Stocktaking document outline: - Action lines (I-XI) - Activities relating to Digital Divide - WSIS Follow-up Stocktaking of Activities relevant to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) 1 - Summit issues Relating to the Agency mandate Key issues in the Summit Specific activities in the Organisation s mandate Contacts and links C.1) The role of governments and all stakeholders in the promotion of ICTs for development 8. (national e-strategies) UNCTAD assists developing countries in formulating and implementing national ICT policies and strategies that will foster the promotion of e- business, export capacity and competitiveness, through a mix of sector-specific policies, training programmes and deployment of ICT tools. www.unctad.org/ecommerce www.epol-net.org Chiara.Vitucci@unctad.org Carlos.Moreno@unctad.org UNCTAD is a partner of the global e-policy resource network (epol-net), which provides assistance to developing countries in implementing their national ICT policies and strategies. C.2) Information and communication infrastructure: an essential foundation for an inclusive information society C.3) Access to information and knowledge
10 e,j (open source software) UNCTAD carries out research and analytical work on the potential of free and open source software (FOSS) for development. Dimo.Calovski@unctad.org C.4) Capacity building 11 l (distance learning) UNCTAD, through its TrainForTrade programme, implements a distance learning strategy to deliver training and capacity building in the areas of trade, investment and development with a focus on LDCs. UNCTAD distance learning activities deliver high quality training materials developed using a training methodology and low-cost widely available technologies that are relevant to the technical capacities of beneficiary countries. r0.unctad.org/trainfortrade Peter.Froehler@unctad.org Xavier.Alphaize@unctad.org C.5) Building confidence and security in the use of ICTs
C.6) Enabling environment www.unctad.org/ecommerce 13 a), f), g), j), m) and n) (legal, regulatory and policy environment) Internet governance E-Business SME competitiveness E-government Legal framework for e- business UNCTAD monitors and analyses developments in ICT in terms of their implications for productivity, business organization, export competitiveness, and key sectors with e-business potential, with a view to providing policy makers in developing countries with an analytical and empirical basis for taking the appropriate decisions in the field of ICT and e-business. The results of this work are published in UNCTAD's annual E-Commerce and Development Report. UNCTAD provides a forum for developing countries to discuss ICT-related policy issues at the regional and international level. It assists developing countries to participate actively in international discussions that are likely to have an influence on the development of ICT and the knowledge economy. John.Burley@unctad.org UNCTAD provides substantive servicing to the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD). In this context, UNCTAD and the CSTD addressed issues related to ICT policies and development and published a number of reports on the subject. These reports are posted on the Science and Technology for Development Gateway (http://www.unctad.org/stdev). The CSTD provides a forum for developing countries to discuss ICT-related policy issues at the international level. See C.7)
C.7) ICT applications: benefits in all aspects of life UNCTAD supports the efforts of developing countries in developing e- business, in particular among SMEs, in sectors of economic importance and 16 (e-business) with export capacity, through a mix of sector-specific policies, training programmes and deployment of ICT tools, taking into account the need for different policy mixes to respect local and national specificities. www.unctad.org/ecommerce John.Burley@unctad.org UNCTAD's work covers a broad area of information economy subjects, including the legal framework for e-commerce and e-business, e-trade, Internet governance, e-government, e-tourism, e-finance, business process outsourcing and IT related services. Joint partnership project between UNCTAD and the Centre for Information Technology of the State of Geneva. The aim of this project, which has already been approved by the State of Geneva, is to provide training for selected ICT Engineers from developing countries at the Geneva Centre for Information Technologies in specific ICT applications, determined by their governments, for a period of three months each. See C.6) C.8) Cultural diversity and identity, linguistic diversity and local content C.9) Media C.10) Ethical dimensions the Information Society
C.11) International and regional cooperation E) Follow-up and evaluation 28 (statistical indicators) UNCTAD's work on measuring the use of ICT by businesses directly contributes towards this action line. UNCTAD has engaged in the collection of data on e-business from statistical offices in developing countries. Through the e-measurement web site, UNCTAD makes available information concerning information society indicators, including on methodologies, survey results, regional activities etc. measuring-ict.unctad.org 2 - Organization s key activities relating to the Digital Divide Activity/project Description and achievements Contacts and links ICT benchmarking tool The ICT Benchmarking Tool is designed to provide policy makers in developing countries with an interactive tool to assess the ICT capabilities and e-readiness of their countries in terms of speed of access and connectivity and compare them against those of other countries. Designed with a flexible opensource system, the tool allows users to configure and modify the parameters to suit their specific needs. http://www.unctad.org/stdev Alexandre.Dabbou@unctad.org
