Hamadoun Touré
Build on broadband – and the rest will follow
By Hamadoun Touré | Published: 31 May, 2010
Information and communication technologies underpin almost every single activity undertaken in the modern world. Today, it is no exaggeration to say that the great majority of people are dependent in some way on ICT networks and applications, even if they do not themselves have first-hand access.
In addition to supporting person-to-person communications, ICT networks and applications help manage everything from water supplies, power networks and food distribution chains, to healthcare, education, government services, financial markets and local and international transportation. They are a key driver of social and economic development, and in the space of just a few short years have brought the vast wealth of global knowledge within reach of hundreds of millions of people.
As the UN’s specialised agency with responsibility for ICTs, ITU plays a key role in ICT regulation, standardisation and development, and is firmly committed to connecting all the world’s people – wherever they live, and whatever their circumstances.
Tremendous progress has already been made, with close to 5bn mobile cellular subscriptions worldwide and almost 2bn of the world’s people now having access to the internet. But there is still a great deal of work to be done. With the year 2010 marking the half-way point between the World Summit on the Information Society in 2005 and the 2015 target date for the Millennium Development Goals, we have a unique opportunity for a mid-term review.
Many analysts note that the MDGs are seriously off track, but for me the pressing question is what now needs to be done to meet those MDGs. We still have five years remaining, and failure should not be an option. That is why I believe we need to urgently leverage the tremendous power of ICTs to inject fresh impetus into the development agenda. Simple connectivity is no longer enough. We must strive to bring affordable fast broadband access within reach of people, businesses, and governments everywhere. In short, we need to see the same kind of rapid and equitable spread of broadband that we have already witnessed with mobile cellular.
I have no doubt that the next decade will be the decade of broadband. That is why ITU has partnered with Unesco to establish the Broadband Commission for Digital Development, which was officially launched at the WSIS Forum in Geneva on May 10.
The commission is co-chaired by President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Mexico’s Carlos Slim Helú, honorary lifetime chairman of Grupo Carso, with Irina Bokova, director general of Unesco, and myself as joint vice-chairs. It has the full support of the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, and will report to the 2010 MDG Summit in New York this September.
One of the commission’s main tasks will be to look at strategies and financing models that can help all countries, whatever their level of development, spur rapid deployment of broadband network infrastructure. It will also examine the most effective ways that broadband networks can be employed to accelerate progress towards the MDGs in critical areas like health, education and environmental sustainability.
