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Background
The international conference on the Development of an equitable Information Society in Africa: The role of Parliaments is hosted by the Parliament of Rwanda and organized in collaboration with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) under the aegis of the Pan African Parliament.
In the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS, Geneva, December 2003a) the international community recognized the crucial importance of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in order to meet the basic development needs of developing countries. The Action Plan endorsed by the Summit highlights the strategic importance of legislative measures aimed at promoting the equitable deployment of ICT services “to build an inclusive information society and to put the potential of knowledge and ICT at the service of development”.
In the second phase of the WSIS (Tunis, November 2005b) the international community recognized the strategic importance of “supportive, transparent and pro-competitive policy and regulatory frameworks” for the development of ICT. The “Tunis Agenda for the Information Society” calls for stronger commitment to improve “connectivity and universal, ubiquitous, equitable, non-discriminatory and affordable access to, and use of ICT”. It also reaffirms the full commitment of the international community to the implementation of the Geneva principles and encourages all stakeholders to remain engaged according to their different roles and responsibilities, taking into account the themes and Action Lines of the Geneva Plan of Action.
The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs is the facilitator of Action Line C1 “The role of public governance authorities and all stakeholders in the promotion of ICT for development”. Within the Action Line C1 framework, a Subgroup on ICT and Parliamentsc, co-facilitated by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) and the Inter-Parliamentary Union, has been established to conduct consultations and facilitate dialogue on the specific role played by legislatures in the promotion of an inclusive Information Society. The first two meetings of this Subgroup, convened in Geneva on 17 May 2006 and 24 May 2007, reiterated the importance of parliaments as active participants in the implementation process of the outcomes of the WSIS.
Moreover, the International Conference “The policy-making role of Parliaments in the Development of the Information Society”, held in Rome on 3 and 4 March 2007d, and hosted by the Italian Chamber of Deputies with the collaboration of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and UNDESA, highlighted the specific role that Parliaments, as representative of the citizens in their diversity, should play in shaping the development process that our societies are facing with the introduction of ICT.
