The Current State and Perspective of the Digital Opportunity Taskforce

Part Three - The way forward : proposed Genoa Plan of Action

In the light of the considerations presented above, some priority actoions can be identified. In the spirit of the Okinawa Charter, and as a way to move from statements to real results, we have identified nine action points, which constitute our proposal for a Genoa Plan of Action.We believe that in the context of an increasingly integrated world economy the following Plan of Action provides the basis for developing economies to achieve sustainable ICT-enabled development, both economic and social.

Help Establish and Support Developing Country & Emerging Economy National eStrategies

1. As a powerful tool to pursue development goals, national eStrategies need to receive the highest level of national political commitment and meet the requirements of each country. These strategies, generated by the countries themselves, should be the result of a consultative process involving all relevant interested parties in the country, including the private sector and non-profit organizations (NPOs). Such eStrategies should be regularly reviewed and updated, and benchmarked internationally; they should, where appropriate, be reinforced by regional and sub-regional coordination efforts, notably in the context of economic integration;
2. These eStrategies should commit, in particular, to the establishment of an enabling, pro-competitive regulatory and policy framework as well as the associated institutional policy-making and regulatory capacity, including self-regulatory mechanisms; they should also be explicitly linked to the achievement of development goals;
3. Countries that express an interest should be supported in the development of such eStrategies which would include, if requested, assistance in performing a preliminary eReadiness assessment;
4. eStrategies should distinguish and recognize the importance of eGovernment for internal efficiency and effectiveness within government, as well as of eGovernance for institutional capacity building, transparency, accountability and its ability to enhance democratic governance;
5. Within 6 months of the Genoa G8 Summit, structure and composition should be finalized for the establishment of an International eDevelopment Resource Network of regulatory, policy and strategy expertise from both North and South, set up with participation of interested governments world-wide, international organizations, the private sector, and the NPO community, that can be drawn upon by governments and others who want access to quality and affordable expertise in the development, implementation and maintenance of eStrategies;
6. Interested stakeholders, including governments, the private sector, NPOs, and international organizations would support such an International eDevelopment Resource Network, mobilize available resources and offer regulatory and policy expertise to support the network's creation and functioning;
7. The International eDevelopment Resource Network should be designed and operated in a truly de-centralized and open fashion, and include the creation or use of existing regional networks and conferences, virtual information exchanges and other means of sharing the knowledge, lessons and experience likely to increase awareness, understanding and political commitment in this area.

Improve Connectivity, Increase Access and Lower Costs

1. Multiple technologies should be allowed to compete for communications networks and services and access terminals. Awareness of the cost-effectiveness of various technologies for use in diverse situations facing developing countries should be promoted by exchanging relevant experiences and expertise;
2. The establishment of public and community ICT access points in developing countries should be supported as a key means to facilitate timely, broad, affordable and sustainable access to ICT; for this purpose facilities such as post offices, elementary schools, Internet cafes or community multimedia centers could be used; emphasis should be placed on providing both access and training;
3. Exchanges of best practices and training in public and community access points should be facilitated through a coordinated interchange of information and experiences among the managers or promoters of such facilities;
4. Approaches to promote universal access for rural and remote areas in developing countries should be pursued, in accordance with national eStrategies and on the basis of existing best practices;
5. R&D efforts for the development and adaptation of cost-effective technologies suitable for conditions prevailing in developing countries (tropicalisation, alternative energy sources) should be encouraged;
6. The deployment of national and regional Internet backbones and the creation of local Internet Exchange Points (IXPs), should be encouraged, especially through private investment; the development of national network information centers (NICs) and infrastructure support for domain name services should also be encouraged.

Enhance Human Capacity Development, Knowledge Creation and Sharing

1. Promote and support ICT dissemination among the children of the developing world - whether in school or not, with special attention paid to girls -, and urge the non-profit and private sectors as well as developing country governments to scale up their efforts in wiring educational facilities and ensuring adequate teacher training;
2. Enhance the training of teachers on ICT and the "digital literacy" of pupils. Effective measures should be identified to enhance the use of the Internet to improve the performance of staff, teachers, pupils and students in schools and the universities, and for distance learning programmes; eLearning should conversely be considered as a powerful tool to enable all types of education and training.
3. Expand opportunities for training, education and knowledge sharing for people living in rural and remote areas through distance learning;
4. Give special attention to disenfranchised and illiterate people (particularly youth and women), through innovative partnerships to disseminate knowledge and skills using ICT;
5. Support the interconnection of education and research networks among developing countries and industrialized countries, for instance through high-speed networks, twinning or bandwidth pooling;
6. Support university-based "networked centers of excellence" focusing on research and learning at the intersection between ICT and development. Individual centers could be geared toward technology, applications, entrepreneurship, training senior decision makers in both the public and private sectors in ICT regulatory and policy areas, and other aspects of a knowledge-based economy. These centres could also provide teacher training, as well as training to senior decision makers in both the public and private sectors in the areas of regulatory and ICT policy; vocational and life-long training should receive particular attention; centers in developing nations would be "twinned" with those in G-8 nations; a public-private consortium model could be considered;
7. Enhance the eAwareness of senior policy makers with a particular accent on the benefits of eGovernance for enhancing democracy, transparency and government accountability;
8. Encourage companies worldwide to offer a portion of the working time of their skilled human resource base to training developing country civil society in ICT-related subjects;
9. Promote initiatives in the field of cyber-mentoring, for example enabling the international business community to provide advice and counsel remotely to local entrepreneurs in developing countries.

