Gala gathering to break digital divide

World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)

SIXTY-ONE heads of state and government are converging in Geneva from December 10 to 12 in the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).

The aim is to build a people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented information society, where everyone can create, access, utilize and share information and knowledge.

More than 6,000 delegates from governmental and inter-governmental organisations, civil society, the private sector and media will also join them at the WSIS.

The World Summit on the Information Society is being held with the support of Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, and is being organised by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the UN agency specializing on telecommunications.

The summit will endorse a Declaration of Principles for the information society and a plan of action to bring the benefits of information and communications technologies for social and economic development to people all over the world, said Abdul Moyeen Khan, minister for science and information and communication technology, on his return from Geneva after the recently concluded session of the PrepCom3.

The minister joined hectic discussions on the two documents related to declaration of principles and Programme of Action (PoA) to be adopted by the heads of states and heads of governments at the Geneva summit on WSIS.

Khan, however, said unlike Cancun, the environment in Geneva was that of a converging dialogue rather than diverging. The weeklong meeting made significant progress despite stiff differences between the North and the South.

Khan said the developed countries appeared extremely reluctant on contribution to the "Solidarity Fund", and actually suggested that the phrase be re-designated as the "Solidarity Agenda."

The Third Resumed Session of the Preparatory Committee met in Geneva from November 10 to 14 to bring the countries closer to a Declaration and an Action Plan to be tabled for endorsement by heads of state and government this month. The draft Declaration of Principles articulates a common vision of the key values that should serve as the foundation for the emerging Information Society. The Draft Plan of Action sets out time-bound development targets aimed at extending access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) to all.

PrepCom worked on the premise that "nothing is agreed unless everything is agreed" so that some text could find resolution without prejudging the negotiations on other issues yet to be discussed.

It was also considered useful to agree on the main thrust of the Declaration to pave the way for a speedier adoption of the Action Plan where similar issues are also found. To hammer out divergence of views on the Declaration, several working groups met along with bilateral and multilateral ad hoc groups. Each of these small groups focused on some particular issues of contention namely, security, internet governance, intellectual property rights (IPRs); the financing of an inclusive global information society, open-source software, freedom of expression and opinion and the role of media.

Progress on substance with agreement was reached on a number of issues leading to a better-balanced Declaration of Principles. The rate of progress accelerated considerably in the second part of the week but time was too little and the delegates widely divided on some outstanding issues.

Negotiations went into higher gear towards the middle of the week, which finally led to the adoption of nearly 90 percent of the text of the Action Plan and 75 percent of the Declaration. The outstanding paragraphs of the Action Plan are those linked to the issues in the Declaration that are still proving challenging.

However, the main objective of the summit has already been achieved, according to Yoshio Utsumi, the ITU secretary-general. "We have succeeded in raising awareness at the highest political level about the implications of the information society. Commitment has been expressed to tackle the injustice of the digital divide and develop new frameworks for cyberspace to ensure that the benefits of the information society are extended to all, not just to a privileged few."