Review of the Geneva Declaration and Plan of Action

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Review of the Geneva Declaration and Plan of
Action

• Hiroaki Kimura
• Consultant for ICT Development,
• Asia-Pacific Telecommunity
• 29 March 2004

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The World Summit on the Information Society

• Phase 1
• Geneva, Switzerland, from 10 to 12 December 2003
• Participation
• 177 countries and regions, intergovernmental
  organizations, UN organs, NGOs, Civil society
  organizations, private companies
• More than 11,000 participants
• Phase 2
• Tunis, Tunisia, from 16 to 18 November 2005

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• Declaration of Principles
• Common desire and commitment to build a
  people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented
  Information Society.
• Everyone can create, access, utilize and share
  information and knowledge, enabling individuals,
  communities and peoples to achieve their full
  potential in promoting their sustainable
  development and improving their quality of life.
• Challenge harness the potential of information
  and communication technology to promote the
  development goals of the Millennium Declaration.
• Plan of Action
• The common vision and guiding principles of the
  Declaration are translated into concrete action
  lines.

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Topics

• 1. The role of governments and all stakeholders
  in the promotion of ICTs for development
• 2. Information and communication infrastructure
• 3. Access to information and knowledge
• 4. Capacity building
• 5. Building confidence and security in the use of
  ICTs
• 6. Enabling environment
• 7. ICT applications benefits in all aspects of
  life
• 8. Cultural diversity and identity, linguistic
  diversity and local content
• 9. Media
• 10. Ethical dimensions of the Information Society
• 11. International and regional cooperation

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1. The role of governments and all stakeholders
in the promotion of ICTs for development

• Action lines
• Development of national e-strategies by all
  countries by 2005.
• A structured dialogue at the national level
  involving all relevant stakeholders in devising
  e-strategies.
• Take into account local, regional and national
  needs/concerns.
• International organizations should publish
  information submitted by relevant stakeholders on
  successful cases of mainstreaming ICTs.
• Encourage measures including incubator schemes,
  government investment funds, investment promotion
  strategies and support of RD networks.

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2. Information and communication infrastructure

• Action lines
• Governments action for an enabling environment
  for the investment in ICT infrastructure and the
  development of new services.
• E-strategies for appropriate universal access.
• E-strategies for providing ICT connectivity for
  institutions such as schools, universities,
  health institutions and community centres
  accessible to the public.
• Develop and strengthen national, regional and
  international broadband network infrastructure.
• Full inclusion of disadvantaged groups in the
  Information Society.
• Encourage the use of unused wireless capacity.

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3. Access to information and knowledge

• Action Lines
• Policy guidelines for the development and
  promotion of public domain information.
• Governments to provide adequate access to public
  official information through the Internet.
• RD to facilitate accessibility of ICTs for all.
• Establish sustainable multi-purpose community
  public access points.
• Governments should actively promote the use of
  ICTs as a fundamental working tool by their
  citizens and local authorities.
• Support the creation and development of a digital
  public library and archive services.

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4. Capacity building

• Action Lines
• Domestic policies to ensure that ICTs are fully
  integrated in education and training at all
  levels.
• Create a critical mass of qualified and skilled
  ICT experts.
• Remove the gender barriers to ICT education and
  training.
• Develop distance learning as part of capacity
  building programmes.
• Promote international and regional cooperation in
  the field of capacity building, including country
  programmes developed by the United Nations and
  its Specialized Agencies.
• Launch pilot projects to design new forms of
  ICT-based networking, linking education, training
  and research institutions between and among
  developed and developing countries.

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5. Building confidence and security in the use of
ICTs

• Action lines
• Cooperation among governments and all
  stakeholders to address information and network
  security issues.
• Guidelines against cyber-crime.
• User education and awareness about online
  privacy.
• Actions on spam.
• Assessment of laws to overcome any obstacles to
  the use of electronic documents and transactions.
• Development of secure applications to facilitate
  online transactions.

