 I'm David Kirkpatrick. I'm going to open our session today. Thank you everyone for being here. We have a wonderful event here for you. I'm very honored to help kick off the Road to Addis series, which is the lead up to the World Telecommunication Development Conference 2021, which will be November 8th through 19th, 2021 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, hosted by the International Telecommunications Union. The countdown for WTDC 21 actually started yesterday, which was exactly one year before the conference is slated to begin. WTDC 21 will be an event where leaders from all over the world come together to strategize and plan for how global connectivity can help the world get to the next stage of global inclusion and development. My name is David Kirkpatrick. I'm a journalist and author in New York, and I organize conferences under a techonomy media. And my conferences and our work at Techonomy is very parallel to the work we're doing here today. It's all about how technology can help the world progress more rapidly and healthily toward more success, economically, societally, et cetera. And we're connecting today from all over the world in a manner that many of us have begun to be accustomed to during this pandemic. And I think we can say that this very meeting is a powerful demonstration of the value and capabilities of a network society. But as we will hear today and as we all know, we still have very far to go still to achieve the goal of full connectivity. So we are very pleased today to have joining us, Fabizio Hochschild, the United Nations Undersecretary General and Special Advisor to the Secretary General on Digital Cooperation, which is a role that just in itself is a very strong statement about what the UN's priorities are, as well as Ms. Fekita Moloa-Katoa Utochimanu, which I hope I pronounced correctly. I did practice. The UN Undersecretary General and High Representative for the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing states, as well as His Excellency, Dr. Ahmadine Muhammad, the State Minister of Information Communication Technology and Digital Transformation at the Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Ethiopia, another title and institution that I am very glad to see existing. And also we have senior representatives from UN agencies, ITU of course, UNICEF, UNDP, and also leaders from UN Women, the World Bank, GSMA, European Satellite Operators Association, the Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute and also a major musical artist. And finally, we have eight young leaders from all over the world who you will meet shortly. Now, I am going to tell you a little bit of, oh, sorry, I've got to find my Zoom information. Give me one second, because I want to tell you, here we go, sorry. So this meeting is entirely remote obviously and we'd like you to keep your cameras and microphones switched off if you're in the audience. The panelists and moderators will be unmuted during their session and should be careful to minimize their background noise. We may mute them occasionally to avoid such noises and we will unmute them when it is their time to speak. We kindly ask everyone to display your full name and affiliation if possible. Incomplete or suspicious information may cause you to be removed from the meeting room. The meeting is being recorded and the recording will be used for report writing and communication purposes. Every effort is being made to facilitate the smooth flow of this meeting. So thank you for your cooperation. I wanted to also tell you one of the very cool things about today's meeting is we have an illustrator named Jim Rogers who will be creating a real-time storyboard to illustrate the wide-ranging discussion we're going to have. We'll check in with him midway through our program and also at the end to see how he is visualizing what's happening here today. Now we will begin the first segment of this event and to do that, I am delighted to give the floor to someone who with her team has put a lot of work into this event. My friend Doreen Bogdan-Martin, director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau. So Doreen, take it away. Thank you so much, David. Secretary General Zau, Excellency State Minister Amadeem Mohamed, distinguished speakers, young leaders, ladies and gentlemen, good morning, good afternoon, and good evening. It is a great pleasure to welcome you to this event to mark the one-year countdown to the 2021 World Telecommunications Development Conference known as WTDC 21. WTDC 21 will be a landmark digital development conference, a unique opportunity for the global community to develop innovative approaches and new models of collaboration to overcome digital development challenges, to accelerate digital transformation and to advance connectivity and digital solutions in this final decade of action to achieve the SDGs. Today, we also mark the beginning of a new journey towards WTDC, The Road to Addis series, a series of events that will take place in 2021 to build momentum towards WTDC. This is a journey we must take together. The Road to Addis series will build momentum and awareness towards WTDC. It will engage all stakeholders. It will provide a platform to discuss key issues to be addressed at WTDC 21. The sustainable development goals sit at the heart of the international development agenda and are an urgent call for action by all countries and by all stakeholders. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical importance of connectivity and what it means to not be connected. We all know that technologies are catalytic drivers to enable the achievement of all SDGs and that sustainable development itself and the successful implementation of the sustainable development agenda cannot and will not happen without smart use of ICTs. We have laid out our six enablers that will help us to accelerate connectivity and as a consequence progress towards the achievement of the SDGs. So what are those enablers? First is partnerships. We know that achieving the SDGs cannot be done in isolation and it requires a global partnership of multiple stakeholders, many of which are with us today. How can we make partnerships more effective for advancing connectivity and achieving these goals? The second is inclusion. Inclusion is in itself a goal, but it's also a powerful enabler. We need to walk the talk and actually make sure that everyone plays an active part in the design and the use of digital solutions that will ultimately impact and improve everyone's lives. The third is financing. Addressing the SDGs requires significant investment in financing. The recent ITU study on connecting humanity estimates that 428 billion US dollars are needed to connect. There are remaining more than 3 billion people to the internet by 2030. We wanna explore new, effective, innovative and impactful ways to mobilize these needed funds. The fourth is leadership. What is the kind of leadership that we need to get it done? In the road to add a series, we want to dissect what leadership for development really means and learn from global examples where effective leaders and role models are making progress and having an impact. The fifth is innovation. We require new approaches. We need to be creative, bold, think outside the box. We wanna engage with innovators, with entrepreneurs, learn from them and get inspired. And last but not least, youth. We cannot solve these problems alone without the engagement, the energy, the passion and the leadership of our youth. And this is why WTDC will be preceded by a youth summit. And it's also why today, we're launching Generation Connect, a generation of young people with the future. One click away. This, this is our road to Addis. And this is our program of events for 2021. We will be hosting these events next year and our final event will be held in September 2021 during the UN General Assembly so that we can also present our conclusions and the key messages to take to WTDC 21. I wanna invite all of you joining us today to be part of this journey and take the road to Addis with us. Detailed information will be available on our WTDC website, as well as our social channels. And with that, ladies and gentlemen, it is now my pleasure to give the floor to the ITU Secretary General, Mr. Houlin Zhao, for his remarks. Secretary General, the floor is yours. Thank you. Thank you very much, Houlin. It's a great pleasure for me to join you today and to see all young leaders come together with our distinguished speakers. Let me recognize as obvious innovation and the technology estate minister, Amading Mohamad. You are under Secretary General Fabricio Hasiat, higher representative, Fakita Mawala, or Katwa Otwaka Manu, and the representatives from UNICEF, UNDP, UN Women, World Bank, ESWA, and GSMA, and some others. We are here today to launch the countdown to the World Telecommunication Development Conference 2021. And I want to thank the government of Ethiopia for bringing WTDC 2021 to Alizah Baba next year. It will be the first of such event for Africa. And the decision to host this important ITU gathering on the Africa continent is more timely than ever before. Africa is going digital. In Ethiopia, the government recently adopted a strategy focused on attracting new investment, developing ICT infrastructure, improving affordability, and encouraging innovation. It is called the Digital Strategy for Inclusion Prosperity 2025. And we are seeing similar efforts across the continent. I'm pleased that a green number of governments in Africa and ESWA are using digital development as springboard to sustainable growth and a future residency. