World Telecommunication/ICT Development Report 2010: Monitoring the WSIS Targets: A Mid-Term Review

The 9th edition of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) World Telecommunication/Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Development Report (WTDR 2010) focuses on monitoring the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) targets at the midpoint between the 2005 phase of the WSIS and 2015, the deadline for achieving the ten targets that governments agreed upon at the WSIS. The report is a mid-term review and provides policymakers with an assessment of what has been achieved so far and what remains to be done. The report reflects a joint effort among several international organisations, led by ITU and including contributions from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), as well as from representatives of civil society.

Because there were no agreed indicators for the targets which countries could use for monitoring purposes prior to the writing of this document and based on the indicators proposed by the report, the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development launched the Task Group on Measuring the WSIS targets, which is expected to further enhance and refine the indicators and develop a monitoring framework that will help countries in tracking the WSIS targets.

The report reviews the 10 targets, proposes concrete indicators to monitor them, and makes recommendations on policies and measures to help achieve them:

1. To connect villages with ICTs and establish community access points - "There are a number of strategies and policies that governments should pursue so as to increase Internet and broadband access and usage in rural areas. These include intensifying competition in all ICT markets, adapting universal access and service policies in order to integrate the delivery of ICTs to rural areas, and fostering wireless broadband access. Given the low number of Internet users in many developing countries, governments need to adopt the appropriate policies and provide the necessary resources to encourage the establishment of sufficient public Internet access points, preferably equipped with broadband technology, especially in rural areas."
   
2. To connect universities, colleges, secondary schools, and primary schools with ICTs - "Besides identifying the most appropriate strategies to equip schools with ICTs, policymakers need to set clear targets and implement the necessary policies to ensure that in the long term, all primary and secondary schools are online, at high speed, and that students have access to computers at schools."
   
3. To connect scientific and research centers with ICTs - "In order to promote the expansion of the national research and educational networks (NRENs), and to include as many institutions as possible (universities and research centres, but also government departments, schools, hospitals, libraries and archives), governments must work with NRENs to ensure that they are fully embedded within the national innovation system and that they serve the needs of the local research community. Governments could consider conducting consultations with NREN stakeholders in order to review challenges and bottlenecks to boosting network deployment and connectivity. National policies should focus on the roll-out and growth of NRENs in developing countries, and enhance their bandwidth capacities. Governments should also consider prioritizing the research institutes to be connected to the NREN, based on their size and the types of research performed. In addition, NRENs should explore partnerships with other regional and global networks, and could negotiate public-private partnerships with existing telecommunication operators."
   
4. To connect public libraries, cultural centres, museums, post offices, and archives with ICTs - "Governments could look to supplementary sources of funding, including the private sector, development agencies and philanthropy organizations. Combining private funds with public resources could help to connect these institutions and enable them to create websites."
   
5. To connect health centres and hospitals with ICTs - "Governments need to recognize the importance of ICT access and use in the health sector, and the benefits it will bring for the health of citizens, not to mention the potential for cost savings, including through increased efficiencies. Policy-makers need to put in place and implement enabling framework conditions for e-health, which will be critical for increasing ICT in the health sector. Government support needs to be reflected in the policy environment as well as the funding environment. Today, funding constitutes an important barrier to the spread of e-health. Governments can look to alternative funding sources, such as donor or private funds, as well as public-private partnerships, in order to complement public funding used for providing Internet access to health institutions and supporting the use of ICTs for the delivery of health services. Interministerial cooperation is also crucial in the area of e-health. Any significant ICT initiatives in the e-health domain will need to be agreed on and governed by several ministries, usually those in charge of health, ICTs and finance. The successful development and implementation of e-health projects requires a common understanding by all parties of some of the key issues, including the strategic approach and goals, costs and financing mechanisms."
   
6. To connect all local and central government departments and establish websites and email addresses - "In order to achieve the target on e-government by 2015, action needs to be taken at both the national and international levels. Specific recommendations include the formulation of a framework for an integrated e-government development strategy to exploit the synergies of new technologies in government departments and entities. Policy-makers must ensure the deployment of infrastructure, in particular broadband, as well as the effective use of ICTs in government. Governments should also develop appropriate online services which will attract users to utilize the Internet. By encouraging the development of local content through partnerships with the private sector, development agencies, non-governmental organizations and the academic and research sector, governments can provide even more incentives for citizens to go online to access public services. The dissemination of best practices and lessons learnt from experiences in effective e-government and e-governance worldwide can inform such policies. Further recommendations include the formal adoption of ICT-for-development and e-government plans, continued follow-up on e-government development at the local level, and support for e-government capacity building at the national and local level."
   
7. To adapt all primary and secondary school curricula to meet the challenges of the information society, taking into account national circumstances - "To adapt school curricula to meet the challenges of the information society, and hence fulfil Target 7, policy imperatives must go beyond capital investments in ICT-related infrastructure. It is essential that initiatives also develop ICT-skills building among the teaching force, so that the knowledge can be passed down to students. While many developing countries must continue to commit resources with a view to connecting educational institutions to ICTs, policy-makers must at the same time address the challenges of adapting curricula in primary and secondary schools to meet the demands of an ever-changing society."
   
8. To ensure that all of the world’s population has access to television and radio services - "Although income is without doubt an important factor, particularly in LDCs [Least Developed Countries], the lack of electricity and the lack of content are major barriers that governments need to tackle. Policy-makers can also increase competition in the provision of content (for both TV and radio services), especially in countries with a limited number of broadcasters. Satellite services offer the possibility for most developing countries to ensure nationwide broadcasting coverage, and countries could take advantage of existing regional systems to increase the availability of coverage and content. Increasing access to terrestrial digital and multichannel TV, for example through government subsidies, is an important objective in the information society and another way of expanding on existing content."
   
9. To encourage the development of content and put in place technical conditions in order to facilitate the presence and use of all world languages on the internet - "Implementing Target 9 requires, for example, the development and implementation of policies that promote diversity of cultural expression and indigenous knowledge and traditions through the creation of varied information content. This requires, in turn, the development of local content (including through the translation and adaptation of existing content), digital archives and diverse forms of digital and traditional media, with support from local authorities. It is also important to nurture local capacity for the creation and distribution of software in local languages. This calls for technologies and research in areas such as translation, iconographies, and voice-assisted services; the required hardware and software models covering character sets, language codes, electronic dictionaries, terminology and thesauri, multilingual search engines, machine-translation tools, internationalized domain names and content referencing; as well as general and application software which should also be available in local languages."
   
10. To ensure that more than half the world’s inhabitants have access to ICTs within their reach - "To achieve Target 10, governments need to take action on various fronts. This includes building the necessary infrastructure and providing public access; expanding skills; and creating relevant and local content. On the infrastructure side, governments need to exploit the potential of wireless broadband by expanding mobile network coverage, including 3G coverage, to all segments of the population, and particularly to rural areas, where fixed (wired) networks are limited. Governments can also encourage the uptake and use of broadband networks by increasing competition to lower the cost of access, and by providing public access for those portions of the population who cannot afford home access. Increasing the use of ICTs also calls for appropriate policies to provide citizens with ICT skills and to promote the development of locally relevant content. By creating an enabling environment for an inclusive information society, governments play a key role in increasing ICT access and use."