As United Nations Member States prepare for the General Assembly’s 10-year review of the World Summit on the Information Society, USCIB participated in a stakeholder consultation in New York on July 2 during which members emphasized that information and communication technologies (ICTs) facilitate the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. USCIB members also pointed out that private sector investment is critical for the continued roll-out of Internet access, so it is imperative for governments to create an environment that encourages investment in broadband and ICTs.

USCIB members had important speaking roles in the July 2 program, which featured three panels aimed at exploring (1) progress made in implementation of the WSIS outcomes, (2) ICT technology gaps and areas for continued focus in bridging the digital divide; and (3) harnessing ICTs for development going forward. Members included Joseph Alhadeff, ICC digital economy commission chair and USCIB ICT policy committee vice chair (Oracle); Carolyn Nguyen (Microsoft); Cheryl Miller (Verizon); and Chip Sharp (Cisco).

Each panel included speakers from business, civil society, and the technical community, as well as respondents from governments and stakeholder groups. The speaker’s remarks and subsequent rich commentary provided by respondents and the interactive Q&A will serve as important inputs to the UN Secretariat’s development of a “non-paper” – to be released at the end of August 2015 – which will serve as the substantive foundation for the final outcome document to be endorsed by the UN General Assembly at the High-Level Meeting in December.

USCIB filed comments on the first draft of ICANN’s (Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers) Cross-Community Working Group (CCWG) on Enhancing ICANN Accountability proposed Accountability Enhancements on Wednesday, June 3. These comments represented an important cross-sectoral and cross-community consensus of USCIB’s member companies.

Overall, USCIB members applauded the work of the CCWG in developing accountability mechanisms that will replace the “back stop” function currently provided by the contract between the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and ICANN concerning stewardship of the IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) functions. That contract is set to expire on September 30, 2015, but likely will be extended for a limited period to give the ICANN community additional time needed to thoughtfully develop a sound transition plan. In particular, USCIB supported elements of the draft proposal that would give the ICANN multistakeholder community power to reject a budget or strategic plan as well as recall Board members if deemed necessary. USCIB further urged inclusion of a new Bylaw aimed at preventing government capture or undue ICANN influence on public policies unrelated to ICANN’s core mission.

“A spirit of cooperation prevailed as USCIB members across the ICT sector as well as the contracted and non-contracted houses of ICANN worked hard to reach a consensus ultimately aimed at ‘getting the transition right’,” said Barbara Wanner, USCIB’s vice president for ICT policy.

Read USCIB’s comments.

During the 2015 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum in Geneva, convened under the auspices of the United Nations, governments underscored the importance of information and communication technologies (ICTs) as engines for economic growth and as crucial elements of the post-2015 UN Sustainable Development Goals, reports Barbara Wanner, USCIB’s vice president for ICT policy.

Further enriching the forum’s discussions, USCIB member companies such as Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, Verizon, The Walt Disney Company, and Wiley Rein made important contributions to both plenary sessions and workshops on topics as diverse as privacy and security, child online and digital citizenship, empowering women to innovate, and innovation in accessibility technologies.

Government officials, business leaders and members of civil society and the technical community assembled in Geneva from May 25 to 29 for the WSIS stock-taking meetings to review a decade-long progress on promoting the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) as engines of economic and social development. The forum was hosted by the UN’s International Telecommunications Union (ITU), together with co-organizers UNESCO, UNCTAD and UNDP.

A recurring theme in speakers’ remarks throughout the week was the importance of broadening awareness about the indispensable role played by ICTs in realizing the post-2015 SDGs.

“ICTs are cited in only four of the 17 sustainable development goals,” ITU Secretary General Houlin Zhao noted in launching a special high-level session on May 26, suggesting that this is not a proper reflection of their developmental potential. “ICTs are a catalyst and enabler in development; they support capacity building efforts in areas as diverse as health, gender equality and sustainable farming,” Zhao said.

“This year’s forum, which marks the tenth anniversary of WSIS, was especially important because the UN General Assembly will evaluate its progress and decide its future at a special High-Level Meeting that likely will be held during the week of December 14,” said Wanner. “Virtually all speakers therefore sought to highlight the developmental value of the WSIS process.”

Other themes included the importance of business investment as an impetus for developing new technologies, the need for all stakeholders to be involved Internet governance, renewing the mandate of the Internet Governance Forum as a neutral space for exchanging best practices and capacity-building expertise, and the use of ICTs to empower youth and achieve gender equality.

Addressing a high-level dialogue on gender empowerment, USCIB Member Cheryl Miller (Verizon) described digital gender empowerment as “a community issue, not just a man’s or a woman’s issue.” Miller also shared the success of Verizon’s “Tech Girls” initiative, which brings to the United States young women from Africa and the Middle East to learn coding as well as shadow senior executives at Verizon.

Speaking on the same panel, Paul Mitchell (Microsoft) elaborated on various initiatives Microsoft has undertaken to close the digital gender gap. Digi Girls, for example, teaches High School-aged girls how to do podcasts, create web pages, and so forth. Microsoft recognizes that increasing women in technology and computing has the potential to greatly improve the design of products and services, he said.

On the subject of leveraging ICTs to empower youth, Ellen Blackler (The Walt Disney Company) explored Disney’s investment in entertainment products designed to develop critical thinking skills that the younger generation will need for future success as a productive contributors to the digital economy. Disney recognizes that the Internet “is essential to everything going forward [so that] the biggest risk is that kids will not have the [requisite] digital skills,” she said.

Business plays a central role in harnessing ICTs for economic and social development. USCIB’s ICT Policy Committee Vice Chair Joseph Alhadeff (Oracle), who delivered a policy statement on behalf of ICC-BASIS, highlighted how business investment has served as an important impetus for economic growth and development of technologies benefitting society. For this reason, we must have a policy environment that enables emerging economies to tap the developmental potential of emerging technologies such as cloud computing, Big Data, and the Internet of Things, he urged.