ICT development indices The report on ICT Development Indices provides an evaluation of countries capabilities in information and communication technologies (ICTs) and analyses changes in these capabilities over time with a view to benchmarking countries levels of technological development in ICTs. The report provides a cross-country analysis of more than 150 countries in terms of access and connectivity and classifies them into three categories as: "lagging behind", "keeping up" and "getting ahead". The report also addresses the question of inequality and divergence in ICT capabilities between countries in the international digital divide. http://www.unctad.org/stdev Orbicom project on the Digital Divide The Orbicom Digital Divide Project consists of a consortium of international organizations interested in the measurement of the information society. Phase 1, sponsored by CIDA, was completed in 2002 and consisted in the development of a conceptual framework, a methodology and a model tested with 9 countries to measure the digital divide. Phase 2, sponsored by CIDA, the World Bank and UNESCO, is the empirical application of the previous phase's model and was completed in November 2003, in time for WSIS. It focuses on developing countries and contains data for up to 192 countries. As the project enters Phase 3, UNCTAD will join as a partner, contributing expertise, knowledge and information resources. http://www.orbicom.uqam.ca/projects/ddi2002/ 3 What actions has your organization undertaken, or is planning, as part of the Follow-up to the Geneva Phase of WSIS and how do these relate to the Plan of Action? Planned activity/project Description and dates of implementation Contacts and links
Thematic Meeting on the Economic Implications of ICT The relationship between ICTs and development is based on the assumption that there is a link between these technologies and economic growth. This meeting will explore this relationship with a view to suggest national policies that ensure that the adoption of ICTs leads to equitable economic growth. The meeting will address the impact of ICTs on economic performance and trade competitiveness of developing countries; explore policies and best practices to enable enterprises and particularly SMEs - to rise their productivity and competitiveness through the use of ICTs; review strategies to integrate SMEs into national and international supply chains using modern communication technologies; and examine the impact of the enterprises structural changes on local, national and international labour markets and identify the likely strategies to ease the transition. Organized jointly with ILO, ITC, OECD and IDRC Date: December 2004, Venue: Buenos Aires (t.b.c.) Thematic Meeting on Measuring the Information Society The Meeting will bring together representatives from all countries involved in the statistical measurement of the information society, with the objective to (i) agree on a common list of ICT core indicators to be collected by all countries and harmonized at the international level; (ii) discuss developing country technical assistance needs as regards the compilation of statistical indicators for the information society; (iii) identify the relevance and contribution of ICT indicators towards the monitoring of the MDGs; and (iv) present ongoing work concerning the creation of an international database on ICT indicators. Organized under the framework of the global Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development (ITU, OECD, UNCTAD, UNESCO Institute for Statistics, UN Regional Commissions) Date: February 2005, Venue: Geneva measuring-ict.unctad.org
UNCTAD Intergovernmental Expert Meeting on Free and Open Source Software The meeting will address the following issues: economic and social development implications of FOSS; relevance of FOSS to developing countries and transition economies; application of FOSS to commercial and business activity; and, how the FOSS idea and process effects other spheres of human activity important for development, such as health, education or copyright and patent law. Date: 22-24 September 2004 Venue: Geneva http://r0.unctad.org/ecommerce/ecommerce_en/freeopen_en.htm Dimo.Calovski@unctad.org Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development The main objectives of the partnership have agreed are the following: (i) to identify a set of core indicators that could be collected by all countries and harmonized at the international level so as to facilitate, inter alia, measurement of the attainment of the MDGs; (ii) to assist developing countries in building capacity to monitor ICT developments at the national level; and (iii) to develop a global database on ICT indicators. Members as of May 2004: ITU, OECD, UNCTAD, UNESCO Institute for Statistics, UN Regional Commissions Official launch: June 2004 (UNCTAD XI) Partnership on E-tourism As tourism is an information-intensive service, the UNCTAD e- tourism initiative is designed to give developing countries the technical means to promote, market and sell their tourism services online. Partners will include member States, the World Tourism Organization, UNESCO, national tourism authorities and universities. Other potential partners include regional groupings of developing countries, transport operators and IT companies. Official launch: June 2004 (UNCTAD XI) Cecile.Barayre@unctad.org Jean-Francois.Bayloq@unctad.org
Partnership on FOSS Partnership activities will be designed to encourage widespread IT training programmes in developing countries on FOSS-related issues. IT companies and training institutions involved in ICT applications will be the main partners. Official launch: June 2004 (UNCTAD XI) Dimo.Calovski@unctad.org Partnership on traderelated e-finance epol-net (e-strategies) Under preparation UNCTAD is joining the Global epolicy Resource Network (epol- NET) as a partner by providing its expertise in the design of e- strategies, as well as on specific subjects such as e-commerce, legal and regulatory issues, e-measurement, e-finance and aspects of e- government, thereby enhancing efficiency and effectiveness. epol- NET functions as a virtual network. Partners so far include the Government of Ireland, which is providing the secretariat for the partnership, as well as the Governments of Canada, France, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom; ECA; ITU; UNDP; OECD and the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization. Rouben.Indjikian@unctad.org www.epol-net.org Chiara.Vitucci@unctad.org Carlos.Moreno@unctad.org Contribution to Working Group on Internet Governance ICT indices report Continued substantive contributions on issues of relevance to developing countries General Assembly Resolution A/58/200 invited UNCTAD in collaboration with the United Nations ICT Task Force and the ITU to update the report on the Information and communication technology development indices as part of its contribution to the World Summit on the Information Society, recalling GA Resolution 56/183 which Encourages effective contributions from and the active participation of all relevant United Nations bodies. Work is now underway to update the report. Angel.Gonzalez-Sanz@UNCTAD.org
Joint Publication on ICT policies Evolving Knowledge Societies: a practical source book for ICT development policies, under preparation. This report is being developed by UNCTAD in collaboration with the UN ICT task Force. Dong.Wu@unctad.org