UN ICT Task Force
|
|
The UN ICT Task Force was created by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in November 2001. The Task Force was an early part of the process leading to the WSIS (World Summit on the Information Society) in 2003 and 2005 (planned) to get computers and communications to poor people all over the world. This includes more than 2 million villages and constantly varying numbers of refugee camps, disaster areas, and recovering war zones. The UN ICT Task Force membership (http://www.unicttaskforce.org/panel/) has included the top rank of the computer industry (IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco, Sun Microsystems), together with global NGOs, government and international agencies, and others.
In November 2002 Kofi Annan issued a Challenge to Silicon Valley to create suitable systems at prices low enough to permit deployment everywhere, whether through international aid programs, NGO charity, or microcredit support. The call has been answered, but only a few UN programs were actively using computers and communications in developing countries in 2004. The UNHCR ran a refugee camp in Tanzania where the Global Catalyst Foundation has placed computers and communications equipment for the use of the Burundian refugees confined there. The ITU worked with the kingdom of Bhutan on a Simputer project.
The Task Force holds semi-annual meetings. The 5th meeting took place in Geneva in September 2003. The 6th meeting was held in March 2004 at the UN headquarters in New York, NY, USA, with a Global Forum on Internet Governance. The 7th meeting took place November 18-20, 2004 in Berlin, Germany, with a Global Forum on an Enabling Environment. It's 8th meeting was held April 13-15, 2005 in Dublin Ireland, with a Global Forum on Harnessing the Potential of ICTs in Education.
External link
- UN ICT Task Force Website (http://www.unicttaskforce.org/)