The
President of Senegal, Mr Abdoulaye Wade, and Professor Muhammad Yunus, Managing
Director of Grameen Bank, Bangladesh, were honoured with the 2006 ITU
World Information Society Award at a ceremony
held in Geneva today to mark the celebration of the first World Information
Society Day.
At the ceremony, Mr Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary-General of ITU and
Secretary-General of the World Summit on the Information Society said that the
ITU World Information Society Award pays tribute to those who have made a
significant contribution towards building and strengthening the Information
Society. "It is to accord the highest recognition to those who have used their
creativity and resources to harness the enormous potential of ICTs, so that
millions of people can achieve their development goals", Mr Utsumi said. "Today
we have the honour of the presence of two living legends, whose lifelong mission
has been to give a voice to the deprived."
In his message, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated, "On this
first World Information Society Day, I am pleased to congratulate President Wade
of Senegal, and Professor Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh’s renowned Grameen Bank,
on receiving the first ITU World Information Society Award for their leadership.
Let us all, on this occasion, be inspired by their example and reiterate our
pledge to connect the unconnected, build a free and safe Information Society,
and thereby spur development for all the world’s people."
Receiving the ITU Award, President Wade said "a better balanced, more
harmonious information society should be founded on widespread access to
computer tools, to ensure that those countries which now lag behind in this area
will not be permanently marginalized. The aim of the Digital Solidarity Fund is
to make it possible for everyone to be connected, listen in, make their voices
heard and keep pace with our ever-changing world".
He added, "For our peoples, the mass
dissemination of information and communication technologies represents an
appointment with history that we cannot fail to keep". He
highlighted two initiatives carried out in Senegal to bring access to ICT at all
level of the educational curriculum: the “Case des Tout Petits” programme where
young children aged 2 to 6 years familiarize themselves with the use of ICT
through educational games and the “Université du Futur Africain” which will be
connected to several partner universities through a robust and sophisticated ICT
infrastructure. This networked university will enable any African who meets the
required educational standards to have access to live courses by satellite and
graduate with the same honours and degrees as those received in the partenering
universities.
Also presented with the ITU Award, Professor Yunus, who pioneered microcredit
for the rural poor and empowered a new class of women entrepreneur by providing
mobile payphone service in the remote areas of Bangladesh said that today that
the poor women in the Grameen network are now considered so reliable as business
partners that they are being inducted not only to sell airtime but also to sell
telephone connections for new subscribers. "ICT can change the face of the poor
dramatically," he said. "ICT can be visualized as Aladdin’s Lamp in the hands of
a poor woman. A digital genie can leverage her energy and creativity to lift her
out of poverty at the fastest speed." Outlining the various ICT initiatives that
spun off from the Grameen Bank concept such as Grameen Software, the Grameen ICT
training company, and others, he called for a "social stock market" to bring
entrepreneurs and social investors into contact to solve the problem of
availability of investment funds. He also challenged ICT equipment designers to
develop devices that can solve the problems of the poor along with the people
for whom these would be made. "To pool the energy and talents of the poor who
would like to devote themselves to bring ICT to the poor in the form and shape
that they can benefit the best, I have been proposing to create an international
centre for ICT to help overcome global poverty", he said. It could start as a
virtual centre, a global network of committed people and "social" business
entrepreneurs and later have its own physical location with full time personnel,
design centres, research programmes etc. "If we are serious about ending global
poverty, this is to be a strategic institution to build", he said.
Mr Benny Ginman, Director, Government Affairs, Europe, Middle East and Africa
of INTEL Corporation, a sponsor of the event, immediately picked up the gauntlet
and invited Professor Yunus to meet with INTEL engineers and experts to discuss
how to bring concrete shape to his vision.
Focusing on ICT for development
The World Summit on the Information Society proposed that 17 May, which marks
the inception of ITU in 1865, should be declared as World
Information Society Day to help raise awareness, on an annual basis, on the
enormous possibilities that ICTs can bring to all economies and societies and
explore ways to bridge the digital divide. A resolution to this effect was
adopted by the UN General Assembly on 27 March 2006.
"The digital revolution in ICT has opened new opportunities to attain higher
levels of development. These new technologies are powerful instruments in
increasing productivity, generating economic growth and employment, and
improving the living standards for all. World Information Society Day will be a
reminder to us, every year, to re-dedicate ourselves to building a more
equitable, inclusive, people-centred and development-oriented Information
Society," stated ITU Secretary-General Utsumi, adding "It becomes our duty to
ensure that everyone, even in the remotest and poorest corners of the world, has
access to the benefits of ICT. We have the means, the technology and the
resources to make a lasting impression on our civilization."
In order to take the process forward towards building the Information
Society, a cluster of events have been taking
place over a ten-day period, 9-19 May in Geneva aimed at implementing on the
Plan of Action of the recently concluded World Summit on the Information
Society.
Expressing his appreciation to the organizers of these events, Mr Moritz
Leuenberger, President of Switzerland, stated, "These meetings and debates
gather experts from all domains relating to the Information Society and from all
stakeholders where they can share their knowledge and, as a result, contribute
to implementing the decisions made in Geneva and in Tunis."
In his message, Mr Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, President of Tunisia, called upon
the international community to step up efforts "to help all people, particularly
the least developed ones, to benefit from the digital revolution, as part of an
international partnership based on cooperation, solidarity and complementarity."
Switzerland and Tunisia were host countries for the World Summit on the
Information Society that was held in two phases, Geneva in 2003 and Tunis in
2005.
Attending the first World Information Society Day were representatives of
government, the private sector, civil society and international organizations