Keeping the global ICT marketplace on course is the mission of the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA), WITSA is dedicated to advocating policies that advance the industry’s growth and development; facilitating international trade and investment in ICT products and services; and strengthening national ICT industry associations through the sharing of knowledge, experience, and critical information. As the global voice of the ICT industry WITSA believes that ICT products and services should be regarded as an important tool for economic development. It also believes that the liberalization of ICT markets helps economies to expand existing activities and develop new export opportunities. ICT will not only promote innovation in other industries but innovation in the ICT industry itself will create new value. Thus ICT plays an invaluable part in the ongoing efforts to overcome the current economic crisis.
WITSA's Policy Action Program is spearheaded by Mr. John Higgins, CEO of The U.K. Information Technology, Telecommunications and Electronics Association (INTELLECT). Mr. Higgins Chairs the WITSA Global Policy Action Committee and is responsible for WITSA's public policy activities and programs.
WITSA Public Policy Report
See the WITSA Public Policy Report for an overview of WITSA's
positions on key trade issues [Link].
Under the Chairmanship of John Higgins
(Intellect), WITSA has refocused its Public Policy committee efforts
to become more proactive, reflected in a committee name change to
the Global Policy Action Committee (GPAC). The GPAC strategy for
2010-11 was developed for, and approved at, the WITSA Annual Meeting
in May 2010. This strategy comprises four (4) key components:
I. The overall objective of WITSA’s
global public policy activities is restated in terms of an umbrella
objective of promoting the relevance and importance
of ICT in global development. This is best
summarized in WITSA’s new tagline: Fulfilling the
Promise of the Digital Age. Expressing the
objective this way removes the “supplier” self-interest, which
distracts the attention of governments. This overall objective is
expressed in three (3) subsidiary contexts: economic, social and
cultural. The development of each of these is enabled by ICT. All
contribute to global development. Equally, development of these
three objectives also expands the global ICT market.
II. A major study of the economic impact
of ICT has been proposed by the GPAC (WITSA), with a competitive
process to select a research contractor/s underway. This study would
be funded by sponsorships from global ICT firms. While a number of
economic impact studies exist, these represent partial analysis –
microeconomic or macroeconomic, not both – and do not examine the
overall role of ICT in modern economic theory in detail. Most
importantly, the social and cultural impact of ICT has not been
studied methodically. Critically, none of these studies are “owned”
by WITSA or the ICT industry, globally. The study is intended to
provide WITSA with the evidential base to support policy positions.
In particular, the study is intended to have the prominence to
facilitate engagement with significant policy decision-makers such
as the G20.
III. WITSA will engage and support the
leadership and resources of its regional associations, by
developing, delivering and maintaining key ‘roadmaps for
development’ outlining the role of ICT in key areas, such as
economic development, health, education, environmental
sustainability, transparent and accountable government, and ICT
safety and security. Each roadmap to be based on a common
framework/design, and intended to cover address issues faced within
the development spectrum of WITSA members.
IV. Engaging active WITSA member
participation and ongoing support through information sharing to
promote ICT development in emerging economies through the UN eMDG
Best Practices ICT portal. Examples of the types of contribution
already exist via the “Call to Action” portal established for WCIT
2010.
Each component of WITSA’s public policy
strategy:
includes an implementation strategy
together with identifying how success will be measured;
is based on a consistent logic
intended to provide support for, and derive strength from, the
success of the others; and
establishes a leadership/ownership
role, together with project management.
The strategy is not intended to supplant
ongoing development of specific issue policy positions on existing
or emerging issues. Rather, it is intended to strengthen WITSA’s
case and the advocacy of national associations.
A critical, intended benefit of the
strategy is that it supports the key WITSA “branded” events (WCIT,
GPPS) by providing the basic structure and themes, around which the
successful national organization can develop.
G20 ICT Policy Network
In 2010, during its first year of
operation, the G20 ICT Policy Network (G-ICT), focused on building
the foundation for success. Bylaws and a formal governance structure
were developed and approved in consultation with WITSA. Membership
of the G-ICT network expanded rapidly following establishment in
September 2009. In addition to founding members, a further eight IT
associations (total 14) and five global IT companies (total 7)
joined the initiative in 2010.
Outreach to government ICT officials and
those supporting the G20 were undertaken in several countries. An
informal sidebar discussion between government and ICT industry
representatives in Amsterdam during WCIT 2010 in May provided the
impetus for a specific call to action. At the G20 ICT Innovation
Forum on November 10 – co-hosted by the G20 ICT Policy Network and
FKII (Federation of Korean Information Industries) – the G-ICT
called for the creation of a G20i Forum. The G20i Declaration,
issued in Seoul immediately prior to the G20 Summit, urges the
establishment of a G20 IT Ministers group to provide the focal point
for an ongoing policy discussion to ensure ICT is incorporated into
G20 plans for smart and sustainable economic growth.
