 A welcome address from the ITU Secretary-General and our Bureau Directors, followed by a high-level panel moderated by the ITU Deputy Secretary-General. We conclude with a compilation of videos received from some of our members. So first, our introductory video. We are faced with global complex challenges. In response, United Nations member states have adopted the Sustainable Development Goals. Information and communication technologies offer answers for helping achieve VSTGs. Today we are seeing breakthroughs in crops surveillance, famine and drought prediction. Health and well-being apps can help treat sick people and detect and track epidemics and disease. The ITU and promising technologies in education can help make learning more engaging, interactive and innovative, opening up new opportunities for all people regardless of their age or gender. Satellite monitoring and surveillance help us better understand our planet's changing climate and protect all life forms from the very big to the very small. ICTs help promote smarter and cleaner water management, a cleaner power supply, cleaner economic growth and jobs, and smarter infrastructure and cities. The growing use of open data by governments increases transparency in power citizens and helps drive economic growth. And more and more of us are in touch via remote methods, including during times of crisis, to get informed and organise our response. But we cannot let ICTs increase existing inequalities or adversely shape attitudes towards women and gender equality, or not deal with the growing issue of e-waste. ITU and its member states will not rest until the digital divide no longer exists, until we can bring the benefits of technology to everyone, everywhere. And that is the essence of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day. To remember today and the rest of the year, the important opportunities and solutions offered by ICTs. For only in this way can countries achieve the significant change needed to confront the challenges we face today, and achieve the SDGs. I have the great pleasure of introducing a video message from the United Nations Secretary-General Mr Antonio Guterres on the occasion of WTISD 2020. Information technology can be a beacon of hope, allowing billions of people around the world to connect. During the COVID-19 pandemic, these connections, with loved ones, with schools and colleges, with workplaces, with healthcare professionals and essential supplies, are more important than ever. The International Telecommunications Union continues to work with the Information and Communication Technology community and UN agencies to help manage and end this crisis and recover better. New technologies, from 5G and big data to cloud computing and artificial intelligence, are powerful tools to tackle the world's most pressing challenges, including the pandemic. Leaving no one behind means leaving no one offline. World Telecommunication and Information Society Day reminds us that international cooperation on digital technology is essential to help defeat COVID-19 and achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Thank you. We thank UN Secretary-General Guterres for this important video. I now have the pleasure of giving the floor to Mr. Huun Zao, ITU Secretary-General, for an opening address. As ministers and ambassadors, Excellencies, my dear UN colleagues, my dear elected officials of ITU, dear participants, it is a pleasure to have you all join us online for World Telecommunication and Information Society Day 2020. First, I would like to pay tribute to all ICT workers around the world on this special day. The medical workers have sacrificed a lot in this pandemic. We should also recognize the dedication of ICT workers and their contribution during this global war against COVID-19. World Telecommunication and Information Society Day is an opportunity every year since 1969 to promote the power of information and communication technology to change and to improve our lives. And today, with the billions of people around the world relying on ICTs to work, to study, and to keep in touch with the loved ones during this crisis. Working together today to reflect on how to bring these technologies to all is more urgent and important than ever before. As the United Nations Secretary-General Koteleis highlighted in another video a couple of years ago to ITU, he said, ICTs are a powerful tool which will help us to achieve each and every sustainable development goal. That is why today I call on the ITU family and our partners to rally behind our Connect 2030 agenda in support of SDGs. Before and after COVID-19, we must assess the opportunity to speed up the development of the digital society. That means creating a better environment for investment in ICT infrastructure, facilitating the development of new technologies like 5G and using the technologies to help achieve the SDGs. Creating a new strategy for information and communication technology at the national level and at the global level has now become more necessary than ever. Together, I'm confident we will come out of this crisis stronger and happier, a better digital world where no one is left behind. The world needs SDGs. The SDGs need ICTs and the ICTs need you. Thank you very much. Now I would like to invite three directors of ITU management to speak to this audience starting with PR director Mario Manowicz, followed by CSB director Chesa Balee and concluded by director of PDT Doreen Bolton. Mario, please. Good day to all. It is a pleasure to be speaking to you on this date when we celebrate the signing of the first International Telegraph Convention in 1865. Since then, much has changed with regard to communications. In 1906, the first Telegraph Convention gathered 30 states and adopted the first regulations governing wireless telegraphy, which mainly established the principles of communications between vessels and land stations. Last year, the World Radio Communication Conference gathered over 3,400 participants from 163 member states and 130 organizations. The International Treaty that is now called the radio regulations governs the use of radio frequency spectrum and satellite orbits, and it applies to 40 radio communication services, some of which billions of people use on a daily basis. Comparing the numbers of both conferences gives us a dimension of the changes that happened in the ICT sector during the last century. The regulatory framework established over the years not only ensures that radio communication services can coexist, it also allows for the introduction of new technologies and advanced services from connecting unmanned aircrafts to connecting cars, planes, ships, machines, and all things that can be connected using wireless communications. It also includes new technologies that aim at bridging the digital divide. As you know, although 93% of the population is within the reach of at least a 3G mobile network, 47% of the world's population is still not connected to the Internet. New fixed mobile and satellite technologies promise to cover the unconnected by providing more affordable broadband services. In addition, the development of globally harmonized spectrum and standards entails economies of scale, which allows for a wider penetration of services within the lower income population. But having access to radio communications is not an end in itself. The main objective is for technology to be used as an enabler to achieve all other sustainable development goals. Thus, while the first radio telegraph convention ensured safety on the sea, our current radio regulations and standards go further. They aim at ensuring safety on the sea, air, roads and railways, enabling agriculture for a more sustainable food production, promoting financial inclusion, enabling accurate weather prediction and climate monitoring, and enabling e-learning, e-health and teleworking, which show to be crucial during this COVID junction. Therefore, after 155 years, evolving from the telegraph towards the radio communication services we know today, the contribution of the radio regulations has always been paramount towards the achievement of the sustainable development goals. Thank you. Excellencies, distinguished colleagues and friends, year 2020 is a key milestone for the ICE industry and COVID-19 has increased the significance of this milestone. We have seen the need for meaningful connectivity and seen the beginnings of a truly connected life with remote access to business, education, and much more social interaction in virtual space. We see the importance of ICT infrastructure and connecting the many people around the world still not connected to the internet, but we also see the need to