On Tuesday, 27 April, in response to calls from United Nations (UN) Member States to address digital development in the context of the COVID-19 era, Volkan Bozkir, the President of the UN General Assembly, convened the High-level Thematic Debate on “Digital Cooperation and Connectivity: Whole-of-Society Approaches to End the Digital Divide”.

The Debate highlighted the urgent need to address the digital divide in support of COVID-19 adaptation, response, and recovery efforts and aimed to strengthen multi-stakeholder initiatives and partnerships.

During the debate, it was agreed that in the COVID-19 era, the digital divide has become the new face of inequality. Member States recognised that digital technology plays a pivotal role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and if the 2030 Agenda is to be achieved, there must be urgent action taken to ensure digitally-based emerging technologies are made equally accessible to all geographical regions, across every section of society.

The summary of the debate makes for a highly interesting read. Click HERE for the full article.