Resident Coordinator’s Remarks at the ITU Regional Development Forum for Asia and the Pacific 2023

[Moderator asks] You are making great efforts to support our UNCT team in Thailand to work more cohesively to accelerate the achievement of SDG. Can you share how can Thailand capitalize on the identified strategic accelerators to bolster its digital agenda?

Thank you, Atsuko. This is a great question.

Before I talk about how Thailand capitalises digitisation as an accelerator, let me briefly set the context.

As you know, we are at the midpoint of the SDGs, with only 12% of SDG targets set to be achieved by 2030.

In contrast, Thailand’s progress has been robust with over 40% of SDG indicators on track.

However, much work remains to be done to solidify this achievement and speed up progress on off-track SDGs.

From where I sit, digital transition is one of the key accelerators, which is also central to UN’s Cooperation Framework and an enabler for the country to escape the middle-income trap.  

The 21 UN agencies that constitute the UNCT leverage data and technology in support of green low-carbon economy, human capital development and addressing inequalities with a special focus on women, youth and those most vulnerable to ensure no one is left behind.

ITU, in many ways, serves as the pivot for us in Thailand by stepping up its cutting-edge understanding of technology to galvanise action with the government, private sector and civil societies.

Let me give you 2 examples:

The Girls in ICT, led by ITU together with UN agencies, the private sector and the Royal Thai Government, is an example of how a multistakeholder strategy helps:

• raises awareness of the need to bridge the gap in digital literacy,
• invest in young people to come up to speed with the latest in ICT;
• prepare young girls to deal with cyber security, coding, leveraging the digital space for markets amongst others.

Girls in ICT is being adopted as a model by 11 countries. It has opened new horizons for girls and translate into more girls entering STEM for studies and careers, where they remain underrepresented.

We are also keen to look at Boys in ICT becoming a model for other countries, given that less boys than girls finish high school, resulting in a growing divide with 17% less boys than girls finish high school.

However, this means many boys are at risk of being left behind, which is why this year we have launched Boys in ICT to create equal opportunities for all.

Another example involves smart farming and precision agriculture, with FAO as the leading agency working with the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives and the private sector.

There are 12 million farmers in Thailand, most of whom are vulnerable to shocks, including those related to climate and global prices.

There are 1 million smart farmers in Thailand, and this community is growing.

We is engaging with them to leverage technology for accessing markets, input costs and weather patterns. We are also using precision technology that reduced agrifood loss and waste, scaled-up nature-positive production methods and improved food safety.

We are continuously building the capacities of farmers to adopt sustainable farming practices, with a particular focus on organic farming in support of no net loss in bio-diversity. 

These technologies will also promote equitable livelihoods and build resilience to vulnerabilities. 

[Moderator asks] How do initiatives like the Net Pracharat and the partnership between UNESCO and the Ministry of Education, which aims at enhancing digital inclusivity and literacy, can further support accelerate achievement of SDG?

Net Pracharat is a fine example of Thailand’s drive to connect the unconnected.

It is a testament of the Government’s foresight that it launched this initiative in 2017 with an investment of $300 million to connect all villages to leave no one behind.

Net Pracharat also ties closely into the UN’s policy of bridging the digital divide.

I know that ITU has played a key role in assessing the social and economic returns to Net Pracharat at the request of the Royal Thai Government, and your assessment revealed some important lessons.

Net Pracharat is not just used by young people for gaming and social media.

In fact, it has supported the ongoing digitization of the economy and society, with farmers using Net Pracharat the most – specifically rice farmers that constitutes over 5 million users in total.

Net Pracharat provides access to critical data on weather patterns, market trends and input costs for agriculture.

Net Pracharat is key to ensuring the rapid scale-up of mobile banking, the digital economy, which contributes to 17% of GDP, and also the digital wallet that the new government is planning.

Let me also speak briefly to digital learning and upskilling led by UNESCO and in many ways kickstarted by the work that ITU led during the pandemic to map the digital infrastructure for all schools across the country.

To me, that was UN’ starting point in its engagement in digital learning with the Ministry of Education.

The mapping translated into the 250 schools that were not connected securing broadband connections.

With mapping providing the baseline, UNESCO has adopted a systems approach to digital learning.

Looking at the backend skills and capacities of teachers and data infrastructure to the front-end process of delivering learning outcomes.

• 300,000 teachers are having their digital skills upgraded.
• 500,000 students across the country are gaining access to new digital resources, including migrant children on the Thai-Myanmar border.

This is complemented by digital tools such as tablets that track the number of hours that students read, especially for migrant children, and converts that into monetary support to ensure that they do not drop out of school while they support their families.

At the same time, IOM is partnering with ITU and Chulalongkorn University to enhance migrant workers’ digital capabilities. Already 7,000 migrant workers have been equipped with vital skills.

This pilot can be scaled up and replicated across ASEAN, as Thailand continues to lead the way on digitization for SDG acceleration.

As these examples show, accelerating the SDGs requires systemic approaches of digitization, whose results will be truly transformative.