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, I have called on national authorities to develop ICT strategies based on new policies that can create environments conclusive to more innovation and investment in ICTs. Ladies and gentlemen, we stand at the critical moment in the digital transformation that is sweeping across Africa and the rest of the world. After two decades marked by remarkable achievements, progress in connectivity has been slowing down for some reason. The digital gender gap has been growing rather than narrowing. And far too many people, too many people, ICT services are still out of reach or too expensive. The pandemic has reinforced the urgency of leaving no one behind, leaving no one offline. The task before us is to connect the 3.6 billion people who are unfortunately still unconnected and to drive the development of new technologies ranging from AI to 5G that are central to accelerating progress under UN Sustainable Development Goals. As we enter the decade of action, WTDC 21 is the opportunity to mobilize the global community around the power of digital transformation and reshape the contemporary agenda to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The series of events we are launching today is an important step in this direction. I'm pleased to see the focus put on you, young people, the youth, and to announce the launch of Generation Connect. As Nielsen Mandela said at ITU Telecom 1995, almost 25 years ago, exactly. The young people of the world must be empowered to participate in the building of the information age. I wish you all success on the road to artists and look forward to the virtual signing of the host country agreement. I wish you enjoy this event. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Secretary General and Doreen also. Now I would like to give the floor to his Excellency Dr. Ahmadine Muhammad, the State Minister of Information Communication Technology and Digital Transformation at the Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Ethiopia. Minister, please. Thank you so much, dear Secretary General Zau, Bureau Head, Madame Doreen, ministers, participants, honored guests, young leaders and organizers of this virtual The Road to Addis event. Ethiopia is honored and excited that we will be the first African country to host WTDC. The decision to hold WTDC 21 in Africa for the first time is a testament to Africa's and Ethiopia's prioritization of digital development as a springboard to sustainable development. The Ethiopian government has shown its commitment to the digital transformation agenda by endorsing Ethiopia's first digital transformation strategy in June 2020, followed by a series of regulations for its implementation, including the proclamation on electronic transaction. The next WTDC will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 8 to 19 November 2021, hosted by our government. Ethiopia's economy has been developing on remarkable rates. With the economic development comes IST development. The government of Ethiopia believes technology development is essential. This digital era for the country's development. Our council of minister has approved the digital Ethiopia 2025 strategy which propose an inclusive digital economy approach, which is an umbrella strategy from which sectors can design and create more specific strategies which aims to coordinate and the current initiatives. This digital Ethiopia 2025 strategy has an alignment with national and international commitments such as our tenure development plan, our homegrown economic reform agenda, and international commitments such as the sustainable development goals in the African Union Continental Digital Strategy with an objective of inclusive digital economy and the goal is to create job, increase forex and bringing an inclusive prosperity. The strategy identifies pathways, opportunities and project definitions. The first pathway is unleashing value from agriculture. Our second pathway is the next version of global value chain in manufacturing. The pathway three is building the IT enabled services and the last and the fourth pathway is digital as a driver of tourism and competitiveness. Major principles and priorities of inclusive digital strategy include we put people at the center and we build digital essential, we reach everyone with digital tech and we govern the technology for the future. The digital transformation occurs when progress is made across the digital basics such as infrastructure which is as mentioned by his excellency Zhao, connectivity, our enabling services such as digital ID, digital payments, cyber security, digital interactions such as e-governance, e-commerce and others, the conference is hosted in Africa for the first time. Therefore, the conference is expected to be an African conference with which reflect African values and showcase Africa's journey to development in the telecommunications and IT sector. Therefore, African countries has to have an active participation in the preparation process of WTDC and Ethiopia is ready to collaborate. The conference WTDC 21 is going to be a curtail conference amid COVID-19 by creating a dialogue and developing different interventions and programs in ICT to help countries navigate through this pandemic era as well as post-pandemic. Ethiopia has been battling this pandemic. The National Ministerial Committee has been established by His Excellency Prime Minister Ravi Ahmed which is a technology response team and has been working on different initiatives. As Minister of Innovation and Technology, we have different initiatives which are already implemented and also going to be implemented soon again at the battle on COVID-19. The road to Addis, a series of events hosted by ITU, will build momentum towards WTDC. Strangism partnerships and engagement and help shape with key stakeholders that WTDC agenda. The event will focus on specific issues relevant to digital development and will feature the participation of key stakeholders. The road to Addis series are the following objectives. Increase awareness of WTDC and the YOLS initiative among non-traditional audiences, highlight the digital development challenge of 2020 and propose solutions to be discussed at WTDC. Strengthen stakeholder engagement, build momentum towards WTDC 21 and create a platform that can demonstrate the value proposition of WTDC to prospective partners. The road to Addis agenda focus on use and this could not be more relevant for Ethiopia. Ethiopia's useful population is an incredible asset and untapped resource for positive growth. Of Ethiopia population estimated at 104 million, 41% is under the age of 15, more than 80, 28% is aged 15 to 29. Finally, on the behalf of Ethiopian government, I want to assure my ministry is committed to ensure the road to Addis series of events hosted by ITU are successful in building momentum towards this WTDC 21 and shaping the overall digital agenda. Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm now very pleased to announce the formal signature of the host country agreement for WTDC 21 by his Excellency State Minister Dr. Ahmadine Muhammad who we just heard from and ITU Secretary General Hulind Jow. So gentlemen, go right ahead and sign the agreement. And to recognize the moment, I'd like to invite the two of you to show the host country agreement to the camera so we can take a picture. Just one more second, please. Hold the agreement on your hands. Let me change the... Maybe hold it a little closer to the camera, possibly. A little closer to the camera. Just put it in front of you, like down your face a little bit, but in front of you, because if not with the background, we cannot see it. There we go. There we go. Beautiful. Good job, minister. That was excellent. Can you see? Hulind, if you have a way to turn off your virtual background, that would make it very visible, if that's possible. I don't know if you could do that. Let me switch to changing my microphone. Just a moment. Sorry. This is the world of Zoom. We know everybody's been there before. Don't worry. Let me see. That was good, but you will see the pop-up menus. It doesn't work. Did we get the photo now? I'm a little confused myself. That's perfect. Thank you very much. Thank you. That's perfect. Thank you, everybody, so much for that. We did get a shot. Okay, now we got a good opportunity if we didn't get it before. Can you see that? Yep. Okay, good. I got it. Thank you both so much. Thank you very much. So now we have a short video, which we started to see, but now we will actually see to introduce WTDC 21. Okay, thank you, everybody. So let's just quickly take a quick check into Jim Rogers' screen if we can and see how he's doing illustrating what we've done so far. Okay, I see him drawing over there. Can we share that screen, Jim? Well, I can see you're making progress. Whoa, look at that. Beautiful. A lot has happened already here today. Okay, well, we're gonna see more later and we'll all be able to see that slide after the facts. Thank you so much, Jim. Now we're gonna move to another section of the program, which I'm very excited about, in which young leaders from all over the world are going to interview a range of global leaders who play very important roles in the process of connecting the world. So I wanna tell all of our young leaders when their time comes, make sure you've got your camera turned on. And I'm gonna, well, actually all the young leaders should turn on their camera right now. And I'm going to introduce them. And since I'm not sure of the order in which they are going to appear, I'm gonna ask them each to raise their hand when I introduce them. So first we have Ali Al-Toblani of Bahrain. Ali is studying industrial engineering at the American University of Bahrain, where he is a prominent student leader. Next we have Hingyi Chen of China. She is studying finance at the University of Connecticut School of Business, where she too is a major student leader. Then do raise your hand when I call on you. Blenda Silva of Brazil works at the America's Regional Office of the ITU, where she is an international relations specialist. Ruri Demsi of Indonesia is a digital inclusion, junior officer at the ITU Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Jakarta. So for her, it's much later in the day than it is here in New York, which it's only eight in the morning. Birke Laubinger of Germany recently received her degree in social and business communication at the Berlin University of the Arts and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Danola Oladapo is of Nigerian background living in the UK. She is a financial expert and an external advisor to the International Center of Digital Innovation Project at the ITU. Lena Ostland, who is half French and half Swedish works for the ITU in Paris, where she is particularly active in work relating to gender equality. And Gerard Machu Regaia of Ethiopia is an electrical mechanical engineer who works as a product designer at a company in Ethiopia where he also founded a