Global Digital Solidarity Fund
inauguratedGeneva becomes the Fund’s capital
“Let us act together, locally and
globally, to ensure that the digital opportunities provided by the
emerging information society promote a fairer, more equitable and
more cooperative society.” Digital
Solidarity Fund Charter
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Laurent Guiraud/Tribune de Genève |
On 14 March 2005, the Global Digital Solidarity Fund was inaugurated in
Geneva with several Heads of State,
government ministers, mayors and
other distinguished personalities from
around the world attending the inaugural ceremony. The mission of the
newly inaugurated Fund is to promote and finance development
projects that will enable marginalized
people and countries to join the information society. The Global Digital
Solidarity Fund relies on voluntary
commitment of stakeholders and is
complementary to existing funding
mechanisms.
“Many ideas never even leave the
planning stages, let alone get tried out.
But this was not the case with the
Digital Solidarity Fund,” commented
Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary-General of
the ITU and Secretary-General of the
World Summit on the Information
Society (WSIS). “Nothing ventured,
nothing gained,” he said. “I am proud
that, through all its work with the
WSIS process, ITU has been able to
provide the fertile soil for this acorn
to grow and mature in,” he added.
In a message delivered on his behalf
by Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Director-General of the United Nations Office
at Geneva, the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, had this
to say: “The Digital Solidarity Fund
should be seen as a concrete manifestation of our efforts to achieve the
Millennium Development Goals and
to seek the innovative sources of financing for development called for in
the Monterrey Consensus. It can help
harness the potential of information
and communication technologies (ICT) to empower poor and marginalized people. It embodies the spirit
of partnership among stakeholders
that is so essential for success. It builds
on grassroots aspirations and recognizes the key role of local authorities.
And it will help forge close and productive ties with the private sector.”
The digital divide:
A unique problem that
deserves a special response
and solution
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Laurent Guiraud/Tribune de Genève
Michel Barnier, President Abdoulaye Wade,
Micheline Calmy-Rey and
Christian Ferrazino |
President Olusegun Obasanjo of
Nigeria inaugurated the Fund in his
capacity as Chairman of the African
Union at the ceremony he chaired
with Guy-Olivier Segond (Switzerland), President of the Global Digital
Solidarity Fund. President Obasanjo
called for a collective effort to dismantle existing obstacles to empowering
poor communities and nations. This
includes checking prohibitive pricing of
technology and technology products
and expanding access to training. He
deplored the digital divide: “It is unacceptable that though the developed
world has only 15 per cent of the
world’s population, it controls more
than 75 per cent of Internet users. In
spite of the efforts of developing country governments, most school children have never had access to manual
typewriters, and much less to modern ICT infrastructure now critical to
development and learning.”
Micheline Calmy-Rey, Federal
Councillor, Department of Foreign
Affairs of the Swiss Confederation,
also decried the alarming gap. Ms
Calmy-Rey said that more than 80 per
cent of the world’s population had no
access to information technology. She
added that the digital divide does not
only exist between poor and rich
countries. It also exists in the developed world between cities and villages, between men and women, and
between the young and the elderly.
She stressed the importance of giving
women, who make up the majority
of the world’s population, a true place
in an information society that is so
predominantly male.
President Abdoulaye Wade of
Senegal, Founding Father of the
Digital Solidarity Fund, said that in
Africa there is, on average, one computer for every 5000 inhabitants. He
praised the Fund as a decisive step
to boost the development of ICT in
the developing world. Transparency
and efficiency will be the watchwords
for the smooth operation of the
Fund, he said. Margarita Cedeño de Fernández, the
First Lady of the Dominican Republic,
reaffirmed her country’s support for
the Fund, highlighting Government
efforts to close the digital divide. The
Office of the First Lady has been appointed to implement a number of
projects in this Caribbean country of
8.6 million inhabitants. More than 3
million of these people are without
access to technologies, and are excluded from the development process and the potential benefits that
globalization could offer. “We have
developed a comprehensive and
very ambitious plan to install 135
Community Technology Centers,
one in each municipality throughout
the country, so that those extremely
poor communities have the opportunity to be a part of the development process,” the First Lady said.
She cited the thoughts of the renowned French author Victor Hugo
for all to reflect upon: “The future has
many names. For the weak, it is
unachievable. For the fearful, it is unknown. For the courageous it is an
opportunity.”
