The
first phase of the World Summit on the Information
Society [WSIS] took place in Geneva, Switzerland from
10-12 December, 2003. The second phase will take place
in Tunis, Tunisia, from 16 to18 November 2005. In
Geneva, over 54 Heads of State, Prime Ministers, Presidents,
Vice-Presidents and 83 ministers and vice-ministers
from 176 countries, Executive Heads of United Nations
agencies, industry leaders [private sector], NGOs,
media representatives and civil society came together
for the first multi-stakeholder global effort to share
and shape the use of ICTs for a better world.
The Summit adopted a Declaration of Principles which
puts forward the shared elements among members of
the international community about a common vision
of an information society's[1]values.
It also adopted a Plan of Action which sets forth
a road map to build on that vision and to bring the
benefits of Information and communication technologies
[ ICTs][2] to underserved
economies. One among the few things for which there
was consensus among the participants[3]
in the Summit was with respect to the framework and
strategy the international community should develop
to ensure that the possible benefits of ICTs for development
are maximized while the possible obstacles and barriers
are minimized. With respect to the other two major
themes discussed at the summit, namely, access and
applications, very little of concrete and immediate
relevance was achieved at the end of the first phase
of the WSIS. All the intensity of debate and hard
talk on internet management and governance during
the pre-summit phase was diluted with the decision
at the Summit to set up an UN working group on internet
governance which will report to the second stage of
the summit in Tunis, the decision only facilitating
the stalling of the issue temporarily. Regarding the
question of bridging the so called 'digital divide'
by increasing access and applying ICTs for redressing
the problems of the poor countries, it was agreed
upon that for achieving the above, building up the
infrastructure base in these countries from the primary
level is essential . However, the consensus ended
here. How this process is going to be funded and what
role the developed countries should play in this respect
remained a topic of controversy and discordance.
Few people have ever died because they did not have
access to the Internet or could not make a telephone
call. Among the necessities of life, ICTs come well
down the scale. But it is much easier to deliver the
real necessities of life-such as clean water, nourishing
food, shelter, education, healthcare, and employment-with
good access to information and communications. The
UN Millennium Declaration[4]
contains commitments to halve, by the year 2015, the
proportion of the world's population living on less
than one US dollar per day, suffering from hunger
or having no access to drinking water. It also contains
commitments on achieving universal primary education
for both boys and girls, reducing maternal and child
mortality, improving healthcare and achieving significant
improvements in the life of slum dwellers. ICTs can
help in achieving these goals.
At the closing ceremony of the Summit, Yoshio Utsumi,
Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication
Union [ITU][5] and Summit
cautioned that the Summit was only the start of a
long and complex process. "Telephones will not
feed the poor, and computers will not replace textbooks.
But ICTs can be used effectively as part of the toolbox
for addressing global problems...." he said[6]
. The true test of an engaged, empowered and egalitarian
information society, he added, would be seeing the
fruits of today's powerful knowledge based tools in
the most impoverished economies. . The participants
in the closing ceremony also stressed why it is pertinent
to have a new commitment in areas like internet governance,
access, investment, security, the development of applications,
intellectual property rights and privacy to work together
if we are to realize the benefits of the information
society. A genuine and objective assessment of the
Summit can be done by examining to what extent the
above issues were addressed to in the summit and a
consensus evolved with respect to tackling them.
The issue of internet governance was one of the most
important and extensively discussed topics in the
pre-summit phase, largely because of its multi-dimensional
impacts in the global context. However, with agreement
to set up an UN working group on internet governance
– technical management of the internet and public
policy concerns such as unsolicited advertising [spam],
privacy, cyber crime and network security- the dispute
has been defused, at least, temporarily[7]
. Developing countries have proposed that the International
Telecommunications Union should be given control of
Internet governance issues, including anti-spam measures
and distribution of Website domains. Many developing
world countries believe that a new approach is needed
as the Internet reaches maturity and as many poorer
countries log on to the Internet. The move could represent
a major setback in future for the International Corp
for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a non-profit
company which is currently seen as the most-recognisable
Internet governance organisation. Because of its far-reaching
implications in the international political, economic
and cultural milieu, the issue has to be analysed
systematically and independently, in detail.
