1.
By UN General Assembly Resolution 56/183 (21 December, 2001),
the international community has decided to hold a World Summit on the
Information Society. The Summit will be held in two phases, in Geneva,
10-12 December, 2003 and in Tunis in 2005.
2.
The Resolution recommends that an open-ended intergovernmental
preparatory committee should define the agenda of the Summit. It is
important that this process be a transparent one, in which all
stakeholders feel they have an adequate opportunity to contribute.
1.
A draft agenda of themes
3.
In order to assist the PrepCom in its work in determining possible
themes for the agenda, the High-Level Summit Organizing Committee (HLSOC)
has defined a list of possible topics. These are listed below:
- Building
the infrastructure
- Opening
the gates
- Services
and applications
- The
needs of users
- Developing
a framework
- ICTs
and Education
- The
role of ICTs in good governance
4.
These topics are further elaborated in Annex 1 to this document. This
extended list builds upon the themes originally proposed for inclusion in
the Summit by HLSOC members, subsequent discussion and inputs from
a workshop organized by the host country for the first phase,
Switzerland, at Coppet (December, 2001) and ongoing work in the Executive
Secretariat.
2.
The key issues
5. Technologies to
create, process and disseminate information are used in most areas of
modern society. Thus it is to be expected that the information society
will have many dimensions, for instance in business, government, health,
education and so on.
It is important that the scope of the Summit be
comprehensive and, in the words of the UNGA Resolution, that it addresses
“the whole range of relevant issues related to the information
society”. Some of these issues may be treated in side-meetings during
the Summit.
6.
However, it is important that the subjects addressed by the Summit
in Plenary be sufficiently focused to attract the attention of
policy-makers and political leaders at the highest level, and to ensure
that the Summit is action-oriented and practical. PrepCom needs to
determine what the issues are that the Summit is aiming to tackle.
7.
While there are many issues associated with the dawning of the
information society, the themes proposed for the Summit can be clustered
into three main concerns: vision, access and applications (see Annex 1).
- Vision:
What are the shared elements among members of the international
community upon which a common vision of the information society can be
built? What framework and strategy can the international community
develop to ensure that the possible benefits of ICTs for development
are maximized while the possible obstacles and barriers are minimized?
What steps can be taken to reduce or eliminate impediments to
cross-border electronic commerce and to improve the security of
critical network infrastructures?
- Access:
How can the benefits of ubiquitous and affordable ICTs be extended to
all the world’s inhabitants? What mechanism needs to be put into
place to help narrow the digital divide? What policies will assist
users?
- Applications:
How can ICTs be leveraged to help promote the common goals of
humanity, such as those expressed in the UN Millennium Declaration?
3.
Possible Summit outcomes
8.
The UNGA Resolution recommends
that, based on the shared vision developed during the PrepComs, the Summit
may adopt a Declaration of Principles on the fundamentals of the
Information Society of the 21st century. ITU Resolution 73
refers to establishing an overall framework identifying, with the
contribution of all partners, a joint and harmonized understanding of the
information society.
9.
The UNGA Resolution further
recommends that, based on the work of PrepCom, the Summit may adopt a Plan
of Action. ITU Resolution 73 calls for the drawing up of a strategic
plan of action, for concerted development of the information society by
defining an agenda covering the objectives to be achieved and the
resources to be mobilized.
10.
This Plan of Action would be the expression of a consensus among
governments, the private sector, civil society and other major
stakeholders on the roadmap for the way ahead. It should contain concrete
goals and objectives, for instance on the elimination of bottlenecks
hampering the bridging of the digital divide. It should also contain
measurable steps (milestones/benchmarks) for monitoring and evaluation.
One of the strengths of this Summit lies in the fact that it will be held
in two phases, in Geneva in 2003 and in Tunis in 2005. The second phase
will provide an ideal opportunity to assess the effectiveness of this
action plan, and to make further refinements as required.
11.
The Summit should also decide on an appropriate division of tasks
among the different stakeholders so as to ensure effective follow-up,
especially on the Plan of Action. ITU Resolution 73 talks of identifying
the roles of the various partners to ensure smooth coordination of the
establishment in practice of the information society.
12.
In order to achieve these expected outcomes, it is proposed to
structure the discussions around those objectives that are highlighted in
the UNGA Resolution, specifically:
A.
Vision: “To develop a common vision and understanding of the
information society”. This corresponds to
the themes “opening the gates” and “developing a framework”
B.
