Louder voices: strengthening developing country participation in international ICT decision-making

At its Genoa Summit in 2001, the G8 asked its Digital OpportunitiesTask Force (DOT Force) to draw up proposals promoting more effective, universal participation in international decision-making around information and communication technologies.

In support of this objective DFID commissioned a study from the Commonwealth Telecommunications organisation and Panos London which had three main objectives:

• to map the international ICT decision-making world
• to assess current developing country participation and identify obstacles to effective engagement
• to recommend actions to be taken by developing countries, international agencies and DOT Force members.

The researchers studied developing country participation in three important organisations and looked in detail at the experience of six developing countries. They found that:

• despite developing country membership of established intergovernmental organisations with ICT responsibilities, such as the ITU and WTO, there is still a “missing link ” between ICT and development at the international policy level
• developing countries are excluded from decision making at the technical level
• technical and policy capacity building both need to be developed
• participation at an international level needs to be strengthened through capacity building to implement ICT policy at the national and regional levels

Overall, the report finds that there is significant inequality internationally in policy and decision making capacity.