social enterprise devoted to improving education. So thank you to all of you for the role you are about to play. Now Ruri will stay on screen and I think everyone could, but Ruri can turn off your video. When your time arrives, you can turn it back on. So Ruri, I'm going to turn it over to you. Thank you. Thank you, that's it. Thank you for your kind introduction. Please let me introduce you, Robert Aup. He is the Chief Digital Officer of the NDP. He also leads the agency's Digital Transformation to harness the power of the new technology to improve the lives of those furthest behind. Prior to this role, Robert served as Director of the Innovation and Change Management Division within the United Nations World World Programs. Now I'd like to have a conversation with Robert. Robert, as you know, connecting the world means working as one. It also means working as one UN. So could you please to share with us what task operation towards universal connectivity mean for the UN and its agencies? Well, thank you very much, Ruri. I appreciate that question and thank you for playing your role in leadership in this. And I do wanna just say a word of thanks to Doreen, our distinguished government of Ethiopia representatives and of course all of our honored guests at this event. It's just such an honor to be here and take part in this important event. On your question around what does UN cooperation look like? The reality is that much like the SDGs themselves, universal connectivity is not a function or a role of just one agency of the United Nations. It has to be necessarily part of a multi-stakeholder effort as a multi-agency effort because at the end of the day, if we're going to be inclusive and we're focused on leaving no one behind, we have to bring in all the different aspects of connectivity and that includes not just the infrastructure elements, which is where a lot of agencies are working such as ITU and UNICEF on the Giga Initiative. There's an issue around skills, digital capacity where UNDP, ITU and many others are working or the safe and responsible use element where UNESCO and UNICEF and UNDP are playing important roles as well. We have to recognize our respective strengths, we have to work together at the country level with those comparative strengths and then globally we need to stay closely coordinated as well and that happens in places like the Broadband Commission or indeed the digital cooperation roadmap that I'm sure we're going to hear about going forward where these are sort of umbrella places that we can really stay coordinated because it's going to take the efforts of all of us. Thank you Robert for your comprehensive and insightful answer about universal connectivity and now I'd like to offer back to you, David. Thank you so much, Rory. Now, Blenda Silva of Brazil, you take your chance now and introduce your very important visitor. Hi, David, thank you so much. Can you see and hear me? Yes, we can. Great. It's an honor to be here as a young leader from ITU and it's my great pleasure to invite you and Undersecretary-General and Special Advisor to the Secretary-General on Digital Cooperation, Mr. Fabrizio Hostel, to join us today. In his current role, Mr. Hostel has been coordinating the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, as well as supporting the Secretary-General on issues related to frontier technologies to ensure the follow-up to the high-level panel on digital cooperation. As we all know this year, the Secretary-General presented the roadmap for Digital Cooperation, which highlights the importance of global connectivity. Welcome Undersecretary-General and could you tell us how do you think have the events of 2020 put connectivity in the spotlight? Do we have a public sale? We did have them. I guess Fabrizio may be having some difficulty connecting. This is again the age of Zoom, so perhaps we will move to our next guest and then come back to Undersecretary-General. I think that's probably our best bet here. So, Geto Machu, will you please join us and Blenda will come back to you in just a moment. Geto Machuwagaya of Ethiopia, please. Take it away. Geto Machu, could you? Okay, everyone, can you hear me? Yes, good. There you go, great. Okay, welcome and nice to meet you. You're all here again. Go ahead, Geto Machu. It's my great pleasure to introduce Rita Miambo. Rita worked as a program specialist, civil society division, youth and phase engagement at UN Women. So, it's my great pleasure to introduce you, Rita. So, my question for you is, you know that UN Women is doing tremendous work leveling out the field for fulfilling, engaging young people and girls in digital as support to the overall equality process. Thank you. Rita, good. Sorry, I just realized that can you hear me properly? Yes, we can. Yeah, apologies. I just realized that my virtual background is upside down, but I suppose that- No, it just looks like that to you. It looks good to us. That's the way Zoom works. All right, okay. Thank you. So, greetings and good morning, afternoon, evening. Secretary-General, Ms. Yorlin Shao, your excellences, distinguished guests, young leaders, girls, fellow panelists, and all participants of this important call. Thank you so much, Gary Machu for the question. So, I will start by asking a couple of questions that UN Women is also trying and grappling with at this moment in time. How can we bridge the digital divide and maximize digital dividends for everyone, especially girls and young people? How can we ensure that we are not leaving anyone behind and most of all, how can we achieve the ambitious estuages, notably gender equality and women's empowerment? As our Executive Director, Homs Lim Lambo Nuka said, we need not incremental change, but bold change. We need an effort that would tilt the system all together because little and incremental steps will not give us the world that we want. So, last March as well, the UN Secretary General listed technology and innovation as one of the five areas in which achieving gender equality can transform our world. Any of our solutions will require transformative shifts and integrated generational approach. Because from current trajectories, existing interventions will not suffice to achieve a plan of 50-50 by 2030 and therefore innovative approaches that disrupt business as usual as central to delivering SDGs for all. A year ago, I was in my zen, life was life, and acceptance of what was happening around me was the norm. Then COVID happened and everything changed of each world. We're under level five, which meant that we're not allowed to get out or for again. I to quickly adapt, I went to 100% digital. I was in still privileged. But then what happened to those who were digital, that person with no cell phone, that person who doesn't have access to internet? So to contain the spread of COVID-19, 193 countries closed educational institutions. This closure has kept over 5, 1.5 billion children induced out of schools. It's just significant impacts on learning development for young people and especially girls. Almost 73% of countries have begun implementing various forms of remote learning, including online classes. Yet not all children can benefit equally from these measures. Across low and middle income countries, many girls from poor households cannot participate in remote learning since their homes and their schools lack that required tools, skills, and technologies. So the global internet user gap is 17% and the digital agenda exists in all regions of the world and continues to grow. As such, it is befitting that we center stage youth intersectional and transformative leadership in finding innovative and technological solutions that can break trends and reach those who are most likely to be left behind and this is why UN Women is prioritized innovation and technology as one of the drivers of change in this generation equality campaign with a focus on inclusion, efficiency, and innovation. UN Women, Civil Society, and the governments of Mexico and France will convene the Generation Equality Forum, which is civil society center. This intergenerational and intersectional forum will launch a set of concrete, ambitious, and transformative actions to achieve immediate and irreversible process of progress towards gender equality. And one of those coalition is innovation and technology where ITU is one of those leaders. Only through the equal participation of youth and women can we benefit from the intelligence experience in each side of all of humanity. Young people's voice, agency, activism, and innovation are central to Generation Equality Forum. You will find that in Generation Equality Forum, we have ensured that young people have put a permanent seat on the highest decision-making body of the forum. There is youth and girl representation in each of the governing structures and there are two to three youth and girl leaders in each of the six action coalitions. And the forum is intentional in having 50% or more youth and girl representation in all participation and all Generation Equality Forum conversation. So everyone on this call has a unique opportunity to support action coalitions through our membership model. I'm calling upon all young people and girls to take action and join us in our quest to end gender inequality. Connectivity, investing in young people and girls, better business, environments, and good governance, these are the true backdrop of a digital revolution. We look forward to connecting with Generation Equality and accompanying you on the road to others. I thank you. Back to you. Thank you so much, Rita, and such an important message. So just so anybody might not be confused, we're going to continue working on Undersecretary General Hoshel's connection and he will join us in a little while. You're not here to hear me. Oh, yes. Are you ready to go now? Okay. Yeah, I don't know, but I never missed you. I think you have problems hearing and seeing me, but I've been with you throughout. Okay, now we got you. Okay, Blenda, why don't you ask your question one more time now and we will go with Undersecretary General Hoshel. Thank you so much, both of you. Sorry, I was muted. Welcome back, Undersecretary General. And without further ado, could you tell us, how do you think have the events of 2020 put connectivity in the spotlight? I think 2020 will go down in