V 20.05.2008
Draft Resolution for adoption by the Council1
The Commission on Science and Technology for Development recommends to the
Economic and Social Council the adoption of the following draft resolution:
Assessment of WSIS-implementation 2008
The Economic and Social Council,
Recalling the outcome documents of the World Summit on the Information Society,
Recognizing the efforts by all stakeholders to implement the outcomes of the two
phases of the World Summit on the Information Society,

Welcoming specifically the efforts of the UN agencies and programs and of all
regional commissions in implementing the WSIS goals, commitments and
recommendations,
Recognizing the important role of Governments, as well as business and civil society
entities including academia and local authorities in the shaping of the future of the
information society,
Recalling its resolution 2006/46 on the follow-up to the World Summit on the
Information Society and the mandate of the Commission on Science and Technology
for Development to assess the implementation of WSIS at the regional and
international level,
Recalling the 2001 Human Development Report "Making new technologies work for
human development" and its propositions, which remain valid,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 57/270B and its resolution 2007/29,
Taking note of the Report of the Secretary-General on Progress made in the
implementation of and follow-up to the outcomes of the World Summit on the
Information Society at the regional and international levels,
Noting also that ITU has adopted the theme "Connecting Persons with Disabilities:
ICT Opportunities for All" to celebrate this year's World Telecommunication and
Information Society Day of 17 May 2008,
1 This draft resolution is proposed to the CSTD by El Salvador, Finland, France, Latvia, Switzerland

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A. Evolving challenges
1. Observes a change in nature of the digital divide: While overall the digital divide
may be shrinking, a new form of digital divide is emerging in terms of difference in
quality and speed of access to ICTs;
2. Observes that the disparity in access prices and quality between developed and
developing countries continues: In developed, high-income economies, the average
cost of a broadband connection is significantly less than in developing countries,
both in nominal terms and as a percentage of the average monthly income;
3. Observes further the strong growth of mobile telephony subscriptions, especially in
developing countries;
4. Observes a growing number of incidents affecting global network safety and
security and provoking service blackouts in large regions of the world;
5. Observes that government work to reduce the digital divide by encouraging
technology investment in underprivileged and less profitable areas has largely fallen
short and that available Universal Access Funds are underused due to regulatory
barriers, policy gaps and insufficient demand targeting;
6. Observes that although many governments have developed national ICT policies,
information society as well as development strategies, in many countries there is not
enough coherence and complementarity between national ICT policies and national
development and poverty reduction strategies. Especially in poorer rural areas, the
potential of the Internet and ICTs in general for development is not yet fully used or
understood.
Recommendations
7. Calls on all stakeholders to increase efforts for funding and investment in ICTs, in
order to advance broadband access, including wireless access, in areas and countries
where it is still limited;
8. Calls on all stakeholders to increase efforts to reduce the disparity in access prices,
including the establishment of local Internet Exchange Points, and to increase the
number of operators in order to enable competition, also at the backbone level;
9. Calls further on all stakeholders to continue the development and spread of easy to
use applications for mobile phones, especially applications that are useful in rural
areas and work with low bandwidth and high latency;
10. Calls on all stakeholders to cooperate more closely in making global networks
more stable, resilient and secure and in overcoming blackouts, incidents and attacks
on these networks as fast and sustainable as possible;
11. Recommends the design of mechanisms and policies which ensure adequate
infrastructure for universal access and a better use of Universal Access funds,
including the financing of ICT infrastructure in underserved regions and areas;
12. Recommends the mainstreaming of national ICT-policies into national political
processes, particularly into national Poverty Reduction Strategies;

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B. Success of and shortcomings in the implementation of WSIS outcomes so far
13. Welcomes the success of the Internet Governance Forum, its multi-stakeholder
approach and its innovative platform;
14. Welcomes progress towards developing multilingual capabilities on the Internet,
particularly the discussions within ICANN regarding the introduction of
Internationalized Domain Names;
15. Acknowledges the efforts of the Partnership for measuring ICT for development to
develop new indicators, especially in the field of ICTs and education but notes the
lack of indicators to measure progress towards achieving the targets as set out in part
B of the Geneva Plan of Action
16. Acknowledges the efforts of the Regional Commissions in the coordination of
WSIS-implementation, in capacity building and measuring of ICTs;
17. Acknowledges the efforts of all Action Line Facilitators to organize meetings of all
Action Lines and commends specifically ITU and UNESCO for their efforts as lead
Facilitators and conveners of the Action Line Facilitator's meetings;
18. Observes that the architecture for WSIS implementation as defined in the Tunis
Agenda for the Information society is rather complex and that despite the efforts of
the Action Line Facilitators, the principle of Action Line Facilitation set out in the
Tunis Agenda has encountered difficulties in involving participation of all
stakeholders;
Recommendations
19. Recommends that the international community preserves the Internet Governance
Forum as a multi-stakeholder discussion forum focussed on public policy issues
related to internet governance and avoid duplication with the WSIS action line
implementation process
20. Encourages the collaboration among all stakeholders, including international
organisations with regard to multilingualization of the internet

21. Recommends the creation of benchmarks and indicators in order to track progress
towards the attainment of the specifics goals and targets set out in part B of the
Geneva Plan of Action;
22. Recommends that Action Line Facilitators, in cooperation with all stakeholders,
should establish milestones, deadlines and calendars for their Action Line, taking into
account the WSIS outcome documents;
23. Stresses the need to develop a set of ICT impact indicators at the household and
community level in order to deepen the understanding of the relation between ICTs
and the development agenda and to measure the effect of ICTs on empowerment,
increased opportunities and increased security of poor people;

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24. Recommends that Action Line Facilitation should be reviewed by all Action Line
Facilitators in cooperation with all stakeholders, so as to make the facilitation process
more effective, and invites all Action Line Facilitators, especially ITU, UNESCO and
UNDP to consider the reallocation and the clustering of Action Lines;
25. Recommends the introduction of electronic working tools like mailing lists, web
2.0 applications, observatories and clearing house models in order to enhance multi-
stakeholder participation;
26. Recommends further that in the reporting process to the CSTD Secretariat as set
out in Resolution 2007/8, Action Line Facilitators could make themselves a first
assessment of the progress achieved, but also of the difficulties encountered, by all
stakeholders on the commitments and recommendations contained in their respective
Action Line at regional and international level and make proposals for possible action
to the CSTD, whenever necessary;
27. Invites all actors and institutions involved in the implementation of and follow-up
to WSIS to further clarify their respective roles and strengthen the mutual information
about and complementarity of their work in order to make the most effective use of
the resources available for the implementation of and follow-up to WSIS.
C. Other recommendations
28. Calls on all stakeholders, in the interest of future generations, to give due attention
to digital preservation;
29. Calls further on all stakeholders to increase efforts to implement the ICT
accessibility concept as spelled out in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons
with Disabilities, Article 9;
30. Invites the international community to make voluntary contributions to the special
trust fund established by UNCTAD to support the review and assessment work of
CSTD regarding WSIS follow-up;
31. Recommends that all stakeholders should redouble their efforts to implement the
Summit vision of a people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented information
society, so as to enhance digital opportunities for all people in order to help to bridge
the digital divide.
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