improve the quality of ICTs, deliver high quality ICT experiences, safeguard our security and privacy of connected life. The next decade of innovation will build on AI, machine learning on top of ICT infrastructures such as IMP 2020, 5G systems, future networks and IOTs in support of smart sustainable cities. We see that digital transformation of the society is key to those SDGs. So inclusive user needs and market responsible standardization is more important than ever. Working together in standardization is a key avenue for new partners to build mutual trust. So, and we see new partners moving forward together in ICT standardization work for sectors such as energy, transport, health care, financial services, agriculture and smart cities. I welcome you to join the ICT standardization community, ICT standards provide common platforms for growth and innovation. Working together, thinking in a multidisciplinary way, we can ensure that ICT standards help everyone use everywhere to share in the ICT advances, transform of our work. So I'd like to conclude by applauding ICT members for their presence through the challenges brought on by COVID-19. Thank you very much. Thank you. I saw ladies and gentlemen, World Telecommunication and Information Society Day is always a very special day for me as it's also my wedding anniversary. And it's extraordinary to reflect that when I married back in 1996, mobile phone penetration was just over 1% and the World Wide Web was so new that a mere 25 million or so people were connected. And since then, we've witnessed a huge explosion in connectivity with virtually the whole planet now covered by a mobile signal and more than 4 billion people online. WTISD 2020 comes at a truly extraordinary juncture in human history. And our theme of Kinect 2030, which is linked to the UN 2030 agenda, it's taken on an urgency and an amplitude unimaginable just a few months ago. Never before has humankind had to deal with a health emergency of this scale and scope and among all the disruption and distress digital has emerged as the hidden hero of this crisis. And those of us with the connection are the privilege. But we must never lose sight of the fact that even in this age of unprecedented connectivity every second person on this planet still has to manage without that digital lifeline. And that simply cannot be acceptable. And as some nations begin to look past the immediate crisis towards the road to recovery, we need to seize our chance to change this, to build back better, meaning build back better with broadband. Next year, the world's digital community will gather in Addis Ababa for the World Telecommunications Development Conference and by underscoring the vital importance of digital connectivity, the COVID-19 crisis offers us the unique opportunity to use this conference to harness an unprecedented tide of political will. We may never again benefit from this intense focus that governments are now according to digital networks and services. And next year in Addis, we have this once in a lifetime chance to make huge strides forward in connecting the unconnected. I think the world finally understands that there will be no SDGs without ICTs. So on this WTIST, I urge us to all put universal connectivity at the very top of our post-COVID agenda. And let's make this decade of action the decade where we finally succeed in bringing safe, affordable, accessible access to all. Thank you very much. Thank you to the IT Secretary General and Bureau directors for these insightful remarks. It is now time to start our high-level panel with our distinguished speakers. I have the pleasure of giving the floor to Mr. Malcolm Johnson, ITU Deputy Secretary General and moderator of today's high-level panel. Mr. Johnson, you have the floor. Thank you very much, Nega. And good afternoon, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen. We are honored to have five eminent panelists joining us today to discuss ICTs for the Sustainable Development Goals. But unfortunately, I understand Ms. Audrey Azulay, Director General of UNESCO, will have to leave us shortly for an urgent matter. So with Ms. Balobyeb's permission, let me go straight to her first and to save time. I will group her questions. This is Azulay. What lessons has UNESCO taken from the COVID-19 crisis regarding its work in the digital space and the need to ensure everyone can benefit from it equally? When you consider the billions of students out of school due to COVID-19, for example, and all the measures being taken by governments around the world, how do you see technology supporting continued access to education? And what do you think are the main challenges? This is Azulay. Over to you. Thank you very much. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Good day. I'm Audrey Azulay, UNESCO Director General, speaking from our headquarters in Paris. And I would like for us to say how delighted I am to take part in this panel. And I'd like to thank the ITU and especially its Secretary-General for organizing it and having me in this panel. I'm very happy to be with you first because I think that this meeting, this day, sends a very strong message, building on a long history of international cooperation. We are in very uncertain times, but as it's been said right before me, for the first time, a global challenge of this scale, where international cooperation and coordination should be the obvious way forward. But however, we know that there are still clashes between states and political fragmentation. They are still a reality, but our work in institutional and multilateral organization is, I think, more important than ever and it's also a challenge for us. That's why the United Nations family has taken urgent action, developing a unified strategy to support people around the world. This crisis is taking place at a very special moment for us in our agenda. We are a decade that will bring us to 2030, where we have set for us a very ambitious agenda and this COVID crisis could have an important impact on our efforts. But we have to define in what way. It can be also a wake-up call, drawing attention to crucial areas of intervention. And one of the first lessons that we can learn from this crisis is the importance of connectivity, a cross-cutting topic that is central to all the issues affecting our society and it's the second reason why I wanted to join you to celebrate World Communication and Information Day. Indeed, in a world under lockdown, the ability to connect to other is absolutely essential. It's essential in supporting social ties at a time when people could gather online, despite the physical distancing measures put in place, essential in supporting culture at a time when the museums, the bookstores, the concert halls were closed, they were forced to close and all these creative or heritage institutions wanted to create new forms of links and connection with the public. Essential also for us to stay informed, which is necessary if we want to understand this unprecedented situation. And of course, behind the issue of information, there is the question of misinformation and the need for media and information literacy. And lastly, and this is the focus of my remarks today as we invited me to, it is essential in enabling more than 1.5 billion students to continue learning. Because at the peak of the lockdown, more than 90% of children and young people have been affected by school and university closures in more than, I think, 195 countries at the same time at the peak level of the lockdowns. And so to address this situation, distance learning tools were deployed at record speeds thanks to the inventiveness and devotion of teachers, but also the mobilisation of many, including the telecom partners. These tools, which already existed, had only been used at very small scales and they saw their user numbers grow expansionally. There was been a range of discussion channels, including basic email but also virtual classrooms, video conferences, so that teachers could find ways to maintain ties with students while adapting the content, the educational content to this unique situation with different methods. And this period and its unprecedented scope of the situation has many lessons to teach us also for the future of education. And it happens right at the moment when we are at UNESCO with our universal mandate on education, trying to anticipate what the futures of education can be. We set up an international commission, the commission on the future education to work on the lessons not only of COVID-19 but of the situation today for the education of the 21st century. It's a commission which is chaired by the president of Ethiopia, Ms. Salewa Zudei and composed