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relevant constituencies from all parts of the world. It should
make full use of and cooperate with existing institutions and
networks and their forums, and complement and contribute to
the WSIS follow-up and implementation. Its principal task
should be to serve as a think-tank and promote dialogue and
exchange of experience on global ICT4D and Information Society
issues, thus contributing to the effectiveness and development
impact of these entities and initiatives.
As we implement the outcomes of both the Geneva and Tunis
phases of WSIS, we must confront the painful paradox of extreme
poverty and human suffering alongside the availability of
immense resources and technology. Technological solutions to
many development problems are known but remain inaccessible
to those who would benefit most. Among the solutions, ICT
provides platform technologies with a fundamental impact on
the various sectors of society, culture and the economy. As little
as a decade ago, ICT was considered marginal to the issues of
economic growth and poverty reduction. Since then, scepticism
has diminished. ICT is now seen as a powerful enabler of devel-
opment goals.
WSIS has provided a highly visible forum for discussing and
advancing this critical role of ICT in achieving the MDGs and
putting ICT4D issues on the ‘radar screens’ of policy makers at
the national, regional and international levels. We, the partici-
pants, now have a duty to ensure that the energy generated by
the World Summit on the Information Society does not dissipate,
that the issues do not recede from the policy agenda, and that
the vision and action plan do not go unfulfilled. To maximize the
impact of our efforts, we should ensure that they are comple-
mentary to the outcome of the 2005 World Summit, helping to
deliver “freedom from want” through the effective use of science
and technology, especially ICT, for empowering people every-
where and advancing their well-being.
Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Arab States,
and Europe and Central Asia, the Task Force organized events
around the developing world in order to bring regional perspec-
tives to WSIS. The ICT Task Force also held several parallel events
during the Geneva Summit and participated in the ICT for
Development (ICT4D) Platform, incorporating various stake-
holder perspectives into the process as well as making substantive
contributions to discourse on ICTs-for-development.
The Task Force organized global forums on key substantive
issues of relevance to WSIS, including Internet Governance, An
Enabling Environment for Digital Development, and A Multi-
stakeholder Approach to Harnessing the Potential of ICT for
Education. The ICT Task Force has, thus, used its convening
power and influence to link the ICT4D agenda to the broader
United Nations development agenda emerging from major UN
summits and conferences and that guides the work of the UN
system and its partners.
The ICT Task Force has also supported a number of successful
initiatives independent of the WSIS process. Through a
programme with partners UNITAR and Intel, hundreds of diplo-
mats in New York and in capitals have completed the Policy
Awareness and Training in Information Technology series. The
Task Force supports the work of the Wireless Internet Institute in
delivering a global programme aimed at accelerating the adop-
tion of wireless Internet in support of universal connectivity. The
Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative , now an indepen-
dent organization with a secretariat headquartered in Dublin, was
originally a joint project of the Working Groups on Low Coast
Access and Connectivity and on Human Resources Development
and Capacity-building. And the Task Force actively participates
in the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development, led by the
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD), in particular through contributions by the Task
Force’s Working Party on ICT Indicators and MDGs Mapping.
During the second phase of WSIS in Tunis, the Task Force will
continue actively to contribute to the success and sustainable
development impact of the Summit, by releasing a number of
substantive publications, holding a series of parallel events orga-
nized with partners and taking part in the ICT4All exhibition.
The ICT Task Force will complete its term in December 2005.
Recent discussions, including those within the context of the
WSIS, have reiterated the need to sustain and strengthen substan-
tive dialogue on ICT4D-related issues in a global, multi-
stakeholder, cross-sectoral, open, inclusive and transparent
manner. Surely, achieving the Summit’s ambitious objectives will
require multi-stakeholder cooperation and the deployment of all
available resources in a coherent and collaborative manner. While
an intergovernmental Summit follow-up process is indispensable,
there is a need for complementary multi-stakeholder processes
that support and add value to intergovernmental efforts.
We therefore believe that a mechanism — a global, inclusive,
multi-stakeholder undertaking under the umbrella of the United
Nations — is needed to link the ICT agenda with the broader
United Nations development agenda and follow-up to the
Millennium Declaration, most recently examined at the
September 2005 World Summit.
Any succeeding entity or network should build on the expe-
rience and advance the work of initiatives such as the G8 Digital
Opportunity Task Force (DOT Force), the UN ICT Task Force
and the WSIS process, providing a platform for cross-sectoral
policy and partnership dialogue with the full and equal engage-
ment and collaboration of all stakeholders representing all
José Antonio Ocampo, Under-Secretary-General of the Department of
Economic and Social Affairs and Chairman of the UN ICT Task Force