Access to information, and thereby to the creation
of knowledge, is considered a critical factor in the
development process. On the one hand, this requires
an adequate range of ICT networks and services. On
the other hand, it implies the ability to use those
tools to develop applications that benefit society
(learning by doing). But both the tools and the ability
to use them are unevenly distributed. Despite considerable
progress in recent years, access to ICTs, notably
the telephone, mobile phone, Internet and broadcast
networks, remains unequally distributed[8].
There are, for example, more televisions in Brazil;
more fixed line telephones in Italy; more mobile phones
in Korea; and greater Internet connectivity in Luxembourg;
than in the whole continent of Africa. Yet the population
of Africa, and the needs of its people, greatly exceeds
those of these other countries. In recent years, these
disparities have come to be known as the "digital
divide". The Digital Solidarity Agenda put forward
by the Draft Plan of Action attempts to bridge this
divide by putting in place the conditions for mobilizing
human, financial and technological resources for inclusion
of all men and women in the emerging Information Society.
The plan of action suggests that Developed countries
should make concrete efforts to fulfil their international
commitments to financing development including the
Monterrey Consensus, in which developed countries
that have not done so are urged to make concrete efforts
towards the target of 0.7 per cent of GNP as ODA to
developing countries and 0.15 to 0.20 per cent of
GNP of developed countries to least developed countries.
However many participants, especially from Africa
were quite sceptical about the financing aspect of
this process. African countries led by Senegal wanted
a Digital Solidarity Fund to help governments, companies
and nonprofit organizations narrow the so called digital
divide. The U.S. and other western countries rejected
this funding proposal insisting that the existing
mechanisms are adequate, requiring at most unspecified
adjustments. This seems quite ironical in the light
of the fact that the WSIS was able to pledge only
a trickle of financial support compared with the $6.3
billion (U.S.) one organizer estimated it would take
to truly bring phones and internet to all corners
of the world. However, it was finally resolved to
undertake a review of existing ICT funding mechanisms
and also study the feasibility of an international
voluntary Digital Solidarity Fund, which would be
reviewed in the Tunis Summit.
Another concern which was voiced by civil society
groups[9] and some participants
from African countries [before and after the Summit]
was that the Summit was steamrollered by western and
MNC interests', as clearly evidenced by the dominance
of MNCs like Micro Soft, Hewlett- Packard, Cisco,
World Space etc. in technological collaborations formed
at the Summit. especially with respect to developing
the internet. Ralf Bendrath of Germany's Heinrich-Böll
Foundation warned that "To an extent, industry
is naturally important, to build infrastructure and
operate it. But we are against an information society
that's organized as a purely profit-oriented information
society"[10] .
Civil society groups also came out with an alternative
declaration claiming that their voices and the general
interests collectively expressed by them are not adequately
reflected in the Summit documents. Their Declaration
titled "Shaping Information Societies for Human
Needs" is centered around four core principles
: Social Justice and People-Centred Sustainable Development;
Centrality of Human Rights; Culture, Knowledge and
Public Domain; and Enabling Environment.
Inspite of all the focus and big talk on the role
national governments[11]
have to play in the ICT diffusion process, the Summit
was attended by a relatively much smaller number of
government representatives than was initially expected.
Of the 176 governments represented at the Summit 80
heads of government were initially expected to attend,
some 60 confirmed their participation and finally
was attended by 40 As Claire Flus, who works on providing
access and local content to Brazil's urban slums summed
it up, " The people we have seen are mainly from
NGOs. The governments, I can't really see them. I
don't find it obvious at all they are supporting this"[12].
Press freedom has been another controversial issue
at the summit, with developing nations and European
states clashing over the wording of a general declaration
on the role of the media. The growing reach of the
Internet as a news medium has once again thrown the
spotlight on press freedom. But there was anger that
many governments such as those of Zimbabwe, who are
accused of clamping down on the media and restricting
access to the Internet, are participating in the summit.