of renowned experts and academics. And it's been charged with developing this forward-looking vision of what education should look like in 2050. And it's a report we're going to publish next year. And in order to publish this report, to prepare it, we've also used for the first time a very large participation-oriented methods with all players, including of course the education community, young people, civil society around the world. But there is one thing already that we know. It is that digital solution will be crucial in the equation. And at the same time, that all digital solutions cannot be today viable. Not even the most advanced forms of connectivity can replace what we saw that was missing during this crisis, the human interactions, the teaching methods that rely on human interactions, and that are central to the learning process. And we're also at a time when half of the global population doesn't have an internet access. So we know that if we were today to implement all digital solution, it would exacerbate the very inequalities that the agenda 2036 to fight. And these inequalities in terms of access affect all society. When we looked at the number of student children that were out of school because of the crisis, we found that more than 40% of them didn't have internet access at home. And this number would rise to 82% in sub-Saharan Africa. But insufficient access to internet is not the only problem. There's also the issue of the digital skills. According to the report that has been published by the Broadband Commission, which is co-chair by President Kagame Carlos Lim, the ITU, and UNESCO, the lack of digital skills is the biggest barrier today to internet use. Less than 30% of people around the world have the necessary digital skills. And this figure drops down to 10% in the most underprivileged regions. There is also another aspect of those inequalities that are still very present in the digital world, which are the gender inequalities. And I'd like to mention a report that we published last year, which is called I blush if I could, which relates the inequalities in education to the inequalities in jobs in the digital sphere. And we saw according to the study that women are four times less likely than men to master digital skills. So in front of all these inequalities, what have we done during the crisis in terms of education and remote learning? Well, we launched a global education coalition in March to address the crisis, a coalition that has currently 90 partners, which is very operational still today. And I would like to thank as well ITU for being one of our partners. We've established agreements with major telecommunication players that I'd like to thank here again, Orange, Vodafone, Telefonica, that found a low-cost connectivity solution so that we could ensure the continuity of learning in many countries, especially in Africa, which is our priority. We've also developed complementary forms of remote learning that are not only digital, but that also use radio or TV. And this consideration on digital development should also guide us in other fields, including culture. We need to think about the impact of the changing cultural economic models that are more and more digital in the cultural fields. And this is one of the goals of a series of debates that we launched online, of course, the Resilient Art Movement that brings together artists, cultural institutions, professionals and governments so that we see how we can use connectivity so that cultural diversity is not weakened during the crisis. And I think the crisis has also shown us something very important for the digital sphere, which is that we need to have more anticipation and reflection on the ethics side, the ethical side of the use of big data and AI and including health data. It's a very important issue all around the world. And this also has to lead us to the creation of normative instruments and hopefully a global level in the use of big data. So I wanted just to mention those few issues that are very important because I think most of the lessons that we learn from the crisis and we will learn more in the future shows that connectivity is central to how we deal with it. So I wanted to be with you for this day and I want to thank you again for this panel and for the organization of this event. Thank you very much and over to you. Thank you very much, Mrs. Azulay. And thank you for emphasizing the importance of connectivity, especially for providing 1.5 billion students to carry on with their studies online and the need to bring this connectivity to all. Thank you again and sorry you have to leave us. Now returning to our published program, let me welcome Mrs. Tatiana Voloveya, Director General of the United Nations Office in Geneva. And again, I'll group the questions to each panelist to save time. Please note that participants can pose questions to the panel using the chat function. Please send any questions you may have to my colleague Jose Maria. So Mrs. Voloveya, the United Nations is working hard around the clock everywhere to ensure that the COVID-19 pandemic does not derail the gains made towards the achievement of the sustainable development goals. How are ICTs and the digital transformation contributing to address this? What are the challenges and the opportunities you see for the UN in a world that may continue to be in virtual mode for some time, the new normal? And lastly, how do you see ITUs connect 2030 Agenda as a contribution to achieving the global goals and leaving no one behind? Mrs. Voloveya. Thank you very much. First of all, congratulations on this very important day. And I think it's the first time we are celebrating it in a proper way, using all the modern information technologies. Of course, I would say that digital transformation, of which we have been speaking for the last several years, is no longer transformation. We're already in a digital era. And without the information and communication technologies, we wouldn't be able to work these days. We wouldn't be able to continue our business. We wouldn't be able to carry out our mandate. I would like to say that United Nations, we have been well prepared for this new mode of work because of our obvious origin. We've been in permanent contact with our headquarters, with our duty stations, and we've been using these technologies for many, many years. But over the last two months, we're practically working online. And because of these technologies, we've been able to continue our important mandates. We've been able to continue our work. I would like to give you just a couple of examples. Apart from working online on our internal issues, we've managed to carry out quite a number of very important events here in Geneva and all online. First of all, and Secretary General of ITU, Hollande participated in this event on the 24th of April. We had a very important discussion, very important dialogue on the future of the United Nations, global conversation around the 70th anniversary of the United Nations, with a participation over huge audience. And that really showed us that this new way of conferencing, this new way of doing business, are always challenging. But at the same time, they're providing huge opportunities because the audience, which we can cover, is much bigger than we normally can reach. And their success of this first event led us to the necessity to have another event later in June. Another thing, over these months, we've been able to organize some sessions of the Human Rights Council of other bodies exactly using these technologies. So I would like to say that that was very important. Apart from the fact, which was already mentioned by many people, that because of digital communication, we can have ties with our families, our loved ones, with our friends. We can go on with our cultural activities, go to theaters, go to the exhibitions. And by the way, I would like to invite all of you to another online event where I'm staging in the United Nations office in Geneva, exactly art exhibition, which was launched on the 15th of May. I invite everybody to go there. We have fantastic art offered by permanent missions here in the Geneva Art or the Established Artist. And the topic of this exhibition is the future we want. It's another part of our global conversation or the 70th anniversary. And the exhibition is there online and you can visit and vote and participate in the discussion around this very important team. But at the same time, we saw quite a lot of challenges because still we have certain problems with going online with conferences, including interpretation, making decisions how to vote, making decisions how to verify the personality. There are lots of