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Informal analysis and comments on the

Draft Resolution of the

Eleventh Session

Geneva 24-30 May 2008

Dr. Francis Muguet

( WSIS accredited Civil Society)

in his personal capacity


V0.2 non final draft analysis. Other more complete versions shall

follow.


Introduction. This draft resolution relates to the WSIS assessment mandate of the CSTD. The Commission has decided to report on its work on science and technology themes for the current biennium in its twelfth session. The CSTD draft resolution is probably one of the most important intergovernmental document of the year 2008 concerning the implementation and follow-up of the WSIS.

It is kindly acknowledged that Civil Society and the Business sector have been allowed to participate to many drafting sessions, either as observers with the possibility to speak, or as silent observers depending on the decision of the president of the drafting group, as to whether the work in progress was considered as informal preparatory discussions or formal intergovernmental negotiations.

This current document is an academic analysis from a scholar that participated as an observer to the last drafting sessions. It is a work that is exploratory in nature, and that is not made on behalf on any organization or institution.

Analysis is made under the form of comments in parentheses under each article ( sans serif font, and blue color )

UNEDITED

Draft Resolution for adoption by the Council1


1. 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,


Recalling that access to information and sharing and creation of knowledge contributes significantly to strengthening economic, social and cultural development, thus helping all countries to reach the internationally agreed development goals and objectives, including the Millennium Development Goals. This process can be enhanced by removing barriers to universal, ubiquitous, equitable and affordable access to information. We underline the importance of removing barriers to bridging the digital divide, particularly those that hinder the full achievement of the economic, social and cultural development of countries and the welfare of their people, in particular, in developing countries,


Recognizing the efforts by all stakeholders to implement the outcomes of the two phases of the World Summit on the Information Society,

Recognizing also the efforts of the UN agencies and programs and of all regional commissions in implementing the WSIS goals, commitments and recommendations,


Recalling its resolution 2006/46 on the follow-up to the World Summit on the Information Society and the mandate it gave the Commission on Science and Technology for Development,

(The assessment mandate.)


Recalling General Assembly resolution 57/270B and Council 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 contained in reference E/2008/48,


( The 20 May draft version included : This draft resolution is proposed to the CSTD by El Salvador, Finland, France, Latvia, Switzerland. The first versions of the draft were prepared by the representatives of those five countries under the chairmanship of H.E Yanis Karklins, Ambassador of Latvia in France, Chairman of the GAC/ICANN, and former President of the WSIS PrepCom of the Tunis phase. )


A. Evolving challenges and opportunities


1. Observes that the digital divide is changing in some respects: 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,

( unchanged from May 20 draft )


2. Observes the continuing relevance of assisting developing countries in their efforts to overcome the digital divide, particularly with regard to both access and capacity,


3. Observes that the disparity in cost and quality of access 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,


4. Observes that the gender divide still persists in quality and variety of means of access to the internet and ICTs in the building of the Information Society in both developed and developing countries,


5. Observes further the strong growth of mobile telephony subscriptions, especially in developing countries,

( unchanged from May 20 draft )


6. Notes with concern the growing number of incidents affecting global network safety and security and provoking service outages in large regions of the world,


7. Observes that in many countries there is inadequate 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 utilised.

( mostly unchanged from May 20 draft )


Recommendations


8. Calls on all stakeholders to increase efforts for funding of and investment in ICTs, in order to advance broadband access, including wireless access, in areas and countries where it is still limited or non-existent;


9. Calls on all States, in building the Information Society, to take steps with a view to the avoidance of, and refrain from, any unilateral measure not in accordance with international law and the Charter of the United Nations that impedes the full achievement of economic and social development by the population of the affected countries, and that hinders the well-being of their population;


10. Reaffirms that Intellectual Property protection is important to encourage innovation and creativity in the Information Society; similarly, the wide dissemination, diffusion, and sharing of knowledge is important to encourage innovation and creativity. Facilitating meaningful participation by all in intellectual property issues and knowledge sharing through full awareness and capacity building is a fundamental part of an inclusive Information Society;