For additional information, go to
http://www.g20ict.org/
International Institute Relationships
WITSA maintains a close working
relationship with a number of internationally recognized
organizations that impact the ICT market. In addition to the G20
(Section 6.1), these organizations include the World Bank, the
Organization Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World
Trade Organization (WTO), G-20, the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) the U.N. Internet Governance
Forum and the UN Global Alliance for ICT Development (UN GAID).
United Nations – Global Alliance for
ICT Development (UN GAID)
In 2009, WITSA Secretary General Dr. Jim
Poisant was appointed to serve on the Strategy Council of the Global
Alliance for ICT Development (UN-GAID), the division of the UN
responsible for ICT in the developing world. This senior-level
Strategy Council provides overall strategic guidance and priority
setting for GAID. It is composed of top-level policy makers,
practitioners, experts and thinkers with balanced representation
from all groups. The Council ensures engagement of high-level
expertise and leadership while facilitating outreach. The basic
requirement for members of this policy-setting group is commitment,
experience and vision in ICT for development and traditional
development fields.
Following this appointment, WITSA led the
effort to develop a “super” ICT Portal for ICT Development referred
to as the eNabler (under construction). On May 12, 2010, Dr. Poisant
delivered a keynote address to the World Summit on Information
Society Forum in Geneva, Switzerland. The purpose of the speech was
to launch the super portal (referred then as the MDG eNabler) to a
wider body of the UN. The project has gained so much momentum that
the UN Secretary General volunteered to be the Honorary Chairperson
of the project. On June 23, 2010 Dr. Poisant was awarded with the
title of Senior ICT Industry Executive for GAID MDG eNabler.
Progress continues to be made on the eNabler and WITSA continues to
take an active part in it representing the ICT industry.
The MDG eNabler concentrates on ICT
solutions to advance the MDGs. The Center spans the entire
Learn-Plan-Do-Check cycle instead of only one narrow area. This
eNabler serves as a powerful toolkit that provides the following
capabilities (see the diagram):
eMDG Matrix
that captures the ICT Solutions for MDGs Advancement and
thus serves as the core knowledgebase of the eMDG Portal. This
Matrix links the individual Millennium Development Goals, their
Targets/Indicators and the relevant Actions with ICT‐based solutions
and is the foundation of the ICT Solutions Repository.
Learning Capabilities,
such as a “Portal of Portals" with Yellow Pages
support, a Compendium of Excellence in ICT for Development, and
educational tutorials. The Portal of Portals (Meta Portal) displays
the content of several major portals of value to MDGs ‐‐ instead of
yet another “selfish” portal that promotes its own content. The
Compendium of Excellence in ICT for Development will be developed at
a later stage when the Solutions Repository is populated.
Planning Capabilities,
such as a Computer Aided Strategic Planner that
leverages the latest research in intelligent systems to produce
highly customized plans for developing countries. The Planner
integrates the knowledge from diverse sources and produces situation
and country specific plans. It provides integrated decision support
capabilities such as computer‐aided strategic planning, and support
tools for assembling and customizing best practice solutions.
Implementation
Capabilities, such as Detailed Planning and ICT
Simulation/Business Game Tools for detailed insights. These
resources enhance the capabilities of the Strategic Planner and go
beyond the reports and point to a wide range of available tools of
potential value for governments and development practitioners in
their work towards the achievement of the MDGs.
Monitoring
Capabilities, such as Project Controls and Quality
Assurance to assure that the deployed services are producing the
needed results and continue to work properly. These capabilities, to
be developed later, will be based on the best practices in
monitoring and controls as established by the Project Management
Institute (www.pmi.org) and the Control Objectives for Information
and related Technology (COBIT)
organization (www.isaca.org).
MDG eNabler: Computer Aided
Strategic Planner
Status:
Proof of concept prototype (Direction: stop talking about
problems, start building solutions)
Objective:
Help developing countries to build IT plans quickly and
effectively based on latest thinking (international standards,
published best practices in the form of processes, case studies)
Origin:
Based on previous industry experience plus R&D on computer
aided IT planning (patterns, case based reasoning, collaborating
expert systems, support to fill knowledge gaps in SMBs),
Peer Reviews:
Results published in top peer reviewed journals (e.g.,
IEEE Trans. On Engg Management). Research funded by IBM, DARPA,
Telecom Providers. Ideas used in large telecom, healthcare,
manufacturing, government agencies
Main Goal:
use this research to produce highly customized plans for
developing countries (ICT solutions to support MDGs).
The World Economic Forum (Host of
Davos Annual Conference)
Consistent with the vision of WITSA and
the WEF, both place great value on ICT as an enabler of economic
development and sustainability. For the past nine years, the WEF has
produced a major report titled: The Global Information Technology
Report - ICT for Sustainability.