challenges we have to address too. And of course, we understand that well, online conferencing, online business is not an alternative to human touch. It's not alternative to our physical meeting, our physical discussions and international relations can't survive without our personal meetings, without building trust, without building communication. What are the lessons and the futures for this current pandemic and digital and the sustainable development goals? Of course, we understand now that really lots of sustainable development goals can be reached better and quicker using modern ICTs, health. It was already said health, telemedicine is a very important thing which will allow us to minimize the divide between the countries, between the poorer and the richer in this very important thing. Education, we've seen the success of online education and of course, it's a trend which was going to be there. Climate change, sometimes we forget how much we are producing a negative effect on the climate. Before, we were only thinking in theoretical terms. Now, after practically three months of lockdown, we can see the huge changes in climate and environment. People in Indian cities can see the mountains, the Himalayan. People in Venice can see crystal water in Venice channels. People in big monopolies can breathe pressure. And that's the result of us not carrying out our normal economic activities. So that's important to see how we can change our activities in a more sustainable way. We can less travel and use these modern things of communication. We can really use modern technologies. So what is important for us, for the sustainable development world's agenda, to think about digital and pandemic? We think that the issue of digital divide, which was already raised, is caution. If we really increase this divide, that will mean that lots of people will be left behind. So for us, it's important to use digital technology, information technologies to minimize this divide, not to increase it. And I think that's a very important issue on the agenda. Another issue with digital, I really think we can build more multilaterals. Now there are lots of issues about the future multilaterals. I personally believe that the result of this pandemic will be more multilateral cooperation, because we see that all the challenges, be it health challenge or climate challenge, they are global challenges. That's why we need global solution, multilateral solutions. So we really can use these digital technologies in order to have more multilateralism, because multilateral means not only intergovernmental cooperation, it means more cooperation between the government, civil society, region, international organizations, aspects, communities, youth movement, et cetera. And of course, information technologies can help us to do it. So I'm absolutely sure that the next day, and I hope so, we will celebrate in a physical presence, but using modern information and communication technologies. Over to you. Thank you very much. This is Valovia, very interesting presentation and interesting to see that some of these virtual platforms can actually increase the participation and inclusiveness. And of course, the clear need to address the digital divide and the importance of multilateralism to address crises like the one we're facing now. So thank you very much. Now I'd like to welcome Mr. Francis Gurie, Director General of WIPO. Mr. Gurie, as the agency within the UN system responsible for intellectual property services, policy, information and cooperation, what are the challenges you have had to address to ensure business continuity in providing these services at this time and which digital technologies assisting you most in this regard? How do you see ICTs and intellectual property driven innovation taking a central role to solve shared global challenges? Mr. Gurie. Thank you very much, Malcolm. Very nice to see you. And it's a pleasure and a privilege to be on this panel with Director General Tatiana Varavaya. Greetings and Hulindjar, Secretary General. Greetings also and congratulations to Hulind and to all of the staff at ITU. I think this is a very significant occasion because of course the COVID crisis and pandemic has emphasized the importance of connectivity as has been said already and our virtual existence actually. And I think ITU, it's a great test to me, test to me, test to me to the enduring sustainability of international technical cooperation because of course you have found that I think if I'm not mistaken in 1865 and you've had such a long period of successful international cooperation, the basis of it is technical. Now for us at the World Intellectual Property Organization, well, for your first question, the transition as a consequence of confinement and the measures that we've seen put in place to preserve our society from the virus has been rather seamless because most of our services are delivered on digital platforms. So we connect with users who are filing international patent applications, international trademark applications, international design applications and so forth on digital platforms. So this has been rather seamless. It's been of course a great affirmation of the viability of remote working actually that we've seen. And then many of our information products of course are similarly delivered through databases and online platforms. And so these have continued in this mode. So we've reached 100% capacity in our service delivery. However, there are areas where a physical presence or existence is necessary. And the two areas I think where we are focusing where we have not fully achieved the success a successful transition and we may be not be able to. First of all, meetings. Well, of course, this is a great example of how we can all come together through virtual platforms. But human interaction is important. And I would stress this point in particular. Multilateralism is about inclusivity. And when we have so many parts of the world without adequate connectivity, then the viability of virtual meetings is questioned. So I think this underlines well, a lot of the important work that is being done by ITU, of course, but for all of us, how do we ensure full inclusivity in virtual meetings as we go in this, in negotiating or navigating this crisis? The other area is, of course, capacity building. Now, as Audrey Azuley has emphasized, of course, there's a lot that can be done on digital platforms. We ourselves have distance learning programs that are very successful and include a wide participation worldwide. But some physical contact is necessary. And so I think capacity building really is an area that we are focused on as well coming back to the full service provision of the organization. Now, moving to your second question, and that is digital technologies and IP intellectual property innovation, playing a more central role in solving our shared global challenges. And I think that is the case. Well, it's not an original thought. Many people have made these observations, but I think one of the things that we are witnessing with this pandemic and this crisis and the social and economic response to it is the acceleration of certain pre-existing trends. Trends that were already there, but they've been accelerated as consequence of the pandemic. One of those, of course, pre-existing trends was the trend towards much greater connectivity. This is not just rising because of the pandemic. It's already been there, fortunately, because it has enabled us to negotiate the pandemic in a much better manner than we would have been had we been living in an entirely physical world. So I see that ICTs are crucial to the new world that we will be constructing as we come back and restart the economy and restart society. I think also that innovation is going to be central to this process because what's innovation? Well, really, it's about doing things in new ways. Well, we are going to have to do that. If we do things in exactly the same way, we're not going to be able to develop an adequate response to the many challenges that are being thrown up to the economy and to society by this pandemic. So innovation is going to be important and fundamental. Now, innovation is a word that's around quite a lot, and everyone talks about innovation. It's actually a very complex phenomenon in society and in the economy, a very complex phenomenon. We use in our global innovation in over 80 indicators or components to measure innovation capacity and performance. It's not something that depends on one little secret. Of course, intellectual property is an essential part. It's not a sufficient part by any means, but it's essential to providing an economic incentive. It's an essential