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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