Digital Reach

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HE YEAR

2005 is drawing to a close. Will history look upon

this time as a turning point in human welfare and devel-

opment or as a missed opportunity? It is too soon to tell,

but not too late to act.

The Member States participating in the second phase of the World

Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) are slated to agree on

steps to build the inclusive, people-centered and development-

oriented Information Society envisioned in the Geneva Declaration

of Principles and Plan of Action. Thousands of representatives from

governments, civil society, the private sector and intergovernmen-

tal organizations will gather in Tunis to add their contributions

towards realizing this ambition.

At the 2005 World Summit, which was convened only a few

weeks earlier in September, Heads of State and Government from

around the world committed themselves to action to meet the

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and to address the

formidable challenges and threats of the 21st century outlined

in the Secretary-General’s report

In Larger Freedom: Towards devel-

opment, security and human rights for all.

These two summits may appear to be separate streams, but

their goals are, in fact, closely intertwined. A universal Information

Society is not conceivable in a world that is deeply divided

between the affluent few and the majority who live in abject

poverty. The recent United Nations Department of Economic and

Social Affairs (UN DESA)

Report on the World Social Situation

testifies that 80 per cent of the world’s gross domestic product

belongs to only one billion of its five billion inhabitants, evidence

of an inequality predicament that has only become more

profound and complex in recent decades. The report states that

disparities in income distribution and in access to productive

resources, basic social services, opportunities, markets, and infor-

mation can cause and exacerbate poverty.

WSIS attempts to address at least one key dimension of this

predicament head-on by reducing inequality in access to infor-

mation. However, the persistence of the intergenerational

transmission of poverty demands a broader approach to poverty

reduction in social, economic and political dimensions, inte-

grating improvements in health, education, economic

development and representation in legislative and judicial

processes. The

UN DESA Report on the World Social Situation

states

that it is the implementation of policies in these areas that

contributes to the development of human capital, enabling the

poor to realize their full productive potential. Information and

communication technology (ICT) can and must be a significant

part of the solution. Policies designed to enhance the role of ICT

in development have created new avenues for reducing poverty,

especially through the beneficial effects they have on mainstream

development objectives such as improving health, education and

living conditions. Ultimate success in meeting the MDGs will

demand the strategic, intensive, widespread and innovative use

of science and technology, especially ICT, in development poli-

cies and programmes – and not just goal-by-goal but across and

among all the MDGs.

In his report

In Larger Freedom

, the Secretary-General expressed

his optimism about the world’s capacity to meet the MDGs: “The

unprecedented combination of resources and technology at our

disposal today means that we are truly the first generation with

the tools, the knowledge and the resources to meet the commit-

ment, given by all States in the Millennium Declaration, ‘to

making the right to development a reality for everyone and to

freeing the entire human race from want.’”

This conviction has taken hold over the last decade. A 1998

United Nations General Assembly resolution recognized that the

information revolution, and in particular the Internet, was having

a profound impact on the global economy and on development,

and agreed that ICT should be leveraged to promote economic

and social welfare. Acting upon this, the Economic and Social

Council (ECOSOC) devoted the high-level segment of its 2000

substantive session to the theme “Development and international

cooperation in the twenty-first century: the role of information

technology in the context of a knowledge-based global economy”.

Pursuant to ECOSOC’s decision of March 2001, the United

Nations Secretary-General established the ICT Task Force, the

first body created by an intergovernmental decision of the United

Nations in which all members – governments, the private sector,

civil society and multilateral institutions – have equal rights and

responsibilities. The ICT Task Force was designed to provide a

platform for bringing together not only different stakeholders,

but also different constituencies within each stakeholder (such

as different ministries within a government), in open and inclu-

sive discussions on ways to enhance the impact of ICT on

development.

With such a mandate, it is natural that the ICT Task Force has

contributed to WSIS in many ways, the most important of which

had been helping to place development, rather than technology,

at the heart of the Summit. Through its regional networks in

The convergence of summits: the 2005 World

Summit and the World Summit on the

Information Society

José Antonio Ocampo, Under-Secretary-General of the Department of Economic and Social

Affairs, and Chairman, UN ICT Task Force