Access: “To promote the urgently needed access of all the
world’s inhabitants to information, knowledge and communication
technologies for development”. This
corresponds to the themes ”building the infrastructure” and “the
needs of users”.
C.
Applications: “To harness the potential of knowledge and
technology for promoting the goals of the United Nations Millennium
Declaration”. This corresponds to the themes “services and
applications” and “ICTs and education”.
These are discussed in more detail
below.
A.
To develop a common vision and understanding of the information
society
13.
The purpose of the World Summit on the Information Society, as
stated in the Resolution, is to develop a “common
vision and understanding of the information society and the adoption of a
declaration and plan of action for implementation by Governments,
international institutions and all sectors of civil society”.
14.
We live in an Information Society and access to information lies at
the heart of most human activity. Skills in information-handling are
required in most jobs in modern societies and access to information is
seen as a route to wealth and power. Since the 19th century, it
has been possible to send messages, in electronic form, from one part of
the globe to another. Now, in the 21st century, volumes of
information equivalent to the contents of every book ever printed can be
sent from one place to another in a matter of seconds, and billions of web
pages are waiting to be read. Trillions of US Dollars worth of financial
transactions are transferred around the world each day, in digital 1s and
0s.
15.
But the sheer quantity of information available should not mask the
fact that access to information, and the means to use it, is unequally
shared. Extremes of wealth and poverty are just as stark in the world of
information as in the world of goods and services. Information poverty is
a fact of life for many of the world’s citizens. Information
about goods and services makes markets work and brings new ones within the
reach of local producers. Information about diseases, their prevention,
and associated remedies is the key to health care. Information about the
world in which we live enables learning to take place. Information allows
good governance to occur and improves the delivery of government services.
The fear is
that, as more and more of human activity becomes directly dependent on
access to information, inequalities in access will make other development
gaps even harder to bridge. Information and communication technologies (ICTs)
enable us to create and extract economic value from information. Without
access to ICTs, the poor will get poorer.
16.
In this part of the agenda, it is anticipated that participants
will seek to gain consensus on a framework for the basic principles upon
which a common vision should be based. This may be used as the basis for
drafting the declaration of principles, to be adopted by the Summit.
B.
To promote the urgently needed access of all the world’s
inhabitants to information, knowledge and communication technologies for
development
17.
The UN Millennium Declaration includes a specific commitment to
ensure that the benefits of new technologies, especially ICTs, are
available to all. Access to information, and thereby to the creation of
knowledge, is considered a critical factor in the development process. On
the one hand, this requires an adequate range of ICT networks and
services. On the other hand, it implies the ability to use those tools to
develop applications that benefit society (learning by doing). But both
the tools and the ability to use them are unevenly distributed.
18.
Despite considerable progress in recent years, access to ICTs,
notably the telephone, mobilephone, Internet and broadcast networks,
remains unequally distributed.
There are, for example, more televisions in Brazil; more fixed line
telephones in Italy; more mobilephones in Korea; and greater Internet
connectivity in Luxembourg; than in the whole continent of
Africa. Yet the population of Africa, and the needs of its people, greatly
exceeds those of these other countries.
19.
In recent years, these disparities have come to be known as the
“digital divide”. In this part of the agenda, it will be possible to
reflect on the scale of the divide and the multiple causes of it. But
beyond this, the Summit will provide an opportunity to evaluate those
success stories that have allowed an increasing number of developing
countries to develop world-class ICT networks and services. For many, the
route to success has involved a combination of private sector
participation, market liberalization and the creation of independent
regulatory agencies. It is anticipated that country case studies, designed
to illustrate best practice examples, will provide an important input to
the work of the Summit.
20.
In passing the Resolution, UN Members States declared themselves to
be convinced of the need, at the highest political level, to marshal
the global consensus and commitment required to promote the urgently
needed access of all countries to information, knowledge and communication
technologies for development so as to reap the full benefits of the
information and communication technologies revolution. Under this part
of the agenda, the global consensus and commitment needs to be converted
into a plan of action. This would be geared towards converting the digital
divide into a digital opportunity.
C.
To harness the potential of knowledge and technology for promoting
the goals of the United Nations Millennium Declaration
21.
The Resolution 56/183 recognises the urgent
need to harness the potential of knowledge and technology for promoting
the goals of the United Nations Millennium Declaration
and to find effective and innovative ways to put
this potential at the service of development for all.
22.
