Speech by Malcolm Johnson, ITU Deputy Secretary-General
High-Level Leaders Meeting on an Agenda for Internet Governance Post-2015
09 November 2015, Joao Pessoa, Brazil
Excellencies,
Distinguished colleagues,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Firstly let me extend ITU Secretary-General, Mr. Houlin Zhao's best wishes to you all.
He is unable to be here and so it is a pleasure for me to be leading the ITU delegation to this 10th IGF in this lovely city of João Pessoa and to join you for this discussion on
An Agenda for Internet Governance Post-2015. Let me add my thanks to the hosts for bringing us to this beautiful part of the great country of Brazil.
Now as we know, from the World Summit on the Information Society that Internet Governance not only includes public policy but also the related legal, economic, developmental and socio-cultural issues.
This will be particularly important in the context of the post-2015 development agenda as ICTs and the Internet will be invaluable in achieving the ambitious sustainable development goals, the SDGs.
To achieve these goals it will be necessary to ensure that all people, wherever they live, and whatever their means, have secure, equitable and affordable access to this vital resource – and that they can use it with confidence. This is quite a challenge.
ITU, as the lead UN agency on ICTs, plays a key role in this effort by facilitating the development of the infrastructure that enables the deployment of the Internet – through global coordination and allocation of wireless spectrum and satellite orbital resources; technical standards; developmental assistance; and by providing a platform for an exchange of views by all stakeholders on the emerging policy issues related to Internet and ICTs.
The Internet is now a global asset and all the people of the world have a stake in its development and should contribute towards a fair, equitable and inclusive governance model.
The WSIS was initiated by ITU in 1998 and ITU led the organization of the Summits in 2003 and 2005. It was the most wide-ranging, comprehensive and inclusive debate ever held on the future of the information society.
The WSIS outcomes articulated fundamental Internet Governance principles, including multistakeholderism which were unanimously endorsed by heads of states and world leaders, and the entire multistakeholder community, and they should clearly also guide our discussions on Internet Governance beyond 2015.
The first decade of the WSIS process was marked by intense discussions on the implementation of these principles, including governance processes, and saw tremendous growth in infrastructure and access across the world.
There are now significant opportunities and challenges that come with that success, such as:
- Bringing the benefits of the Internet to the four billion people who are still offline;
- Ensuring that everyone, and especially the most vulnerable segments of society, including our children, can enjoy the Internet with full confidence and trust;
- Ensuring that the one billion people living with disabilities also share in the benefits of the Internet;
- And bridging the digital gender gap, which currently stands at an estimated 200 million less women online than men.
To achieve this it will be necessary to have equitable participation of all stakeholders from all nations, especially from developed and least developing countries, in the global Internet governance processes so that all voices are heard, respected and taken into account in the global decision-making processes.
In this endeavor, ITU will continue to play its part, facilitated by its widening membership base, increasing collaboration with other organisations and its efforts to make the organisation more agile, open, transparent and inclusive.
In particular ITU will continue to organize the annual WSIS Forum which has become a unique multistakehodler gathering to coordinate and facilitate implementation of the WSIS Action Lines. The next WSIS Forum will be held from 2 to 6 May 2016 at ITU Headquarters and will take account of the UNGA Overall Review of WSIS and in particular build upon the WSIS-SDG Matrix developed at this year's Forum so as to identify concrete actions, projects, policies and strategies to implement the SDGs. So I would like to encourage everyone to join the open consultation process leading towards the WSIS Forum 2016.
Thank you and I wish you an enjoyable and productive IGF.