history as a pivot point for digital technologies. And I think it will do that for three reasons. First, 2020 and the digital transformation against the backdrop of a pandemic has shown us that digital connectivity is not a luxury, but a lifesaver. Half the world could not have continued socializing, working, being educated, having access to health without digital technology. But it also showed up the dark sides. Many people lost their lives because of the amplification of misinformation that was only possible through digital technologies. There were unprecedented numbers of security breaches. And of course, we also saw the growing danger of the abuse of our data for in the most egregious cases for human rights abuses. There was vastly increased attacks, digital attacks and abuse of children also during this time. So we both saw the tremendous benefits, but also the dark sides and the inadequacies of our current regulation and policy frameworks to curtail the dark sides. Secondly, we saw the digital divide, the biggest threat of our time is the digital divide. And as much as half the world could benefit from digital, half the world couldn't. And the digital divide threatens to become the new face of inequality. As my friend Doreen said, unless we get everybody connected, the SDGs simply won't happen or simply won't happen for those who are not connected. And COVID has set us back on the SDGs and we'll never do the catch up without overcoming the digital divide. But thirdly this year, we also just saw how politicized this domain has become. Digital has become a point of major friction between the superpowers. And of course, that is not helpful at all in overcoming the digital divide. And there are some positive signs in that respect. We saw in the UN 75 declaration for the first time heads of state pledged to cooperate better to use digital to pursue the SDGs. And we have a roadmap for doing that. The secretary general's roadmap for digital cooperation. So as much as we're seeing emerging frictions, emerging fragmentation of the digital world, we're also seeing the basis, the foundations for greater cooperation. So it's those we have to build on in reaping the lessons and ensuring we overcome the digital divide and make digital technologies accessible but also safe and meaningful for all. Absolutely, accelerating meaningful connectivity. And as you said, as the secretary general, safe connectivity for all has never been more urgent. Mr. Undersecretary General, what more do you think needs to be done particularly to promote digital cooperation? Well, as Winston Churchill said, never let a good crisis go to waste and as terrible as this pandemic is and as long lasting and painful its effects will be, it also provides a massive opportunity to do things better. And there's a lot of emphasis now on reconstructing better, building back better. And a large part of that has to be building back better digitally, making sure that in our policies, in our infrastructure plans, in our public education, digital is prioritized and all policy and fiscal frameworks are organized around ensuring safe, affordable access for all. And of course that's gonna take huge resources. We're not gonna overcome the 70% gap in digital connectivity on the African continent without massive investment. We're not gonna overcome the 80 plus percent gap in digital connectivity in the least developed countries in sub-Saharan Africa without massive investment. ITU has done outstanding work on costing that. I think they came up with a price tag of 428 billion. So what we need in addition to good policies and many good policies have merged during COVID that need to be brought up to scale, we need digital education, we need investment infrastructure, but we also need to create the financial platform to get that investment. And that's what we're working on on behalf of the Secretary General together with ITU and UNDB and other partners. So let's read the lessons, let's prioritize this from every aspect, policy, education, infrastructure and international finance. And let's make 2020 the turning point. Thank you so much Fabrizio. The work you're doing is so important. The work you're doing with the Secretary General is so important. So thank you so much for bringing that message to us today. I think it's a major progress forward for the UN. Its attitude is really impressive on this. So thank you. Now we're going to go to Hing Yi Chen who is going to introduce our next speaker. Thanks David. So now it is my privilege to introduce the high representative for the least developed countries and developing countries and small island developing states, Mrs. Fakita Molo Katoa Yuto Ikamalu. So Mrs. Fakita Molo, what are the key challenges and opportunities for increasing connectivity in least developed countries in 2021 and how the International Telecommunication Union Digital Development Conference WTDC can help advance connectivity in these countries. And thank you so much. I hope my pronunciation of your name is correct. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you very much. Even prior to COVID-19, a major digital divide existed. Last year, only about two in every 10 in the least developed countries were using the internet and compare these figures to almost nine out of 10 using the internet in developed countries. So apart from infrastructure challenges with limited connectivity in rural and remote areas, affordability and low levels of digital skills are undermining the much needed progress in internet usage in the least developed countries. Furthermore, least developed countries also face the additional structural challenges. Think about the children in remote and rural areas with no access to electricity. Internet usage is only but a dream. It's therefore way past time that all stakeholders come together to advance connectivity in the least developed countries, the group of countries that are left furthers behind. Therefore, the WTDC offers a great opportunity to come up with concrete ways in which to enhance internet connectivity in the least developed countries. And I'd like to make a few suggestions for achieving this important outcome. First, in order to make progress in achieving universal internet connectivity globally, there should be laser-like focus on the LDCs to find the solutions to the difficult challenges that have historically led to low internet usage in LDCs. Secondly, as purchasing power in the LDCs is a limiting factor for connectivity providers, it is a disincentive for companies to pursue the spread of internet connectivity through dialogue with the private sector and other relevant actors. The WTDC can help to find a way to strike a balance and significantly increase connectivity in these countries, especially in the rural and remote areas. And this includes not only mainland LDCs, but also those LDCs that are classified as small island developing states. Thirdly, for those LDCs that are also landlocked, there is a need to address the high transit costs associated with connecting to the undersea cables. Fourth, that the WTDC should also call for more official development assistance dedicated to digitization. The reality remains that very little aid is used for this purpose. Finally, as internet connectivity is an important sustainable development accelerator, I would like to see the concrete outcomes of the upcoming WTDC to feed into the outcome of the Fifth United Nations Conference on the least developed countries to be held in Doha, Qatar in January 2022. My office is the lead organizer of this conference and I'm pleased to inform you that at this Fifth UN conference on LDCs, we will have a dedicated private sector event on internet connectivity, as well as a youth track amongst others. And I hope many of you will participate in this conference so that for the next decade, the group of LDCs will no longer be considered as the country's left furthest behind. Thank you. Thank you so much, Undersecretary General. Another very important message from the UN. Very honored to have two Undersecretary Generals here today with us. Now we are going to go to Birke Laubinger of Germany who will introduce our next guest. Thank you, David. It's my pleasure being here and I'm very delighted to now introduce one of Africa's fastest rising music stars and also UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, the Ethiopian singer Betty G. Betty, in ITU we work on bringing meaning for connectivity to all. Now, as you're working as a Goodwill Ambassador with refugees who are among the world's most vulnerable people, can you tell me what is it in connectivity that provides meaning to their lives and also how in particular can connectivity help to empower them? Hello everyone. How are you? Well, as a Goodwill Ambassador of UNHCR, I traveled and visited many different camps and in the camps I have noticed that in some camps there are like youth traveling, like kids are traveling with no legal guardian accompanying them. So it's really hard for UNHCR to place them in a housing or anywhere or to even reach for their family to settle them to different place they wanna go. So connectivity would be, I would say that connectivity would solve their situation because while when they appear to the border, it would be easier to reach their parents or any relative that they can have and then see how they can move forward in their lives. And I would say technology is part of the new world nowadays. So if it was included in their education, it would help them be more prepared for the world they're gonna be facing. These youth are traveling and of course once they are accepted in the UNHCR camp, they have education but it's not like, it doesn't include digital education but if was digital education was included or involved, they could reach and have different works and different jobs ready for them. Thank you, Betty. Thank you for this contribution. And also as a role model and woman leader, is there any advice that you can give to young women and girls who may not have equal opportunities but remain dreaming big? Yes, I'm not exactly sure how long it has been but we traveled to high school in Bishoftu with Doreen to empower girls to show them that girls can code so they can see it as something they can really do. And the turnout was really good. We had a very good