Director-General QU Dongyu

Broadband Commission Annual Spring Meeting

by Dr QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General

22/03/2021

FAO DIRECTOR-GENERAL 

Broadband Commission Annual Spring Meeting

How can we ensure inclusiveness of digital technologies in rural areas where the divide is the largest?

22 March 2021

As delivered

  

Distinguished Commissioners,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

1. In just a few months, the COVID-19 crisis has triggered rapid levels of digital transformation across all sectors and geographical regions.

2. Transformations that would normally take years to achieve.

3. Most of these changes are likely to become permanent structural features in the long run.  

4. We need to go further and harness the power of digital innovation.

5. Linking rural and small-scale producers with consumers by promoting the adoption of digital solutions.

6. Solutions, such as online platforms for e-commerce or delivery services and marketing, or blockchain technology for better traceability and certification schemes along the value chain.

7. Innovations are there to be scaled up and the pandemic provided an opportunity to do so.

8. There are digital and e-commerce platform connecting over 1 million farmers in 10 African countries to essential services, resulting in an increase of their revenues by 10-12%, as the president of Rwanda is here, I think Kenya and South Africa and some others are very much in this frontline.

9. Simple mobile phone short message services that disseminate key market information to farmers in Peru help bolster their products prices by 13-14%.

10. But the digitalization of agriculture is far from complete, mostly due to the rural-digital divide.

11. For the rural poor, for small-scale farmers - the most common type of farming in developing countries - poor connectivity due to lack of access, risk aversion, shortage of information and money, lack of digital skills and illiteracy, all contribute to the rural-urban digital divide.

12. We have a holistic opportunity to connect the world and provide the foundation for bridging the digital divides, between rich and poor countries, urban and rural areas, and men and women. An opportunity for the inclusion of small holder farmers.

13. To achieve this we need innovative financing models.

14. We need also a broadband infrastructure there.


Ladies and Gentlemen,

15. Rural Transformation starts with achieving Universal Connectivity but also ensuring inclusive digitalization.

16. Universal Connectivity requires an investment of more than 400 Billion USD.

17. I commend the Broadband Commission for exploring Innovative Financing Models to achieve Universal Connectivity by 2030.

18. But we need to do more to ensure inclusive digitalization.

19. We need to go beyond ensuring universal connectivity and also invest in providing useful and usable digital data, information and knowledge as utility, to help real people solve real problems.

20. A digital compact approach of interventions is needed!

21. Through several FAO Digital Rural Transformation Flagship Initiatives like the Hand-in-Hand and the 1000 Digital Villages, rural communities can create new income and revenue streams through e-commerce and eco-tourism.

22. To ensure an inclusive digitalization, FAO applies four cross-cutting “accelerators” in its programmatic interventions to accelerate impact while minimizing trade-offs. These are:

  • technology,
  • innovation,
  • data, and
  • complements (which is governance, human capital, and institutions)

23. It is critical that technology, innovations and data are inclusive, gender-sensitive, and bring about development.

24. Complements refer to the governance, human capital and institutions needed to ensure an inclusive agri-food system transformation.

25. These transformative processes require, as a precondition (or upstream enabler), strong, transparent and accountable institutions and governance, including adaptive and effective regulatory governance.

26. As technologies revolutionize, the risks of unequal access and exclusion loom.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

27. FAO seeks to support the 2030 Agenda through the transformation to MORE efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable, agri-food systems for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind.

28. Digital Rural Transformation is at the heart of this.

Thank you, over to you.