ITU-led global development community strives to Connect the World

In June 2005, ITU launched an important new development initiative designed to bring access to information and communication technologies (ICT) to the estimated one billion people worldwide for whom making a simple telephone call remains far out of reach.

Representatives of the founding partners in the Connect the World initiative, at its launch in Geneva by ITU on 16 June 2005 ITU 055072/Jean-Marc Ferré

Known as Connect the World, the initiative creates a new development community comprising 22 founding partners from the public and private sectors, international organizations and civil society.

Initial partners include the governments of Egypt, France and Senegal, as well as the Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity and Promotion, and leading private-sector firms Alcatel, Huawei, Infosys, Intel, Microsoft, KDDI, Telefónica and WorldSpace. International and regional organizations are also partners, such as UN agencies UNESCO, the UN Fund for International Partnership (UNFIP), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), and the Universal Postal Union (UPU), as well as the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (ITSO), the European Commission and the Regional African Satellite Communications Organisation (RASCOM). In addition, innovative players from civil society are partners: Child Helpline International, the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) and Télécoms Sans Frontières.

Established within the context of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Plan of Action, this new multi-stakeholder community is designed to harness the existing expertise of organizations already working in the field, in an effort to accelerate work to bridge the digital divide.

Launching the initiative alongside a host of partner representatives at the Palais des Nations on 16 June 2005, ITU Secretary-General Yoshio Utsumi said the effectiveness of strategies to bring the benefits of ICT to the world’s estimated 800 000 unconnected villages would ultimately rest on the ability to learn from and capitalize on past experience. “It’s not ICT that will solve the problem of the digital divide, it’s people — and especially people working in partnership,” he said. “While Connect the World is about harnessing the power of ICT, it’s also about harnessing the power of people working together to connect the unconnected.”

A holistic approach

Télécoms Sans Frontières

The Connect the World concept comprises three key building blocks — “Enabling Environment,” “Infrastructure and Readiness,” and “Applications and Services” — which together constitute the primary areas ITU believes need to be addressed in developing effective measures to stimulate ICT development.

To qualify for Connect the World membership, all partners must have current development projects in one or more of these areas. For its own part, ITU has nominated three principal projects — one for each key building block — which it will promote through the Connect the World framework.

For Building Block 1, “Enabling Environment,” ITU is leading a project to improve the measurement of ICT indicators at local, national and regional levels. Working with partners including UNESCO, OECD and the World Bank , the project aims to develop a core set of internationally agreed ICT indicators. These will help national statistical offices build effective and accurate ICT data compilation programmes on the information society, as well as serving as the platform for an online global ICT database.


ITU’s project for Building Block 2, “Infrastructure and Readiness,” is its network of Centres of Excellence, which are now delivering sustainable, capacity-building training programmes for telecommunication decision-makers and executives worldwide. In addition to providing courses on various aspects of advanced ICT, telecommunication financing and multilateral trade, the centres also provide resources for the development and harmonization of telecommunication standards across regions, serve as a focal point for a wide range of information society initiatives, and offer consultancy services to governments and the private sector.

For Building Block 3, “Applications and Services,” ITU is leading the Internet for Schools initiative in Mali, which aims to provide 14–20 year-olds living in remote rural communities with a valuable new educational tool. Project partners Swisscom, Engacom and Mali’s Ministry of Communications and New Technologies are working with ITU to provide expertise, equipment, financial support and the necessary infrastructure to set up sustainable school computer laboratories in isolated communities, including Timbuktu, Sevaré and Mopti.

By leading the way with projects to connect the unconnected, and by providing an international platform to showcase the many successful development initiatives being undertaken by other entities worldwide, ITU hopes Connect the World will spur organizations at every level to get more actively involved in ICT development.

“Every Connect the World partner is working to make a real difference. ITU’s hope is that the projects they are showcasing within this initiative will serve to stimulate new partnerships and inspire others to join us and launch their own development activities,” said Secretary-General Utsumi.