Discussion papers on ICT policy and internet rights

We will shortly be adding more discussion papers on more topics.

Access

The importance of convergence in the ICT policy environment

This paper looks at the meaning and importance of convergence and considers some of the challenges to implementing it, along with strategies for overcoming them. It also provides a global perspective on regulating convergence and broadband from ITU and then it looks at experiences in North America and Europe as well as regional and country approaches in Africa.

Open Access: Lowering the costs of international bandwidth in Africa

This paper was commissioned by the APC as part of the Catalysing Access to ICTs in Africa initiative and to contribute to APC's efforts to promote open access to ICT infrastructure in Africa. According to the author, a variety of factors are responsible for the lack of acess to bandwith in Africa, but the biggest cause is the high cost of international connections to the global telecommunication backbones.

Interconnection costs

This paper produced by South African Mike Jensen covers increasing North-South inequities (“paying both ways”) and proposed strategies for minimising the disparities in interconnection rates, accelerating the restructuring of the communications sector, supporting the establishment of national and international internet exchange points, and building local demand for national and international backbones.

E-strategies

The Centrality of E-strategies in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Plan of Action

The term ‘e-strategies’ has gained widespread use over the last few years in the debates on the role of information and communications technologies (ICTs) for development, following the United Nations Millennium Declaration in 2000. E-strategies have been defined as “plans based on the selection of scenarios and options for applying ICTs to national development” . A similar definition sees “an e-strategy as a shorthand for policies and strategies intended to exploit ICTs to promote national development. Other terms used to capture the phenomenon include ICT policy and IT policy”. APC gratefully acknowledges the funding support of CIDA.

Financing

Networking Communities In The South -- Challenges For Diverse Actors: Remittance, Microfinance And Technology

In 2003 a Pew Hispanic Center survey found that 40% of the adult, foreign­born Latino population in the United States, some 6 million people, send money home on a regular basis. This paper deals with the issue of the high cost to migrants of sending money back to their families at home, ie international money transfers and who controls them, and discusses opportunities of creating an alternative system.

Scott Robinson, a Mexico-based anthropologist who has been a pioneer in community based information services, telecentres and ICTs for social justice in Latin America. APC thanks Scott for permitting us to reproduce his paper here.

Financing the Information Society in the South: A Global Public Goods Perspective

This paper sets out to look at the question of financing the provision of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the South, within the context of the United Nations’ World Summit on the Information Society, and advocates adopting a “global public goods” perspective on the issue. The paper first examines how the question of ICT financing has been debated during the WSIS preparatory process and the first phase Summit (Geneva, December 2003). Particular attention is paid to Senegal’s proposal for the creation of a “Digital Solidarity Fund”, and the reactions to it of the different stakeholders – governments, from both North and South, the private sector and civil society – participating in WSIS. The following section explores the potential for addressing the issue of financing ICT expansion from a global public goods (GPG) perspective. First the authors provide an overview of what such an approach means in conceptual terms, looking both at general definitions of GPGs and the applicability of the concept to ICTs. They then review the debate that has been taking place around the specific issue of which existing or alternative innovative financing mechanisms might be used for GPG provision, linking the proposed strategies whenever possible to the ICT sector. Finally, in the conclusions the authors offer a concrete proposal with respect to what we consider to be the most appropriate financing mechanism for funding expanded ICT access in the South. APC gratefully acknowledges the funding support of CIDA.

Governance

APC's Recommendations to the WSIS on Internet Governance

APC has participated extensively in the internet governance process at the World Summit on Information Society. Out of this participation and in collaboration with other partners, including members of the WSIS civil society internet governance caucus, APC has crystallized a set of recommendations with regard to internet governance ahead of the final Summit in Tunis in November 2005.

ICTs and the environment

E-waste challenges in developing countries: South Africa case study

This discussion paper, commissioned by the APC, aims to raise the profile of e-waste issues in developing countries so that the implications of information and communications technology (ICTs) for development initiatives can be better understood – particularly in the context of the increasing flow of old technology from developed to developing countries.

South Africa is thought to be at the forefront of waste management in Africa, and practitioners aim to develop an e-waste model in the country that can serve as a blueprint for an approach to e-waste elsewhere on the continent. While the overall waste management strategies in the country are highly regarded by experts, this document suggests that South Africa faces a number of key challenges in dealing with e-waste and that its ‘e-waste readiness’ is mixed rather than certain.

