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2 . M ULTI-STAKEHO LDER ICT PARTN ERSHIPS IN IN TERN ATIO N AL DEV ELO PM EN T
2.1 The Global Know ledge Partnership and ICT4D
The Global Knowledge Partnership GKP recognises that “ access to information and knowledge is essential if the disadvantaged, the marginalised, and the poor are to improve
their lives and lives of their children”
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. In the context of international development, the GKP views multi-stakeholder ICT partnerships as the combined efforts of the public and
private sectors and civil society stakeholders to:
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better inform policy and decision making on development; encourage shared commitment to common development goals;
increase the impact and extend the reach of ICT development initiatives; leverage human and financial resources; and
maximise the outcomes of applying ICT. At the second Global Knowledge Partnership conference in March 2000, delegates
highlighted the importance of multi-stakeholder ICT4D partnerships,
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recommending that: “ the GKP promote the creation of multi-stakeholder partnerships to increase access
to ICTs” . As part of the challenge to ‘create’ multi-stakeholder ICT4D partnerships, the GKP has
agreed to organise the ICT4D Platform of the W orld Summit on the Information Society W SIS. The Platform will showcase a number of multi-sector ICT4D partnerships and,
it is hoped, begin the task of developing a strategy for formulating pioneer partnerships integrated with the dual-summit format of the W SIS process.
2.2 World Summit on the Information Society
The W orld Summit on the Information Society W SIS is a global process led by the International Telecommunications Union ITU. The dual-summit format – with conferences
in Geneva 2003 and Tunis 2005 – will establish a political declaration and action plan. The first PrepCom meeting for the Summit was held in July 2002. This concluded the rules
of procedure and participation for the Summit, and opened the process to private sector and civil society involvement. Principles and themes for the Summit were also discussed
and refined further in the course of subsequent meetings, including the Informal Meeting in Geneva in September 2002, and regional conferences held in all major regions.
2. MULTI-STAKEHO LDER ICT PARTN ERSHIPS IN IN TERN ATIO N AL
DEVELO PMEN T
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From these discussions, two broad directions for the Summit have emerged: the first concerning the identification and negotiation of solutions to the development of the
information society globally; the second concerning the potential of ICT to contribute to development and poverty alleviation, particularly in relation to the UN Millennium Goals.
These latter ‘digital divide’ issues have been given particular weight by developing country government delegates.
Subsequently, the role of multi-stakeholder ICT partnerships as a means to bridge the ‘digital divide’ was a theme of each of the five W SIS regional conferences. In addition,
at the W SIS Prep Com II, Roundtable 8 on “ The Role of Different Stakeholders in the Information Society” and a separate side event provided platforms for promoting the
concept of multi-stakeholder ICT4D partnerships. In addition, a number of actors in the W SIS process have noted the importance of the concept
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see
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2.3 The Persistent Challenges of ICT4D
