1. We recognise that it is now time to move from principles to action, by encouraging stakeholders to take the Plan of Action one step further, identifying those areas in which progress has been made in implementing the commitments undertaken in Geneva, and by defining those areas where further efforts and resources are required.

2. We acknowledge the leading role of governments in implementing the WSIS Action Plan at the national level.
We encourage them to elaborate comprehensive, forward looking and sustainable national implementation strategies, in partnership with other stakeholders.

Alternate 2. [The same as Para 2, but with 2008 added as a target date for developing national implementation strategies.]

3. We value regional and international integration efforts as a contribution to the development of the global Information Society, and strong cooperation within and among regions is indispensable. The regional dialogue should contribute to national capacity-building and to the development of national implementation strategies.

4. Exchange of views and the sharing of effective practices are essential to implementing the Geneva decisions at the regional and international levels. To this end, efforts should be made to provide and share useful knowledge and know-how, related to the elaboration, monitoring and evaluation of national implementation strategies and policies. We encourage WSIS stakeholders to continue to organise and participate in regional and international conferences and WSIS-related thematic meetings.

5. We reaffirm that only through the cooperation and partnership of all stakeholders will it be possible to succeed in our challenge of harnessing the potential of ICTs as a tool to achieve the development goals of the Millennium Declaration and thereby to continue improving the social welfare and development of all human beings.

6. We are committed to achieving the indicative targets, set out in the Plan of Action, that serve as global references for improving connectivity and access in the use of ICTs in promoting the objectives of the Plan of Action, to be achieved by 2015, and to using ICTs as a tool to achieve the development goals of the Millennium Declaration, by:

7. The Geneva Plan of Action identifies international performance evaluation and benchmarking as an important aspect of the follow-up and evaluation. We applaud the initiatives taken in this area, including by those key stakeholders involved in the statistical measurement of ICTs who have joined forces to create a global Partnership on "Measuring ICT for Development".

8. We recognize that our goals can only be accomplished through the involvement and cooperation of all Information Society stakeholders. We encourage continuing co-operation between stakeholders to ensure effective implementation of the outcome of the WSIS-process, for instance through the promotion of Multi-stakeholder partnerships including Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), in a joint effort and dialogue with less developed countries, donors and actors in the ICT sector.

9. We commit ourselves to evaluate and follow-up progress in bridging the digital divide, taking into account different levels of development, so as to reach internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration, and to assess the effectiveness of investment and international cooperation efforts in building the Information Society. We encourage all WSIS stakeholders to continue to contribute new and updated information on their activities to the WSIS stocktaking database, which was launched in October 2004 by the WSIS-ES and will be maintained by ITU, so that it becomes a valuable tool, beyond the conclusion of the Tunis Phase of the Summit.

10. In order to assure the sustainability of the WSIS process after the completion of its Tunis phase, we agree to establish an implementation mechanism for the Geneva Plan of Action, based upon co-operation among governments and all stakeholders, with the overarching goal of helping countries and societies to achieve the development goals of the Millennium Declaration. To that end, for each Action Line in the Geneva Plan of Action (as identified in the Annex), a team of stakeholders will work together to promote implementation. We request the UN Secretary-General to define an appropriate UN body or specialised agency which will coordinate the work of each team, within its field of competence and existing resources.

11. The co-ordinator of each team identified in the Annex should [periodically] prepare a report on the implementation of the Geneva Plan of Action based upon the information provided by, and the outputs from collaboration among, stakeholders, focussing particular attention on the progress towards achievement of the internationally-agreed development goals of the Millennium Declaration, and submit it to [a defined coordination body]. The [head of a defined coordination body] will submit regular reports to the UN General Assembly, following its existing rules of procedure.

Alternate 11: The defined co-ordinators, based on information provided by, and the outputs from collaboration among, stakeholders, would include WSIS-specific information in their periodic reports to the General Assembly of the United Nations by focusing particular attention on the progress towards achievement of the internationally-agreed development goals of the Millennium Declaration.

12. We thank the UN Secretary-General for his efforts in creating the Task Force on Financial Mechanisms (TFFM) and we commend them on their report.

13. We recognise that the TFFM has fulfilled the mandate given by the Geneva phase of the Summit, for a thorough review of the adequacy of existing financial mechanisms in meeting the challenges of ICT for development, within the constraints of the brief time available.

14. We recognise the existence of the digital divide and the dilemma that this poses for many developing countries, which are forced to choose between many competing demands for development funds. We recognise the scale of the problem in bridging the digital divide, which will require huge investments in ICT infrastructure and services, and capacity building, over many years to come.

