The Istanbul Declaration

The Istanbul Declaration highlights the fact that the reduction of the Digital Divide will not only bring opportunities to countries but will also create the conditions to derive benefits from the implementation of new services and applications. It stresses that the emergence of a conducive environment and entrepreneurial approaches to providing service and more cost-effective technologies, may provide an opportunity for more rapid deployment of telecommunication services in rural and remote areas. It also underlines the fact that community access to ICTs is one of the most cost-effective ways of achieving universal access in many developing countries. The Declaration urges all stakeholders to make their contribution to extend the benefits of ICTs to all peoples. In particular, it urges Governments to establish an enabling environment which promotes reasonable and affordable access to basic telecommunication services for all.

The Istanbul Action Plan

The multi-pronged Istanbul Action Plan consists of:

1. six programmes
2. two cross-cutting supporting activities
3. special initiatives on private sector as well as on gender, youth and the indigenous people
4. action to be taken by ITU Members including world and regional telecommunication development conferences, regional evaluation meetings, and the work of experts in the framework of Study Groups activities

In implementing this Action Plan, three different types of actions will be undertaken: programmes, activities and initiatives. Programmes are actions that utilize expertise in specific domains. Activities are actions that provide cross-cutting support to the programmes, study groups and initiatives. Initiatives are targeted measures designed to address special needs identified as priorities.

Istanbul Action Plan programmes

The six programmes of the Action Plan are considered important and relevant tools for narrowing the Digital Divide. The work of the six programmes will be complemented and enhanced by initiatives that foster digital participation, targeting the ICTs needs of special groups including women, youth and indigenous peoples, which takes into consideration the impact of ICTs on these special groups.

• Programme 1 - Regulatory Reform

  The programme on regulatory reform seeks to assist regulators and policy-makers in developing and implementing policies, legislation and regulations aimed at sustainable development as well as expanding access and use of telecommunications, including broadcasting, and information and communication technologies (ICTs). The focus of the programme will be to assist Members in engaging in reform the most effectively to meet their national telecommunication/ICT development, access and use goals. To this end, it has been designed to provide practical solutions to enable effective regulation, particularly in response to convergence trends whereby similar services can be delivered over different types of networks.

• Programme 2 - Technologies and Telecommunication network development

  Under this programme, activities will focus on applied research and the transfer of technological knowledge to developing countries and economies in transition related to planning, building, operating, upgrading, managing and maintaining telecommunication networks. The network planning activities in this programme will incorporate traffic and demand forecasting, network management, including spectrum management and radio monitoring, interconnectivity, interoperability and quality of service standards for wireline and wireless networks, terrestrial mobile communications and broadcasting. Priority will be given to spectrum management and radio monitoring, broadcasting, network planning, mobile terrestrial communications and innovative networks.

• Programme 3 - E-strategies and E-services/applications

  This new programme seeks to assist developing countries, through the use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) and telecommunication networks, in enhancing access to and use of secure, cost-effective and beneficial value-added socio-economic e-services/applications. The goal is to ensure sustainability and affordability in the development of telecommunication networks and ICTs and to harness the potential of ICTs, so as to contribute to reducing the social divide. The integration of IP-based applications and value-added services in the development of all telecommunication networks will be given priority as will the promotion of e-services/applications in developing countries such as e-government, e-commerce, e-agriculture, tele-health, e-community, e-learning, e-cinema, tele-working and webcasting). Other priorities of this programme include the expansion of multipurpose platforms (MPP) and multipurpose community telecentres (MCT), the promotion of a favourable legal environment for e-services/applications and the enhancement of security and confidence building in the use of public networks for e?services/applications. Special attention will be given to ICT literacy and public awareness building.

• Programme 4 - Economics and Finance, including Cost and Tariffs

  In today's deregulated and competitive world environment, it is essential to put into place different mechanisms to promote private investment where public investment has become unlikely, and implement the appropriate public or private-public partnership funding mechanisms where it is requested. Given that private investment occurs where profits are at least commensurate with the risks incurred, Members require assistance in identifying the success factors and in facilitating their implementation in order to provide service at equitable, affordable and cost-orientated prices.

