The objective of the United Nations (UN) to achieve universal health coverage (UHC) by 2030 is practically a utopia, even with the contribution of ICTs, as evidenced in a panel held yesterday at WTDC 2017. Gift Kallisto Machengete, Director General of the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe, stressed that technology exists, but it is not equally distributed, and UHC is an unattainable goal for countries without potable water or infrastructure, or suffering from unemployment, corruption and hunger.

Both the Zimbabwean representative and audience members from Africa agreed to ask the present ITU member - Yushi Torigoe, Deputy Director of the Development Office - for a clear road map and new funding sources for countries with fewer resources, to which Torigoe responded with promises of "greater collaboration" and agreements with other entities, such as Unesco and FAO, for example.