As well as a Declaration of Principles, the 2003 phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) issued a Plan of Action. Is it being put into effect? The answer is yes: there has been real progress in implementing the plan.

By August 2005, WSIS activities to promote the development of an information society accessible to all had reached a total of 2240 worldwide. Half are being undertaken by governments, just over a quarter by international organizations, and the remainder by civil society, businesses and other entities. About 45 per cent of the activities are national in scope and nearly a third are international; the others are carried out at local or regional levels. More than 70 per cent of the activities are relevant to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

To keep track of projects, WSIS began a "stocktaking" exercise that issued a preliminary report in February 2005 (see ITU News of April 2005). That has now been updated, and a new WSIS Stocktaking Report will be presented to the second phase of WSIS at Tunis in November. The updating process is continuous. And to allow all stakeholders — and the public in general — to gain a clear picture of the details, a searchable database of WSIS activities has been created (www.itu.int/wsis/stocktaking), including hyperlinks to various sources of information. The database is open for new submissions and added information. It is intended as a dynamic resource where anyone can go to find out what the world at large is doing about building the information society.

WSIS activities show the breadth of efforts to bring the benefits of information and communication technologies (ICT) to everyone. Major categories of project include:

This is intended to create opportunities for poor rural individuals, especially women, to become small entrepreneurs as operators of payphones. One of many success stories is that of Ms. Josephine Namala, who owns a small retail shop in the remote village of Lukonda in the Kayunga district of Uganda. Before she began operating her Village Phone business, people in her community had to walk more than 5 kilometres to make a phone call. Now, in the evenings, large groups of people gather in front of her store with FM radios to listen to call-in talk shows; they use her village phone to call the radio stations and make their opinions heard nationally.

The Sushiksha Project is a literacy programme initiated by the Institute for International Social Development. As illiteracy is often coupled with poverty, the project addresses a wide spectrum of social needs, including primary and continuing education, women’s economic independence, youth issues and environmental awareness. The Sushika Project covers a population of at least 50 000 slum dwellers in the Kolkata and Midnapores districts of West Bengal. It uses local content and training in ICT skills as a way to improve people’s lives financially, as well to broaden their horizons and help them achieve their potential.

The government of Colombia has established a national policy on ICT that takes into account the need to protect human rights. The country’s Healthy Internet project, for example, aims to prevent paedophiles and "sexual tourists" from contacting and exploiting children via the Internet. For this purpose, administrative techniques have been developed to inform the community and raise awareness of the issue, with the emphasis on prevention.

By using appropriate trade promotion programmes, Switzerland is helping small and medium-sized companies in developing countries to improve their market access to Switzerland and the European Union, thereby also helping Swiss importers to find new products and sourcing markets. Making effective use of ICT, the Swiss Import Promotion Programme organizes selling missions, trade fair stands and an online business-to-business platform to offer IT companies in developing countries and Swiss importers the opportunity to interact and create business opportunities for all.
 

In the box below is an outline of the goals identified by WSIS, and the prospects for achieving them within the next ten years, based on data from the ITU (2003) World Telecommunication Development Report: Access Indicators for the Information Society, and the World Bank (2005) Tracking ICTs: WSIS Targets. There is still a long way to go in a number of areas. But there can be no doubt that the commitment remains strong among all stakeholders in the emerging Information Society.