UN PANEL ISSUES "ACTION PLAN" TO ADDRESS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY LAG IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Press Release
DEV/2252
PI/1259

UN PANEL ISSUES ‘ACTION PLAN’ TO ADDRESS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY LAG IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

The first authoritative global plan to fully incorporate public and private sector viewpoints on overcoming the information and communication technology (ICT) lag found in most developing countries was issued today at United Nations Headquarters.

The report and action plan has been drawn up by a panel of independent experts from government, business and civil society who have led successful ICT campaigns in developing and transition economies, as well as public and private sector leaders from Europe and the United States.

The report of the meeting of the high-level panel of experts on information and communication technology (document E/2000/55 and available on the Internet at www.un.org/esa/coordination/ecosoc/itforum/expert) will be considered at the United Nations Millennium Assembly, opening in September. The report will also be considered at the July high-level meeting of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, and representatives of the panel are taking part in preparations for the mid-July Summit of the Group of 8 countries, which will be held in Okinawa and will focus on ICT issues.

The independent experts propose measures to heighten dramatically the priority given to ICT by countries and international agencies, and suggest means to attract and leverage funding. Drawing from their own experiences, the panellists document do-it-yourself campaigns that have worked even in countries contending with extreme poverty or complex political situations.

“The international community, working in concert with national governments, private business and civil society, is fully capable of reversing the current alarming trend of the growing digital divide”, enabling Internet access in either home, workplace or community by 2004 for the 80 per cent of the world’s population who are currently unconnected, the report proposes.

But although developing countries have a great potential to compete successfully in the new global market, “unless they promptly and actively embrace the ICT revolution, they will face new barriers and the risk of not just being marginalized, but completely by-passed”, the 17-member team warns.

The Economic and Social Council has made ICT development the central focus of its year 2000 session, and it is expected that ministers of information and development from 54 member countries will issue a communique at the 5 to 7 July high-level meeting. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan will address the

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meeting via a television hook-up (while on tour in Africa), as will United States Vice-President Al Gore and former South African telecom minister Jay Naidoo. Also participating in the meeting will be President Alpha Oumar Konare of Mali, the heads of the world's top trade and finance organizations, United States Secretary of the Treasury Lawrence Summers, Nokia CEO Jorma Ollila and Infosys CEO Narayana Murthy.

Electronic Trade Barrier

E-commerce is tying individuals, firms and countries closer and closer together. But the 1.5 billion Web pages in existence, with almost 2 million more appearing on the Internet every day, and the total e-commerce exchanges on track to reach $7 trillion in 2004, are produced by less than five per cent of the world’s population, the report notes. Under those conditions, “e-commerce is rapidly becoming a trade barrier for those who are not connected”.

The panel cites ICT’s capacity to rapidly upgrade health and education services. The strong returns on relatively modest investments in electronic equipment and digital skills in those sectors give ample reason to assign priority to ICT in development planning. “ICT brings early, tangible and important benefits to the poor”, the report says.

Reasons are given for optimism that the digital divide can be narrowed. Costs of equipment and materials are declining, for instance and, rather than having to pay for new infrastructure, governments in many cases should be able to attract private investment in ICT by stimulating demand.

Policy Recommendations

Key elements from the panel’s “International ICT Action Plan”:

-- The United Nations should create, under the leadership of the United Nations Secretary-General but outside the regular United Nations organizational structures, an ICT Task Force charged with bringing together international agencies, private industry and foundations and trusts to facilitate the expansion of the ICT market in developing countries.

-- A development fund administered by the Task Force should be amassed from hundreds of millions of dollars solicited from such sources as the United Nations Fund for International Partnerships (the so-called "Turner Fund"). Private sector representatives on the panel suggest that the ICT industry is likely to be willing and able to match contributions. Funding would be further leveraged by making grants contingent on being matched with resources of the benefiting country, producing a final return of four dollars on every dollar raised by the United Nations.

-- The United Nations should work with financial institutions and creditor governments to have one per cent of the debt of each developing country written off, if the equivalent amount is applied to ICT development. In a similar manner, countries should receive international financing for ICT on the basis of national progress in carbon-fixation (anti-greenhouse effect) activities.

-- At its Millennium Assembly this September, the United Nations should link the right of universal access to ICT services with existing United Nations principles and conventions on human rights and development.

The panel also suggests that the United Nations might serve as an arbitrator or facilitator with respect to certain key legal and policy issues, such as Internet security, Member States claims to top-level domain names and representation of developing countries in existing Internet administrative procedures.

The panel concludes that “the international community, especially the United Nations, has a special obligation to assist countries in maximizing the benefits they can secure from ICT”. They recommend bringing “greater coherence and synergy to the ICT activities currently undertaken by individual organizations of the United Nations system, including the World Bank, and by the European Union, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and numerous other multilateral and bi-lateral organizations”.

Special recommendations in the panel report concern the fair and equal participation in the information society, particularly for women. It calls for equal opportunity in the workplace and in access to education and technology.

The high-level panel of experts met from 17 to 20 April in New York. The panel was chaired by Jose Maria Figueres, former President of Costa Rica, who is credited with organizing rapid advances in ICT capabilities in his country. Mr. Figeures will present the panel report to the July Economic and Social Council high-level meeting.

The following leaders and experts also serve on the panel:

From Africa

Pascal Baba Couloubaly, Mali, Minister of Culture Nii Quaynor, Ghana, Executive Chairman of National Computer Systems Sushil Baguant, Mauritius, Chairman of the National Computer Board Ms. Najat Rochdi, Morocco, President of the Internet Society of Morocco

Asia

Wang Qiming, China, Ministry of Science and Technology Srinivsan Ramani, India, National Center for Software Technology Taholo Kami, Tonga, Manager of the Small Island Developing States Network

Eastern Europe

Toomas-Hendrik Ilves, Estonia, Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrei Kolesnikov, Russia, founder of Russia-on-Line Orlin Kouzov, Bulgaria, CEO of the National Education and Research Network

Latin America and Caribbean

Pedro Urra, Cuba, Director of the Medical Network, Ministry of Health Tadao Takahashi, Brazil, Chair of the Federal Task Force for National Information Society Ms. Gillian Marcelle, Trinidad, telecommunications policy and gender specialist

Developed Countries

Paolo Morawski, Italy, Radiotelevisione Italiana William Sheppard, United States, Vice-President of Intel Anders Wijkman, Sweden, Member of the European Parliament

The panellists engaged in dialogues with invited experts, including Vinton Cerf, Director of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and widely recognized as the "Father of the Internet".

For more information, contact: Tim Wall, Development and Human Rights Section of the United Nations Department of Public Information, telephone 212-963- 5851; e-mail: walt@un.org.

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