UN task force reviews adequacy of global funding for information technologies

A United Nations task force today began examining the adequacy of funding worldwide for information and communication technologies (ICT), particularly in developing countries.

Chaired by the Administrator of the UN Development Programme, Mark Malloch Brown, the Task Force on Financial Mechanisms was born out of the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) last December in Geneva.

At the event, financing of ICT for development was one of two key issues left unresolved, the other relating to Internet governance. President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal had proposed the creation of a Digital Solidarity Fund to bolster ICT in developing countries, while numerous western countries favoured using existing funding mechanisms instead.

The task force was set up to probe the matter further with a view to making a recommendation to the Summit's second phase, to be held from 16 to 19 November 2005 in Tunis, Tunisia.

Consultations during the one-day meeting in New York will involve representatives from the private sector, civil society, regional banks and commissions as well as individual experts. Inputs will also be mobilized through virtual discussions on WSIS-online.