PRESS BRIEFING ANNOUNCING SECRETARY-GENERAL'S SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE ON INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING ANNOUNCING SECRETARY-GENERAL'S SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE ON INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

Jose Maria Figueres, former President of Costa Rica, will be the Secretary- General's Special Representative on Information and Communication Technology (ICT), the Under Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Nitin Desai, announced this afternoon at a Headquarters press briefing.

In his introductory remarks, Mr. Desai said that this appointment was a follow-up to the High Level Segment of the Economic and Social Council, which dealt with information and communication technology. One of the proposals at that meeting had been the constitution of a taskforce of stakeholders, including governments, industry, foundations and others. This taskforce was to help organize partnerships in order to address the digital divide. Another component was the creation of a trust fund.

The appointment of a Special Representative represented the first stage of this exercise, he said. It was hoped that Mr. Figueres would be able to consult with stakeholders and the Advisory Group in order to propose a potential taskforce. The proposal would be taken to Economic and Social Council for approval. [A list of the Advisory Group members is available in the Spokesman's Office].

The Under Secretary-General said that Jose Maria Figueres was well known within the United Nations. While he was President, he had made sustainable development a basic principle of Costa Rican development policy. He had also taken a strong interest in information technology and had chaired a high-level panel last year to prepare for the High-Level Segment of the Economic and Social Council.

Joining the press conference via video link from Geneva, Mr. Figueres said that he was honoured by the designation of the Secretary-General. He would continue to work alongside the many efforts of the United Nations to provide different forums for resolving the digital divide. It was a complex task, but the objective was certainly worthwhile. It was important to incorporate people in developing nations who otherwise would not have an opportunity to benefit from information technologies.

This information and communication technology initiative was also a case of good follow through by the United Nations, he said. The process began in April 2000, when the Secretary-General convened a High Level Panel of Experts to begin to address the issue of the digital divide. In July, the Economic and Social Council endorsed the report that came out of the April meeting, and now it was time to implement aspects of that report.

He said that the consultation process that would begin this week would be democratic in nature. He wanted to gather relevant input from the many stakeholders. He saw this United Nations initiative as an all-inclusive one. There were many other initiatives that were trying to deal with the complexities of the digital divide. It was, therefore, important to integrate and to look for synergy amongst the different initiatives that were out there in the field.

Mr. Figueres said that another characteristic of the consultation process was the horizon for action. It was clear that this initiative would require a sustained effort over time. The digital divide was not going to be turned into a digital dividend or a digital opportunity just because of the creation of another taskforce. It would take constant effort to move this agenda forward.

In order to demolish the economic, technological, and cultural obstacles, it was essential to have a wide understanding of what information technology could do in terms of bettering the livelihood and living conditions of people the world over. At the end of the day, this was the least common denominator, but it was the most important objective of the effort.

Mr. Figueres said that he hoped by the beginning of next year, the first round of consultations would be completed. After that, he and the stakeholders would go back to the Secretary-General for what would then be a phase of implementation.

Asked if this initiative on information technology would impact on the work of journalists within the United Nations, Mr. Desai said that he was sure it would. A great deal had already been done to distribute information through the Internet. The Department of Public Information was doing such things as web casting, in order to get information out. He had no doubt that the United Nations would expand its outreach through the use of information technology.

A correspondent asked if the experience of the last twenty years, in terms of the transfer of technology, gave the President grounds for optimism.

President Figueres responded that there was a qualitative difference between the technology used in the past and its transfer to developing nations, and the technology that was available today. Today, there were few, if any, technological barriers to the transfer to developing nations. He was also convinced that the resources were now available. It was more a question of organizing the resources.

As part of this qualitative jump, he added that never before had there been the ability to transfer technology to the number of people in developing nations that was possible today. However, he cautioned against the belief that information technology was a type of "miracle lightening rod" that would endow societies with automatic development possibilities.

Emphasis needed to be placed on strategies for development in nations, he said. Countries needed to have strategies, with which to extract value from the process of globalization, instead of having globalization extract value out of the individual societies. The next step would be to enhance these development strategies with information technologies, including tele-medicine, computer labs, and smart cards. This would require a team approach, as well as a sustained approach.

Mr. Desai added that it was in the interest of those countries that possessed the technologies to transfer them. If a person had a telephone, the usefulness of that telephone would increase as the number of people with telephones increased. This was also the case with the Internet. The essential characteristic of communication technologies was that the more people who had it, the better. It was also important to create partnerships between governments, the private sector and philanthropic organizations.

Asked what the economic support system behind this initiative would be that would allow it to flourish, Mr. Figueres replied that there would never be enough resources. The public sector was interested in development, and the private sector was interested in expanding markets, so he saw a win-win situation for companies to make an investment in developing these markets of the future.

The core of the issue was how would small rural villages pay for connectivity, he said. There were efforts being led by the Digital Nations Consortium, including a media lab at MIT. As part of the work that would be undertaken, there would be a sharing of best practices. This would help to make everyone aware of the initiatives that were already out there.

Asked what agency would be responsible for training maintenance workers for equipment, Mr. Desai said that one of the major issues was who was going to do what. He could not see that the United Nations would be the agency that would do everything. This was why this initiative was envisioned as a partnership. However, this was the kind of issue the taskforce could decide. Much would revolve around building capacity at the national level, rather than trying to say that some international agency would do all of it.

Asked whether certain countries be targeted first, Mr. Figueres said that there were undoubtedly some areas where this initiative would advance at a faster rate than others. There were some examples of countries that were already beginning to show sustainable growth patterns from the incorporation of information technology into their main economic, social and environmental livelihoods. However, he said, the entire developing world would be kept on the radar screen.

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