Page 69 - Contributed Paper Session (CPS) - Volume 5

CPS904 Saeed Fayyaz et al.
infrastructure enabling affordable and ubiquitous access to ICT. C3 (“Access to
information and knowledge”) [7] outlines that individuals and organizations
should take advantage from access to information and knowledge using ICT.
C4 (“Capacity building”) [7] states that every person should have the
knowledge and skill set to profit from the Information Society. Further, actions
how ICT can support education and lifelong learning activities are outlined. C5
(“Building confidence and security in the use of ICTs”) [7] highlights the central
value of privacy, trust and security for the Information Society. C6 (“Enabling
environment”) [7] points out actions to increase the confidence in the
Information Society. C7 (“ICT applications: benefits in all aspects of life”) [7]
highlight that ICT can improve the sustainable development in various areas
such as e-government, e-business, e-learning, e-health, e-environment, e-
agriculture, and e-science. Within the WSIS-SDG matrix C7 is refined into the
individual applications. C8 (“Cultural diversity and identity, linguistic diversity
and local content”) [7] stresses that cultural and linguistic diversity poses a
critical success factor in the development of an Information Society. C9
(“Media”) [7] outlines the importance of media in all its forms in the
development of an Information Society. C10 (“Ethical dimensions of the
Information Society”) [7] emphasizes the relevance of ethics within the
Information Society to avoid abusive usage of ICT. C11 (“International and
regional cooperation”) [7] points out that international cooperation is
indispensable in order to eliminate the digital divide.
While only one of the SDGs is specifically about ICTs, several targets make
references to ICTs and technology. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development also recognizes that “The spread of information and
communication technology and global interconnectedness has great potential
to accelerate human progress, to bridge the digital divide and to develop
knowledge societies". ITU has made a concerted effort to highlight the role
that ICTs will play in achieving the SDGs. It is actively participating in the
discussions on the indicators that will be used to track the SDGs:
1. ITU participated in the Expert Group Meeting on the indicator
framework for the post-2015 development agenda, which took place
in February, 2015, in New York. As part of its work within the
Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development, it submitted a joint
proposal of ICT indicators to help track the Sustainable Development
Goals and targets (pdf format).
2. ITU participated in the First Meeting of the Inter-agency and Expert
Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators (IAEG-SDGs),
which took place from 1-2 June 2015, in New York. The IAEG-SDGs was
set up by the UN Statistical Commission and is the main group that is
in charge of developing the SDG indicators framework. As an input to
its first meeting, ITU proposed a list of 8 ICT indicators, covering 8

58 | I S I W S C 2 0 1 9