From the information society to the intelligent one
The WSIS process turned twenty and was handed another decade. Bogdan-Martin’s opening treated that as a mandate rather than a milestone, and the framing she chose is the one worth keeping: the principles WSIS was built on in 2003 are not obsolete in the age of AI, they are in higher demand.
She then made the institutional claim that gives the Forum its reason to exist, tying it directly to the Global Digital Compact: every major commitment in the Compact has been mapped onto the eleven WSIS Action Lines, with accountability running through the Commission on Science and Technology for Development and ECOSOC to the General Assembly.
Three numbers for 2035
Her roadmap to 2035 had three parts, and each carried a figure that doubles as a measurement problem.
Close the divide. Global internet use reached 74% at the end of 2025, which she called progress worth being proud of, and 2.2 billion people remain completely offline. Her named barriers were affordability, relevant content and services, and digital skills, which is a reminder that connectivity is not a binary anyone should be counting as one.
Close the financing gap. ITU puts the cost of universal meaningful connectivity by 2030 at roughly $2.6 to $2.8 trillion. Against it, she reported the Partner2Connect coalition standing at about $82 billion in pledges, against a $100 billion goal, and teased further commitments later that day.
Build AI capacity. The third priority was the one that connects this Forum to the rest of Geneva’s week, and it is the sharpest sentence in the speech.
The number moved that afternoon
The teased commitments materialised. Later on 8 July, ITU announced that Partner2Connect had passed its target, reporting 1,089 pledges from more than 500 entities across 149 countries, worth an estimated $121 billion. The goal was met a year early.
It is worth holding both numbers at once, which is the discipline this site exists for. A coalition mobilising $121 billion in pledges is a real achievement. It is also, against a $2.6 to $2.8 trillion requirement, about four to five percent of what universal meaningful connectivity is estimated to cost, and a pledge is not a disbursement. The Forum’s own accounting will have to distinguish the two.
Proximity into partnership
Bogdan-Martin was explicit that the co-location of the three Geneva processes was not accidental. The Global Dialogue on AI Governance had concluded the previous evening; the AI for Good Global Summit was running next door.
The closing thought was a governance one rather than a technological one: the renewed mandate was adopted in New York, but it will be delivered by the people in Geneva and beyond.
Why it matters for the SDGs
WSIS maps its Action Lines onto the goals directly, and this opening spoke to SDG 9 (infrastructure and connectivity), SDG 10 (inequality, in the form of the divide), SDG 4 (digital skills) and SDG 17 (financing and partnerships). The measurement point is that 74% connected is a headline that conceals the harder question the ITU itself raises: meaningful connectivity, not mere access, is the target, and the world does not yet count it consistently. That is the same gap the statistics and AI side event in New York described from the other end.
Watch & read
- WSIS Forum 2026, official site · WSIS on YouTube, the source recording.
- ITU: Partner2Connect surpasses $100 billion (8 July 2026).
- ITU Facts and Figures 2025, the source of the 74% and 2.2 billion figures.
- WSIS+20 Outcome Document, the review this Forum implements. Our brief.
- Full WSIS Forum 2026 coverage.
WSIS publishes no official transcript. Quotations are lightly edited from an automated (Otter.ai) transcript of the recorded video and should be read as close paraphrase. The recording is undated; the date above is inferred from the speaker’s own references, to the Global Dialogue having concluded the previous evening and to Partner2Connect commitments expected later the same day, which ITU announced on 8 July. Connectivity and financing figures were checked against ITU’s published statistics.