11. Calls on all stakeholders to increase efforts to reduce the disparity in cost of access, through, for example, the establishment of Internet Exchange Points and the creation of a competitive environment, both at the backbone and local levels;


( the proposal in the May 20 draft :

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;

has not been accepted )


12. Recommends all States strive for gender equality in access to the Internet and in the building of the Information Society in both developed and developing countries, including the gender approach in ICT policies in national strategies;


13. Calls further on all stakeholders to continue the development and spread of easy to use applications and services for mobile phones and related devices, especially those that are useful in rural areas and work with low bandwidth and high latency;


14. Calls on all stakeholders to cooperate more closely in making global networks more stable, resilient and secure and in overcoming outages, incidents and attacks on these networks;


15. Calls on International and regional organizations to assess and report regularly on universal accessibility of nations to ICTs, with the aim of creating equitable opportunities for the growth of ICT sectors of developing countries;


16. Recommends the mainstreaming of ICT-policies into national development and/or poverty reduction strategies, in accordance with countries priorities;


17. Recommends increased international cooperation at all levels and amongst all stakeholders, to help rural areas access to and benefit from the Internet and ICTs in general;


B. Successes and shortcomings in the implementation of WSIS outcomes so far


18. Takes note with appreciation of the ongoing work in the Internet Governance Forum, its multi-stakeholder approach and its innovative platform and thanks host Governments for their contributions,

( mostly unchanged from May 20 draft )


19. Acknowledges progress towards developing multilingual capabilities on the Internet,

( May 20 draft :

14. Welcomes progress towards developing multilingual capabilities on the Internet,
particularly the discussions within ICANN regarding the introduction of
Internationalized Domain Names;

The specific mention of ICANN, and hence its recognition has been rejected )


20. Acknowledges the work of the Partnership for Measuring ICT for Development to develop indicators for further consideration and decision by the UN Statistical Commission,


21. Observes the lack of indicators to measure progress towards achieving the targets as set out in part B of the Geneva Plan of Action,

( Not in the 20 May draft )


22. Takes note of the efforts of the Regional Commissions in the coordination of WSIS-implementation, including in developing e-strategies, capacity building and measuring of ICTs,

( Mostly unchanged from the May 20 draft )


23. Acknowledges the efforts of all WSIS Action Line Facilitators, especially ITU and UNESCO in their role as lead Facilitators,


24. Observes that the architecture for WSIS implementation as defined in the Tunis Agenda for the Information society is rather complex and has also presented limitations in involving participation of all stakeholders, in particular those from developing countries,


25. Takes note of the letter from the United Nations Under Secretary General, on behalf of the United Nations Secretary General (UNSG), to relevant organizations responsible for essential tasks associated with the Internet requesting them to report on the steps they have taken towards enhanced cooperation in accordance with Art. 71 of the Tunis Agenda for Information Society, and looks forward to the UNSG's report, which may contain recommendations on how the process should be pursued; also notes that all stakeholders, in their respective roles, will be included in this process,

( Important language related to enhanced cooperation. Not in the 20 May draft. It was the topic of hot negotiations. ICANN is included among the relevant organizations that have received the letter from the UNSG, and has reportedly the intent to answer )


26. Reaffirms the relevance of decisions on Internet Governance in their entirety as outlined in the Tunis Agenda,

( important message that the IGF mandate should be implemented in its entirety )


Recommendations


27. Recommends that the Internet Governance Forum, as a multi-stakeholder discussion forum, shall retain its focus on public policy issues related to Internet Governance;

( the 20 May draft included also : and avoid duplication with the
WSIS action line implementation process.

