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The year 2010 marks the mid-point between
the Tunis phase of the WSIS and 2015, the deadline for
achieving the WSIS targets, in line with the target date of
the MDGs. It is therefore critical to review progress made
on the ten WSIS targets, based on measurable indicators. So
far, no monitoring mechanism has been established that
allows countries to track progress on the targets. Although
the Partnership on Measuring ICTs for Development has
developed a core list of ICT indicators that are
increasingly collected at the national and international
level, the WSIS targets are very broad and go beyond the
Partnership’s core list. Therefore, an effort has to be made
to address measurement issues related to each of the ten
WSIS targets, and to help countries monitor them.
In this context, ITU’s World
Telecommunication/ICT Development Report (WTDR) 2010 focuses
on Monitoring the WSIS Targets. It has been prepared as a
collaborative effort with other UN agencies and
WSIS stakeholders. The report identifies a set of measurable
indicators for each target and reviews the status of the
targets based on available data.
This event presented a brief overview of
the WTDR 2010. Then, the main findings were presented for
each of the targets, including the indicators proposed for
measurement.
As a follow-up
to the WTDR 2010 and to this event, ITU proposed that work
on measuring the WSIS targets be brought under the umbrella
of the Partnership, in a new task group on Measuring the
WSIS targets (TG WSIS). The overall objective of the task
group is to develop a framework for monitoring the WSIS
goals and targets based on internationally defined
indicators and standards. The indicators proposed in the
WTDR could constitute the starting point for the work of the
Task Group, with the objective to further enhance and refine
them, and to apply them in the work carried out by
individual Partnership/TG members and other stakeholders.
The task group consists of members of the Partnership
involved/interested in measuring one or several of the WSIS
goals and targets. These include ITU, OECD, UIS (tbc),
UNCTAD, UNDESA, UNECA, UNECLAC, UNESCAP and UNESCWA. The TG
WSIS is open not only to Partnership members but also
to non-members. The participation and input from external
collaborators is important as the WSIS targets cover areas
of the information society that go beyond the expertise of
the Partnership. In order to
accommodate the inputs of a wide range of stakeholders, a discussion
forum was set up to facilitate the discussion for
different targets. All TG WSIS members are invited to
register at
http://groups.itu.int/wsis-targets and to also encourage
other experts and organizations to join the TG forum. It is
proposed to start the work by commenting on the indicators
proposed in the WTDR for each target.
*English & French interpretation will be made available. |
INTERACTIVE SESSION (IS)