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6. Enabling environment

• Action lines
• Working group on Internet governance to be set up
  in UN
• - Working definition of Internet governance
• - Public policy issues relevant to Internet
  governance
• - Common understanding of the roles of
  stakeholders
• - Report to the second phase of WSIS.
• Governments should facilitate the establishment
  of Internet Exchange Centres, supervise ccTLD,
  and promote awareness of the Internet.
• National strategies to make public administration
  more transparent, efficient and democratic.
• Governments should promote the development and
  use of open and interoperable standards.
• ITU and other regional organisations take steps
  to ensure efficient use of, and equitable access
  to the spectrum.

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7. ICT applications benefits in all aspects of
life

• Action Lines
• e-government
• - Promote transparency in public
  administrations, improve efficiency and
  strengthen relations with citizens.
• e-business
• - Promote the benefits of the use of e-business
  especially in developing countries.
• e-health
• - Create a reliable, timely, high quality and
  affordable health care and health information
  systems.
• - Health care and health information systems for
  remote and underserved areas and vulnerable
  populations.

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• e-employment
• - Develop best practices for e-workers and
  e-employers.
• - Promote teleworking.
• e-environment
• - ICTs as an instrument for environmental
  protection.
• - Monitoring for forecast and of the impact of
  disasters.
• e-agriculture
• - Use ICTs for agriculture to provide access to
  comprehensive, up-to-date and detailed
  information particularly in rural areas.
• e-science
• - High-speed Internet connection for all
  universities and research institutions.
• - Promote electronic publishing on scientific
  information.

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11. International and regional cooperation
- Digital Solidarity Agenda -

• Priorities and strategies
• National e-strategies as an integral part of
  national development plans.
• ICTs should be fully mainstreamed into strategies
  for ODA.
• Mobilizing resources
• Developing countries efforts to attract private
  investments for ICTs through the creation of a
  transparent, stable and predictable enabling
  investment environment.
• Developed countries efforts to provide more
  financial resources to developing countries in
  harnessing ICTs for development.
• Promote technology transfer and cooperation in
  RD.
• A Task Force under the UN reviews adequacy of
  financial mechanisms by the end of December 2004
  and submit it for the 2nd phase of WSIS.
• Improvements of financing mechanisms including a
  voluntary Digital Solidarity Fund will be
  considered.

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Plan of Action Targets to be achieved by 2015

• to connect villages with ICTs and establish
  community access points
• to connect universities, colleges, secondary
  schools and primary schools with ICTs
• to connect scientific and research centres with
  ICTs
• to connect public libraries, cultural centres,
  museums, post offices and archives with ICTs
• to connect health centres and hospitals with
  ICTs
• to connect all local and central government
  departments and establish websites and email
  addresses
• to adapt all primary and secondary school
  curricula to meet the challenges of the
  Information Society, taking into account national
  circumstances
• to ensure that all of the world's population have
  access to television and radio services
• to encourage the development of content and to
  put in place technical conditions in order to
  facilitate the presence and use of all world
  languages on the Internet
• to ensure that more than half the worlds
  inhabitants have access to ICTs within their
  reach.

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Follow-up and evaluation

• Develop and launch a composite ICT Development
  (Digital Opportunity) Index.
• Regular assessment of indicators to clarify the
  magnitude of the digital divide.
• International and regional organizations should
  assess and report regularly on universal
  accessibility of nations to ICTs.
• Gender-specific indicators on ICT use and needs.
• Website on best practices and success stories.
• All countries and regions should develop tools so
  as to provide statistical information on the
  Information Society.

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Follow-up in Asia-Pacific region

• Actions of Member countries
• Cooperation in the private sector
• APT
• - APT Telecommunication Development Forum (28-29
  June 2004)
• - APT Ministerial Conference on Broadband and ICT
  Development (1-2 July 2004)
• - Adoption of The Bangkok Agenda
• - Revision of APT programmes

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Thank you.

• Hiroaki Kimura
• Consultant for ICT Development,
• Asia-Pacific Telecommunity
• E-mail kimura_at_aptsec.org