HI All,
This seems to be a very good idea and also lists a series of best
practices that organizations can sign on to. I particularly like
the ones talking about creating digital literacy.
Here is a complete draft of the letter. It is being delivered to
many Ministers of Finance on Wednesday and Thursday. Public
Knowledge and other organizations are asking for Individuals or
organizations to consider signing on the link below
Best,
Judith
The Honourable Ministers of Finance and
dignitaries
present at the 2016 Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World
Bank Group
CC: United States Secretary of State John Kerry
and World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim
Dear Honorable Ministers and Dignitaries,
We write to you as a group of civil society
organizations who are actively engaged in a collaborative effort
to strengthen policies and investments directed to increasing the
access, adoption, and use of information and communications
technologies (ICTs), particularly broadband internet access. We
ask you to work towards universal, open, secure, and affordable
broadband connectivity, with full protection of human rights.
As a general purpose technology, the impact of ICTs
extends well beyond productivity gains. ICTs are vectors of
economic and social transformation and economic growth. Based on
the data of the Inter-American Development Bank, with every 10
percent increase in high speed internet connections, economic
growth increases by 3.2 percent,
and at the global level, according to the Word Bank, the average
increase is 1.3 percent.
According to McKinsey & Company, most of the economic value
created by the internet benefits traditional businesses, rather
than the technology sector.
ICTs provide economic opportunities to urban and rural
populations, men, women and youth, and to marginalized
communities.
Despite the growing access to broadband, over four
billion people lack access to the internet. As civil society
organizations, we cannot accept this enormous digital divide,
which prevents the exercise of fundamental human rights for all.
Such inequality also reveals an untapped development opportunity.
Thus, we urge the Ministers of Finance attending the 2016 Spring Meetings of the Multilateral Development
Banks (MDBs) to guarantee that internet connectivity
becomes an integral part of national development policies moving
forward. Internet connectivity consistent with human rights
principles should be an essential element in every grant, loan,
technology transfer, or policy training program that MDBs
facilitate.
Stable, secure, and open access to broadband
internet is also crucial for the implementation and achievement of
the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to
which all UN member countries committed to in late 2015. Recent
data clearly demonstrate how all of the 17 SDGs heavily rely on
ICTs to be successfully implemented.
Supporting international development negotiations
and commitments have recognized the same crucial role of ICTs.
Those include the WSIS+10 outcomes
that aim to foster more inclusive and development-oriented
knowledge societies, recognizing the centrality of human rights to
that goal, and the ITU’s Connect 2020 Agenda for Global
Telecommunication/ICT Development
that promotes a vision where ICTs enable and accelerate socially,
economically, and environmentally sustainable growth and
development for everyone. We believe that such commitments are
fully in line with our view and advocacy for the transformative
power of high-speed networks to advance human development and
human rights.
Within these agendas, we welcome initiatives such as
Global Connect. Global Connect
is an initiative seeded by the U.S. Department of State and
supported by various countries and stakeholders, including civil
society,
which aims to bring internet connectivity to 1.5 billion people by
2020. We encourage Global Connect’s partner countries to work
together to prioritize internet connectivity across regional and
functional practices in Multilateral Development Banks, such as
the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and Inter-American
Development Bank, to help prioritize the inclusion of ICTs in
every country’s development plans. One example of how this could
be done is to leverage infrastructure projects by implementing
“dig once” policies
and other forms of coordinated infrastructure approaches.
Finally, we emphasize that the digital divide does
not end once infrastructure loans are made and communications
lines laid. Connectivity alone is not enough.
The Internet has become an essential forum in the promotion and
protection of human rights and development, but users are
increasingly tracked, surveilled, and censored on insecure,
restricted platforms that contribute to infringement of their
basic rights. Network discrimination by companies acting as
gatekeepers to content, or governments filtering and even shutting
down services, decreases trust in the internet economy. To ensure
long-term protection of rights online, net neutrality policies
should be guaranteed wherever Internet infrastructure is being
built out. The 13 “Necessary & Proportionate” Principles,
which apply human rights to communications surveillance, should
also be adopted and implemented as a framework for
rights-respecting connectivity.
Considering the timely opportunity of the 2016 Spring Meetings of the MDBs, we present
our commitment as public-interest organizations in supporting
access to rights-respecting ICTs and broadband connectivity and
urge you to adopt the following commitments:
- Integrate internet connectivity and access to digital
technologies (“ICT infrastructure”) as key components of
national development, borrowing, and investment strategies;
- Foster the growth of internet connectivity by urging national
development agencies to prioritize digital access as an
essential element of national infrastructure plans and investing
sufficient funds for implementation;
- Invest in increasing technical expertise in digital
connectivity at national and local levels;
- Design ICT policies and practices based on respect for human
rights online and offline, upholding network neutrality, the
rule of law, and rights-respecting connectivity;
- Invest in internet connectivity based on a core understanding
that the internet is a global resource and that it should be
managed in the public interest as a democratic, secure, free,
open, inclusive and pluralistic communication platform;
- Support public access facilities, such as libraries, which
facilitate significant gains in connectivity and sustainable
development;
- Support and invest in unlicensed and open spectrum, to expand
connectivity within a community, to additional homes and
institutions;
- Foster digital literacy, and enable and promote the
development of locally relevant content, applications, and
services as they are essential to widespread adoption of the
internet and increase its social and economic value to people,
families, and communities;
- Create enabling environments by adopting policies and
strategies that focus not only on spurring connectivity, but
also entrepreneurship, cross-border information flows, and open
and competitive marketplaces;
- Invest in and adopt more effective policies that ensure:
equitable and efficient access to radio spectrum; infrastructure
sharing and lower barriers to entry for access providers with
new technologies; better and targeted subsidies, direct
investment in infrastructure roll out; and more transparent and
accountable public-private partnerships.
We look forward to working with you on this important
set of initiatives.
_________________________________________________________________________
Judith Hellerstein, Founder & CEO
Hellerstein & Associates
3001 Veazey Terrace NW, Washington DC 20008
Phone: (202) 362-5139 Skype ID: judithhellerstein
E-mail: Judith@jhellerstein.com Website: www.jhellerstein.com
Linked In: www.linkedin.com/in/jhellerstein/
Opening Telecom & Technology Opportunities Worldwide
-------- Forwarded Message --------