‘Connect the Unconnected’, Deputy Secretary-General Tells Digital Technology Panel, Urging Full Inclusion to Advance Societies Everywhere
Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, to the Panel on empowering people through digital technologies for social and financial inclusion, in New York today:
I would like to thank the Indian Mission for organizing this panel on the 126th anniversary of the birth of Dr. BabaSaheb Ambedkar. It is fitting that we honour his legacy of fighting against social discrimination by talking today about how to use digital technologies to promote empowerment and inclusion for all people — not least, women.
We live in an era of rapid and momentous change driven in large part by advances in information and communications technologies. These technologies have the power to help us achieve all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Today, 95 per cent of the global population lives in areas covered by a mobile-cellular network. Even among the poorest 20 per cent of households, some 70 per cent have a mobile phone. Indeed, they are more likely to have access to a mobile phone than they are to a safe toilet or clean water. I have seen myself the priority people put on connectivity and the potential for society that the data revolution brings. Let me cite a few examples of these great opportunities for inclusion and development.
Sustainable Development Goal Target 16.9 aims to ensure “legal identity for all, including birth registration”. The introduction of digital identity can provide a breakthrough. It will also help to provide better and more inclusive access to public services and finance, including for the poorest and most vulnerable. The use of biometric identity cards in India for over 1 billion people is a great example.
Digital technologies are also helping to provide social services to refugees, and refugees themselves are using mobile apps and services to share information, locate family members, and find work.
More persons with disabilities can lead productive lives because of accessible and assistive technologies that remove barriers to their full participation in society. Smart technologies are also providing cost-effective digital health care and wider access to education for vulnerable groups.
They have also empowered women and youth with opportunities in employment, decent work for all and social protection. The same new technologies have also helped to bring financial services to underserved communities. This has been made possible through mobile phones with digital payment systems.
Governments are also using branchless banking and mobile banking technologies to make wage, pension and social welfare payments. The uptake of digital services is not only improving public sector efficacy. It is also enhancing accountability and transparency.
Digital innovations are helping to fight corruption and promote fair elections.
As people use digital services to communicate, share on social media, search for information and buy and sell goods, they are also producing a growing ocean of big data. Once anonymized to protect privacy, and combined with the power of artificial intelligence, this new kind of abundant and renewable natural resource makes it possible to see in real-time how economies are doing, spot bottlenecks in service delivery, or map patterns of discrimination against marginalized communities.
This is why the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development highlights the role of digital technologies and services for promoting progress. It calls, in particular, Target 9.c, for a significant increase in access to ICTs [information and communication technologies] and universal and affordable access to the Internet in the least developed countries by 2020.
To develop knowledge societies we must bridge digital divides. Currently, more than half the world’s population — some 3.9 billion people lack access to the Internet. And, in the Least Developed Countries, the number is as high as 85 per cent.
We need to do more to connect the unconnected, especially the poorest and most vulnerable groups. Children, young people and persons with disabilities need particular attention. Too many adults, particularly women and older persons, are also excluded from the digital revolution.
Around the world, more men than women have access to and use the Internet. We need to promote greater gender equality in this and all areas. As Dr. BabaSaheb Ambedkar himself said, we can “measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved”.
With connectivity and digital skills, anyone, anywhere in the world, can create and innovate to improve his or her well-being and that of humanity. That is why we need to share and transfer technologies. Much of the big data needed for achieving and measuring sustainable development is currently inaccessible because it is closely held by the private sector.
Last month, the mobile industry became the first to announce a strategy for making sure that insights from mobile big data are made available to support the 2030 Agenda. We need other industries, from banking to retail to food to health care, to join the data philanthropy movement. We must work together to develop the ethical and legal frameworks to ensure not only that big data is not misused, but also that when it can be used for the public good, it is.
Digital technologies come with risks for security or privacy. But, they also provide massive opportunities for increasing social and financial inclusion. We must address these challenges and opportunities head on, and with a sense of urgency.
The UN is a great platform to reflect on these issues. I invite you to use the second annual Multi-stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals on 15-16 May to address this most important topic.
Let us harness the power of digital technologies for social and financial inclusion and the advancement of societies everywhere. I am sure Dr. BabaSaheb Ambedkar, who stood for the rights of women, minorities, and the underprivileged, would welcome these efforts. Let us follow his example and fight for social justice and equality by fulfilling the promise of the 2030 Agenda. Let us mobilize the best minds in the world of technology to invent more ways to improve people’s lives, and ensure that no one is left behind.