also to enable startups, the many startups on whom we rely for innovation to negotiate this extremely perilous journey from idea to commercial product or service. And there are so many obstacles in that way, and they need a protective passage through this very difficult journey. Now, I think here we are going to see more innovation. We are going to need more innovation to develop our new society. And I think one of the issues that we're going to see central to all of this, it's actually an old issue for intellectual property, and that's the question of balance and access. So I regard intellectual property really as a discipline that seeks to achieve a balance between competing interests of many, many stakeholders. So they're their interest to put it shortly of producers, but they're interests of consumers, and you have to find a balance. Now, what everyone is interested in right now is will there be adequate access to new medical technologies, to treatments, to cures, to vaccines? And it arises in the cultural sphere too. Is there adequate access to content, educational content? So this is one big driver, of course. The other driver is that we, you know, access doesn't arise as a question unless you have something to have access to. So we do need to stimulate the innovation and we need the economic incentives in place to stimulate the innovation. So this question of balance, it's all around and it's accentuated like so many things by the pandemic and it's a challenge for all of us policy makers and member states to come up with appropriate answers that respect the urgency and the primacy health considerations, but also the fact that we are going to have to construct a viable economy to bring us all back to the new normality. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Francis. Thank you for those incited comments. Well, you mentioned connectivity again as being the most important factor in continuing our work. It's proved to be satisfactory for the remote working you mentioned, but of course, when it comes to meetings we have to ensure that all parties have equally good connectivity. And it's interesting that you see the challenges that we're facing now with COVID-19 might actually be a spur for innovation. Let's certainly hope so. So now I'd like to welcome Mr. Pateri Talas, Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization. Mr. Talas, despite COVID-19, climate change remains arguably the most severe challenge facing our planet. What parallel threat do you see and how are ICTs and science contributing to identify, assess and mitigate the effects of climate change? Can you share some examples of how ICTs are contributing to assess the impact on our climate now and maybe in relation to global lockdowns and travel restrictions? Mr. Talas. Thank you, Malcolm, and thanks for the opportunity to speak to you and from WMOS side we are really grateful for the fact that ITU exists, we were established just after you. You may be the oldest UN agency and we are the second oldest one. Once you invented Telex, we were able to start accessing weather data which is the basis of weather forecasting. So we are grateful for you and we always regard you as our big brother. And today we have also excellent cooperation. Without your reports, you wouldn't be able to run our global observing system consisting of satellites, ground-based observations and aircraft observations and so forth. So you are still very important for us and we are grateful for you that you are protecting certain radio frequencies which are, for example, important for our satellite measurements. And I know that there's a battle going on in that field and we are grateful for you and also especially my colleague Huling for great support in that respect. As you said, we are in the middle of COVID crisis at the moment but we are also, I don't call it the climate crisis but we have made the challenges when it comes to climate change. It's already very visible and two weeks ago we just published our most recent climate report to describe what has been happening during the past five years and so far we have seen 1.1 degree warming and the last five years, where the warmest five years since 1850 when we started global observations. And at the high northern latitudes in the Arctic we have seen two to three degrees warming so far. And it's very likely that during the coming 10 years we would reach the lower limit of the Paris Agreement, 1.5 at least on temporary basis. We have been storing most of our extra heat to the oceans which have been warming half degree so far and it's more than 90% of the extra heat is stored there. And that's contributing to sea level rise but it's also a source of energy for tropical storms and we have started seeing growing among category four and five tropical storms and related the damage in various parts of the world both in Pacific Caribbean and also in Indian Ocean which is a new feature for us. Actually there's one tropical storm that's just going to hit Bangladesh and India in the coming days and those areas are very vulnerable. Recently we have seen extreme flooding in eastern Africa. We have broken all-time highs in rainfall amounts during the past two months and besides that they are having a severe locust crisis and this COVID case doesn't make their life easier either. So we are very much talking about this kind of multi-hairsets. And because of higher temperatures we have started seeing growing amount of population which are exposed to heatwaves and about 20 years ago we used to have around 20 million people on an annual basis which were suffering from heatwaves and in the past couple of years we have seen more than 200 million people suffering from heatwaves. And these heatwaves have also been contributing to forest fires in the whole of France. For example, we were having record high temperatures and we got low amount of rainfall and that led to very devastating forest fires in eastern part of Australia. This has been also happening in Canada, in Russia, in Sweden as examples during the recent years. The sea level rise has been accelerating but in the past century it typically had one to two millimeters per year sea level rise and in the past ten years the numbers have been four to five millimeters per year. And we have for example triple the melting of Greenland glacier and also the Antarctic glacier has begun melting and those are the big glaciers which will finally have a big impact on sea level rise. And when we look at the glaciers we have seen a boost in the melting of the glaciers and that's bad news when it comes to availability of water in the big rivers worldwide. Here in Europe it's river Rhine for example but in India and China there are big rivers which have their origin from Himalayan glacier and this is not so good news. In the Arctic we have already melted 75 percent of the sea ice mass and perhaps the biggest impacts of climate change they have been felt through changes in prohibitation patterns and we have on the other hand there's more evaporation from the oceans because of the higher temperatures of the sea water which is contributing to flooding problems in some parts of the world but on the other hand in some parts of the world we have seen a decrease in rainfall amounts and that has been contributing to the hunger problem. According to our colleagues at FAO we have seen 33 million people more during the past couple of years suffering from hunger as compared to the situation five years ago. So this climate change is also felt through such means. And those who are into eating finances the costs related to natural disasters relate to weather. They have tripled since the 80s so these events are becoming more and more expensive and what's the message from climate mitigation communities that it's much cheaper to decade and to live with the consequences of climate change. And with this Covid we are having now a short economic crisis and short health crisis but if we fail with climate mitigation then we would have a persistent crisis both in economy and also in human well-being and it would be totally different magnitude from the crisis where we are in at the moment. And the good news is that we have all the means to solve this problem and this passion that we are having worldwide devoted to Covid solution. If we could transfer a fraction of that we could solve the climate problem. And this climate problem is much easier to solve so we don't need major changes in our lifestyles and also money-wise the costs would be rather moderate. And then your second question was related to the experiences of this Covid crisis and at WMO we have studied teleworking. We have only 20 people who are coming to the