ITU and UNESCO today announced the establishment of a top level Broadband Commission for Digital Development which will define strategies for accelerating broadband rollout worldwide and examine applications that could see broadband networks improve the delivery of a huge range of social services, from healthcare to education, environmental management, safety and much more.
The new Commission will comprise some 30 top names from around the world, representing not just technology leaders, but leaders from across a wide range of business and social sectors. It is co-chaired by President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Mr Carlos Slim Helu, Honorary Lifetime Chairman of Grupo Carso. ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Toure and UNESCO Director-General, Ms Irina Bokova, will serve as joint vice chairs.
The Commission has the support of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who will receive the Commission’s findings at the UN MDG Summit in New York in September.
Launching the Commission at the opening press conference of the WSIS Forum 2010 event in Geneva this week, Dr Toure said that governments now need to view broadband networks as basic national infrastructure. “In the 21st century, affordable, ubiquitous broadband networks will be as critical to social and economic prosperity as networks like transport, water and power,’ he said. “Not only does broadband deliver benefits across every sector of society, but it also helps promote social and economic development, and will be key in helping us get the Millennium Development Goals back on track.’
Dr Toure delivered a personal message from President Kagame, who spoke of the power of broadband to transform economies and human lives: “The transformational impact of broadband on people’s lives and global economies is a given; the remaining challenge is to extend these benefits to the majority of the world’s citizens in order to enable them to unleash their creative potential to fully integrate in the information driven global economy. This will require new frameworks for global cooperation in areas of investment, research and technology. The Broadband Commission for Digital Development will work to realise this potential,’ he said.
