WSIS FORUM 2010


FINAL EXECUTIVE BRIEFING

DRAFT
(VERSION 1.1)

This document serves as a draft version 1.1 of the Final Executive Briefing on WSIS Forum 2010. Additions to this report will be made as and when submissions are received from session organizers and focal points.

Table of Contents

Chairs: Michael Riggs, FAO and Torbjörn Fredriksson, UNCTAD

This interactive debate focused on how ICTs can enable rural enterprises to become means of poverty reduction and sustainable rural development. It also addressed the roles of governments, international organizations, the private sector, civil society and NGOs in contributing to these ends.

• Moderator
  • Ms. Allison Hornery, Cofounder, CivicTEC
• Panellists
  • H.E. Ms. Iruthisham Adam, Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of the Republic of Maldives to the United Nations Office at Geneva
  • Ms. Caroline Figuères, Managing Director, IICD
  • Ms. Roxanna Samii, Manager Web, Knowledge and Internal Communications, International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD)
  • Md Shahid Uddin Akbar, CEO, Bangladesh Institute of ICT in Development
  • Mr. Peter A. Bruck, Chairman, World Summit Award (WSA)
  • Mr. Carlos Afonso, Director, Brazil's Information Network for the Third Sector (RITS) and founder of the Association for Progressive Communications

E-agriculture and e-business combine to talk about ICTs and rural enterprise, and related policy challenges.

As stated by Moderator Allison Hornery, the topic "has a uniquely cross-cutting scope within the context of WSIS because it's a real microcosm of the agenda where issues like access and infrastructure, content and financing and so on collide in a very real world way. So it was a great opportunity to facilitate a group of thought leaders to collaboratively explore these issues."

Key points and issues from the session:

Farmers are business people, and ICTs can improve their livelihood choices. ICTs do not always have to be cutting edge to have an immediately measurable impact on the ground. Mobile devices in particular are critical to providing timely appropriate information. Participants further noticed that new applications, such as mobile money and mobile insurance may become important features.

There may be inadequacies in the business models now in place around rural information services. Challenges to the models include low awareness of farmers and rural SMEs; little support available from governments or development organizations; a lack of the "right information at right moment"; and limited information resources, such that they do not cover all the information needs of the consumer - especially in relevant languages. Lessons from Bangladesh suggested, however, that when well designed and targeted to the needs of the users, various ICT-based support services can be both effective and sustainable.

The Maldives LEADS business matching system was used as an illustrative example of an ICT programme for rural enterprise. In a country of 1,200 islands, this project is building capacity to use trade information to promote SME development and increase the power of smallholder producers, while strengthening linkages between tourism and fisheries (the country's two most successful sectors). It is also collecting lessons learned for the benefit of the wider ICTs for development community.

Other opportunities for enhancing the impact of ICTs in rural enterprise come from initiatives such as the World Summit Awards, which seek to increase awareness on what content is most useful, sharing knowledge and good practices.

Key challenges that were explored included the difficulty of monitoring results in line with the WSIS action plan; ICTs being insufficiently prominent and under-prioritized by many developing countries; governments acting in isolation; and NGOs becoming over-focused on donor priorities rather than beneficiary needs.

It was considered essential that we start accepting and embracing the diversity that is out there, and acknowledge that ICTs are not a silver bullet. Moreover, a strong message was conveyed that there are no universal recipes that will work for everyone and in every context. One participant noted "the problem is not the technology, it is finding a solution".

Stakeholders highlighted real challenges around partnerships. Partnerships are important, for both the public and the private sectors, but trying to reach that "mutual self interest" goal is still some distance away. ICT-focused partnerships must be part of the solution to a community's needs, not a top down relationship, in order to be successful. In order to ensure tangible benefits for farmers in rural areas, they need to play an active part in the design and implementation of different ICT-related projects.

Participants emphasized the real need for awareness-raising related to ICTs and their roles at the grassroots level. Greater awareness leads to more demand and uptake of various ICTs services, which in turn can lead to more successful and sustainable programmes. This is a very important focus that needs to be enhanced and maintained.

There was also discussion about the increased decoupling of ICTs from a sense of place. For example, mobile devices are now creating identity and individuality. We are increasingly enabling people to use ICT tools to help with their enterprises and their activities and their community development. This is especially interesting as agriculture is inherently location-based. This emerging dichotomy could make for interesting developments in the near future, developments that should be revisited in future WSIS meetings.