building on a daily basis and it has been a great surprise to me how well we have been able to carry out our duties despite of this teleworking culture and this is we have learned that in the future we could easily promote such a culture and also in return we would think of our office space use in the future so they could have much more this kind of common office space and also read some savings there. And of course we have to make sure that you from ITU you are providing us good means for those but at least in the Geneva region things seems to be functioning fairly well and we have all learned how to use new means of IT and those have been great. The other lesson that we have learned is related to our video conferences. We have organized lots of video conferences up to 100 people participating and that has been also a very positive experience and that has saved us lots of traveling time working hours money and we don't have too many people who have been jet lagged when they're coming to our meetings. So this has allowed us to have much more frequent meetings and that's what we are going to promote also in the future. There's a need to have face-to-face meetings every now and then but learn to know the people but I think that the world won't be different, it won't be the same after this crisis is over. So this is very good and we have to improve our video conferencing means and these internet connections that you are very much in charts of they should be and could be improved and especially we have some challenges with developing country participation and this kind of equality has to be ensured. Finally I would like to say that we have been able to reduce at least six percent of our carbon dioxide emissions this year because of changes in transportation industry and energy use patterns and there has been a major improvement in equality in China, India, here near by Italy and Paris and that's also good news and we could carry over some of these good practices by traveling less in the future and by commuting less to our offices in the future. So that's that kind of things we have been thinking of at WMO's side. So thanks for the opportunity to speak to you and we are grateful for the excellent cooperation with ITU and several colleagues around the screens. Thanks. Thank you very much Pateri. Thank you for putting COVID-19 into perspective and of course in ITU we're very pleased to work with WMO to protect the spectrum that you need for the meteorological observations especially of course for satellites around the 24 gigahertz area. And interesting to see that there may be some benefits coming from the new normal in terms of sustainability and the fight against climate change. Thank you very much. Now I'd like to invite His Excellency Mr Vakif Sedikov, Ambassador of the Republic of Abishan, Ambassador as the Chair of the Geneva Chapter of the Non-Aligned Movement. How are these countries working to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030? Are ICTs contributing to accelerate all 17 goals or are there specific areas where ICTs are contributing more do you think? And related to the COVID-19 pandemic how is the Non-Aligned Movement organized to respond in the different areas of education, healthcare, essential goods and services as well as working from home? And are there any special examples you'd like to give from Abishan? Thank you very much Ambassador. Thank you so much Mr Johnson and first of all I would like to greet all distinguished speakers and express my gratitude to the Secretary-General of ITU for giving me the honor to speak at this event and thank you for inviting me. So today I would like to speak on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement which is as you know is the second biggest political union after the United Nations in terms of its composition having 120 member states. The implementation of Agenda 2030 with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals remains at the center of national agendas of all the non-member states of course with a varying degree of success. At the 18th Non-Summit which was held in Bakula's October the non-member states expressed their full support to the role of the ITU in assisting member states to build their ICT capacities. We appreciate the role of the ITU in supporting the NAMM countries in making ICTs affordable to all through developing programs to build the necessary physical infrastructure, strengthen cybersecurity, improve digital inclusion for people with special needs and promote ICT-centered innovation and entrepreneurship. And the Non-Aligned Movement believes that the ITU Connect 23rd Agenda will play an important role in bringing the digital divide and using the ICTs in advancing Agenda 2030 in the non-member states. The initial step in this direction for us for the chairmanship of the NAMM during these three years would be the first Non-Aligned Movement's Conference of Ministers responsible for ICT and innovations that the Azerbaijani chairmanship is going to organize under the overall theme of development of ICT infrastructure in the context of SDJ implementation. And we're scheduling it to take place by the end of this year if the situation will develop positively. And we hope that the ITU as a knowledge partner will support the Azerbaijani chairmanship in organizing this important event. Enhancing support to developing countries of course is fundamental including through the provision of development financial resources, transfer of technologies on favorable terms, enhanced international support and targeted capacity building. At the multilateral level the NAMM member states and international organizations should continue to foster greater collaboration. And that is why the participation today of the distinguished heads of the international organizations who spoke before me, it reaffirms opportunities for coordination and interaction even in today's extraordinary circumstances. The Non-Aligned Movement also stresses the importance of strengthening the South-South cooperation which is complementary to North-South cooperation as another important avenue for accelerating the implementation of SDGs. The Non-Aligned Movement believes that ICTs can help accelerate progress towards all 17 SDGs as the power of ICTs in the contemporary world is undeniable. The ICTs have a great potential to deliver quality goods and services in such areas like healthcare, education, finance, commerce, governance, agriculture, among others. To fully benefit from these opportunities it is imperative to address digital divide in access to ICT tools and broadband connectivity between developed and developing countries. The Non-Aligned Movement also reaffirms the importance of the inclusion of youth in the process of implementation of SDGs and national development policies. At the sidelines of the NAM summit which was held in Baku last October, the Azerbaijani chairmanship organized the first ever Non-Aligned Movement's Youth Summit which established a NAM youth network to enable youth representatives from the member states to exchange views, visions and perspectives on current challenges they face in ensuring the sustainable progress. As for the ICT's contribution to accelerate the implementation of SDGs, first of all we have to consider the impact of a digital divide at a global level. Digital divide needs to be transformed into digital opportunities as about almost half of the world's population are not using the internet as we are speaking. In the new normal that is unfolding as a result of COVID-19, the international community should work together to free up resources to SDG investments and build national capacities to pursue both pandemic recovery and SDG achievement. The power of ICT's has also been vital in terms of disasters. Disaster risk reduction now clearly includes pandemics and with all these new technologies through the early warning systems it could also encompass the health related operations. While technology transfer is important there are nevertheless barriers to the volume and quality of transfers that developed countries can on their own accord or through fair bilateral and regional agreements carry out. It is also important to emphasize the need to enhance efforts for a conducive environment including favorable policies and regulations. The intellectual property systems have built in flexibilities that may be relevant when addressing the current pandemic and ensuring that the achievement of the SDGs is not derailed. In general we believe that the response must be holistic yet tailored to specific needs. Now as regards to the second question of yours I would like to say that the ongoing pandemic has unprecedented impact