PRESS BRIEFING BY SECRETARY-GENERAL SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR INFORMATION/COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES

PRESS BRIEFING BY SECRETARY-GENERAL SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE

FOR INFORMATION/COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES

Most people on the planet were still living without access to information and communication possibilities, José Maria Figueres, the newly appointed Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Information and Communication Technologies and former President of Costa Rica, told correspondents at Headquarters this afternoon.  Mr. Figueres was launching the United Nations Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Task Force.

If the Millennium objectives were to become a reality, it was necessary to use all our resolve, strengths and capabilities, he said.  The Task Force had many additional competitive advantages that other initiatives did not have.  The United Nations had on-the-ground representation throughout the world; it had convening power matched by no other organization; it had staying power matched by no other organization; and it could muster resources behind initiatives as no other organization could.

In April of last year, he said, the Secretary-General had convened a high–level panel of experts to begin to study the possibilities of a proactive role for the United Nations in bridging the divide with respect to Information and Communication Technologies applications.  This had led to a series of reports and events, with clear leadership from the Economic and Social Council resulting in the Secretary-General’s decision to launch the Task Force.

Mr. Figueres noted that this was the first United Nations Task Force that comprised four different sectors working alongside each other -- the agencies of the United Nations; governments representing all regions of the world; the private sector; and non-governmental organizations.  This was a unique possibility, as a multi-stakeholder coalition, to really advance the issues of the ICT.

Even though the Task Force was global in its conception, it aimed to be regional and specific in terms of country and regional needs.  Thus, at the same time the Task Force first convened, it had also launched four regional nodes that would act as one-stop ICT information facilities within regions that hoped to leverage best practices.  The Task Force also had six different working groups that looked at content issues -- not the content that would go on the Internet, but content in the sense of regulatory frameworks, low-cost connectivities and applications for health and education.

The Task Force had been mandated by the Secretary-General to coordinate and complement other task forces already existing, he said, such as the Digital Opportunities Task Force (DOT Force) launched by the G-8 countries.  He stressed that there would be no duplication and no replication; rather, the Task Force would look for the missing pieces so that the ICT could work for a much larger group of people.  The Task Force had already received contributions from the four sectors mentioned before, and its viability was guaranteed for a year 

and a half.  Aside from that, the proof would be in the pudding, he said.  The Task Force would have to demonstrate that it was really gaining traction in terms of its deliverables. 

Asked if developing countries would really benefit from “all these task forces”, he said the Task Force was considering specific objectives.  One goal was the provision of band-width connectivity for developing nations.  This would enable them to access band-width on low-orbit earth satellites, since there was excess capacity available.  He added that part of this excess capability must become a public good, to which developing nations with poor on-ground connectivity could have access. 

He added that the Task Force would help countries, on an individual basis, to formulate comprehensive strategies for ICT implementation.  Here, they were looking at best practices of the United Nations.  For example, the work of the Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunization, that in only two years of operation was already working on the ground vaccinating children in 52 of the

74 poorest nations of the world.  This methodology could be replicated with respect the ICT infrastructure in the developing world, he said.

A correspondent asked if there were countries that had been chosen as models in their implementation of the ICT.  He explained that several countries had been looked at in their proactive use and positioning of the ICT, so that the Task Force could study how -- through what components and variables -- they had positioned themselves in a situation where the ICT was helping the development equation.  Through working together with countries in the development of ICT strategies, he hoped to be working with the countries that were the poorest and needed the most.  

Asked whether the ICT would play a major role, and whether there would be an increased use of satellites, he said that in regions of the world where there was no local connectivity on the ground, this might very well be the case.  If there was connectivity, it would be used, but the Task Force was strongly working on the possibility of using excess band-width, as mentioned earlier, on lower-orbiting satellites.  A reduced cost would enable many parts of the world, with no infrastructure, to have immediate band-width connectivity.

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