The UN Millennium Summit, in 2000, defined a set of goals to be
achieved for a more peaceful, prosperous and just world. That
Declaration contains a commitment to “ensure that the benefits of new
technologies, especially information and communication technologies …
are available to all”. While access to ICTs can educate, entertain
and enrich our lives, ICTs, together with other tools, can also play a
part in helping to achieve the much broader goals of the Millennium
Declaration.
The Millennium Declaration goals can be divided into four sub-themes that
may help structure the plan of action, which will be developed at the
Summit:
C1.
Development
and poverty eradication
23.
Few people have ever died because they did not have access to the
Internet or could not make a telephone call. Among the necessities of
life, ICTs come well down the scale. But it is much easier to deliver the
real necessities of life—such as clean water, nourishing food, shelter,
education, healthcare, and employment—with good access to information
and communications. The Millennium Declaration contains commitments to
halve, by the year 2015, the proportion of the world’s population living
on less than one US dollar per day, suffering from hunger or having no
access to drinking water. It also contains commitments on achieving
universal primary education for both boys and girls, reducing maternal and
child mortality, improving healthcare and achieving significant
improvements in the life of slum dwellers. ICTs can help in achieving all
of these goals. An illustration of this is provided in Annex 2 to this
document.
C2.
Democracy and governance
24.
The Millennium Declaration commits governments to the rule of law,
while respecting internationally recognised human rights and fundamental
freedoms. It also contains a commitment to ensuring
the freedom of the media to perform their essential role and the right of
the public to have access to information.
ICTs can play a significant role in the creation
of good governance models, through improving access to government
processes and connecting citizens. It is through ICTs that hitherto
marginalized voices will be heard. ICT development encourages government
activities to be increasingly accountable and transparent. ICTs can also
assist in empowering disadvantaged populations to overcome difficulties
through community networking and knowledge sharing.
C3.
Our
common heritage
25.
The Millennium Declaration makes a commitment to protect all
humanity, and especially future generations, from living on a planet
irredeemably spoilt by human activities or where resources are no longer
sufficient for needs. ICTs today play a central role in the global fight
to reduce pollution while increasing environmentally-friendly economic
development. Cultural and linguistic diversity is also an important part
of our common heritage and, like the physical environment, is worthy of
being cherished and protected. ICTs provide new channels for the
expression of this diversity and for the worldwide dissemination of
locally created content.
C4.
Protecting the vulnerable and meeting the special needs of
Africa
26.
The Millennium Declaration acknowledges the special problems
experienced by the vulnerable communities, such as the Least Developed
Countries, Small Island Developing States and landlocked countries. It
recognises the need to bring Africa into the mainstream of the world economy.
Vulnerable communities are even more dependent than others on ICTs because
of their physical isolation. While the digital divide has been narrowing
for middle-income developing countries, it has actually been widening for
the very poorest countries, especially in terms of connectivity to the
international Internet backbone. The Summit can help to focus world
attention on these problems.
4.
Proposed process for setting the agenda and developing content
27.
The UNGA Resolution recommends that the preparations for the
Summit take place through an open-ended intergovernmental preparatory
committee. It also encourages effective contributions from, and
active participation of, a wide range of bodies including UN agencies
and other inter-governmental organizations, non-governmental
organizations, civil society and the private sector.
28.
In order to ensure that the process is transparent, a number of
steps have already been taken:
·
In the first instance, the establishment
of the High Level Summit Organizing Committee created a basis for
contributions to the themes of the Summit from the international United
Nations family. All the members of the HLSOC have engaged to provide
specific information about their work that will help develop the Summit
themes. These contributions will be posted on the WSIS website and will be
summarized in a separate document to PrepCom 1.
·
To ensure an open process for
contributions to the Summit agenda, an Executive Secretariat (ES)
was established using facilities provided at the International
Telecommunication Union, Geneva. The ES has a mandate, inter alia,
to “prepare draft agendas and draft documents for the PrepComs”. The
composition of the Executive Secretariat is intended to facilitate
contributions from major stakeholder groups including staff from Member
States, staff from the UN specialized agencies participating in the HLSOC,
staff from the private sector and staff from civil society.
·
Another major step in developing the
agenda and themes of the Summit involves a consultation process
with governments, ahead of PrepCom 1, through informal consultations with
the Missions in Geneva. Consultations with other stakeholder groups will
also make a contribution to the development of the Summit themes.
·
As part of the ongoing process of
consultations, a number of regional conferences and thematic
meetings have been held or are being prepared to enable stakeholders
to focus on the issues that will be discussed at the Summit.
29.
