Digital tools will speed up the world’s recovery from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic as well as serve to catch up with the Sustainable Development Goals, President Paul Kagame has said. President Kagame was speaking at the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development. Kagame is the commissions co-chair alongside Business Magnate Carlos Slim; Audrey Azoulay, the Director General of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and Houlin Zhao the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union. Kagame called for efforts to bridge the digital divide to speed up recovery, improve preparation for any future health crises as well as improve education access. “The next decade will be about using digital tools to speed up the recovery from the Covid pandemic and make up some of the lost ground in the SDGs. We must become better prepared for future global health crises. Equal access to education has been very uneven due to the remaining digital divide,” the President said. The previous decade of the Broadband Commission, he said, had significant impact such as highlighting the transformational power of universal access to high-speed internet connectivity and smartphones. “Ideas that seemed futuristic ten years ago are now mainstream,” the Head of State noted. On the recently launched digital cooperation agenda presented by the United Nations Secretary General, Kagame said it will among other things promote the important work of the Broadband Commission. He pledged support to the agenda’s plans and vision for digital inclusion to steer the Sustainable Development Goals.
