UN

Operator groups MTN, Vodacom, Airtel Africa and Orange backed a United Nations (UN) digital health platform designed to transmit information related to Covid-19 (coronavirus) outbreaks between authorities and more than 600 million mobile users.

Representatives from the mobile industry, finance and development sectors took to the stage at the Concordia Summit in New York today (24 September) to discuss ways to use mobile tech to tackle climate change and other global challenges.

The mobile industry is making great strides to use technologies for social good, but there is still much work to do to create true inclusion, a panel of experts argued.

PARTNER FEATURE: The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are designed as a blueprint for ending poverty, protecting the planet and ensuring prosperity for everyone – in short making our planet a better place for all.

A UN department charged with assessing the progress of broadband provision in some of the least economically developed countries said while significant progress had been made in physical infrastructure provision, societal barriers held uptake back.

Kathy Calvin, president and CEO of the United Nations Foundation, tells Mobile World Live‘s Chris Donkin the mobile industry has done a “remarkable” job in driving progress around the 17 Sustainable Development Goals – but work remains to be done.

Central banks in some African countries hamper financial development by failing to get to grips with the emergence of non bank-led services, a UN representative told a Financial Times conference.