda, your work for Africa is biggest operator, the largest mobile network in Africa. So how is MTN leading the way in digital transformation and what can we learn from the work you're doing in Africa for the rest of the world? Thanks, David, for that question. I mean, from an MTN perspective, I mean, we sit back at the beginning of this year actually and look back at what has COVID taught us and what are the changes that have been happening as in the digital space, in the telco space, in the IT and technology space. And one of the key outcomes from COVID is that it became very apparent and startling so that the outcomes of COVID, while it affects all of us equally, that the outcomes are so equitably distributed. The people with our connectivity are the ones that were not able to go on to online schooling, were not able to earn an income and so on and so on. And basically as a leadership team at MTN, we went back and said, what should we be doing? How do we reset ourselves? And in February this year we launched our ambition 2025 strategy and at the core of our ambition 2025 strategy is really it's around inclusion, innovation and responsibility. And in order to bring this a little bit to life, I will take two elements of our strategy that were actually previously not there or not well-attributed. The first one is around shared value and ESG at the core. Now we've actually been very clear and deliberate and saying actually one of our pillars is actually having ESG at the core of what we do. And that means designing products and actually accelerating products that are able to make a difference and also having a sense of responsibility to the environment and to all the stakeholders that we actually are operating within our environments. So when we look at that from an ESG perspective really up scales that in terms of responsibility for what we do. The second element that I would like to highlight is us actually sitting back and saying beyond just connectivity and being a world-class connectivity player in the market, what else should we be doing? And we actually came up with saying we want to create leading platforms for Africa. The first one is around financial inclusion. If people are not financially included, they cannot participate in the economy which is around them. So really around our mobile money play, we've actually been very specific now and saying how do we make sure that we include everybody including the last level of people at the base of the pyramid? And in so doing actually make sure that they are financially included whether it be through loans, through access to new services, through access to insurance, through access to remittances because this is how they derive their livelihood. So being very deliberate around that. The second element is around how do we actually play in the broader digital space? We actually have a platform called Ayova that actually allows for integration within the digital space, how you communicate, how you entertain, but also how do we build the micro-apps from individuals within the African continent and letting them solve the problems for Africa? And we provide the platform for them to be able to do that while we actually garner the community that they would be able to serve. So that's really acknowledging that we can't be the limiting factor on innovation in Africa. The third element is around enterprise. One of the things that we actually reflected on is that as I said, there are some businesses that were excluded from participating during lockdown for example and all the COVID related issues and how do we actually make sure that we capacitate those small and medium sized companies that cannot afford all these big things but also create solutions for them that makes their business more sustainable and we're spending a lot of time creating those solutions right now to make sure that we get there. And lastly, what we actually realized is that in Africa, there wasn't a common kind of marketplace for APIs because we know if we have more and more APIs in one place, it makes it easier for people to innovate and actually connect to new capabilities. And by actually creating a platform that is a marketplace for APIs for Africa, then we are fostering that innovation and inclusiveness in how we're thinking. And for MTN, we spend a lot of time actually saying in our new ambition 25 strategy, how do we actually make sure that digital is not something that lives outside people but it actually lives in their daily lives. In other words, we start with saying everyone deserves the benefits of a modern connected life and will drive digital solutions for Africa but make sure that it lands so that it's not MBA speak but rather something that is tangible and felt by everyone. So I mean, maybe a last point from my side is that the biggest limiting factor in all the markets that I look after, for example, is handsets. It's the terminals that people actually use to connect. So on data-enabled devices, in a lot of our markets, we're still below 30% smartphone penetration. And it is an affordability issue in a lot of these markets. How can we actually work together to actually solve this problem? Is the key question and the facilitative kind of process that we all as stakeholders need to actually grapple with and actually