on the globe and the non-member states are not an exception. The enactment and application of unilateral coercive economic measures against some member states of the movement have an impact on the capacity of these states to respond efficiently specifically in the acquisition of medical equipment and supplies and to adequately treat the population of entire countries in the face of this pandemic. This year the non-aligned movement celebrates the 65th anniversary of the Bandung Principles which established the foundation of the movement and the non-member states strongly believe that it is only through solidarity and cooperation among the states that the coronavirus can be contained and defeated. The preservation and strengthening of the values of multilateralism and all forms of international cooperation is a key at this crucial moment. Proceeding from the importance to make an effective contribution to these global efforts the Azerbaijan Nam chairmanship has established the Nam contact group in response to COVID-19 and the first virtual summit of this contact group at the level of heads of state and government took place on the 4th of May by the initiative and under the chairmanship of the president of Azerbaijan who is at the same time the current chair of the non-aligned movement. The summit discussed ways for intensified international cooperation and solidarity to contain the pandemic and the heads of state and government reiterated the support to the values of multilateralism with the United Nations at its core and expressed support their full support to the WHO and its leadership. Azerbaijan in its capacity of the chair of the movement has also announced the financial contribution in the amount of five million US dollars to WHO to support the most affected member states of the non-aligned movement. We also established at this summit the non-aligned movement's task force which is mandated to elaborate database containing information on basic humanitarian and medical needs of the member states so that it can be further submitted to donor countries international organizations and other stakeholders for possible support and assistance. In tackling the global pandemic the ICTs have been always at the heart of national response strategies in tackling the pandemic and the non-member states also have accumulated sound experience to a wider use of ICTs in these circumstances and it is the intention of the Azerbaijani chairmanship to collect these best practices and to subsequently share them with a wider international community. Now speaking in my national capacity I would like to say a couple of words about Azerbaijan and I would like to say that we have been actively using ICTs in our national response to cope with the pandemic from the early stages of it. One stop digital platform making e-services available to everyone during the pandemic was launched allowing the visitors to find links to online stores, e-education, e-health, e-entertainment, e-food and so on and so forth. The platform also provides advice on social distancing and staying at home and other numerous e-learning resources. Another special e-platform has been established in Azerbaijan to enable people to get permissions to leave their homes during the quarantine regime and for employers to get permissions for their staff to go to their offices. We also established the brand new video conferencing system based on a locally designed and produced cloud infrastructure and we already tested it during the virtual summit of the cooperation council of Turkic speaking states on April 10th and during the NAM summit on COVID on May 4th. And also the comprehensive distant educational system has been launched in Azerbaijan assisting children, students to learn from home. TV lessons are now broadcasted on national TV channels with recorded TV programs made available online by the Ministry of Education. Most of the universities are using Microsoft Teams platform or some other platforms provided free of charge by the Ministry of Education for online teaching processes. I don't want to abuse too much precious time of the audience. I would probably stop here and would like again to thank the ITU for this possibility to speak on behalf of the non-aligned movement and also like to to thank all the distinguished speakers who already presented the views before me. Thank you once again. Thank you very much. Thank you very much Ambassador and speaking on behalf of the the non-aligned movement of 120 member states thank you for the support to ITU and and inviting ITU to participate in your event which hopefully will take place in Baku at the end of this year. As you mentioned, multilateralism is now more important than ever before and I think from the presentations we've seen from all the panelists I think that's clear that that is a fact. So let's turn then to see if we have any more questions from the participants. I notice that we do seem to be running a bit over time so what I'd like to do is to take a general theme that I can see from many of these questions and consolidate them and put to each of our panelists and that is how do you envisage the long-term impact of COVID-19 on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Agenda. So if I could turn first to Mrs Barovia please. Thank you very much. I think that's the most important question we have now how the current situation is going to influence our achievement of SDGs. We all realize that pandemic has led to tremendous social and economic consequences. Many economies are already in recession and we can foresee very huge economic consequences for many sectors of economy for many millions of jobs for many enterprises especially small and medium enterprises in many sectors of economy tourism, aviation, transportation, service etc. So apparently in order to overcome the consequences we'll need huge stimulating packages financial, social and economic and of course the governments have to invest lots of public money into these projects. On the other hand sustainable development goals also need financing and for the years to come we were estimating the necessity about three trillion dollars per year. So now the question is can we combine these two goals because if we can use the public money which are now discussed in order to stimulate economy not just to return to business as usual but to build back better to recover in a sustainable way then the result for this crisis will be positive for sustainable development. When we stand the necessity and we really saw during this crisis that those vulnerable they are really the first to suffer from the crisis national minorities children women many other poor countries were the first to suffer from the results for this pandemic so we really have to invest and I think that if really we can use this public money to rebuild the economy in a sustainable way that will make us reaching the sustainable development goals easier because really now we have obliged to really invest lots of money international economies let's invest them wisely and sustainably then the result of this crisis will be not only only negative results but a more sustainable war and as it was already said during these three months over lockdown we saw that if we're behaving in a sustainable way we can really improve the quality of our life. Thank you. Thank you very much very interesting to see that perspective that this will require a lot of investment to recover economies and we have the potential to ensure that that investment is invested in sustainable areas so thank you very much this is a beloved and same question then to francis gorey francis thank you Malcolm well i spoke earlier about the crisis exacerbating or accelerating certain pre-existing trends and one of those pre-existing trends that we saw developing over the last decade or decades was growing inequality so i think there is a huge risk here with the pandemic that it will exacerbate that trend of growing inequality and we need to take action in respect of this now tatiana director general vatavaya has has given us some good leads on this on this very point and i think it's it's it's going to apply in terms of health treatment that we're seeing a lot of tension is focused on that but it's going to apply in respect of the economy because whether we like it or not the pandemic has disrupted but it's stopped our economy first of all and secondly it's disrupted various models that we had previously think of global value chains they are going to be re-thought because transportation is not working at the moment so this is a major challenge there will be a big move localization of value chains re-localize localization of manufacturing the technologies