Looking Forward To Inclusion, 10 Years After World Summit On Information Society

This week, governments and stakeholders have been taking stock nearly 10 years after 2005 UN-led World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), and working to set new goals for the future. One thing seems clear: a full information society has not been achieved yet, and these issues may form part of the post-2015 development agenda at the UN.

The WSIS+10 High-Level Event (WSIS+10 HLE) of the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is taking place from 10-13 June, with side events starting earlier.

Meeting participants this week considered progress made in the implementation of the original WSIS outcomes and adopted two new outcome documents to be considered by the UN General Assembly in 2015. The new documents are here.

The new documents highlight work done so far, and give recognition to new trends that have arisen in recent years, such as broadband, social networks, mobility, digital inclusion, massive open online courses (MOOCs) and e-participation.

But mainly they restate the vision of inclusion of all types of people in the information society.

Also released this week was a “Final WSIS Targets Review,” which “reviews progress made on each one of the WSIS Targets, which range from connecting villages, schools and health centres to developing content and providing people with ICT access,” according to the summary.

The review was conducted by the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development, under ITU coordination.

Big Aims, Broad Goals

The 2003 (Geneva) and 2005 (Tunis, Tunisia) phases of WSIS resulted in sweeping aims to bring the internet to everyone and make it a better, more useful tool for society. And thanks to the development and spread of information and communications technologies, significant progress has been made toward the realization of an inclusive information society, stakeholders declared this week.

But a lot of work still needs to be done, they said. Half of the population still does not have access to internet, and there is still a need to deploy broadband networks, improve infrastructure and local content in rural and remote areas, and boost access for all to public information and knowledge.

Participants in this week’s meeting also underlined the need to include further human rights, gender perspective, young people and people with disability in the WSIS process.

The “goals” of the WSIS were to “build an inclusive Information Society; to put the potential of knowledge and ICTs at the service of development; to promote the use of information and knowledge for the achievement of internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration; and to address new challenges of the Information Society, at the national, regional and international levels.”

The international community of stakeholders has begun to review the implementation of the 2003-2005 WSIS outcome documents. The UN General Assembly must review progress in 2015, as agreed in the 2005 Tunis Agenda [pdf].

Contributing to this review, the ITU co-organised the WSIS+10 event along with other UN agencies, such the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), UN Conference and Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and UN Development Programme (UNDP). The ITU organised the original WSIS.

The WSIS+10 event, an extended version of the annual WSIS forum, is mainly addressing “progress made in the implementation of the WSIS outcomes related to the WSIS Action Lines” [pdf], according to the WSIS+10 HLE website.

Event participants adopted two documents negotiated in a multistakeholder preparatory platform since July 2013. More than 1,600 stakeholders participated in this week’s event, representing governments, private sector, civil society, academia, the technical community and international organisations and more than 100 government ministers and other high level representatives, ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré said in a press conference this week.

“Significant progress has been made in reaching the WSIS targets,” Touré told the opening ceremony, notably on mobile penetration. However, the large majority of speakers also emphasised challenges that remain to achieve a genuine information society.

Challenges Behind, Challenges Ahead

There are three main challenges to overcome, Adama Samassékou, former president of the preparatory committee of the Geneva phase of the WSIS and vice-chair of the WSIS+10 HLE, told a press conference this week. These are: how to transform the so-called digital divide to a digital perspective for all; how the use of ICTs will accelerate the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); and how to preserve linguistic and cultural diversity in cyberspace.

Getachew Engida, deputy director general of UNESCO, said: “To achieve this vision, we need both the technologies and the capacities to use them. Alone, the technology is not enough.”

“The costs associated with access to ICT such as broadband or mobile services are often not affordable for rural populations,” said Sandra Aviles, officer-in-charge of the programme development & humanitarian affairs, UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) office in Geneva.

States presented progress and challenges from last ten years, and some presented their views on the information society beyond 2015. As the UN General Assembly will review both MDGs and WSIS outcomes next years, several speakers emphasised the need to put ICTs at the heart of the post-2015 Development Agenda.

Multistakeholder Document with Near Consensus

Outcome documents of the WSIS+10 HLEhave been negotiated by stakeholders for the past year through the multistakeholder preparatory platform (MPP). Since July 2013, representatives from governments, private sector, academia and civil society have exchanged views and negotiated two documents, the WSIS+10 Statement on the Implementation of WSIS Outcomes and the WSIS+10 Vision for WSIS Beyond 2015, available here [pdf].

“The work of MPP was in an atmosphere of equal access and participation of all stakeholders and decisions were taken on the basis of consensus” said MPP Chair Vladimir Minkin. Consensus was difficult to reach for the WSIS+10 Vision for WSIS Beyond 2015 document, particularly on its “Chapter C” on action lines, sources said.

Most difficult to agree was part C9 on Media, which mainly provided for the freedom of expression and the same rights for journalists online as those granted offline. An additional meeting was held on 9 June to try to reach agreement without success, and the document was closed to be submitted to the HLE without the Chapter C on action line.

Atef Helmy, Egyptian minister for ICT and chairman of the WSIS+10 HLE, today submitted a new proposal which was accepted despite some misgivings.

The delegate of Iran said, “Although Iran was not comfortable with the language of the text, for the sake of compromise I would like to show our flexibility in this regard. I am confident that the document will be improved in other related forums.”

Janis Karklins, former president of the preparatory committee of the Tunis Phase of the WSIS, said this process proved that multistakeholder engagement works. He asked delegations to “pass the spirit of this multistakeholder engagement to New York where decisions on final modalities need to be taken and review need to be conducted by the UN General Assembly.”

Next Steps

The next steps for the general review will take place in October, where the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference will adopt a resolution on WSIS beyond 2015, and the UN General Assembly will adopt a resolution related to ICT for development, according to the ITU website.

Uncertainty remains on the outcome of the UN General Assembly review, whether it will be decided to hold a next phase of the WSIS. The resolution of the General Assembly is expected to clarify these points.

A question persists on modification of outcome documents of 2003 and 2005 WSIS phases, as some proposed to modify only the WSIS Action Line document while others want to renegotiate all texts, Richard Hill, representative of the Association for Proper Internet Governance, and a former ITU official, told Intellectual Property Watch.

Videos of all events that took place during the WSIS+10 HLE are available online here.

William New contributed to this report.