Annan's Latest Call for Bridging Digital Divide in World's Poorest Countries - May 2003

New York, May 17 2003: With millions of people in the world's poorest countries still excluded from the right to communicate, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called for bridging the digital divide between developed and developing countries.

"The terms 'information society,' 'digital era,' or the 'information age' have all been used to describe this age," Mr. Annan said in a message marking World Telecommunication Day. "Whatever term we use, the society we build must be open and pluralistic -- one in which all people, in all countries, have access to information and knowledge.

"This is the primary goal of the World Summit on the Information Society, the first phase of which will take place this December in Geneva," he added.

He said the theme of this year's Telecommunications Day, "Helping all of the world's people to communicate," was an integral part of the Millennium Development Goals, agreed upon by Heads of State and Government at the UN Millennium Summit in 2000.

In particular, the eighth Goal aimed "to develop a global partnership for development" and, "in cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications technologies," he noted.

"Information and communication technologies must be used to bridge the digital divide and accelerate progress in the poorest corners of the world," he declared.

The United Nations Information Technology Service (UNITeS) is a global initiative announced by Annan in his Millennium Report "We the Peoples: the Role of the United Nations in the Twenty-First Century" (April 2000). UNITeS is led by the UN Volunteers programme. As part of the UN's family of initiatives to address the digital divide, UNITeS takes the role of placing and supporting volunteers who apply information communications technology (ICTs) to various areas of human development (health, education, agriculture, etc.) and promotes volunteerism as a fundamental element of successful ICT for Development (ICT4D) activities in developing countries.