Speeches - Other Speeches and Statements18 May 2009 UNDP Geneva Liaison Office Deputy Director: WSIS Forum 2009
Najat Rochdi, Deputy Director, UNDP Office in Geneva, speaks at the ITU WSIS Forum 2009 Excellencies, Heads of Delegations, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a great
pleasure to be here with all of you to deliver those opening remarks on behalf of UNDP. I have had the opportunity and the
privilege to work with many of those who are present today while taking part in the World Summit on the Information Society
(WSIS), in its two phases in Geneva 2003 and Tunis 2005. The Summit was an important landmark in the global effort to eradicate
poverty and achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) by 2015 and since the Tunis Phase of WSIS, much progress has
been made and many flagship initiatives have been announced and implemented. However, we need to keep in mind that there is
much more to be done and there are only six years remaining to 2015. We started 2009 in the midst of a crisis unlike
any we have seen in our lifetime. Millions of jobs have been lost. Many businesses cannot borrow or make payroll. Many
families cannot pay their bills. And many, many citizens across the world are both anxious and uncertain of what the future
will hold. Yet, only one year ago, nobody would have predicted what happened and we have very little idea of what the world
will look like 50 years from now. Therefore, the time has come to open up the world and shake its very foundations
by asking ourselves: Do we want a world where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer? What these questions point to is an ethic of responsibility and global solidarity.
First, we are all responsible for each other's security. Second, we can and must give everyone the chance to benefit from
global prosperity. Third, both security and prosperity depend on human rights and the rule of law. Fourth, states must be
accountable to each other, and to a broad range of non-state actors, in their international conduct. We can only do
all these things by working together through an open, inclusive and renovated multilateral system, and by making the best
possible use of the “One UN” platform, by a new multilateralism where every stakeholder brings his share of commitment, support,
policy, programs, expertise and funding, where Governments, at both central and local levels, where Development Partners and
Organizations, where Civil Society, where Private Sector and where Communities all come together around a strong and common
interest in fostering a solid sustainable development base that is integrated into the global economy. Today, UNDP
would like to call for urgent, collective and innovative actions to address the achievement of the MDGs and set the stage
for renewed sustainable development. Today, I would like to share with you some thoughts about how ICT4D and its related
innovations can foster the achievement of the MDGs and thus put decision makers, development organizations, civil society
and private sector leadership in front of their collective responsibility to accelerate and commit to the Global development
agenda. Ladies and Gentlemen, ICTs, when used to address Development, are one of those tools that are transforming
the traditional map of development, expanding people's horizons, dramatically shrinking learning curves, and creating the
potential to realize, in a decade, progress that required a time span of generations in the past. All of us here have
witnessed how access to a range of ICTs in developing countries gave people knowledge that empowers them, offering a new realm
of choices that enabled the poor to improve their quality of life. Unfortunately, not everyone enjoys equal access to these
technologies. As the social and access divides grow wider, it aggravates the existing divisions of power and inequities in
access to resources between men and women, the literate and non-literate, and urban and rural populations. Therefore, we need
to innovate. From social networks to mobile technology, the private sector has clearly driven the experimentation and
expansion of innovative IT models. They have applied “open and user-driven” processes to their product development. Telecom
companies become media houses. Food retailers become banks. Computers become phones and video stores. M-Technologies
and social networks have reduced the entry barriers (language, cost, interface, etc.), and made innovation in development
possible. It helps meet pressing humanitarian challenges: to connect families separated by disaster helps emergency relief
workers respond more quickly and empower health workers operating in rural areas. It is changing the way grassroots organizations
monitor elections in countries where weak capacity, infrastructure, freedom of speech and political will prevail. But
MT also faces its own challenges. On the supply side, many cell phone providers are starting to hit market limitations particularly
in areas where very poor populations live and markets are either very small or inexistent. This might put a stop to the rapid
growth of mobile phone users in the short run. On the demand side, MT users do not have access to the required applications
that will allow them to get public and private services from their phones. By matching supply and demand new opportunities
will emerge for both suppliers of MTs and end users and, in concert with national and local government generate win-win situations
that will foster human development in the medium and long terms. We need to significantly increase the application
of these innovative models to the needs of the poor and vulnerable people. We need to effectively leverage the skills and
knowledge of creative local citizens as designers of and contributors to products and services and not only as consumers.
These are some of the issues we can address to pave the way and prepare the ground for actions. But one should remember
that, for innovation in ICT4D to help advancing democratic governance and poverty alleviation, the most important thing to
understand is that Development is not about technology, it is about people with all the challenges it entails. The challenges
are great, but so too are the opportunities. We need to invest in people as the greatest resource and the most precious asset
if we are to shape, and not just be shaped by, the challenges we face. This in turn will not only get countries closer to
the achievement of the MDGs but also develop new markets and new demand. Ladies and Gentlemen, The world is not
on track to meet the MDGs, and yet it could be: we have the resources, the technology and the creativity that are required;
we just need to bring them where they are most needed. Thus, we need to take urgent action, collectively, to change the course,
otherwise the situation will become dramatically worse. We need to preserve the dreams and the hopes of a generation so they
can still invest and believe in their future. We need to come up with new ways of doing development business, innovative tools
and applications. We need each and everyone to commit. On behalf of UNDP, I would like to reiterate our strong commitment
to continue to support Governments at the national and local levels, along with UN sister agencies and our partners, in their
strategies to capitalize on ICT as a lever for economic and social transformation and expansion to propel our collective modest
endeavors of today into the world reference cases of tomorrow so that the next generations will carry forward the flame of
equity, justice, prosperity and peace. Thank you very much. |
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