Recognizing WSIS Impacts

Unless it acknowledges key characteristics of the Internet, the World Summit on the Information Society will easily undermine it

PP Resolution 131


PP RESOLUTION 131 (Rev. Guadalajara, 2010)

Information and communication technology index1 and community connectivity indicators2

The Plenipotentiary Conference of the International Telecommunication Union (Guadalajara, 2010),

  • aware
    • a) that technological innovation, digitization and telecommunications/ information and communication technologies (ICTs) have developed significantly and have continued to modify the ways in which people access knowledge and communicate with one another;
    • b) that there is still an ongoing need to call for the promotion of knowledge and the development of skills in all populations in order to achieve greater economic, social and cultural development and to raise the standard of living of the world’s citizens;
    • c) that each Member State is seeking to establish its own policies and regulations in order to narrow as effectively as possible the digital divide between those who have access to communication and information and those who do not,
  • recognizing
    • a) that the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) represented an opportunity to identify a global strategy for narrowing the digital divide from the development standpoint;
    • b) that the outcome of the global Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development has resulted in agreement on the identification of a set of basic indicators for measuring ICT for development, as called for by § 115 of the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society,
  • considering
    • a) that the Geneva Plan of Action adopted by WSIS provides for the following: “In cooperation with each country concerned, develop and launch a composite ICT Development (Digital Opportunity) Index. It could be published annually, or every two years, in an ICT Development Report. The index could show the statistics while the report would present analytical work on policies and their implementation, depending on national circumstances, including gender analysis”;
    • b) that key stakeholders, among which ITU (represented by the ITU Telecommunication Development Sector (ITU-D)), involved in the measurement of information society statistics, joined forces to create a “global Partnership for Measuring ICT for Development”;
    • c) the contents of Resolution 8 (Rev. Hyderabad, 2010) of the World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC) as well as Programme 3 of the Hyderabad Action Plan, on collection and dissemination of telecommunication/ICT information and statistics, with particular emphasis on consolidation of information and statistical data by the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT), in order to avoid duplication in this field;
    • d) that, through Programme 3 of the Hyderabad Action Plan, WTDC called upon ITU-D to:
      • – collect and disseminate in a timely fashion data and statistics, including sex-disaggregated data where applicable;
      • – analyse telecommunication/ICT trends and produce regional and global research reports;
      • – benchmark ICT developments and clarify the magnitude of the digital divide (using tools such as the ICT Development Index and the ICT Price Basket);
      • – develop international standards and methodologies on ICT statistics;
      • – contribute to the monitoring of internationally agreed goals and targets (such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the WSIS targets);
      • – maintain a leading role in the global Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development;
      • – provide capacity building and technical assistance to Member States in the area of ICT measurement;
    • e) the WSIS outcomes in relation to ICT indicators, especially the following paragraphs in the Tunis Agenda:
      • • § 113, which called for formulating appropriate indicators and benchmarking, including community connectivity indicators, to clarify the magnitude of the digital divide, in both its domestic and international dimensions, and keep it under regular assessment, and tracking global progress in the use of ICTs to achieve internationally agreed development goals and objectives, including the Millennium Development Goals;
      • • § 114, which recognized the importance of the development of ICT indicators for measuring the digital divide and noted the launch of the Partnership for Measuring ICT for Development;
      • • § 115, which noted the launch of the ICT Opportunity Index and the Digital Opportunity Index, based on the set of basic indicators defined by the global Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development;
      • • § 116, which stressed the need to take into account different levels of development and national circumstances;
      • • § 117, which called for further development of these indicators, in collaboration with the global partnership, in order to ensure cost-effectiveness and non-duplication in this field;
      • • § 118, which invited the international community to strengthen the statistical capacity of developing countries by giving appropriate support at national and regional levels,
  • recognizing further
    • a) that, with a view to providing their populations with faster access to telecommunication/ICT services, many countries have continued to implement public community connectivity policies in those communities that are poorly served with telecommunication facilities;
    • b) that the approach of achieving universal service through community connectivity and broadband access instead of seeking in the short term to ensure that all households have a telephone line has become one of the main goals of ITU,
  • bearing in mind
    • a) that, in order to keep each country’s public policy makers properly informed, ITU-D shall continue to strive to gather and periodically publish a variety of statistics which provide some indication of the degree of progress in and penetration of telecommunication/ICT services in the different regions of the world;
    • b) that, according to the guidelines of the Plenipotentiary Conference, it is necessary to ensure as far as possible that the policies and strategies of the Union are fully in tune with the constantly changing telecommunication environment,
  • noting
    • a) that the Geneva Plan of Action adopted by WSIS identifies indicators and appropriate reference points, including community connectivity indicators, as elements for the follow-up and evaluation thereof;
    • b) that the single ICT Development Index (IDI) was developed by ITU-D and has been published annually since 2009;
    • c) that Resolution 8 (Rev. Hyderabad, 2010) instructs the Director of BDT to establish and collect community connectivity indicators and to participate in the establishment of core indicators to measure efforts to build the information society and, by doing so, to illustrate the scale of the digital divide,
  • resolves to instruct the Secretary-General and the Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau
    • to continue, if justified, to promote the adoption of measures necessary to ensure that community connectivity indicators are taken into account in regional and world meetings convened for the purpose of evaluating and following up the Geneva Plan of Action and Tunis Agenda,
  • instructs the Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau
    • 1 to continue to promote the adoption of ITU statistics, and to publish them regularly;
    • 2 to promote the activities required to define and adopt new indicators for the purpose of measuring the real impact of ICTs on countries’ development;
    • 3 in order to give full effect to Resolution 8 (Rev. Hyderabad, 2010), to continue convening a seminar for Member States and experts to develop existing indicators and systematically review their methodologies, commencing this review in accordance with Resolution 8 (Rev. Hyderabad, 2010), and, as appropriate, to formulate any other indicators that may be required;
    • 4 to call for a conference on ICT indicators at least once every two years;
    • 5 to give the necessary support for the implementation of Resolution 8 (Rev. Hyderabad, 2010), and to stress the importance of implementing the WSIS outcomes in relation to the indicators mentioned, and to continue to avoid duplication in statistical work in this field;
    • 6 to continue to work to promote a single ICT index as the means by which ITU responds to considering a) above;
    • 7 to cooperate with relevant international bodies, in particular those involved in the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development, for the implementation of this resolution;
    • 8 to work on the development of community connectivity indicators and forward the results on an annual basis;
    • 9 to adapt the data collection and the single ICT index in order to reflect the changing access to and use of ICTs, and to invite Member States to participate in such processes,
  • instructs the Secretary-General
    • to submit a report to the next plenipotentiary conference on progress in the implementation of this resolution,
  • invites Member States
    • 1 to participate in the submission of their national community connectivity statistics to ITU-D;
    • 2 to participate actively in these endeavours, by providing the requested information to ITU-D so as to produce telecommunication/ICT benchmarks, with a view to developing a single ICT index.

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