Foster Enterprise and Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Economic Development

1. Developing countries should be supported in their efforts to put in place a pro-competitive policy and regulatory environment where local as well as international entrepreneurship can thrive in order to create local capacity to transform all sectors of their economies; an open, predictable and competitive business environment, created by market liberalization and pro-competitive regulation, will also help to create the right conditions to encourage both local and foreign investment, in order to generate self-sustaining growth and achieve development goals.
2. Private sector mentoring and incubation activities should be further encouraged including through the creation of an "International Entrepreneur Resources Exchange"; this could include sharing best practices, business expertise and know-how, ICT expertise, management expertise, knowledge management capabilities, and training of entrepreneurs in developing countries; such initiatives should seek to build on the strengths of developing countries.
3. Private-public partnerships involving companies, local entrepreneurs, governments, non-profit organizations and labor organizations should be encouraged, in order to foster local enterprise, innovation and lifelong learning.; these should include an emphasis on basic education (including mathematics and sciences), as well as on vocational training and the development of core ICT skills; such partnerships could also provide a means to help establish the centres of excellence described in Action Point 3; development finance institutions should also be encouraged to increase their participation in relevant concerted private-public initiatives.
4. In support of the above points, the G8 and other donors, as well as multilateral development banks and agencies should be encouraged to integrate ICT-related entrepreneurship into their assistance programmes, including micro-credit facilities, equity capital and other business development programmes, and to consider innovative methods of promoting the availability locally or regionally of seed/risk capital and other resources to help entrepreneurs in developing countries.

Establish and Support Universal Participation in Addressing New International Policy and Technical Issues raised by the Internet and ICT

1. Support should be provided for developing country stakeholders - governments, private companies, NPOs, citizens and academics - to better understand global Internet and other ICT technical and policy issues and to participate more effectively in relevant global fora;
2. The resource network identified in Action Point 1 should provide information on decisions that will be taken at such fora, an open platform for papers by experts, and facilitation of the exchange of views;
3. Support a network of Southern-based expertise - which could access the resource network identified in Action Point 1- to support the representatives of developing countries as they seek to participate effectively in these fora and address these issues in their own context;
4. Global policy and technical fora and organizations working on Internet and ICT issues should make a special effort to bring representatives of developing nations into their discussions and decision-making processes;
5. The United Nations ICT Task Force should be encouraged in its stated goal of identifying options for involving developing country stakeholders in these new issues.

Establish and Support Dedicated Initiatives for the ICT Inclusion of the Least Developed Countries

1. Encourage efforts to mobilize public and private support for a significant improvement of basic information and communication infrastructure in the countries where such infrastructure is most lacking;
2. Support partnerships to facilitate the setting up of Internet exchange points and national ISP associations in LDCs. The specific needs of LDCs should also be taken into account while planning regional Internet backbones;
3. Encourage telecommunications equipment and service providers to work co-operatively with least developed countries to aggregate demand and reduce costs;
4. Encourage joint stakeholder efforts (such as the African Partnership Initiative, African Connection, and others) to address the unique ICT dilemmas faced by Africa, with a view to sustainable solutions. Policy and regulatory issues pertaining to infrastructure - especially regarding telecommunications systems - should be the core elements of this engagement. In this framework it should be taken into account that ICT is a means of supporting rural-urban linkages and strengthening small farmers along with micro-enterprises and small businesses.

Promote ICT for Health Care and in Support Against HIV/AIDS and Other Infectious and Communicable Diseases

1. Enhance the valuable uses of ICT in health education, knowledge sharing, monitoring, statistics, and delivery of care and in meeting internationally agreed health targets, particularly in the areas of HIV/AIDS and other infectious and communicable diseases.
2. Expand the use of ICT in the campaign against HIV/AIDS and other infectious and communicable diseases utilising appropriate forms of communication such as community radio, broadcast media, telecommunications and the Internet. The initiative should be focussed in severely affected areas with content, applications and strategies shared and replicated more broadly.
3. Create an "ICT Against HIV/AIDS" network in partnership with governments, the private sector, non-profit and international organizations emphasizing a) the logistical and management aspects of treatment in the field, and b) preventative measures through the dissemination of information to the general public, health sector professionals and policy makers.

National and International Effort to Support Local Content and Applications Creation

1. Encourage the software community, including the open source and commercial software communities, to develop applications relevant to developing countries, to make its software available to such countries and localize software applications, while at the same time helping to promote the growth of local application development capacity in these countries;
2. Encourage the growth of eGovernment as a means of achieving a critical mass of on-line content and encourage governments to provide widely-available free-of-charge access to state-owned information and local content, except where it is private or classified;
3. Encourage local content development, translation and/or adaptation in developing countries to fulfill the needs of learners, scholars, professionals, and citizens for education, learning, training and application development, including provision of online access;
4. Support national and international programs for digitizing and putting public content online, focusing on multilingual applications and local heritage;
5. Support participation by local stakeholders in setting technical standards for incorporating local languages in ICT applications;
6. Encourage networking of bodies which acquire, adapt and distribute content on a non-commercial basis;
7. Encourage commercial publishers to explore possible business models to enhance greater accessibility for poor people to relevant content;
8. Encourage the full participation of developing countries in the WIPO process.

Prioritize ICT in G8 and Other Development Assistance Policies and Programmes and Enhance Coordination of Multilateral Initiatives

1. Bilateral and multilateral official development assistance (ODA) programmes should integrate ICT for development as a strategic, cross-cutting theme in their own development efforts (such as health, education, job-creation, entrepreneurship) and country strategic plans.
2. Heads of bilateral and multilateral development organizations should coordinate more--within and between organizations--on approaches and initiatives on ICT for development in order to avoid duplication and enhance efficiency and effectiveness.
3. Donors should refer to national eStrategies, where they exist, when designing approaches and initiatives using ICT for development, and strive for consistency and coherence in their efforts.