WSIS Thematic Meeting: Measuring the Information Society

Geneva, Switzerland
7-9 February 2005

Room XX, 3rd floor, E Building 
Place des Nations, Geneva

The WSIS Thematic Meeting "Measuring the Information Society", organized by members of the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development, which includes the ITU, OECD, UNCTAD, UNESCO Institute for Statistics, UN Regional Commissions (ECA, ECLAC, ESCAP, ESCWA), the UN ICT Task Force and the World Bank, took place in Geneva, Palais des Nations, from 7 to 9 February 2005.

The meeting addressed the subject of the statistical measurement of the information society, including a core list of ICT indicators that could be collected by all countries and harmonized at the international level; the needs of national statistical offices (NSOs) in developing countries as regards technical assistance in the compilation of ICT indicators; and mechanisms to measure impact and to quantify the relevance and contribution of ICT towards improving development and achieving the MDGs.

The meeting was attended by more than 270 delegates from 87 United Nations member countries, intergovernmental organizations, NGOs and civil society. Participants were from National Statistical Offices, Telecommunication Regulatory Agencies and Ministries, and Ministries related to information society activities. More information can be found in this link.

The outcome of the meeting will provide practical suggestions on policies and programmes that help countries to measure ICT for policy-making. It will produce concrete recommendations to implement the Geneva Plan of Action in the area of ICT indicators for benchmarking and evaluating ICT access and use, as a practical input to the second phase of WSIS (Tunis, November 2005) and its follow-up. The report of the meeting will be presented at the WSIS PrepCom2, to be held in Geneva from 17 to 25 February 2005.