Session
Digital Divides & Inclusion
Affordable Access
Skills Building for Basic and Advanced Technologies (Meaningful Access)
Organizer 1: Amila Amunugama, International Telecommunications Union
Organizer 2: Atsuko Okuda, 🔒
Organizer 3: Aamir Riaz, International Telecommunications Union
Speaker 1: Amila Amunugama, Intergovernmental Organization, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 2: Atsuko Okuda, Intergovernmental Organization, Intergovernmental Organization
Speaker 3: Aamir Riaz, Intergovernmental Organization, Asia-Pacific Group
Amila Amunugama, Intergovernmental Organization, Asia-Pacific Group
Amila Amunugama, Intergovernmental Organization, Asia-Pacific Group
Aamir Riaz, Intergovernmental Organization, Asia-Pacific Group
Panel - 60 Min
A. How do the national authorities harness Digital development to address the social divide in a sustainable yet affordable approach through building ICT resilience?
B. How should the national policies and regulations highlight/mandate further development of resilient national ICT ecosystems?
C. Role of administrations in providing equal opportunities of Digital transformation to all society including differently-abled persons and those living in under/un-connected communities with meaningful connectivity?
What will participants gain from attending this session? Participants would be enlightened about the needs and recommended approach to assess the resilience of national ICT infrastructure and build facilities ensuring that strategic services remain available to continue and recover the daily life of communities with a minimum impact on the services offered or loss of data, upon a disaster. The program would share knowledge on the resilience assessment of ICT networks and systems, transport and core networks, aggregation nodes, IXPs, and automation systems, amongst others. The knowledge of LMC design would help to understand the technical approach, clarify the barriers in investment decisions that would benefit countries in long term by increasing service affordability and inclusivity with special reference to the EW4ALL initiative.
Overall, to gain practical new knowledge on enhancing existing or developing new policies in ICT development in the country by accommodating resilience aspects, which would contribute to attaining the digital divide and inclusivity goals.
Description:
The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector has become an integral component of government services including the functions of critical infrastructure, healthcare, energy, security, commercial, education, and agriculture, amongst others. It is the underlying technology enabler of the effective operations of all businesses. Therefore, the governments, together with industry stakeholders should build a systemic mechanism to focus on the study of vulnerabilities in their critical ICT infrastructure, and ways to build ICT resilience on which the communities and other industries depend. In parallel, access to digital services has become an inherent attribute of socioeconomic development. As of 2022, 30 per cent of individuals in Asia and the Pacific region are not connected to the Internet. The gaps in connectivity widen the digital divide in the region. Therefore, meaningful, affordable, and resilient ICT infrastructure for connectivity should be prioritized by all stakeholders to ensure the continuation of essential services, promote social inclusion, and for effective social and economic progress.
The session would aim to share the ITU’s recommendations and global best practices on assessments of resilience of national ICT infrastructure and Last Mile Connectivity planning for affordable and resilient connectivity to all. In addition, the session would be a forum to bring knowledge to the participants about the latest technological advancements for inclusive dissemination and communication of high-alert messages to communities, pillar 3 of the EW4ALL initiative of the United Nations.
Participants have increased capacity to design and facilitate national ICT ecosystems that are more resilient, and inclusive in terms of affordability and availability.
Increased skills to undertake informed decisions on investments related to network expansions.
The digital divide of the region Asia and the Pacific is reduced by connecting the unconnected populations, irrespective of social status, through needed investments in networks and underlying infrastructure, and interventions.
Hybrid Format: There would be two moderators handling the physical event and online participants. To maintain the attention of online participants, the participants would be requested to post questions during the session through a dedicated online tool. And every online participant would be able to vote on their priority of the questions so that the physical session moderator would choose the most significant among the list of questions. In addition, online participants would be allowed to switch on the camera and speak during the Q&A session to raise any questions to the panel, in relation to the session.