Preface *

Yoshio Utsumi
Secretary-General, International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and
Secretary-General, World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)

Building the Information Society: Time for Action

Bridging this digital and knowledge divide and avoiding the inequities of the past has taken on unprecedented urgency, especially in the aftermath of the devastating tsunamis that struck the Indian Ocean region in December 2004. The use of communication devices saved many lives, but wider access to information and communication technologies and early warning infrastructure could have saved many thousands more.

At the same time, recent strides in ICT have wrought fundamental changes in the way people think, behave, communicate, work and earn their livelihood. They have forged new ways to create knowledge, educate people and disseminate information. They have restructured the way the world conducts economic and business practices, runs governments and engages politically. They have provided for the speedy delivery of humanitarian aid and healthcare, and a new vision for environmental protection. With increasing access to information and knowledge, people are empowered to achieve their development goals and, through improved communications, help create a more just, prosperous and peaceful world.

ICT have a major role to play in the least developed regions of the world. They help connect individuals, small companies or groups of farmers and artisans in the poorest and most isolated areas of the world and bring them to the attention of national and even global markets. This makes it possible to leapfrog poor transport infrastructures so that distance from markets is no longer a drawback. ICT can also improve governance by giving a voice to people who have been isolated, invisible or silent, allowing them to speak out regardless of their economic status, gender or location.
Mandated by its Constitution to “extend the benefits of the new telecommunication technologies to all the world’s inhabitants”, ITU has been a driving force behind these changes and the emergence of the Information Society. For the past 140 years, the International Telecommunication Union has worked relentlessly to harmonize national policies worldwide, bridge technological differences, foster interconnectivity of systems: in other words, to facilitate the availability of information and communication technologies on a global basis. But access to the benefits of ICT has not been even, among and within countries, between urban and rural areas, between the rich and the poor, between the educated and the illiterate, between men and women.

Given the enormous potential of information and communication technologies to improve people’s economic, social and cultural well-being in a knowledge-based digital economy, ITU proposed the holding of a World Summit to agree on a global vision to harness these technological resources for the common good, and it has taken the lead role in organizing the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), fostering a truly inclusive, multi-stakeholder process.

A Catalyst for Development

In November 2005, world leaders will meet again in Tunis in the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society to reaffirm their commitment, hammer out the specifics that will translate the Action Plan objectives into measurable results and devise strategies to help connect all people as well as accelerate achievement of the development goals enshrined in the Millennium Declaration.

Unique in the history of global summits, the two-phase format allows for concrete follow-up action and stocktaking. The Tunis phase also opens the gateway to Africa and the developing world, with sharper focus on the use of ICT to achieve specific goals to end poverty and hunger, combat ill health and disease, prevent environmental degradation, achieve universal literacy, and empower people and communities. While information and communication technologies alone cannot solve the world’s problems, they are critical tools in meeting these global challenges. Bringing together technological know-how with the multifaceted expertise of its many stakeholders, the World Summit on the Information Society is widely recognized as an action-oriented “Summit of Solutions”.

In meeting the challenges of the new Millennium and ensuring that the benefits of the Digital Age are not denied anyone, ITU has launched a global multi-stakeholder effort – Partners to Connect the World – to forge global partnerships for development. As a concrete output of the Summit, this initiative will consolidate and scale up existing development-oriented connectivity projects and stimulate new partnerships to ensure connectivity by 2015.

As Secretary-General of the World Summit on the Information Society, I urge everyone – especially world leaders in government, the private sector and civil society, heads of international organizations and all those with a vision for the Information Society – to attend the Summit in Tunis and participate in the many events including ICT4all. If this is to truly be a Summit of Solutions, the time for action is now

* Preface excerpted from The World Summit on the Information Society: Moving from the Past into the Future, pp. xi-xiii