engagement, especially with girls. I would like to say they were more active and they really wanted to participate but they have this understanding of technologies just reserved for boys but not girls and girls tend to be a little bit shy when it comes to science departments or technology department. So they were a little bit laid back but once they were told, they can do it that there was a possibility. They were really enthusiastic about it and I was very happy to be part of that project and after that, a year after that show, a year after that travel, I was, I met a different students that were participating in the Girls Can Code program and I've seen what major difference it has in building their confidence and showing them that they can do, that they can have so many different job opportunities by working on technology. Wow, I'm super happy hearing that and also I would give over the floor to you now for a music contribution that we're going to listen to. Yes, so one of the few things that happened is with the COVID pandemic, our music industry has shifted, I could say totally to digital. So right now you're gonna see a very small but virtual concert. So here it goes. He did a logana. At apirabi roi. Sikken kasvayina. Vandilot machimetal. He did a logana. Thank you. Wow, that was great. I don't know how Jim Rogers is gonna put that as an illustration, but boy, it was a great element here. Thank you so much Betty and thank you Birke as well. But I can explain the meaning because I sang in a mark. I can explain the meaning of... Really fast, if you could do that real fast. Go ahead. So it's about a butterfly who just wants to fly right away but before you become a butterfly, there are so many different stages. There's lava, there's pupa and then you become a butterfly. And I used it as a metaphor to show that even our lives is like a butterfly that we have so many stages that we go through, but then eventually we're gonna be a butterfly and we're gonna fly. So it's just to say, to especially the young and the youth to really inspire them and say, it doesn't matter if you're not flying right now but eventually you're gonna fly. So don't lose patience, don't lose hope. Beautiful metaphor and we love your little guest in the background too, Betty. So thank you so much for coming. I know, I was trying to hold her back but you know, this is what happens when you're doing everything virtually. This is the real world. Thank you very much, bye-bye. So next I would like to bring on Ali Altoblani. Ali, please join us. Thank you, David. It's a pleasure for me to be here representing Bahrain. I would like to introduce Mr. Fayaz King, Deputy Director of Field Results and Innovation UNICEF. He brings to his position over 30 years of experience in business development and innovation, organization and digital transformation. Mr. King, it is very clear that innovation is a big aspect of your work. Therefore, what kind of innovation elements can be brought to the topic of partnerships for sustainable development so that they can be more effective? Thank you, Ali. And thank you for having me. I think at first UNICEF is about doing things to solve problems and improve the lives of children all around the world. It's about matching today's challenges with tomorrow's solutions. With more than half the world's children on the wrong side of the digital divide, we are facing a learning crisis. Millions of our young are unable to develop the skills they need to break out of poverty. Even if technology provides opportunity to continue learning and working from anywhere, anytime, just half the world's population has access to this. Partnerships have been a hallmark of UNICEF's innovation work from experimenting with the internet of things to tackle air pollution in health crisis, to supporting pioneering work in natural language processing, to unlock contents in less common languages, to harnessing the potential of unemployed youth to deliver high quality digital services in sustainable impact sourcing social ventures. Our partnerships encompass shared thought leadership, co-creation in solving the most challenging problems facing the world's most vulnerable children and young people, leveraging on expertise in new ways to solve unique problems. GIGA is a UNICEF ITU partnership to connect every school and community to the internet, offering every child and young person access to information, opportunity and choice. Universal connectivity has never been more urgent. Through connectivity, we can offer continuity of work, education, well-being. Closing the digital divide requires global cooperation, leadership and innovation in finance and technology. The opportunities for partnership are vast. Through UNICEF's Reimagine Education Initiative, GIGA, Generation Unlimited and UNICEF's Education section, we can provide connections to partners, resources, capacity building and financing to scale up learning solutions and to reach our mutual goals. The pandemic has been a time of great growth and progress for GIGA. Ericsson joined GIGA as a global UNICEF partner for school connectivity mapping and is the first private sector partner to make a multimillion dollar commitment to the initiative. In addition to funding, Ericsson has committed resources for data engineering and data science. The World Bank has funded Niger with a hundred million US dollars to connect schools and villages. For this, GIGA is providing technical assistance in identifying locations for infrastructure and additional financing. The European Investment Bank is now working with GIGA to identify financing solutions in sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean, Central Asia and the Western Balkans. The three key drivers that will accelerate GIGA's financial development include partnerships with banks to bring in large scale institutional investment. Government support to move towards a more mature governance model and finally a concerted effort to raise some three billion dollars in public financing along with the engagement and cooperation among global leaders, heads of state, industry and private sector and civil sector. In a complex world, one concept is simple. Without universal connectivity, digital technologies cannot shape the future of our children. Today, we have an opportunity to come together to increase access to and shape these technologies towards achieving the sustainable development goals so that young people can thrive now and in the future. Let's adapt our work and partnerships to today's realities, a world driven by connectivity. Let us all connect towards the concrete commitments and mobilize action today for future generations. Thank you, Ali. Thank you so much. These are such important messages we're hearing today and they're really adding up to one plus one equals three. So I'm really, really excited. I'd like to now bring on Lena Ostland of Sweden and France to join us. Yes, thank you. Hello everyone. It's such a great pleasure to be here today. My name is Lena and I'm a member of EQUALS, a global partnership that works towards providing equal opportunities to young women and girls in the digital world. And that is why it is such an honor for me today to present to you, Miljana Povic. She is an assistant professor at the Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute and her main research interests are galaxy formation and evolution. In addition, for more than 10 years, she has worked on development in astronomy, science and education in different parts of Africa. So now I was wondering, looking at all your achievements all over Africa where you have helped and taught thousands of young girls and women, how do you think astronomy can help leave no one behind? Thank you very much, Lena, for your introduction and many thanks to David and the organizers for giving me the opportunity to give a small intervention during this really important meeting. I have few slides prepared. So can you see my screen? Yes, we can. If you just maximize the slide, there you go, beautiful. Perfect, yes. So in order to reply to Lena's question, I think this question is one of the most common that I was getting over the past more than 10 years during my work in different African countries. Why astronomy and space science is important and why African governments shall invest in these fields taking into account different challenges that many of the countries are facing. And I think in order to answer that, we really have to shift toward the methods for the longer term fight against poverty and basically as the G's are all about that as well to really find a sustainable way how in the long term we can improve our entire society. And here are the fields that I think are really fundamentally that aspect putting especially the focus on education science technology and then including the whole population in particular including our inclusion in terms of the gender and giving really the opportunity to all girls and women to be able to access those fields that are fundamental for our society. If we really want to fight poverty in the long term, we also need long term planning and those of financial support. And I would say that local or African initiatives are really fundamental in this aspect and from outside we can simply help as much as needed and wanted from our colleagues. I here listed some of the aspects how astronomy and space science are shown really to be extremely important for the development of our society, especially in terms of science, innovation and technologies and how we can throw astronomy space science contribute in a long term to different sustainable development goals. So the first one is really how using astronomy we can really promote in a very efficient way education. I will remind you that astronomy is really one of the most multidisciplinary sciences and then also we can use astronomy as a very powerful tool to promote science and I will come back to these two points at the very end in order to answer Linus question. We also have great examples such as South Africa how through astronomy space science we can contribute to social economical growth. We also know that astronomy astrophysics contributed significantly over the past decades to amazing technological development and innovation and also currently some of the most some of the biggest international collaborations