Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development

The Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development (until 2015: Digital Development) was established in May 2010 as a joint initiative by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to promote Internet access. In particular, broadband networks were thought to help the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), announced by the United Nations in 2000 which had a target date of 2015. The Commission was renamed the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, following the adoption of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals in September 2015.

Members include, policy-makers and government representatives, international agencies, academia and organizations concerned with development. In addition to its chairs and vice-chairs, 51 commissioners included Jeff Sachs, Muhammad Yunus, Hans Vestberg, Mo Ibrahim and Martin Sorrell.

Donors include Grupo Carso, Digicel Group, Bharti Enterprises, Intel, Ooredoo, Ericsson, Cisco and the Mo Ibrahim Foundation.

The Broadband Commission engages in high-level advocacy to promote broadband in developing countries and underserved communities to promote achievement of the MDGs by 2015. One of the Commission’s stated goals is to advocate that broadband infrastructure be given the highest priority level in future development policy and city planning frameworks. To date, the Commission’s output has included several major reports, including “A 2010 Leadership Imperative: The Future Built on Broadband” presented to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in September 2010, before the 2010 United Nations MDG Summit in New York. The document constitutes a concise, high-level report that directly reflects inputs from the Commission’s community of high-level business executives and policy-makers and contains a number of policy recommendations and “Declaration of Broadband Inclusion for All”. In October 2011, the Commission jointly co-hosted a Broadband Leadership Summit with ITU Telecom World preceding the ITU Telecom World 2011 event. The Summit convened a number of Heads of State, leading CEOs, senior policy-makers and visionaries from across the ICT sector to debate the issues that matter in the deployment of broadband infrastructure and services. The Commission’s second report – Broadband: A Platform for Progress – was launched during the Summit.

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