Director’s Message
Dear Friends,
2024 was a remarkable year – a year in which our work has had a profound impact under the BDT4Impact vision.
In the pages that follow, you will find highlights of our work during the past twelve months. Our activities continue to promote real and lasting change in people’s lives, advancing sustainable digital transformation through inclusive, human-centric and impactful digital development interventions around the world.
Here are just but a few highlights: in Latin America, we provided digital skills to indigenous and rural communities to build and manage ICT networks. In the Caribbean coastlines are villages that rely on a regular catch from local fishermen. For so long, boats were damaged, and fishermen lost in unexpected storms leaving the supply of fish cut off at source. Now they use real-time weather reports and communicate with other vessels, allowing them to fish in relative safety, creating regular income back on land.
In the Pacific, we have supported farmers from the remote rainforest of the Sepik Region of Papua New Guinea to advertise their vanilla crop online, boosting international sales and contributing to their financial independence. In Pakistan, the Smart Villages initiative in Gokina has introduced e-learning and e-health services to the community. In the Commonwealth of Independent States region, we have helped identify digital literacy data gaps in Azerbaijan and advance digital literacy in the country. In Africa, we supported Malawi to craft the first National E-waste Management Policy, which will contribute to sustainable development, health and environment protection; in Burundi and Ethiopia we assisted a group of incredibly skilled women to digitally market their wonderful hand-made clothes making it possible for them to participate, for the first time, in the New York and Cape Town fashion fairs and sell their products in Canada and Asia; in Senegal, together with WHO, we have piloted an innovative solution that allows ophthalmologists to remotely diagnose diabetic retinopathy. And in Europe, we strengthened child online protection activities in Malta, culminating in the translation of the Child Online Protection Guidelines into Maltese. While in the Arab region, we transformed government services in Djibouti, making them more accessible to people.
The impact we make would not be possible without the unwavering support of our Members and Partners – your support.
We also want to say a word about the ITU-D membership. We welcome and celebrate the fact that our membership is growing. At the end of November, we had 350 Sector Members and 171 Academia Members on board. Forty-three of them joined this year alone. We also welcome the arrival of yet another ITU Member State, Palau. With its accession, we now have 194 Member States.
It is also heartening to see that we have scored great successes in international cooperation. This year, we have signed 65 agreements with a wide range of partners, this includes project agreements, voluntary contributions, and joint declarations, among others.
This collaboration has resulted in the largest mobilization of funds by the BDT since its establishment. BDT has raised over CHF 54 million since January 2023 with 29 new projects signed this year alone.
I want to pause and say, “Thank you to our dependable partners for your generosity.”
I am delighted with our great progress towards the implementation of the Kigali Action Plan, thanks to the broad range of stakeholders that are partnering with us in advancing digital development across the world.
Furthermore, our recent estimates show that there are 227 million more Internet users in 2024 than a year ago. Now this is something for us to celebrate.
We should not, however, rest on our laurels. There is more work ahead to make sure that every human being is connected. We still have imbalances to correct. Communities to empower. People to support. Gaps to bridge in terms of rural versus urban gaps, and gender gaps. But also, gaps between regions and countries. According to our recent estimates, universal connectivity remains a distant prospect in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs), where only 35 and 39 per cent of the population are online, respectively. While in the Small Island Developing States (SIDS), 65% of the population is online, in line with the global average.
Now more than ever we have a key role to play in ensuring that everyone benefits from the promise of digital technology. 2024 has been the year of the Pact for the Future, the Global Digital Compact and the Declaration on Future Generations, affirming that our common future is digital.
It is with these goals in mind that we are preparing for the next World Telecommunication Development Conference, WTDC-25, to be held from 17 to 28 November 2025 in Baku, Azerbaijan. That is where we will come together as the international community to discuss and adopt an action plan that will define the work of the sector for the next four years so we may direct our efforts towards the attainment of sustainable digital transformation, universal and meaningful connectivity.
I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge all my staff for their hard work, dedication and commitment in serving the membership and as we embark on our journey towards WTDC-25.
Dear friends — as we get into the holiday season, I wish you all great festivities and restful days. As we reflect on our progress in 2024, let’s also commit to making 2025 even more successful in delivering impact for the people we serve. Thank you for your continued support.
Dr Cosmas Luckyson Zavazava
Director, ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau
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