are actually in our field and we have SKA as one of the examples. And finally we shall not forget that basically our daily life depends nowadays on satellite and space-based data and we are using it in different applications of our society. And when we come to the point of the digital revolution in which we already stepped and that is definitely coming even more in the future and astronomy here are some of the aspects that again we shall not forget. Nowadays Wi-Fi is the basic part of our daily life and Wi-Fi actually started thanks to astronomy and thanks to the research of the black holes. Over the past decades also through astronomy we contributed to some of the important aspects of the digital revolution which is computing, communication, GPS and then imaging as well. So through the computing and all the large data sets that we are dealing in astronomy hundreds of thousands and millions of stars and galaxies that we were able to observe. We really managed to contribute to the development of the supercomputers, clustering, grids then the satellite communications which are definitely important nowadays for the digital revolution. Again contributed, benefited a lot from the astronomy. Again without astronomy we would not be able to have the atomic clocks that are related with the astronomical observations of poisers and faraway galaxies. And finally the imaging nowadays basically imaging is one of the fundamental parts of the digital revolution and each of our mobile phone has the small CCD inside and these were some of the cameras developed for the very first time in astronomy. And when we look into the future and the big data that are coming here on the bottom left, you can see a map of the 2D digital, 2D redshift survey and basically every single small blue dot that you can see is one of the hundreds of thousands of galaxies that in this survey we managed to map. And in the future we will even have a much bigger flow of data and using the SKA as one of the examples we can really expect the revolution in terms of big data and new technologies. And we expect to have about 100,000 times faster data flow than what we are having currently. So if all this is actually true and we can see that how astronomy space science benefit the different parts of the world then why we can again come back to the very first question and ask why not? Why not African countries should also invest in astronomy and space science especially taking into account the dark sky that is still one of the natural resources in Africa. And we can have, as I said, South Africa as an example. And thanks to that we now have SKA being based in Africa and why not we can have a future in future other projects as well. I will now use Ethiopia to just briefly give an example really an excellent example. Four years ago, the Ethiopian government developed, established the Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute where we also have astronomy and astrophysics department and the motto of the institute in which my colleagues fully believe and myself as well is that we explore the universe for the benefit of our people. And here I marked some of the activities that we are very much into at the astronomy department and over the past years, four years we really worked a lot on the institutional development, establishment of different research groups, postgraduate program in astronomy and training the very first master PhD students, different human capacity development through organization of schools, trainings, international meetings, conferences and so on. And very important, we also focused activities on reaching more girls and women, establishing STEM for girls in Ethiopia last year and now running from Ethiopia on a more continental level the Africa network of women in astronomy. And outreach is again, one of the important aspects of our activities where we are really trying to reach as many people as possible in terms of science. And that on the long term can really benefit in different aspects to the different sustainable development goals and science development, technological development, stronger collaborations and so on. But this is not the vision only of Ethiopia, I would say here you can see that the different African countries are now starting with the institutional development and infrastructure development in terms of the astronomy, in terms of the space science as well. We also have very first African space strategy space agency now and the very first African astronomical society since last year. And once again under this, we are now establishing the Africa network of women in astronomy in order to bring the science and astronomy in future to more girls and women. So to come back and to finalize with this how astronomy can really contribute to leave no one behind. We can also put the question away around and showing that by doing astronomy and space science and focusing on the science and technology development is actually a sign that we are no living behind anyone in terms of the countries and definitely taking that astronomy space science are still some of the new fields in most of African countries, the collaborations, partnerships at this stage are really fundamental. And finally using all the examples from before we can really use astronomy as a powerful tool for promoting education and science and bringing more inclusiveness in terms of the gender and social equality as well. And I will finish with this which are the pictures of from June last year when my colleagues managed to the solar eclipse in Ethiopia to bring astronomy and science to some of the most remote areas. So thank you very much. Beautiful, Mirjana. Thank you so much. That's a great photos to end with. Thank you so much. So Lena will join, will remain with us to introduce our next guest. So Lena. Yes, thank you very much. So now I have the honor to present Mrs. Bhutanya Guirmati, the Director of Digital Development Department of the Infrastructure Practice Group of the World Bank. She has a global team working on building digital economies and developing countries to drive shared prosperity and reduce poverty. So now, as you may all know the COVID pandemic put the world to a test and showed us once again the importance of connectivity. Therefore my question to you is what have been so far the key findings in terms of gains obtained through digital connectivity in this period and what are the areas to focus on for the recovery that will follow? Thank you so much, Lena, for the question. Delighted to be here and to walk with you in the road to Addis. It's really refreshing to be surrounded by young leaders like you and wanna thank you for your dedication to the topic. We cannot do it without you. So the main gain, I think, is the dramatic acceleration of digital transformation. We've seen it as a response to the pandemic. So COVID was a catalyst for countries to take, you know, people call it digital leap into the future. For the agenda more globally, I think it moved the discussion 360 degrees. We moved it from talking about why digital is important to answering the question, how do we do it to make sure that people are not left behind? So a great gain to the agenda in general. So what happened? I mean, we know what we've been living through with day in and day out. Connectivity was clearly a lifeline for the economy. Because of connectivity, people could access public health information. Students could continue learning remotely. Businesses were able to operate through telework and online marketplaces. Government services could be delivered to citizens and public health authorities could rely on technology to navigate this unprecedented time. So in other words, digital connectivity and technology in general have been a baseline for this new normal we are all living through. And if you want to zoom into few examples, I think colleagues covered few of them already. We've seen sectors like education and health completely reimagined. And to me, I think and to all of us, this is an important game to build on. In the context of remote schooling, the fact that 1.5 billion students were out of school, we've seen country rush into solutions that are digital, solidify digital gains. We've seen an incredible collaboration between operators and government as seen in access that was made possible, zero rating to the internet, ample examples from countries on how they use technology to cope with the challenges on the education sector. The same for health. And we've seen with telemedicine, self-diagnostics. And when data is definitely available with the right policy environment around privacy, we've seen also countries manage as much as possible the issues around the spread of the pandemic. So the other gain I wanna mention is mobile money, support to social protection and social transfers to the most vulnerable populations. So we've seen an increase in social protection government to people using digital solution. So this is all good and these are the gains. Unfortunately, they're not equally distributed and we've heard many speakers talk about it already. So 3.6 billion are still not connected. And even if we have a deeper dive into those connected, we see sometimes access is not reliable enough. Sometimes it's not fast enough. It's not affordable enough. It's not safe enough to support the digitally business continuity and the education and the essential public service. So the pandemic highlighted the depth of the digital divide between and within countries and also highlighted the issues around the gender digital divide. I think COVID-19 threatens in a way not only to compound the gender inequality but also could reverse the important gains that have been made so far. So digital inclusion is paramount as we continue to think about how to recover and how we rebuild. And to your question, what is the main focus for the recovery phase? I think it's something to make the digital divide a thing of the past. It's important as we think about this to take into account that this is happening in a very, very challenging context more than ever. We know that the global economy will shrink by 5.2% this year. This represents the deepest recession since the Second World War. We know that 150 million will go back to extreme poverty this year. And we know that there will be some lasting scars on the