ICT and Rural Enterprise: Social media connects global e-Agriculture and e-business communities to this unique WSIS 2010 session

A number of those involved in this session, including the chairs, moderator, some panellists and the audience are very enthusiastic social media practitioners and keen to show the value of new media channels using ICTs to extend this important conversation to remote participants. Social media was used before, during and after the session. Before the session and even before the WSIS Forum began there was quite a bit of promotion and awareness raising via Twitter. During the session itself, ITU broadcast it live over the Internet with audio and video, so that it could be followed by anyone with a computer and sufficient bandwidth. There was an active Twitter group inside the room, and across the world. The CivicTEC team in Sydney stayed up until the early hours of the morning (past 02.00hr local time) and broadcast an SMS number for questions which were then texted to the moderator on stage. A whole range of different tools were used that really extended that conversation outside the Geneva room. After the session, communications via Twitter were kept alive. In the following days the e-Agriculture team crated a podcast and blog post on the session. We believe this added great value to the session. It enabled a much wider participation in the discussion by global citizens, and showed that we can meet the demand that we know is out there for this kind of interaction, using readily available and relatively simple tools - and can be built upon in future sessions.

Following an introduction into the objectives and control mechanisms set up by the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, the e-waste related activities under the convention were described. A Mobile Phone Partnership Initiative was launched in 2002, followed by a broader Partnership for Action on Computing Equipment (PACE) since 2009. Under the PACE, guidelines on refurbishment and reuse and on recycling are under development as well as pilot activities in developing countries and countries with economies in transition.

Under the chairmanship of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Secretariat of the Basel Convention, the Interactive Facilitation Meeting discussed the political background, programmes and activities on e-waste. Different perspectives were presented by the International Labour Office (ILO), a representative of the Ministry of Environment, Nigeria, the public interest non-governmental organization Basel Action Network (BAN), and the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR). Uncontrolled dumping of obsolete e-products and material recovery processes without adequate protective measures have resulted in environmental pollution while exposing millions of people to toxic substances and emissions. The technology for environmentally sound dismantling and disposal of e-waste exists, but it has to be linked to the product life-cycle to become economically viable.

Efforts to bridge the digital divide need to follow the life-cycle approach to avoid problems for the health of workers and the general public as well as for the environment. This includes provisions for take-back systems, collection and dismantling, as well as environmentally sound facilities for extraction, recycling and disposal of the computing equipment components.

Partnerships were discussed to link environmentally sound management of end-of-life computing equipment in ICT development programmes, including procurement, infrastructure strengthening and education on national, regional and international level.

More information is available on the website of the Secretariat of the Basel Convention, the Partnership for Action on Computing Equipment, PACE, or directly from the Secretariat of the Basel Convention matthias.kern@unep.org

Event Description: The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon described climate change as the "moral challenge of our generation". The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), as members of the UN system, and as a co-facilitators/moderators for WSIS Action Line C7: e-Environment, wish to respond to this challenge and demonstrate how information and communication technologies (ICTs) can assist in monitoring, mitigating and adapting to climate change. In this regard, a WSIS facilitation meeting will be held on 11 May 2010 at ITU premises in Room K from 16:00-17:30.

Purpose of the meeting: to provide an opportunity for stakeholders to review progress achieved to date in relation to WSIS Action Line C7: e-Environment and outline priorities for future action and collaboration in this regard.

The three areas covered by this Action Line are:

• using and promoting ICTs as an instrument for environmental protection and the sustainable use of natural resources;

• actions, projects and programmes for sustainable production, consumption and environmentally safe disposal and recycling of discarded hardware and components used in ICTs;

• establishing monitoring systems, using ICTs, to forecast and monitor the impact of natural and man-made disasters, particularly in developing countries, least developed countries and small economies.

Participants: Country representatives; Action Line co-facilitator/moderator organizations; other stakeholder organizations from public & private sectors, united nations agencies and civil society.

• Moderator
  • Mr Keith Dickerson, Director, Climate Change Associates Ltd
• Panellists
  • Mr Houlin Zhao, Deputy Secretary-General, ITU
  • Dr Hoda Baraka, First Deputy to Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Egypt
  • Mr Patrick Kalas, Programme Officer, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Switzerland
  • Mr Gabriel Solomon, Vice-President, GSM Association
  • Ms Rie Tsutsumi, Regional Office, Europe, UNEP
  • Mr Weijang Zhang, Director of the Observing and Information Systems Department

Content will be available soon.

Content will be available soon.

The session was moderated by Mauro Rosi (UNESCO) and enclosed the presentations of panellists Daniel Prado, Director of the Division of Terminology and Language Industries, Latin Union, Adama Samassékou, President of the Maaya Network for Linguistic Diversity, Daniel Pimienta, founder of Fundredes and Alfredo Ronchi of The World Summit Award (WSA).