actually permit that much more advanced manufacturing robotics artificial intelligence can replace cheap later so i think we need to really think this one through extremely carefully because if we are not careful we will exacerbate this really worrying trend of growing inequality in the world well within societies and between societies so that would be my worry now of course we have to be more positive in our thinking and and i think we have to now very carefully analyze the impact of the pandemic and the stopping of the economy all the measures that have been taken in response to the pandemic carefully analyze what has happened and set about the task of restoring confidence um francis can you hear me seem to have lost you no i'm perhaps i'm back in audio mode i had actually finished now but i'm not sure how much of it was coming through i think you are you're just about to sum up so i think we've got the main point that you know we have to be very very careful in the recovery not to exacerbate the current inequalities so we have to be very careful with the investment that this is a parallel of the it was mentioning i think that's it francis yes thank you Malcolm yes okay thank you very much so pose the same question then to Pateri and tell us Pateri if you is that we would go back to the normal and and continue running our businesses as we did before the pandemic and since there's been a gap in consumption and and and production and everything that there would be even a boost of the of the emissions after this is over the optimistic view is that that that that we have learned something and and as part of our future restoration and construction we would at the same time think how how to how to improve certain things in the world and one of them is how to how to how to tackle this climate climate problem that we have been facing and and i think that there's an opportunity to to start investing in climate friendly technologies and also to invest in climate adaptation and and as i said in my previous interview we don't need this this change that is expected it's not very dramatic as compared to what we have been facing during the past past months so it's it would be fairly moderate both economically and and and also in our life lifestyle if we convert our energy systems our transport systems and and industry systems to be more climate friendly and that's also great opportunity so that would be that would be an opportunity to build some new businesses and and and many countries have already decided to invest in in climate friendly technologies in as part of their recovery packages for example the government of canada has announced such things and and and that's very much the spirit in several european union member countries so and personally i'm optimistic that this is this is a learning experience experience for us and and and after this crisis is over we could think how to build a better better planet for for the coming decades and even centuries thank you very much Petteri for that optimistic view i think we have to keep optimistic in these circumstances thank you very much and finally turning to the ambassador Sadikov for the same question please ambassador. It's quite difficult to add anything after the distinguished speakers already responded to this but nevertheless i would like to say that first of all it's not only the countries but the whole system of international relations embodied primarily through the united nations that has been put to test and our relations has been undergoing the testing so that we could clearly understand what is it that makes nations united we know what it was back in 1945 but now with this pandemic which has disrupted the life's livelihoods economists societies it's another big test that we're going through we should also learn quite well the lessons of the millennium development goals the goals were quite important not all of them were implemented and so we moved into the stage of SDGs with certain amount of volume of unfinished business from from mdgs most important issues that i see looking from the perspective of the non-aligned movement the difficulties is the digital divide it was a lot has been said today about it financial situation of countries access to technologies which is becoming even more important global supply chains and the situation how that will change with the time passing as for the strategic issues of course the strategic objectives of the countries normally do not change even with the negative effect of the of the something like pandemic the policies can but the strategic objectives they are too heavy to be changed all of a sudden so that's why the united nations and the whole system of the un has to probably take all these into account and try to use the experience of of covid-19 though difficult one so that to make the system of the united nations more flexible and better in terms of the benefit benefiting the member states thank you thank you very much ambassador as you say common enemy brings us all together and it certainly seems to be the case here so thank you all very much for that response to those to the question unfortunately we don't have more time for any more questions we're already running well over but we'll try to respond to some on the chat so i'd like to conclude by thanking all our panelists for their very interesting and insightful answers i believe we have been given an excellent review of the importance of icts for the achievement of the sdgs and the fight against covid-19 it's now 51 years since this day was first celebrated but never before could there have been more justification to celebrate telecommunications and information society we've really seen now how much we depend on it in so many different aspects and by so many different organizations and countries more than ever before good collaboration coordination and cooperation between all stakeholders is essential we all need to bring our own specific competencies to the table avoid duplication of effort and pool our resources for the common good many thanks to those working with itu in this effort especially our sister u n organizations and let's not forget the private sector what has been remarkable over the last few months is the resilience of the networks and platforms to handle the huge increase in demand so congratulations to them in itu we've maintained our business with virtual meetings both internal and an external including providing interpretation in six languages these meetings have been particularly successful and have been very inclusive and efficient in reaching conclusions and decisions quickly so let's hope some good will come of this terrible covid-19 pandemic never before has there been so much reliance emphasis and appreciation placed on telecommunications and the information society as a result it may be sooner and all of us will hopefully benefit from a reduction in emissions and pollution and a better work-life balance as a result of this new way of working so let's look on the optimistic side and despite all the difficulties and challenges we now face let us hope something good will come of this eventually i wish you all a safe a well and a happy world telecommunication and information society day 2020 thank you and back to nega thank you mr johnson excellencies ladies and gentlemen dear colleagues this brings to a close the world telecommunication information society day 2020 on behalf of the ituria we'd like to thank our distinguished speakers and all participants for joining us today thank you for sharing your views on the role and impact of icts in your work and on how icts are helping to achieve global goals we would like to leave you with a wonderful video compilation of our members contributions to the connect 2030 agenda we invite you all to visit our connect 2030 microsite to read about the full set of activities including our membership contributions the site provides a dashboard for both goals and targets of the connect 2030 agenda helping it units members to progress together towards connecting the world the link to access this new microsite is on your screen i wish you all a very pleasant afternoon and please stay safe world telecommunication and information society day reminds us that international cooperation on digital technology is essential to help defeat covid 19 and achieve the 2030 agenda for sustainable development i call on all of you to join me in advancing it's connected 2030 agenda a shared global vision to bridge the digital divide and use the power of information and communication technology in support of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development this brings us to the end of the ceremony thank you very much