human capital dimension. We've covered really wiping out a decade worth of development in the human capital. So as we think about rebuilding, as we think about building back better, I think there is something important and we heard it today from many participants representing many parts of the UN system and from the industry. This urgency for action is shared by countries themselves, by businesses, by citizens, by the development community. If anything, this crisis highlighted that we should act upon this crisis now and close the access gap, focus on affordability and safety issues, develop skills and entrepreneurship programs, implement core digital solutions such as digital ID and payment and boost digitization in critical sectors like health, social protection, education and agriculture. I wanna close with really re-emphasizing the importance of this road we're taking together to add this. As Doreen mentioned, we need to not only walk, we need to walk the talk and great collaboration already through the UN Secretary General Roadmap, the COVID, post COVID manifest of the development commission, the work that we're doing with GSMA, WEF and ITU on the speedboat, the work that UNICEF, ITU and many partners are pushing on the school connectivity. So there is already a lot happening and the key point is to make sure that as we work together, we really work towards resilient recovery through broadband connectivity. Thanks, Lena, again, for your question. Thank you very much. And it's true that as Secretary General Hachel mentioned, unfortunately COVID-19 has led to a lot of digital issues such as cyberbullying, harassment and trolling. And I would like to mention the great work that ITU has done to keep kids and young people like me safe online through the latest child protection guidelines that were issued in June. Thank you very much. Thank you so much, Lena. And thank you, Dr. Gramatzi. And to continue on the steam of the urgency of connectivity, I'd like to bring back Blenda Silva, who will introduce our next guest on that topic. Glad to be back, David. And I'm very excited to introduce Asoah Secretary General since 2004, Ms. Arti Holomeini, and inviting her to join our discussions today. Asoah is a satellite operators association for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Under Ms. Mani's leadership, Asoah has been working towards showcasing the benefits of satellite communications towards what we've been discussing, bridging the world's digital divide and achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs. We already know, obviously, how connectivity is a very important mechanism to achieve the SDGs. However, half of the planet, as Authority mentioned, is still unconnected. Ms. Mani, please welcome. Can you share with us what technological advancements and regulations can contribute to making connectivity more universally accessible? Thank you, Blenda, for your question. Your Excellency Secretary General, Director of the BDT, thanks for hosting this important series of events ahead of the WTDC. I'm delighted to speak here for the satellite sector. Blenda, you're absolutely right. There is a long way to go to connecting everyone around the world. But the important thing is that it is happening, slowly, but surely. I know you're from Brazil, and in your country, one of our members has already brought 3 million children across 12,000 sites online thanks to the Brazilian government taking a proactive approach to using satellite technology. The kind of scale that has been achieved in Brazil requires government support and action. So your question is spot on. Advances in satellite technology mean that today, operators are helping the achievement of multiple SDGs, whether it's money transfer from Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East, back to family members in rural Africa, Latin America, or Asia, whether it's mobile healthcare via floating hospitals across the islands, and, for example, the coastline of Bangladesh, or even internet kiosks in remote locations in Colombia, for example, where children, youths, and adults get free training on how to use the internet. But in the post-COVID economy, we need to scale up projects at a faster rate. It cannot be that decade after decade, the digital divide still persists or even worsens because it is directly impacting people's lives and their livelihoods. Einstein said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results. When it comes to the digital divide, clearly we need to do something different. In our view, governments need to prioritize connectivity for all as an objective in itself, and that means putting budget behind it as well. They need to guard against writing tenders and connectivity needs with artificial speed and latency requirements that are simply not needed for most services and applications that people want to access. Most importantly, governments need to take pragmatic decisions to implement solutions that will make a real difference on the ground in the shortest time frame. Satellite solutions are enabling so many broadband services around the world with different solutions corresponding to different needs of millions of peoples. The technology can really leap frog people into the digital era within days and weeks. It is real. It's not a promise of a solution that might never come because it's not commercially viable. It's also a connectivity multiplier. So one installation on a school, on a shop, on a bank, on a government office, or even on a mobile van can connect an entire local community to Wi-Fi within days. The same for mobile backhaul. There are great examples of satellite-enabling 3G and 4G backhaul to enable universal service obligations across vast territories to be addressed like Alaska or Greenland. Blenda, I would end by saying that today's youth holds the key to the future. You understand the relevance of technology and connectivity and you react fast to the changes in digital technologies. How many young people like you are there who are not online and whose futures would be transformed if they could be? Be their voice. Demand that the digital divide in your country is bridged. Call on governments to be pragmatic in delivering connectivity and demand strong leadership, as Doreen said, based on a sincere conviction to improve people's lives as soon as possible. The satellite sector is really glad to be working with all of you to achieve these goals. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Auti. Very inspiring. Obviously, David, sorry. Thank you. Thank you. Such a really passionate delivery, really important message. Now, for our last portion of this segment, I'd like to bring back Ali El-Toblani of Bahrain. Once again, thank you, David. It is my pleasure to introduce Mr. Matt Granred. As Director General, Mr. Granred leads the GSMA. He is also a strong component of sustainability and led the mobile industry in becoming the first sector to broadly commit the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals. Supporting this, he also serves on the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development. So, Mr. Granred, Ms. Bogdan Martin told us at the introduction segment that youth is a powerful enabler for achieving the SDGs. The WTDC 21 will be in fact preceded by a youth summit. So we would like to hear from you. What can the mobile industry do to support children and young people, to address the barriers that exist to technology adoption and to help us feel safe to actively participate in the online world? Well, Ali, thank you so much for that introduction and those questions that I will try to answer. But first, I'd like to thank Doreen and ITU for having us here. It is indeed a real pleasure. It is also a pleasure to meet all the young, bright people that are on this call. So I'm here to represent the mobile industry, an industry that has been committed and is still committed to support children and young people in the digital space. But I think it's also very important for my industry to constantly challenge itself, to listen to what is needed, to hear concerns and to creatively think about what we can do better. So it has been a really good afternoon listening to all the thought-provoking statements from everyone, and we will certainly reflect on them. Now, firstly, you asked me about what we can do to help children and young people address the barriers that exists to technology adaptation. So my vision and that's a vision that is obviously shared by the mobile industry is for a digital world where every young person has an equal opportunity to participate with confidence and awareness, knowing where to go for help if and when it's needed. Today, our world is more connected than ever with 93% of the population covered by a mobile broadband. And when we say mobile broadband, we mean a 3G network or a 4G network. So no 2G, only 3G and 4G. But we also know that a significant usage gap exists with up to 50% of the population in some regions are still not connected or actively using mobile broadband. The key for me is to identify why this is the case. Now, what are those barriers? Well, is it affordability, or is it lack of knowledge and skills, or fears over online safety and security, or maybe lack of relevant content? Now, these are just some of the barriers. So access embracing the digital world as part of education and training and creating a safe environment are all key to break down barriers and enhance participation. And these are core commitments for the mobile industry and we are working to help deliver them. Now, you also asked what can help us feel safe to actively participate in the online world. Well, mobile, as we know, is a very, very powerful tool and with power comes great responsibility. Now, we recognize our responsibility as an industry to help children and young people enable their rights and mobile operators are working on this. For example, did the SMA partners with UNICEF and Child Healthline International and encourages all our mobile members to support national health lines so that every child is only a phone call or text message away from help. And we promote guidelines so that mobile products are designed with children's safety and privacy in mind. Last year, the SMA launched our M power youth campaign to enable child rights through mobile. Now, part of this