Three APC members contributed to this document, and offered e-waste perspectives from the United Kingdom and the Asia-Pacific region. Summaries of these contributions are included in the appendices.

ICTs and violence against women

Digital Dangers: Information & Communication Technologies and Trafficking in Women

This discussion paper asks if new technologies are re-shaping or facilitating trafficking, and/or if the use of ICTs in trafficking will change the way we understand other issues. For example, how should we think about the distribution of women's images against their will; can we talk about trafficking in images, and what relation does this have to the debate about pornography? It explores government responses and the tension between the right to privacy and the right to freedom from violence in the context of ICTs. This paper is a joint publication of AWID and the APC WNSP.

Cultivating Violence Through Technology? Exploring the Connections between Internet Communication Technologies (ICT) and Violence Against Women (VAW)

This paper explores the connection between new information communication technologies (ICTs) and violence against women (VAW). From the perspective of representation and rapid dissemination of information and communication enabled through ICTs, the paper looks at domestic violence in the homes, sexual violence and women in conflict affected areas. It presents case studies, strategies and analysis on these different areas. The study is the part of APC WNSP issue papers series on ICTs for women's rights.

Internet Governance

Internet governance and the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)

The purpose of this paper is to describe our current understanding of the debate about Internet governance in WSIS, and to examine the main policy issues that are being considered in that discussion. It also suggests opportunities for developing nation stakeholders to contribute to the processes that are defining the Internet governance landscape. The key message is that there are opportunities for civil society to engage and we must take them. Internet governance is one of the most controversial and debated issues to come from the WSIS process. It is also a moving target in that the UN working group that will help define what Internet governance is, and identify the public policy issues involved is only just being set up and we can only make a best guess at its working methods and the scope of issues it will consider. As such this paper is very much a work in progress and may be modified over the coming months. APC gratefully acknowledges the funding support of CIDA.

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)

Whose summit? Whose information society? Developing country and civil society voices in the World Summit on the Information Society

This paper summarises a study of developing country and civil society participation and influence in WSIS that was commissioned by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC). As well as analysing participation, the study looked at the impact of WSIS on international ICT decision-making in general and makes recommendations to all main actors about how future decision-making might become more inclusive of developing countries, nongovernmental actors and their concerns.

The World Summit on the Information Society: An overview of follow-up

Civil society, in its final statement on WSIS, expressed its commitment to continue “its involvement in the future mechanisms for policy debate, implementation and follow-up on Information Society issues” by building on the processes and structures that developed during the WSIS process. But what does that mean in practice? What are the post-WSIS implementation processes, what actors are involved, when and where are they taking place and how can you get involved?

Pushing and prodding, goading and hand-holding: Reflection from APC at the conclusion of the World Summit on the Information Society

The Civil Society Statement on WSIS concluded that: “The broad mandate for WSIS was to address the long-standing issues in economic and social development from the newly emerging perspectives of the opportunities and risks posed by the revolution in Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs). The summit was expected to identify and articulate new development possibilities and paradigms being made possible in the Information Society, and to evolve public policy options for enabling and realising these opportunities. The statement finishes by saying that “Overall, it is impossible not to conclude that WSIS has failed to live up to these expectations.” In this article, APC presents its verdict.

African Participation in WSIS: review and discussion paper

This paper presents a review of African participation in the first phase WSIS process (i.e. the Geneva summit held in December 2003 and the preparatory process leading up to it). It is not intended as a comprehensive analysis, but to stimulate discussion about ways in which African participation - particularly that of African civil society - can be more effectively structured during the second phase of the summit. Prepared for APC.

WSIS Process and Themes Debated

This fifteen page paper by the coordinator of APC's Latin American ICT Policy Monitor covers the background to WSIS, stakeholders, the process (including the Geneva and Tunis rounds), themes discussed in round one, and looks at results so far. APC gratefully acknowledges the funding support of CIDA.

Whose “information society”?

Was WSIS worth it? The general verdict on the recent United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) held in December 2003 was a thumbs-down. The Summit outcomes were limited after an arduous and expensive process. However, argues Anriette Esterhuysen, APC executive director, from the perspective of many civil society organisations that participated actively, the WSIS has created a new opportunity for solidarity across ideological, sectoral and geographical divides. A shorter version of this article was first published in Alliance, Vol 9, No 1, March 2004. The full version of this article was produced with the financial support of CIDA.