Ladies and gentlemen,
Thank you all for joining us today to start off this side event organized on the margins of the 59th Commission for Social Development.
My name is Elliott Harris and I am the Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development and Chief Economist in the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
I welcome you to this virtual dialogue designed for young people, by young people.
This past year we have witnessed the world change in several fundamental ways. The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare pre-existing and new inequalities. It has also disrupted the lives and futures of a whole generation of young people. Youth unemployment and mental health challenges are on the rise, while access to decent work, basic goods and services, as well as healthcare, has declined for many young people, especially those in vulnerable situations.
The pandemic is at its base a global health crisis. But it has also unleashed the deepest global economic crisis in almost a century, and greatly accelerated the ongoing digital transformation of many social, political, and economic systems.
One victim of this pandemic is global education. In April 2020, at the height of its first wave, over 82 per cent, or 1.5 billion young people, faced disruptions to education and schooling. Almost all children (about 94 per cent of schoolchildren worldwide and 99 per cent in low- and lower-middle-income countries) have been directly affected by school closures.
While some young people were able to make use of remote and digital learning through online education, many without internet access and digital devices found their education halted indefinitely.
UNICEF estimates that more than 750 million young people aged 15 to 24 years old have no internet at home. These young people simply cannot participate in remote and online education. And this has put their education at risk.
This problem is yet another manifestation of the digital divides that plague all societies. The pandemic has widened and deepened these divides, and significantly worsened other technological inequalities.
Digital divides often mirror and amplify existing social, cultural and economic inequalities, especially gender inequalities. In the context of the pandemic, technological inequalities mean the difference between opportunity and barriers to progress in many areas related to the SDGs.
The digital divides must be bridged, between countries, as well as between groups and communities within countries.
To avoid a ‘lost generation’ of young people from the pandemic, new innovative approaches to digital inclusion are needed to forge a COVID-19 recovery that truly leaves no one behind.
Bridging the digital divide requires focusing attention on, and devoting the necessary resources to, promoting internet connectivity, access, digital literacy, and digital skills, for all, but especially for young people.
Having greater access to the internet can facilitate improved access to necessities beyond just quality and remote education-- access to basic goods and services, social protection, healthcare, and the benefits of a digital identity. As of 2020, 93 per cent of the world’s population live within physical reach of mobile broadband or internet services, and yet only 53 per cent now use the internet, leaving an estimated 3.6 billion people without access.
We have the technology and the means to empower the unconnected. What we lack is the coordination, investment, and human capital. However, this does not have to be the case. Technology, while often a great driver of inequalities, can also be a great equalizer, if made available to all.
As we enter the 2030 Decade of Action, digital technologies will be essential in accelerating the achievement of the SDGs as we pursue an inclusive, recovery, particularly for young people, and especially in low-and middle-income countries.
The COVID-19 crisis represents a unique opportunity to recommit technology to the sustainable development agenda and provide a better, more connected and equitable future for young people.
We have already seen this to be possible. Educational technology and tele-medicine are already revolutionizing the delivery of education and health for many people all around the world.
This can be done. And we have many tools are at our disposal. However, we need to do things differently.
To be truly successful, we need a new social contract that drives inclusive social development, reduces inequalities, and creates opportunity for all. This new social contract would require recognizing the fundamental changes in work, education, technology, demographics, and inequalities that have massively disrupted our societies. It will require new ideas and recommendations for moving forward.
But above all, this new contract must take the needs and aspirations of young people into account, explicitly and deliberately. This will require meeting young people where they are and making space for them at the table to co-design the innovative technologies, inclusive policies, and connected futures that empower the disadvantaged.
Governments can shape the impact of technologies towards equality rather than inequality, without affecting the speed of technological progress, through thoughtful regulation that enables the full potential benefits of the new technologies—like decent work, health care, social protections, and public services—while minimizing their many potential disadvantages. This must also be an integral part of this new social contract.
It is time to ask young people how they think technologies should impact their future. And we can, we need to, take inspiration from young people already bridging the digital divide in their own contexts.
Now is the time to trust in the ingenuity, intelligence, and drive of young entrepreneurs, policymakers, students, and innovators. They must be full partners in the effort to design a better, more inclusive future for us all, one where the digital divides are closed and technologies empower everyone, without leaving some groups behind.
Now is the time to recommit technology to accelerate SDGs, create new paths for inclusive technologies to reshape the digital divide, and listen and partner with young people to create the future we all want, and we all need.
Today, during this dialogue, you will hear from many young people as they voice how the digital divide and the pandemic affect their organizations and perspective on the digital divide; give recommendations for best practices and youth inclusion; and guide us along on how youth can fulfill a new social contract.
On that note, I would like to end my statement by thanking the Division for Inclusive Social Development (DISD) of UN DESA and the Major Group on Children and Youth (MGCY), the co-organizers of this event. With that, I hand the floor back to our moderator, and look forward to the rest of today’s discussion.
Thank you.