It is important message that the IGF should retain its focus, the language concerning duplication was removed in fine, not because duplication was endorsed, but because it was felt redundant )


( the language proposed in the 28 May draft :

19bis. Recommends the need for enhanced cooperation in the future, to enable
governments, on an equal footing, to carry out their roles and responsibilities, in
international public policy issues pertaining to the Internet;

did not reach a consensus )


28. Encourages the collaboration among all stakeholders, including international organisations, consistent with their mandate and existing budgetary resources, with regard to multilingualization of the Internet;

( Unchanged from the May 20 draft )


29. Recommends that the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development considers the creation of benchmarks and indicators, including impact indicators, for further consideration and decision by the UN Statistical Commission, in order to track progress towards the attainment of the specific goals and targets set out in WSIS outcome documents, particularly part B of the Geneva Plan of Action;


30. Recommends that Action Line Facilitators, in cooperation with all stakeholders, should establish milestones, deadlines and calendars for their Action Lines, taking into account the WSIS outcome documents;

( Unchanged from the May 20 draft )

31. Recommends that Lead Facilitators conduct open multistakeholder consultations on the way to improve the effectiveness and coherence of the annual clustering of WSIS related activities;

( An important recommendation. Not in the May 20 draft.

The WSIS-Finance & WSIS-SI proposal, as communicated by Dr. Francis Muguet on Tuesday 27 May 2008, mentions : Invites Action Lines facilitators to start open inclusive multi-stakeholder consultations in order to find a format for the Action Lines facilitation meetings next year that would offer a higher global visibility, and that would empower more stalkeholders to mobilize financial resource to attend, and was included in the 28 May draft as Recommends to Lead Agencies to conduct open multistakeholder consultations to increase the visibility, participation, empower more stakeholders to mobilize financial resources to attend and effectiveness of the cluster of activities organized around the World Telecommunications and Information Society day every year.

According to the Draft Report of the 3rd WSIS Action Lines Facilitators Meeting ( 23 May 2008 ), the lead agencies have decided that an open consultation meeting will be held to organize the 2009 events. This recommendation should empower the lead agencies to achieve this consultation within an efficient multi-stakeholder approach that may formally include governments and intergovernmental organizations. It should give an extra impetus to implement the suggestions that were made on May 23 :

There was a general agreement on the following proposals:




32. Recommends that UNGIS organize focused open multistakeholder consultations on the implementation of part B of the Tunis Agenda “ Financial Mechanisms for Meeting the Challenges of ICTs for Development”;

( Possibly the most important CSTD recommendation. It is not in the May 20 draft. The WSIS-Finance & WSIS-SI proposal language :

20 Recommends that assessment mechanisms should be established for the first part of the Tunis Agenda entitled : Financial mechanisms for meeting the challenges of ICT for development, and should be explored the creation of Assessment lines such as

A1: Official Development Assistance ODA
A2: Multi-stakeholder Partnerships
A3: Innovative Financial Mechanisms
A4: Infrastructure and International Interconnection costs

21 Invites UNCTAD in its capacity as CSTD secretariat to start consultations towards the designation of facilitators for the Tunis Assessment lines.

was communicated by Dr. Francis Muguet on Tuesday 27 May 2008, and was rather faithfully included in the 28 May draft as :

Recommends that a facilitation mechanism should be established for the
Financial Mechanisms for meeting the challenges of ICT for development in the same consultations mentioned in par 24, to consider official development assistance,
multistakeholder partnerships, innovative financial mechanisms and infrastructure and international interconnection costs, among others. It was subsequently modified to leave to UNGIS the task to define the implementation mechanism and its details. UNGIS ( http://ungis.org ) is the new inter-agency mechanism with the main objective to coordinate substantive and policy issues facing the United Nations’ implementation of the outcomes of the WSIS)


33. Recommends the introduction in the facilitation process of electronic collaboration tools like mailing lists, web 2.0 applications, observatories and clearing house models in order to enhance multi-stakeholder participation, in particular from developing countries;


34. Recommends further that in the reporting process to the CSTD Secretariat as set out in Resolution 2007/8, Action Line Facilitators bring to the attention of the Commission obstacles and 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 deemed necessary;


35. Invites all actors and institutions, involved in the implementation and follow-up of WSIS to further clarify their respective roles, improve coordination, information sharing and build synergies to make the most effective use of available resources;


36. 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; and


37. 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.




1 This draft resolution is proposed to the CSTD by El Salvador, Finland, France, Latvia, Switzerland