work is to listen to children and young people and to hear directly from them whether it is at events like this one today or at our GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona or through one-on-one conversations like my conversation today with Ali. Now, I'm delighted that there will be a youth summit before World Telecom Development Conference 21 and very much look forward to hearing your voices. Thank you. Thank you, David. This is very informative. Now, back to you, David. Thank you, Ali. Thank you, Matt. It's great to see you here. Great message. We're going to now invite all of our speakers, young and more senior to share one word that they believe summarizes what they want to see coming out of WTDC's conference next year. So I would like all the speakers to have their cameras on and I will ask you to call your name and ask you to just say your words. So let's start with Doreen. Impact. Betty G. Connectivity. Matt's. Delusion. Ms. Holomeini. Action. Mr. King. Mr. King, please start here with us. Ms. Muyanbo. Conversion. Oh, there we go. Thank you. Ms. Muyanbo. Transformation. Great. Ms. Povet. Inclusion. Okay, now young people, younger people. Ali. Innovation. Yinghi. Revolution. Linda. Partnership. Ruri. Opportunity. Birke. Understanding. Dunola. Transformation. Lena. Engagement. Geremacho. Maybe Geremacho is having trouble connecting. We have a word cloud from all these words. Let's see that slide if we can. Help us see where we're headed. I think Fabrizio was also there. Oh, is Fabrizio there? Great. I wasn't sure he was still gonna be here. Fabrizio's here. I'm here. I'm here. I'm here, but I'm not sure your word. That included me among the younger people. My word is change. Great word. Thank you, Fabrizio. Sorry, I didn't realize you were still here. My apologies. Okay, can we get the word cloud? Oh, we're gonna have it later, okay? We'll get the word cloud in just a minute. And now I would like to invite Doreen to join us to launch something very important. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, David. And thank you everyone for those great words. Love that. So big thanks to those guest speakers and young leaders for those uplifting conversations. Ladies and gentlemen, today half of the global population is under the age of 30 and nearly half of all young people live in Sub-Saharan Africa where 40% of the population is now under 15 years of age. We heard the statistics from his Excellency, the Minister of Ethiopia before as well. And of course, these are not only numbers. Behind them, we have young people, young people who have hope, hope for a better world, young people who are powerful drivers of innovation motivated to improve their lives and the lives of their families and communities. They are, as Betty said, our future butterflies and we must help them fly. We must involve youth in our discussions and in decision-making processes. We must engage those who are connected with those who are not connected. Generation Connect is an initiative that catalyzes youth action and participation for digital transformation. It's an initiative driven by the conviction to meaningfully connect every young person on the planet. Generation Connect gives young people a voice and the opportunity to be empowered, engaged, and to participate to advance the global digital development agenda for present and future generations. It will also play a key role in shaping the preparations for our Global Youth Summit preceding the WTBC. Generation Connects joins and will support existing UN initiatives like Generation Equality and the Action Coalitions that Rita noted, Generation Unlimited as Faez also noted, to put the voices of youth at the forefront. And now I have the pleasure to give the floor to Danola, one of our inspiring young leaders. Danola Young in her career has already an impressive track record of accomplishments to help empower those who are marginalized. Danola, the floor is yours. Let's discover Generation Connect. Thank you so much, Doreen. Hello, everyone. I am really, really excited to introduce you to Generation Connect today. But I'm going to start with a question. What does being connected mean to young people today? Let's check out the short video first, which will hopefully come in a minute. Being connected means accessing and sharing information anytime and being able to connect with people from all around the world. Being able to keep up and catch up with my friends and family. Feeling part of the global community and knowing about my responsibilities within. It's a way of networking to share opportunities and information below that. It's even more important than ever in this situation. And everyone in this world connected using technology. It means leveling the playing field so that all have the possibility and equal opportunity to take advantage of the benefits of digital technologies. Technology also offers us, as a young generation, the opportunities to learn, connect, and communicate with the outside world. It means being able to be a part of and contribute to something much greater than just my day-to-day life experience. I think we all saw some familiar faces in there. So young people are not just the future. We are indeed the present. Advancement in technology means that today, right in the middle of a global pandemic, we're all able to be meeting right now, connected, dialing in from all over the world. Technology really provides new ways to communicate, to learn, to work, to interact, really just new ways to connect. But we cannot forget that there are millions of young people across the world who do not yet have access to this connection. So we've constructed a new ITU strategy, the ITU with three pillars. And that's engage, empower, and participate. And as we build up to WTDC 2021 in Ethiopia next year, youth voices are going to be consulted and championed like never before as the ITU launches Generation Connect. Generation Connect is an exciting and engaging global initiative comprised in of the Generation Connect Visionaries Board that will help to shape the inputs to WTDC 2021 and the youth summit that would, of course, precede the World Conference. We are launching the call for nominations for Generation Connect Visionaries Board today. So please do engage, nominate someone. We'd love to see loads of young people wanting to participate in that. And of course, there's something called the ICODI Youth Challenge, which will be happening next week. It's something I've been working on, I'm so excited about. ICODI will be a new center for digital innovation. And our first youth case will be on youth. So from next week, we're gonna have hybrid teams of ITU staff, as well as external young people coming together in teams to ideate solutions to youth challenges. So Generation Connect will not work alone. We need everyone here today to make it happen. We need youth. We need people working in the international community. We need the private sector. We need you. It would be amazing to see as much diverse youth representation as possible. So come on board, join the initiative. Our future is just a click away. We cannot miss this opportunity. See you all next year at DEIS. And here is a slide, which I think you can all see right now, which shows the website, which will be M-W-W-I-T-E-D-I-N-T slash Generation Connect. So engage today and have a lovely day, everyone. Thank you so much, Janola. The youth energy at ITU is really impressive. So let's quickly see the word cloud that we all created as we, I didn't say my word was commitment, by the way. I forgot to say that. Let's, if we can get the word cloud slide up there. While we're doing that, I'm gonna turn it over to Doreen and she can tell us her summary thoughts. And if we get the word cloud while that's happening, that'd be great, but go ahead, Doreen. Yeah, thank you so much, David. And thank you, everyone. I think it's sort of fair to say 2020's been a rough year, but this conversation today gives us hope. COVID has impacted our world in so many ways and it has demonstrated the critical importance of connectivity for all. And as Fabrizio rightly noted, the digital divide is one of the biggest threats of our time. Next year is our opportunity. It's our opportunity to show that we didn't waste this crisis. It's our opportunity to do, as Mutayna mentioned, to take that digital leap even further, to chart an action plan to eradicate the digital divide, to mobilize, as Fayez was saying, to mobilize today for future generations. And I would say finally to put in place the tools that will enable us to fly, to pick up on Betty G's beautiful, beautiful song. I think, David, we've got all of those elements and we're gonna fly. So thank you very much. Over to you. Thank you, Doreen. Okay, let's get the word cloud up if we can to see how everybody felt collectively about where WTDC 21 is likely to go. Transformation, partnerships, impact, inclusion, all those other great words that fit together. And that word cloud will continue to evolve as we move towards WTDC 21 in future sessions. When there will be those, I'll tell you that a little more about that in one second. But before we go, I'd like Jim Rogers to put up his illustration that he's created throughout the last hour and a half if he can and we'll see what we've been doing. Certainly there's been enormous energy here today. And I just wanna reiterate how great it has been to see all the young people interacting with the global leaders of connectivity. What a great combination. And there, what a beautiful image. I love this kind of thing. I think we're gonna all have to get a copy of that and think about it, maybe even print it out and put it on our walls. That is a great road to Addis inspiration. So thank you, Jim. We are running low on time. So we're gonna go right into the slide that talks about the road to Addis. The other meetings coming up, can we see that timeline? And the next session is at the end of January. So we don't have the timeline, but the next session is at the end of January. Thank you, Doreen. Thank you to everybody. We'll see you all in January and let's all keep working toward global connectivity and WTDC 21 as a way to help create it. Thanks to everybody and have a great day wherever in the world you are. Thank you, David. Thank you, everyone. Stay safe, stay healthy.