Other speakers at the ceremony
were President Abdelaziz Bouteflika
of the People’s Democratic Republic
of Algeria; President Teodoro Obiang
Nguema Mbasogo of the Republic of
Equatorial Guinea; Michel Barnier,
Minister for Foreign Affairs of France;
Mohamed Benaïssa, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of the
Kingdom of Morocco; Christian
Ferrazino, Vice-Mayor of the city of
Geneva and Spokesperson for the
Global Digital Solidarity Fund; Gérard
Collomb Senator Mayor of Lyon,
representing the United Cities and
Local Governments; and Pierre
Muller, Mayor of the city of Geneva.
New contributions
to the Fund
President Obasanjo donated EUR
500 000 and pledged administrative and technical support for the
Fund’s projects. President Bouteflika announced a contribution of USD
500 000, adding that his country was
joining the Global Digital Solidarity
Fund as a founding member. Mr
Benaïssa, representing His Majesty
King Mohammed VI of Morocco, announced the Monarch’s decision for
the Kingdom to become a founding
member of the Fund and pledged
EUR 300 000. Mr Barnier reiterated
the French Government’s support for
this “ fair and brilliant” idea of solidarity and donated EUR 300 000 from
France. President Nguema Mbasogo
of Equatorial Guinea pledged EUR
300 000.
An idea whose time
has come
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DSF
President
Olusegun Obasanjo with Guy-Olivier Segond |
When the idea of a voluntary Digital Solidarity Fund was first mooted,
it sparked much controversy. Backers
of the Fund wanted it adopted as a
new way to help countries that are
technologically disadvantaged to improve or build infrastructure in a bid
to narrow the digital gap between
developed and developing countries.
Sceptics expressed their misgivings. In
the end, the lack of consensus led the
Geneva phase of the Summit to request the United Nations Secretary-General to set up a task force to study
existing and new financing mechanisms, including the proposed voluntary Digital Solidarity Fund, and report back to the second phase of the
Summit in Tunis in November 2005.
However, the prime movers of the
Digital Solidarity Fund could not see
this idea put on hold until Tunis 2005.
For them, mere declarations of intent were simply, not good enough.“ I
saw many parties become involved
in lengthy discussions over the idea
of a new fund for ICT development,”
Mr Utsumi recalled. “They even created a task force to investigate the
existing funds. But, in the meantime,
the organizers of the Digital Solidarity Fund had already taken concrete
steps. Truly, actions did speak louder
than words,” he told participants.
Indeed, on the final day of WSIS (12
December 2003), the mayors of
Geneva and the French city of Lyon,
the President of the Province of Turin
(Italy) and President Wade of Senegal
formed a committee and created
the Digital Solidarity Fund. The city
of Geneva donated USD 395 000
and Lyon donated 368 000 to the
proposed Fund, with Senegal contributing USD 500 000, bringing the
total to EUR 1 million. By this time,
the idea of creating the Fund had already received the support of a
number of municipalities and regional
governments at the World Summit
of Cities and Local Authorities on the
Information Society (Lyon, 4–5 December 2003).
President Wade initially proposed
the concept of “digital solidarity” to a WSIS Preparatory Committee meeting in February 2003 in his capacity
as coordinator of ICT matters within
the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).
Special tribute was paid to President
Wade for championing the cause of
the South in the emerging information society. For many participants in
the inaugural ceremony, he has been
a solid pillar for promoting special
financial mechanisms designed to
enable developing countries, especially the low-income ones, to join
the information society.
The Geneva Principle
The Digital Solidarity Fund is sustained through the voluntary commitment of
public authorities and/or private entities that decide to implement a new
financing mechanism for development known as the “Geneva Principle”. This
principle involves a 1 per cent contribution on public ICT procurement
contracts. On 1 January 2005, the city of Geneva adopted (and is already
applying) the Geneva Principle, according to which public authorities commit to
include “a digital solidarity clause” in all their calls for bids pertaining to
the purchase of ICT equipment and services. This digital solidarity clause
requires the company that wins the bid to contribute 1 per cent of the total
amount of the transaction, paid on its profit margin, to the Digital Solidarity
Fund. This 1 per cent contribution gives the right to use the “Digital
Solidarity Fund” label.
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