As Timothy Balding, director general of the Paris-based
World Association of Newspapers, said, "Many
of the principal barriers and obstacles to development
of the Internet as a platform for free expression
have been erected by the very governments who are
in attendance". It is quite ironical to note
that closely on heels with the Summit , a new U.S.
federal law is coming into vogue from January, 1,
2004, making it legal to send bulk e-mail (60% of
which is today spam). Anti-spam activists suggest
that this would open the floodgates of spam[13]
!!
A clear concern of alarm and caution also was voiced
at the Summit, especially by Latin American and African
nations regarding the need not just to preserve existing
cultures, but also protect new cultures and forms
of expression being created by the internet. One of
the positive outcomes of the Summit was the consensus
to preserve and support cultural diversity, though
the question of how this could be achieved in today's
world still characterized by a sharp digital divide
was largely skipped ,foster local content development
an knowledge-sharing , and enable the use of all world
languages on the internet.
Inspite of the differences of opinion in many areas
the Summit ended on a general note of optimism that
it was largely successful in placing the importance
of ICTs in fostering development and bridging the
digital divide on the world agenda. With long term
commitment on the part of governments, private sector
and civil society to mobilize resources and investment
most of the envisaged targets can be achieved.
December 23, 2003.
[1] Ever since the 1980s, 'information
society' has been one of the key terms used to describe
the modern world. It has been employed variously as
a social, cultural, economical and technical concept,
and is typically seen as the natural development of
the European liberal tradition, or of American technological
modernity.
[2] Information and communication
technologies are seen by various different bodies
of the international community as being, inter alia:
- a bridge between developed and developing countries
[DOI and DOT Force]
- a tool for economic and social development [WTDC
1994, Seoul Declaration, ADF 02]
- an engine for growth [The Missing Link Report, 1984];
- the central pillar for the construction of a global
knowledge-based economy and society
[Florianopolis Declaration];
- An opportunity for countries to free themselves
from the tyranny of geography [ESCAP 2000].
African Development Forum III, "Consensus Statement
and the Way Ahead", 3-8 March 2002,
Addis Abeba.
http://www.uneca.org/adfiii/consensus.htm
[3] Participation at the WSIS was
broadly from four categories of stakeholders, namely,
governments, private sector, civil society, and the
UN family.
[4] The reference here is to the UN
Millennium Declaration Development goals. A framework
of 8 goals, 18 targets and 48 indicators to measure
progress towards the Millennium Development goals
was adopted by a consensus of experts from the United
Nations Secretariat and IMF, OECD and the World Bank.
( Road Map towards the Implementation of the United
Nations Millennium Declaration, A/56/326 [PDF, 450KB]
The goals are eradicating extreme poverty and hunger,
achieving universal primary education, promoting gender
equality and empower women, reducing child mortality,
improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria
and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability
and developing a global partnership for development.
In addition, the global development agenda also includes
the achievement of sustainable development and agreed
development goals, as contained in the Johannesburg
Declaration and Plan of Implementation and the Monterrey
Consensus, and other outcomes of relevant United Nations
Summits.
[5] The original idea for the Summit
came from ITU Resolution 73 (Minneapolis, 1998) and
was subsequently confirmed in ITU Council Resolutions
1158 and 1179. Subsequently the UN General Assembly
Resolution 56/183 [21 December, 2001] endorsed the
framework for the Summit adopted by the ITU. UN General
Assembly Resolution, A/RES/56/183, is available at:
http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/56/a56r183.pdf
[6]
http://www.itu.int/wsis/geneva/newsroom/press_releases/wsisclosing.html
[7] Geneva Summit aims to bridge digital
divide, Financial Times, Dec, 9, 2003.
[8] WSIS document –Providing
access to ICTs for all -available at www.wsis.org
[9] The UN uses the term for organizations
that are distinct from the government or international
agencies.
[10] ://www.dw-world.de © Deutsche
Welle
[11] While the private sector may
be the driving force behind the growth of the information
society, since private initiative is market driven,
which does not necessarily cater for the needs of
the whole population, particularly in developing and
least developed countries it is essential for governments
to take the lead in promoting equitable participation
of the whole population in the information society.
[12] http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story
[13] The Hindu, The Challenge of
Spam, p.10, Dec.19, 2003.
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