ICC BASIS takes global business views to UN Commission charged with several key WSIS follow up tasks

At the Inter-sessional Panel of the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) in Budapest on 11-13 January, ICC BASIS outlined some of the business priorities to follow up on from the recently concluded UN General Assembly WSIS+10 review and the necessity of continuing the fruitful collaboration of all stakeholders for a successful implementation of its outcomes and the advancement of SDGs.

A regular attendee for the private sector at the CSTD, ICC BASIS was joined by representatives of civil society, technical community, academia and international organizations for a panel discussion on the overall review of World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and follow-up.

“All stakeholders have been well served by the successful recognition in the outcome document of the important role ICTs have played in advancing the previous global goals and how leveraging this further is essential to deliver on the commitments of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals agenda,” said ICC BASIS Project Director Elizabeth Thomas-Raynaud.

Other panel discussions during the meeting included academics and experts assessing current trends and highlighting policy considerations from diverse geographical perspectives on the 2016 CSTD themes of ‘smart cities and infrastructure’ and ‘foresight for digital development’.

We need to continue our work together to advance policies and cooperation across stakeholders to better understand persistent barriers to Internet access and to target those actions to help empower people by using Internet and ICTs to transform lives and economies.

“The outcome reaffirmed the importance of cooperative and collective action among all stakeholders in managing the global governance of the Internet. Now, we need to continue our work together to advance policies and cooperation across stakeholders to better understand persistent barriers to Internet access and to target those actions to help empower people by using Internet and ICTs to transform lives and economies,” said Ms Thomas-Raynaud.

The 43 Member CSTD, a subsidiary body of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), has as part of its mandate the assessment and annual reporting role for the progress in the implementation of action lines, recommendations and commitments contained in the original WSIS outcome documents. The most recent December 10-year high-level review of the WSIS by the UN General Assembly continued this mandate so it will continue to assess and report on WSIS follow up annually. CSTD has also been asked to create a working group to study the notion of ‘enhanced cooperation’ as included in the 2005 Tunis agenda. Findings and recommendations of the CSTD Inter-sessional Panel are expected to be considered at length at the 19th session of the CSTD, to be held in May 2016.

For more information

For further information on the CSTD 2015-2016 Inter-sessional Panel please see the meeting’s webpage here.

Read the full text of the ICC BASIS intervention here.