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World Summit on the Information Society up for ten-year
review in WSIS+10 high-level meeting
Report assessing achievements of WSIS targets shows mixed results
Geneva, 10 June 2014 – A high level meeting opened today to
review progress on the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society
(WSIS), which was held in Geneva in 2003 and in Tunis in 2005. Policy-makers,
including Government Ministers and leaders from civil society, academia,
business, and international organizations will focus attention on implementation
of the outcomes of the Summit for next year’s ten-year review during the WSIS+10
High-level Event that kicks off today.
“World leaders at the World Summit on the Information Society in 2003 agreed
to promote the use of ICTs for the achievement of internationally agreed
development goals and targets,” noted ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun I. Touré.
“Today almost everyone on earth lives within reach of a mobile cellular network
and nearly 3 billion people are online; we must now ensure that everyone also
has access to broadband connectivity. We are here to pave the way for the future
and set the roadmap for sustainable development in the post-2015 era.”
With special attention to developing countries, ten targets were adopted at
WSIS with the aim of encouraging connectivity in villages, schools, libraries,
post offices, national archives and governments, as well as adapting school
curricula to meet the challenges of the information society, support the
development of multilingualism and content on the Internet, and ensure ICT
access to more than half of the world’s inhabitants.
One of the highlights at the WSIS+10 High-level Event today was the launch of
the Final WSIS Targets Review, a report prepared by the Partnership on Measuring
ICT for Development, of which ITU is a founding member. The Report indicated
mixed results on the achievements of the WSIS targets and called for
strengthening the role of ICTs in the post-2015 development agenda.
“This report is a major milestone in tracking the information society
worldwide,”
said ITU Deputy Secretary-General Mr Houlin Zhao. “It shows that while significant achievements have been made in the last
decade, the digital divide remains a major barrier to an inclusive information
society. We are determined to continue to plan, develop and implement
large-scale ICT projects as we accompany countries on their development
journey.”
According to the Final WSIS Targets Review, significant progress has been
made in increasing mobile cellular coverage with all rural communities in the
world likely to be covered by 2G mobile cellular signals by 2015. However,
Internet connectivity remains a challenge and access to broadband continues to
be unequal, with penetration rates around four times higher in developed
countries as compared to developing ones. While some countries have successfully
integrated computers in schools, less than 10 per cent of schools in many of the
world’s poorest countries are connected to the Internet. The proportion of
teachers trained to use ICT in the classroom is increasing, but fewer than 10
per cent of teachers in low-income countries have been trained to effectively
use ICTs in their classrooms.
Scientific and research centres with broadband Internet access is close to
100 per cent and the total number of national research and education networks
(NRENs) has improved significantly, with the majority of universities and
research centres being connected. While libraries, museums and archives are
important providers of online content related to culture, a lot remains to be
done in terms of digitizing cultural heritage and making it available online.
There is a growing divide in broadband access between enterprises in
developed and developing countries and it is clear that within developing
countries themselves, there are wide differences in ICT use between large and
small companies, between enterprises in different industries, and between rural
and urban enterprises. Unsurprisingly, mobile phones have become the most
commonly used ICT tool among micro and small enterprises, and in the informal
sector.
The number of websites has grown exponentially between 2003 and 2013, and the
number of webpages even more substantially, with developed countries in Europe,
the Americas and parts of Asia generating the majority of Web content. More than
300 languages are now available on Wikipedia and more than 100 on major social
networks, while the proportion of Internet users whose primary language is
English has fallen significantly as access to the Internet has become more
widespread.
Results show that ICT is becoming central to the effective operation of
health systems and services although progress is uneven across countries. The
WHO Global Observatory reports that the number of countries with e-Health
strategies is showing a steady rise.
In 2014, central governments in all 193 UN Member States have an online
presence, with online information and services increasing three-fold on
government portals in the last decade. By 2012, 70 per cent of countries
provided a one-stop portal, compared to 26 per cent in 2003. By 2014, almost all
of the countries in Europe and the majority in the Americas and Asia provided
online information on education, health, finance, social welfare, labour and the
environment, but the proportion was less in other regions, such as Africa.
According to available data, 50 per cent of households in developing
countries have access to radio and about 72 per cent to television. Most
developed countries have completed, or are on track to complete their transition
to digital television, while developing countries have begun or are committed to
it.
The Final WSIS Targets Review Report is available at:
www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/publications/wsistargets2014.aspx
For more information, please see
www.wsis.org/forum
or contact:
Sanjay Acharya
Chief, Media Relations and Public Information, ITU
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About the Partnership on Measuring ICT for
Development
The Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development is an international,
multi-stakeholder initiative to improve the availability and quality of ICT data
and indicators, particularly in developing countries. Launched in 2004, the
Partnership helps measure the information society by defining a core list of ICT
indicators and methodologies. Members include the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU); the Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD); the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD); the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s
Institute for Statistics (UIS); the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin
America and the Caribbean (UNECLAC); the United Nations Economic and Social
Commission for Western Asia (UNESCWA); the United Nations Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP); the United Nations Economic
Commission for Africa (UNECA); the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs
(UNDESA); Eurostat; the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Secretariat
of the Basel Convention (SBC) on the Control of Transboundary Movements of
Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal; the United Nations University Institute for
the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS) ); and the World Bank.
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