Some 20 persons attended the meeting, whose agenda included the presentation of significant contributions in the implementation of the WSIS C8 during the last 12 months, as well as to the most important initiatives and challenges for the future.

The contribution of UNESCO, both at normative (convention on cultural diversity) and operational level (projects with field and global outreach), was highlighted, as well as the inputs provide by multistakeholders networks.

One of the main issues discussed during the debate was the one of linguistic indicators. The need was underscored for renewed indicators underpinning statistics, studies and policies, not only in the field of endangered languages, but also as concerns cyberspace.

As concerns the initiatives and challenges for the future, the possible organization of a World Summit on Multilingualism and Linguistic Diversity was wished for, in line with a proposal formulated during the International Year of Language and on the occasion of the World Forum on Multilingualism of Bamako (January 2009).

It was acknowledged that a new cycle of the WSIS process is probably about to start and that a new strategy should be envisaged in this context, to revitalize the process and boost effective multistakeholders participation.

For the fifth consecutive year UNESCO convened on 12 May at the WSIS Forum 2010 in Geneva. a facilitation meeting on WSIS Action Line C9 "Media". The meeting reported on updates of the Action Line outcomes as well as organized a debate on "Community Media for Disaster Preparedness".

session, UNESCO, IAMCR, AMARC, respectively presented implementation updates in regard to freedom of expression, media development, media education and community media. The representative from ITU gave a special presentation on Transition from Analogue to Digital Terrestrial Broadcasting.

UNESCO, has conducted a series of activities in the four areas of C9. UNESCO just celebrated World Press Freedom Day in Brisbane, Australia on 3 May focussing on Freedom of Information as a tool to advance empowerment, good governance, transparency, accountability and the fight against corruption. The UNESCO International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC), which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2010, has continued to play its role as a very important resource mobilization mechanism for fostering media development. UNESCO's comprehensive set of Media Development Indicators (MDIs) has been recognized as a major standard-setting tool by stakeholders and United Nations agencies dealing with media development and good governance.

In the area of media education, IAMCR reported significant progress of media education in terms international policy making, curriculum development and research AMARC, reported on significant developments in community media in Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Bangladesh, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, East Timor, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, India, Jamaica, Mozambique, Nepal, Somalia, Thailand, Uganda, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Zambia.

Given community media's big role in disaster preparedness and reduction, the thematic part of the meeting brought speakers to share their experience in Haiti, Chile, DRC. Community broadcasters responding to the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile have illustrated the vital importance of access to media, communications and connectivity in times of disaster. In DRC, community radio stations play an important role to provide information about volcanoes and environment preserver.

In accordance with the decision which designated UNESCO as the facilitator of Action Line C10 of the Geneva Plan of Action of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) on the "Ethical dimensions of the Information Society", a special session on this Action Line was held during the WSIS 2010 Forum on 11 May 2010 at ITU Headquarters, in Geneva.

An invitation to attend it was addressed to all WSIS stakeholders including Member States, IGO, private sector and civil society as well as NGOs. Around 40 participants attended the session.

The meeting was moderated by Mr Boyan Radoykov, Chief of Section, Information Society Division, Communication and Information Sector, UNESCO, who opened the session by greeting the participants and by expressing his appreciation for their interest in attending this meeting on Action Line C10. He also briefly introduced the context and the purpose of the session.

Two special guests were invited to present to the audience examples of some recent achievements in the field covered by this Action Line. Mr Rafael Capurro, Founder and Director of the International Center for Information Ethics spoke on the subject "Information Ethics in Africa, Past, Present and Future Activities (2007-2010)". Then, Mr Evgeny Kuzmin, Chairman UNESCO's IFAP Intergovernmental Council, addressed the issue of Information Ethics as a strategic priority of UNESCO's Information for All Programme (IFAP).

After their respective presentations, the floor was open for questions and suggestions by the participants. Some of them presented the activities of their organizations in the field of ethics, and others expressed their view regarding the ethical principles that should be enhanced and reemphasized. The time left did not allow for discussions on possible new joint initiatives.

1. The moderator concluded the session by thanking the participants for their active and constructive participation and contribution to the debate, and for enabling the meeting to cover wide range of questions relevant to the Action Line C10 implementation.

2. 2. As a concrete next step, participants were invited to participate more actively in the WSIS outcomes implementation and related debates through the online platform launched by UNESCO in order to enhance the existing cooperation among stakeholders.