solve for? Really important closing point there. Thank you so much, Yolanda. Okay, now we're gonna go to our word cloud which is a legendary feature of these road to attest sessions where we ask each speaker to give us the one word that they would like to see, the represents what they'd like to see coming out of the WTDC conference. So I'm gonna just ask each speaker quickly in turn to give us their word and we will create a word cloud as a result. So Yolanda, let's start with you, your word. Execution. Rula. Insight. Lady Mariam. Humanity. Dr. Sharma. Empowerment. Stephen. Action. Baudry. No, David, it all starts with a vision. So vision is the word. Good word. Ali. Innovation. Francis. Did we lose Francis? I think we might have lost Francis. Okay, Sophia. Operation. There she is. Hi, Sophia. Okay, Donola, your word and also the word of your community. I wear this transformation but we asked the Innovation Connect America's group and the most popular word that came up from that group was innovation. Great words. Okay, now let's go as the word cloud is being assembled from all those great words. Let's go to Doreen for some closing remarks. Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much, David. Our distinguished panelists representing governments, private sector, civil society and youth, I think have very clearly demonstrated what kind of leadership we need to connect the unconnected. They have shown how they take action when they're impatient for change as Lady Mariam has noted. When challenged, human beings are capable of accomplishing the unimaginable as Badri noted. We must lead by example with respect and trust, lead with confidence, navigate through uncertainty by putting people first as R.S. Sharma noted, lead to transform, to dream, to empower, to inspire, to inspire everyone on the team as Ali noted, because everyone needs to be part of this process, as Minister Ursula has noted. And we can lead to connect because ultimately leadership is about people. It's about bringing people together as Steve noted. They all belong as the first lady, Rula Gandhi from Afghanistan has mentioned. And ladies and gentlemen, we share a common vision and that is to leave no one behind. So it's time, David, I think to join forces and really to show the way. This is our world and we need to shape it as Rula has reminded us, we must lead the way. We shouldn't dream too small as Yolanda reminded us and we must dream unapologetically big because progress is possible as Lady Mariam has well articulated. We can bring out the best of ourselves, we can connect the unconnected, we can change the world with passion as our young leader Francis Xavier has noted. And with that, I'm so thrilled, I'm so inspired by this session. I wanna thank everyone for being here and David back over to you. Thank you. Thank you, Doreen, and let me also add, as Lady Mariam said, we are all very, very impressed and led by you. So your leadership has been tremendously important and will continue to be, so thank you. Now let's go quickly, because we are short on time to Jim Rogers and his graphic that he's been producing throughout this session as there it is. Whoa, okay, can we get that on the screen so that everybody can see that? Wow, I hope you can all see Jim's graphic. Jim, can you just say a word or two about what you're doing here? Yeah, sure, it was such a great session. There's so many great quotes and points to cover, but there's, yeah, when challenged, humans can achieve the unimaginable, they inspire people to make the impossible possible. There's so many great things, dream unapologetically big. Yeah, there's so much inspiring stuff today. All right. Yeah, I covered it all. Did I forget to ask you for your word, Dr. Sharma? No, you didn't, I said empowerment. Empowerment, yeah, okay, well I'm getting some confusing messages on WhatsApp, no problem, we're wrapping up here, but let's see then if the word cloud is ready, we can look at that, if it isn't ready, I will tell you that the next session on this Road to Addis series will be July 21st when we will be talking about innovation and we hope to see all of you there and how an app that innovation just by coincidence is the biggest word in the word cloud because it's the one that's been most used. So wonderful on that and good work in the background there, Anna. So thank you everyone, we are gonna have to wrap. Thank you for your participation and to all of our great speakers. We will see you July 21st, we hope. If you have just a couple of minutes, we appreciate it if you would complete the survey which is in the chat right now. So you can click on that and answer the survey questions. I think that's it though, we are gonna wrap now. Thank you Doreen, thank you everybody. Thank you for all the great work the ITU team has done and we're pretty close to on time. So see you all again soon and keep leading. You're doing a great job. I have been so impressed and moved by what we've heard here today. So thank you everyone. Thank you. Bye, thanks everyone. Thank you, bye. Thank you, goodbye everyone. Goodbye, goodbye. By the way, how can we get the copy of Tim Rogers piece of art? We'll send it to you, Badri. Thank you Doreen, good to see you again. Thank you Doreen, thank you so much Doreen. Thank you, thank you everyone.