  Under this programme, the ITU will assist developing countries and especially LDCs to develop and implement financing policies and strategies appropriate to their economic situation, including cost-orientated pricing, with a view to fostering equitable and affordable access to innovative and sustainable services. The focus will be on the introduction of new financing schemes for the development of their telecommunication/ICT networks and services, including broadcasting; universal access programmes through the identification of economically viable projects; the integration of policy and strategy changes in the trade environment of telecommunication/ICT services and finally the determination of cost of retail services and cost-based interconnection rates.

• Programme 5 - Human capacity building

  The availability of a strong base of competencies in all key areas of telecommunication and ICTs has been identified as one of the key problems facing developing countries in telecommunication development. This programme will therefore work towards strengthening the human, institutional and organizational capacity of developing countries through human resource management and development activities. These human capacity building measures are expected to facilitate a smooth transition to the current telecommunication and ICT environment. The programme will particularly address capacity development needs of policy-makers and regulators at the government level, as well as senior executives and managers at the operator and telecommunication/ICT service provider level, by using an appropriate mix of e-learning, information technologies and traditional training methodologies.

• Programme 6 - Special programme for Least Developed Countries

  The goal of this programme is to provide focused and differentiated assistance to the world's least developed countries in all the development activities of ITU to fully meet the urban telecommunication needs of LDCs and to provide access in rural areas. Concretely, the programme seeks to increase the average telephone density to 5 main lines per 100 inhabitants and Internet connections to 10 users per 100 inhabitants by the year 2010.

  Whilst the strategy, implemented in the previous four years, of selecting a few countries to benefit from concentrated assistance on a yearly basis has improved the provision of assistance, a new delivery mechanism is now proposed. For the next four years, a biennial approach will be used to direct assistance to twelve countries for a period of two years rather than six countries per year to allow for a more sustained follow-up of actions taken, including possible evaluation, and a mustering of partnerships through Partnership Round Tables and other means of mobilizing resources. The increased number of countries is expected to widen the delivery of assistance without compromising the effectiveness of the initiative through the length of the delivery time of two years. Given that half of the LDCs (20 countries) have now been covered under the old strategy, the modified strategy will make it possible to deliver assistance to all the remaining countries during the next cycle and possibly to start a second round for the most needy ones.

  Priority areas for this programme are: Development of rural telecommunications to bring about easy access to telecommunication services in the rural areas where a majority of the population in LDCs lives; Development of infrastructure and introduction of new technologies and services through which LDCs will receive assistance on technological choice; Sector restructuring to bring about liberalization and competition and, possibly, privatization as applicable with the objective of inducing faster network growth and better management of the sector; Human resources development/management; Financing and partnerships, aimed at pooling resources and directing the aggregated resources to LDCs so as to avoid duplication of effort and wastage of resources as well as to avoid spreading the meagre resources thinly, resulting in no or little impact being made in beneficiary countries. Bilateral initiatives between the programme and its constellation of contacts will also be promoted so as to attract financial inflows to LDCs.

  In parallel, ITU's roster of countries emerging from war and civil strife and natural disasters was expanded to include Afghanistan, East Timor, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea and Guinea-Bissau. There was support for creating a specific budget for these countries in special need, to supplement financial support through surplus funds generated at ITU TELECOM exhibitions. They will receive assistance in various areas, especially in restoring infrastructure that was destroyed, and putting in place new networks in a bid to jump-start their telecommunication sector.

Study Group work programme

In addition to programmes, the Action Plan includes a series of studies to be undertaken by the membership in the next four years, to propose best practices, recommendations and policy guideline for the benefit of developing countries. The new topics, called "Questions", which have been approved at the Conference reflect both the key preoccupations of developing countries and cover a wide range of issues from universal access to interconnection and introduction of IP technologies, from e-commerce and tele-health to the migration of mobile networks from first or second to third-generation or migration from circuit-switched to packet-switched networks.

New questions also include issues such as the domestic enforcement of laws, rules and regulations on telecoms by national telecoms regulatory authorities, satellite regulation and the valuation of spectrum to enable developing countries, and in particular LDCs, to elaborate a national frequency fee calculation model for the various charges and fees levied on spectrum users.

Other measures adopted by the Conference with respect with Study Groups include a number of improvements in the working methods including a greater level of synergy between the activities of the study groups and those of the BDT and the flexibility for study groups to set up focus groups or project groups to address specific issues that require rapid reaction in order to meet the requirements of developing countries in a timely manner.