WITSA publishes the Digital Planet. The WEF study ranks countries in
terms of their network readiness, while Digital Planet reports
global ICT spending. Based on these synergies, WITSA staff met with
WEF officials in New York City on January 20 and March 22, 2010 to
explore possible areas of cooperation. Upon WITSA’s recommendation,
the WEF has agreed to work with WITSA on the UN GAID Portal Project
and work has already begun on developing the relationship between
the three organizations. WITSA was subsequently represented at a WEF
Health Care meeting in London, which lead to the development of the
Global Health Data Charter.
Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD)
Over the years, WITSA has worked closely
with the OECD, and senior OECD staff has frequently provided
valuable presentations on key topics at WITSA meetings and
conferences. In 2010, WITSA worked with the OECD in several areas,
supplying the OECD with the new 2010 edition of the Digital Planet
report for inclusion in the premier OECD Economic Outlook and
Economic Insights publications; the latter being a new series of
reports using OECD analysis and data to introduce some of the most
pressing social and economic issues. WITSA also works closely with
the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD (BIAC), an
independent international business association devoted to advising
government policymakers at OECD and related forum on the many
diversified issues of globalization and the world economy.
World Bank
WITSA continues to work closely with the
World Bank from a number of different angles. Most WITSA members are
from developing or emerging countries, and so it has been natural
for WITSA to explore joint projects and initiatives with the World
Bank. In the past, WITSA has worked closely with
infoDev in order to fund the travel of WITSA
executives to World Congress on IT events. WITSA is also exploring
opportunities for collaboration with World Bank in regard to the new
Trade Cost and Facilitation program, which is a component of a new
Multi‐donor Trust Fund for Trade at the World Bank. This project is
dedicated to expanding knowledge about the relationships between
trade costs and private sector growth and export competitiveness in
developing countries.
Separately, Mrs. Victoria Stanley,
Project Officer at the World Bank, was a speaker at the 2010 World
Congress on IT in Amsterdam. WITSA also supplied the World Bank with
the new 2010 edition of the Digital Planet report on global ICT
spending, for inclusion in the World Bank’s annual World Development
Indicators publication (WDI). WDI is a premier data source on the
global economy.
Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers (ICANN)
WITSA continues its support for ICANN as
a private sector‐led international organization, based on
multistakeholder participation, responsible for coordinating the
unique technical indicators for the Internet and for the development
of relevant policies related to its technical mission and functions.
ICANN Vice President, Policy Development Support, Mr. David Olive,
keynoted at the 2010 World Congress on IT in Amsterdam. WITSA
continues as an active member of ICANN’s Commercial and Business
Users’ Constituency (BC), overseeing the transformation of the
Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO). In 2010, WITSA Public
Policy Director Anders Halvorsen was appointed to the BC Finance
Committee.
Internet Governance Forum (IGF)
WITSA has actively participated in and
organized workshops at all IGFs, from 2006 through 2010 in Vilnius,
Lithuania. WITSA has two representatives on the IGF
Multi-stakeholders Advisory Group (MAG), which assist the UN
Secretary General in convening the Internet Governance Forums: Mr.
Waudo Siganga (Computer Society of Kenya) and Ms. Coura Fall
(Senegalese Information Technology Association). WITSA supports the
continuance of the multi stakeholder nature of the IGF, with all
stakeholders interacting on an equal basis. WITSA therefore
applauded the November 2010 UN General Assembly’s 5-year extension
of the IGF mandate. At the 2010 IGF in Vilnius, Lithuania, WITSA
co-organized a workshop entitled “Engendering Confidence in the
Cloud – Addressing Questions of Security and Privacy in Developed
and Developing Countries”, attended by nearly 100 delegates. For the
full report, please click
here.
WITSA also met with many national delegations as well as the UN and
ICANN through the industry partnership, Business Action to Support
the Information Society (BASIS).
UN Commission on Science and
Technology for Development (CSTD)
WITSA is an active participant in the
newly established CSTD working group on improvements to the IGF
through the appointment of WITSA Vice Chairman and ITAN President
Dr. Jimson Olufuye. As one of only five business representatives,
Dr. Olufuye ensures that WITSA’s views are voiced to the working
group. WITSA is also actively engaged in the UN consultations on
‘enhanced cooperation’, based on the 2005 World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS) Tunis Agenda. For WITSA, it is critical
that the multistakeholder approach to enhanced cooperation is
preserved, as mandated in the Tunis Agenda. Through Business Action
to Support the Information Society (BASIS), which WITSA is an active
member comments were submitted to the CSTD on multiple occasions in
late 2010 in support of maintaining a multistakeholder approach to
enhanced cooperation.
World Trade Organization (WTO)
For more information on WITSA's Policy Action Program, please contact WITSA Public Policy Director at ahalvorsen@witsa.org or Tel. +1 571 265-5964.