Local authorities can help bridge the digital divide, Lyon conference told

Local authorities have a crucial role to play in bridging the digital divide between North and South and ensuring that the South fully participates in the information society, the United Nations-organized World Summit of Cities and Local Authorities has been told.

Meeting in Lyon, France, on 4 and 5 December as a prelude to this week's World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva, the summit delegates - which included hundreds of mayors and elected local representatives from around the world - tabled a "Lyon Declaration" to be presented in Geneva.

The declaration calls for real action to narrow the widening digital divide after delegates agreed that local authorities must try to transform information and communication technologies to ensure they can be used as tools for integration and social progress.

The declaration also requests that Secretary-General Kofi Annan strengthen the role of the UN Advisory Committee on Local Authorities (UNACLA) in promoting information and communication technologies for good governance.

Lyon's Senator-Mayor Gérard Collomb said local authorities have a critical role to play in bridging the divide.

UN-HABITAT's Deputy Executive Director Daniel Biau called on local authorities not to forget that 1 billion people around the world live in slums and have no access the Internet or even a telephone.

"The Information Society ignores them and this is what we must change, what you must change," Mr Biau said.