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UN ICT TASK FORCE


UNITED NATIONS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY TASK FORCE

Taking action where the 'divide' runs deepest

http://www.unicttaskforce.org

Information and communication technologies are creating a new global information society - from which four billion of the world's people currently are excluded.

The ICT Task Force of the United Nations has been set up by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to find new, creative and quick-acting means to spread the benefits of the digital revolution and avert the prospect of a two-tiered world information society.

The Task Force represents in its composition the public and private sectors, civil society and the scientific community, and leaders of the developing and transition economies as well as the most technologically advanced. Operating under the aegis of the United Nations, it is well positioned to build strategic partnerships and to meld diverse efforts.
Electronic Spring
The world's less advanced countries are at a disadvantage in the high-tech realm, but the electronic revolution may yet prove to be a springboard to development.
The new global economy elevates the value of sophisticated information and information technology, while depreciating the return on raw commodities. In the process, many poor countries have become less competitive and more marginalized, and their struggle against poverty an even steeper uphill climb.
Nevertheless, many proponents of digital development perceive signs of an electronic Spring. Some developing countries have become global leaders in production of hardware and software. And even in the poorest countries, access to computers and the Internet is growing fast, albeit from an extremely low base. The rapid development of wireless access is one particularly promising avenue for countries in which telephone lines are unreliable and limited in reach.

ICT capability can catapult small and medium-sized firms in emerging economies, and even local artisan guilds in the poorest and most isolated regions, directly into the heart of regional, national and global markets. It can leapfrog existing obstacles to development, such as poor transportation, rickety conventional communication infrastructure and lack of access to advanced and specialized information in all fields of human experience. Disasters can be avoided and miracles, such as medical operations performed by a surgeon with a live Internet connection to a specialist on the other side of the globe, can happen.
Pathway to progress
To achieve tangible and sustainable results, action in the area of ICT-for-development needs to be local; cooperation should be promoted at the sub-regional and regional levels; and the broad agenda should be set globally.
The contribution of the United Nations to this effort, via the ICT Task Force, reflects the Organization's unique strengths - legitimacy, universality, global development reach and experience, and presence on the ground, as well as its convening and catalytic role.
The Task Force is not envisaged as an operational or executing agency. For the execution of programmes and projects that it would wish to promote and support, it will identify appropriate entities and facilitate connections among interested parties.

The impetus for the Task Force derives from an April 2000 meeting of independent experts from industry, academia, civil society and government, convened by the United Nations. Intergovernmental authorization came in July, in a Ministerial Declaration issued by the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). The Task Force objectives found further support in the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000, and the ensuing Millennium Declaration.

In November 2000, Jose Marķa Figueres, former President of Costa Rica and a leader of digital development in his country, was appointed the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Information and Communications Technologies.
Consultations with governments and the private sector in the various regions have elicited strong support and interest for the work of the Task Force.
Mandate
Task Force priorities, below, are defined by the ECOSOC 2000 Ministerial Declaration.

1. To forge strategic partnerships between the United Nations system, private industry, trusts and foundations, donor governments, programme countries, and other relevant international actors.

2. To pool the experiences of both developed and developing countries in introducing and promoting ICT for development.

3. To develop innovative modalities for strengthening the ICT capacity of the developing countries.

4. To assist Member States in creation of national ICT strategies, policy frameworks, and regulatory environment to ensure connectivity and universal access to ICT.

5. To promote ICT for development applications: building human resources and institutional capacity, including e-health, e-education, e-government, and e-commerce.

6. To mobilise new and additional resources - financial, technical, and human - for promoting and funding ICT-for-development programmes and projects.

Harnessing the potential of the ICT revolution for development for all, for the reduction of poverty, and for the empowerment of those who are currently marginalized, is a monumental challenge. The speed of global technological and economic transformation demands substantive and immediate action on a global scale. The UN ICT Task Force will be instrumental in transforming the digital divide into a digital opportunity.