Cross-cutting Activities

To support the six programmes and the Study Groups, the Action Plan includes two cross-cutting activities: Statistics and information on Telecommunications/ICT and Partnerships and Promotion.

• Statistics and Information on Telecommunications/ICTs

Statistics, and analysis explaining trends and reasons behind the trends, are crucial for benchmarking countries, evaluating e-readiness and making informed national policy, legislation and regulation choices for information and communication technology (ICTs)/telecommunication development. Statistics and analysis form the basis for objective and measurable indicators on what is happening in the global information economy and society.

The Telecommunication Development Bureau has therefore been tasked to continue its work in data collection and analysis forming the basis for its World Telecommunication Development Report, and Yearbook of Statistics. In addition, it will produce reports providing comparisons of e-readiness and recommendations to improve e-readiness.

It will also conduct case studies and produce reports highlighting telecommunication/ICT market developments and trends and to identify advantages and disadvantages in order to elaborate best practice guidelines. It will provide expert assistance to countries on how to collect, compile and disseminate telecommunication/ICT indicators and will organize symposia/seminars for regulators, national statistical agencies, telecommunication/ICT organizations and policy makers which provide a forum for the exchange of opinions, views and experiences among countries on collection and use of such indicators. Seminars will also be organized in collaboration with regional/sub-regional telecommunication organizations to provide a forum for the discussion of Digital Divide issues including Internet development and barriers, comparison of regional and global development.

• Partnerships and Promotion

In order mobilize additional resources to support development projects, the Telecommunication Development Bureau will develop and implement strategies and campaigns to promote public-private sector partnerships and strengthen the role of the private sector in the telecommunication development. To this end, the BDT will create a new access Portal to Private Sector Investment Initiatives, with an entry by country, giving easy access to direct investment favourable information (e.g. success stories, projects for environment improvement) or links to information provided by other organizations. A partnerships database of all kinds of partnership agreements between BDT and private and public sector organizations and companies will also be created and participation of various types of partners in the development of networks and services will be facilitated by promoting mutually beneficial partnerships and alliances. Other measures include the identification of quantitative as well as qualitative needs for partnerships and the development of partnerships agreements models.

Special Initiatives

• Private sector

  Partnership round tables and colloquia to strengthen cooperation with the private sector have proved successful in mobilizing resources and facilitating partnerships for various initiatives, such as special actions for LDCs and human resources development. To build on the success of these partnership activities, the Istanbul Action Plan includes special action to encourage more private sector entities to become members and to partner with telecommunication entities in developing countries, especially with those in the least developed countries, based on the principles of transparency and non-exclusivity to partnership opportunities and projects.

  The Working Group of the Telecommunication Development Advisory Group dealing with private sector issues was tasked with recommending ways by which private sector issues relevant to sector members could be incorporated into the strategy, programme design and project delivery of the development sector. It would also propose changes to ITU-D processes, practices and projects to facilitate and encourage private sector support, cooperation and participation.

• Gender

  In view of a pledge from Norway (see itu.int/newsarchive/press_releases/2002/09.html) to fund the establishment of a gender unit in ITU-D, gender-based initiatives were established in each of the programmes of the Istanbul Action Plan. The Plenipotentiary will be asked to consider the establishment of a gender unit with full-time professional gender expertise, so that gender mainstreaming for ITU as a whole is sustained.

• Youth

  The Conference also asked to find ways to integrate youth issues into the activities of the BDT. The BDT was tasked with establishing a mechanism for coordinating with the Youth Forum, launched at ITU Africa TELECOM 2001 and to promote the capabilities of youth in ICTs as a means to link the ITU's development efforts with the leaders of tomorrow. (see also itu.int/newsarchive/press_releases/2002/07.html)

• Indigenous people

  Considering that the cultural development of a country needs to recognize both majority and minority cultures within the population and that access to telecommunication systems by indigenous peoples has a particular set of issues associated with it, the Conference decided to include in the Istanbul Action Plan a special initiative aimed at creating among indigenous people awareness of the benefits of telecommunications. Particular attention will be paid to identifying the barriers to access to telecommunication systems and recommending ways to overcome them.

The Conference wound up at 21:50 on Wednesday, 27 March.