It is important that the government stakeholders, who are at the
centre of the Summit intergovernmental process, have an opportunity not
only to state their views but also to receive input from other
stakeholders in ways that allow diverse views from different sources to be
taken into account. The PrepCom may wish to take into account the
important work done by the G-8 DOT force, the UN ICT Task Force, the
Digital Opportunity Initiative, and many other related initiatives, as
well as work carried out at major international meetings, such as the ITU
World Telecommunication Development Conference and Plenipotentiary
Conference in 2002. The PrepCom should also consider work carried out by
public and private foundations, associations and international
inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations.
30.
The central requirement for setting the agenda and determining the
possible themes for the Summit is that the process be transparent and
clearly established. It is intended that PrepCom 1 engage in a first
discussion of the themes and agenda of the Summit. Following PrepCom 1,
regional conferences organized by governments and thematic meetings will
be held to produce additional views on the themes, agenda and output,
including regional perspectives. These inputs, consisting largely of the
views of governments, will then be channeled into PrepCom 2, which is
tentatively set for 24 March through 4 April 2003 in Geneva.
In addition, the second PrepCom will also be an opportunity for the UN
agencies, and other stakeholders to provide written contributions that can
be considered by that meeting in developing the themes, agenda and output.
The third PrepCom, in the third quarter of 2003, will provide further
opportunity to refine and focus the themes, agenda and output, leading to
the first phase of the Summit in Geneva in December 2003.
31.
For the sake of transparency and inclusiveness, other avenues can
be explored to allow a wider audience to offers its views on the key
issues of the Summit and to be informed. It is proposed therefore that the
WSIS website be used not only for posting this document, but also for
posting comments and responses to it. For that reason, comments should be
sent to the WSIS Secretariat, if possible in electronic format, to: inputs-wsis@itu.int.
All comments will be posted on the public website unless the contributor
specifically requests otherwise. In addition, the input documents
submitted from HLSOC members, and the outputs from regional conferences
and from thematic meetings will also be posted on the website.
Annex
1: An illustration of the range of issues that may be relevant to the
Information Society
Annex
2: How information and communication technologies (ICTs) can
help achieve broader development objectives, such as the Millennium
Declaration Goals (MDGs)
Target
|
Role of ICTs
|
·
Reduce
the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by half
between 1990 and 2015
|
·
Increase access to market information and reduce
transaction costs for poor farmers and traders
·
Increase
efficiency, competitiveness and market access of developing
country firms
·
Enhance
ability of developing countries to participate in global
economy and to exploit comparative advantage in factor costs
(particularly skilled labour)
|
·
Reduce
infant and child mortality rates by two-thirds between 1990
and 2015
·
Reduce
maternal mortality rates by three-quarters between 1990 and
2015
·
Provide
access to basic health services for all by 2015
|
·
Enhance
delivery of basic and in-service training for health workers
·
Increase
monitoring and information-sharing on disease and famine
·
Increase
access of rural care-givers to specialist support and remote
diagnosis
·
Increase
access to basic health information, including on reproductive
health care and AIDS prevention, through locally-appropriate
content in local languages
|
·
Implement
national strategies for sustainable development by 2005 so as
to reverse the loss of environmental resources by 2015
|
·
Remote
sensing technologies and communications networks permit more
effective monitoring, resource management, mitigation of
environmental risks
·
Increase
access to/awareness of sustainable development strategies, in
areas such as agriculture, sanitation and water management,
mining, etc.
·
Greater
transparency and monitoring of environmental
abuses/enforcement of environmental regulations
·
Facilitate
knowledge exchange and networking among policy makers,
practitioners and advocacy groups
|
·
Enroll
all children in primary schools by 2015
·
Make
progress toward gender equality and empowering women by
eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary
education by 2005
|
·
Increase
supply of trained teachers through ICT-enhanced and distance
training of teachers and networks that link teachers to their
colleagues
·
Improve
the efficiency and effectiveness of education ministries and
related bodies through strategic application of technologies
and ICT-enabled skill development
·
Broaden
availability of quality educational materials/resources
through ICTs
·
Deliver
educational and literacy programmes specifically targeted to
poor girls & women using appropriate technologies
·
Influence
public opinion on gender equality through
information/communication programmes using a range of ICTs
|
Source:
ITU World Telecommunication Development Report 2002:
Reinventing Telecoms, adapted from United Kingdom Department
for International Development (DFID). The significance of
information and communication technologies for reducing poverty.
January 2002.
|
|