Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are crucial building blocks for a greener and more sustainable, connected world. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations agency for ICTs, is at the forefront of this transformation, cultivating global cooperation in fields ranging from smart cities and Earth observation to tackling natural disaster risks, e-waste, and energy consumption. In addition to raising awareness, ITU has made its own operations effectively climate neutral in recent years, aiming to maximize efficiency and reduce the environmental footprint ..read more

Searching unsuccessfully for a specific medicine prescribed by his doctors, a very sick man living in rural Angola listened by chance to a radio interview with Appy Saude, an e-health start-up based in the capital city of Luanda. He contacted Appy, who promptly sourced the very last units available on the Angolan market of the drug he so desperately needed – saving him time, money and even his life. This is one of many success stories highlighting the major change in access to healthcare information and services offered by Appy Saude, winners of the ITU Virtual Digital World 2020 SME ..read more

Israeli start-up OKO Finance have a clear objective: to be known and trusted by smallholder farmers across Africa as the market leader in crop insurance, to protect farmers from loss of income due to adverse weather and to provide access to financial tools. And by winning the ITU Virtual Digital World 2020 SME Awards, the fledgling fintech is one step closer to meeting its goal. The Awards focus on the innovative use of digital technology for social impact. OKO creates and distributes crop insurance to smallholder farmers in emerging markets using simple mobile technologies and ..read more

India-based deep tech start-up Astrome sees its innovative wireless solution as a way to connect the country’s rural and semi-urban areas. Its use of millimetre wave wireless communication to provide fibre-like backhaul capacity for 4G and 5G infrastructure has won Astrome the SME Award in the Connectivity category at ITU Virtual Digital World, the 2020 online edition of leading UN tech event ITU Digital World. “We help telecom operators and governments bridge the digital divide by enabling them to deploy quality telecom infrastructure in rural and semi-urban areas at five times lowe ..read more

How Zimbabwean SME Purple Signs are bringing ever more Africans the benefits of affordable, accessible sign language tools – thanks in part to ITU Telecom World Purple Signs is set to impact the lives of at least 300 000 deaf adults and children, and enable up to 10 000 front office service providers to communicate with the deaf without prior expensive training in the sign languages of multiple African countries. We asked Dominic Tinashe Tapfuma, Founder and CEO of the Zimbabwean SME about his innovative solution, how his experiences at ITU Telecom World 2018 have helped drive his success – an ..read more

Despite being a formidable challenge, the global pandemic presents an enormous opportunity for the information and communication technology (ICT) sector. The invaluable role of digital technologies in the response to the COVID-19 crisis is universally recognized, and now is the time to use that momentum to fast-track digital transformation, drive economic recovery, promote social inclusion and tackle the digital divide. This was the finding of the three Ministerial Roundtables held at ITU Virtual Digital World 2020, bringing together ministers, regulators and private sector leaders from a ..read more

There’s only one news story dominating all outlets, social and mainstream media, online and offline conversations these days: COVID-19, the novel, highly infectious and potentially lethal coronavirus. The situation is new to us all and changing so quickly that by the time you read these words, you will probably have experienced the impact of new restrictions, new statistics and new – if perhaps temporary – ways of working and living. International borders are closing, states of emergency are declared in more and more countries, schools close, cities empty, and, as lockdown is imposed, colleagu ..read more

Freedom of speech research nowadays mainly concentrates on issues around communication processes on social media platforms  – with special regard to finding a legal solution to the phenomenon of social media platforms uniquely affecting the plurality of democratic discourse during their activities. The most fraudulent promises stemming from publicity expanding intensively due to the technology of the internet were that the end of infrastructural scarcity would result in unlimited access,  and that internet publicity, which is more democratic than any previous platforms, would be unli ..read more

Today’s connected world offers infinite possibilities. The rapid pace of technological change and the impact of market forces are driving the evolution of the digital economy.  By the end of 2018, 5.1 billion people around the world subscribed to mobile services, accounting for 67% of the global population. In 2018, almost 300 million people connected to mobile internet for the first time.  With an average annual growth rate of 1.9% between 2018 and 2025, this will bring the total number of mobile subscribers to 5.8 billion (71% of the population). In 2018, mobile technologies and se ..read more

We are well past the point of speculating about the consequences of unchecked use of technologies like automated decision-making systems, biometrics, facial recognition or blockchain on our lives and societies. Loss of privacy and autonomy, digital exclusion and the widespread erosion of trust in democratic institutions are only some of the unintended consequences with social repercussions that are becoming more apparent every day. Yet every time these questions and conversations about our collective digital future come up, a chorus of voices demand better regulation sooner. While better regul ..read more