UNITED NATIONS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES TASK FORCE TO MEET AT HEADQUARTERS 30 SEPTEMBER TO 1 OCTOBER

Note to Correspondents

UNITED NATIONS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES TASK FORCE

TO MEET AT HEADQUARTERS 30 SEPTEMBER TO 1 OCTOBER

Holding its third meeting at United Nations Headquarters on 30 September and 1 October, the United Nations Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Task Force will place special emphasis on ICT for development in Africa.  Participants will also review the progress made by the Task Force during the first year, and address the future strategy and programme of work.  The meeting will take place in the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Chamber.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who launched the Task Force last November, will give the opening statement at 9:30 a.m. on 30 September.  Ivan Simonovic, ECOSOC President and José-María Figueres-Olsen, the Task Force Chairman and Special Representative of the Secretary-General on ICT, will give introductory remarks.

Participants will then consider the reports of the Task Force’s regional nodes and working groups.  Regional nodes are in operation in Africa, Asia, the Arab States, Europe and Central Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean.  Working groups have been formed on policy and governance, national and regional

e-strategies, human resource development and capacity-building, resource mobilization, low cost connectivity access, and business enterprise and entrepreneurship.

ICT for development in Africa will be a major topic, with the African Digital Diaspora Network presenting its activities.  Through the Network, African expatriates working in the high-tech sector in North America and Europe seek to jump-start ICT initiatives on the home continent.  Thousands of Internet nodes and digital activities are taking shape in Africa, but usually lack even small amounts of capital, expertise and networking ability to stabilize and to grow.  The Network seeks to mobilize leaders in the expatriate community and other supportive individuals and institutions to underwrite and mentor these developments.

      The meeting will also review African success case studies and discuss the potential contribution of the Task Force to promoting ICT for development in the continent.

Also on 30 September, the segment on enhancing coordination, networking and partnerships will examine cooperation with the Digital Opportunity Task Force, an initiative launched by the Group of 8 industrialized countries at its Okinawa

Summit in July 2000; the World Bank’s Development Gateway Foundation, an interactive portal on development and poverty reduction; and other major

initiatives, such as the Steering Committees of the World Economic Forum Digital Divide Task Force, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The 1 October session will open with a presentation by Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the Millennium Development Goals.  After an exchange of views on strengthening the Task Force’s contribution to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, participants will discuss the Task Force’s programme of work, strategic plan, organization and governance.  The meeting will conclude with the election of the bureau and co-chairs.

Background

Launched by Secretary-General Kofi Annan on 20 November 2001, the ICT Task Force brings the convening power of the United Nations to bear on the problem of the digital divide.  Its members come from governments, the private sector, multilateral organizations, civil society, non-profit foundations and academia.

Reporting directly to the Secretary-General, the Task Force is fostering partnerships between public and private sectors, and with academia and civil society, to open up opportunities for those who have been excluded from the benefits of the digital era.  It works to make a difference in vital areas such as education, health care, gender equality and the empowering of women, youth, the disabled, and people living in poverty.  The Task Force is thus guided by the key development objectives defined at the Millennium Summit.

The Task Force seeks to address the digital divide through a synthesis of efforts, rather than by establishing a new bureaucratic organization.  Instead of attempting to carve out an institutional niche, it combines its efforts and cooperates fully with other institutions and international initiatives.

Partnership initiatives include a global inventory of ICT-for-development programmes and projects, together with the Development Gateway Foundation; the launching of the Digital Diaspora Network of African Entrepreneurs, in partnership with Digital Partners, the United Nations Fund for International Partnership (UNFIP), the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the CERFE Group of Italy; and the Digital Opportunity Initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Markle Foundation, which supports the development of national e-strategies and their implementation.  National

e-strategy seminars have been held in Jordan and Mali.  Similar events are planned in other regions.

The CEO Charter -– an initiative by which Chief Executive Officers commit

20 per cent of their company’s philanthropic budgets to ICT-for-development programmes –- was launched by Hewlett Packard and other private-sector members of the Task Force, at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in New York in February.  It was given impetus at the General Assembly high-level meeting on ICT for development in June, with the involvement of the Task Force Chairman and several of its members.

Please visit the Web site of the Task Force at www.unicttaskforce.org.

For information contact Enrica Murmura of the ICT Task Force, at (212) 963-5913, murmura@un.org.