15. We agree that the financing of ICT for development needs to be placed in the context of the growing importance of the role assigned to ICTs, not only as a medium of communication, but also as a development enabler, and a tool for the achievement of the development goals of the Millennium Declaration.

16. In the past, financing of ICTs in developing regions has been closely related to the business cycles of the ICT industry. A significant influx of financial resources in the ICT sector in many developing countries has had visible results: in less than 15 years, more than a billion people have gained access to telephones (fixed and mobile), and sometimes to computers, the Internet and other means of sharing information.

17. We note that this investment has had the greatest development impact where ICT markets have been opened and private sector participation has been encouraged.

18. We recognise that attracting investment in ICTs has depended crucially upon a supportive enabling environment for business and an ICT policy and regulatory environment that encompasses open entry, fair competition and market-oriented regulation.

19. We note that the vast majority of financing of ICT infrastructure and services has come from the private sector and that North-South flows are increasingly being augmented by South-South flows and domestic financing.

20. Multilateral and bilateral public donors are redirecting public resources to policy reforms and other development needs, including the mainstreaming of ICTs in the development sectors. We note that this reflects the growing importance of private sector investment in infrastructure.

21. Although there are many different funding mechanisms for ICTs for Development, and no apparent shortage of finance, we note that there is sometimes a mismatch between needs and available funding.

22. We recognize that there are a number of areas where the current approaches to ICT for Development financing have devoted insufficient attention to date. These include:

 ICT capacity-building programmes, materials, tools, educational funding and specialized training initiatives;

 Communications access and connectivity for ICT services in remote rural areas, small island developing states and other locations presenting unique technological and market challenges;

 Regional backbone infrastructure to link networks across borders in economically-disadvantaged regions;

 Broadband capacity to Internet access at affordable prices;

 Coordinated assistance for small countries;

 ICT applications and content aimed at customers, communities and local institutions in the developing world.

23. Although central responsibility for coordination rests with national governments, we recommend that greater cross-sectoral and cross-institutional coordination on financing programmes should be undertaken, both on the part of donors and recipients. This should include also coordination between donor governments and business entities, especially multinational corporations, investing in the framework of their corporate social responsibility programmes.

24. Accordingly, we recommend improvements and innovations in existing financing mechanisms, including:

 Enhancing regional cooperation and creating multi-stakeholder partnerships; especially for trans-national infrastructure backbones;

 Coordinating programmes among governments and major financial players to mitigate investment risks and transaction costs for operators entering less attractive rural and low income market segments;

 Creating policy and regulatory incentives and more open access policies;

 Identification and acknowledgement of the key role of ICTs in national poverty reduction strategies, and the elaboration of e-strategies in conjunction with poverty reduction strategies;

 Developing institutional and implementation capacity to support the use of national universal service/access funds, and further study of these mechanisms;

 Ensuring the relevance to developing countries of the information applications, services and content delivered by ICTs;

 Supporting the "scaling-up" of ICT-based pilot programmes;

 Using ICTs in government as a catalyst for implementation of successful e-strategies;

 Enabling tax, tariff, import, and business regulation policies designed to reduce risks and financial burdens for, and provide incentives to, ICT investors, start-up firms, and domestic financial resources;

 Helping to accelerate the development of domestic financial instruments including by supporting local microfinance instruments, ICT small business incubators, public credit instruments and other innovations;

 Building human resource capacity (knowledge) at every level for achieving Information Society objectives, especially in the public sector;

 Encouraging business sector entities to help jump-start wider demand for ICT services by supporting local producers, programmers, artists and small businesses in the applications and content fields.

26. To build an Information Society will require unremitting effort. We thus commit ourselves to keep fully engaged, nationally, regionally and internationally, to ensure sustainable follow-up to the implementation of agreements and commitments reached during WSIS process and its Geneva and Tunis summits. Taking into account the multifaceted nature of building the Information Society, effective cooperation among all stakeholders is needed, based on respect for their mandates and leveraging on their expertise.

27. [We agree that the follow-up to Internet governance should be separated from the other issues and organized as outlined in Chapter Three.]

28. We request the Secretary-General of the Summit to report to the General Assembly of the United Nations on its outcome.

29. We request the Secretary-General of the United Nations to provide—with the collaboration of all stakeholders, and fully utilizing the existing coordination mechanisms within the United Nations—sustained follow-up within the United Nations system to the agreements and commitments reached at WSIS and to ensure effective secretariat support. The Secretary-General of the United Nations is further requested to submit a periodic report to the General Assembly of the United Nations on those follow-up efforts.