Dr Hamadoun Touré was elected Secretary-General
at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Antalya,
Turkey, in November 2006 and took office on
1 January 2007.
Dr Touré, what is your vision
for the future of ITU?
The International Telecommunication Union
is a forward-looking, dynamic organization
that has been in the business of helping
the world communicate for over 140 years.
I feel proud to lead such a resilient organization
which remains young at heart and
takes the lead at the cutting edge of global
communications.
My vision for ITU is that the Union will carry
the torch for connecting all the world’s inhabitants
to information and communication
technologies, especially those who remain
unconnected from the enormous benefits
unleashed by the ongoing digital revolution.
Access to information and communication
empowers people to achieve their aspirations,
and we have the means to use the vast
potential of ICT to accelerate meeting the targets of the 2015 Millennium Development
Goals. Remember, the date is only eight years
away – and we have a lot to achieve in the
time remaining to reduce extreme poverty
and hunger, ensure environmental sustainability,
promote gender equality, improve
literacy and health care, reduce child mortality,
empower citizens, help governments
and businesses through e-health, e-agriculture,
e-learning, e-government, e-business,
and other ICT-based applications.
Bridging the digital divide is about including
every citizen within the fold of the information
society and ensure the development of a more
peaceful, just and prosperous world. To make
this vision a reality we will work in partnership
with our membership, which in ITU goes beyond
the traditional 191 Member States as it includes
over 700 Sector Members and Associates
who hail from the private and public
sector and include international and regional
telecommunication organizations. We will
bring global human, financial and technical
resources to bear on achieving these goals.
Our immediate strategy is to concentrate on
a regional basis, starting with Africa and moving
on to Latin America and the Caribbean,
the Pacific islands, Asia and Europe as part
of ITU’s ambitious programme to connect
the world. This is the enduring mission of
ITU, endorsed by the World Summit on the
Information Society.
How does ITU hope to implement
the goals of the World Summit on the
Information Society?
The World Summit on the Information Society
(WSIS), which took place in two phases
– Geneva in 2003 and Tunis in 2003 – gave
us a clear mandate and an opportunity to
show the rest of the world what we can do.
As well, a clear road map to implement the
goals of WSIS was laid out in the Doha Action
Plan at the World Telecommunication Development
Conference in March 2006.
As the United Nations agency specializing in
telecommunications and ICT, ITU took the
lead in organizing the Summit. The focus
now is on facilitating and coordinating the
implementation process along with governments,
the United Nations system, the private
sector and the wider ICT community to make
the Information Society a reality. Together
with UNDP and UNESCO, ITU has taken the
lead in facilitating the multi-stakeholder process to implement the WSIS Action Lines
and coordinate the work of the United Nations
Group on the Information Society.
For ITU, a key priority lies in bridging the
so called Digital Divide by building information
and communication infrastructure,
promoting adequate capacity building and
developing confidence in the use of cyberspace
through enhanced online security.
In a bid to identify and implement innovative
and successful new strategies to leapfrog the
digital divide, ITU is leading a global multistakeholder
development partnership comprising
leading ICT companies, development
agencies, international and regional organizations,
civil society and governments. ITU’s
Connect the World initiative, launched
in 2005, is predominantly focused on underserved
rural communities. Based on publicprivate
partnerships, we’re now actively
working with as many as 50 partners from
government, business and civil society, with
a steady stream of new members joining us.
ITU is also currently working with microcredit
pioneer Grameen, the organization
founded by Nobel Laureate and winner of the
first ITU World Information Society Award,
Professor Muhammad Yunus, to promote
global ICT development programmes that
can help the poor earn a sustainable income.
To that end, ITU, Grameen, Cisco Systems,
Qualcomm and a newly-formed consortium
“Enclusion” recently launched a virtual global
“ICT Empowerment Network” consisting of
numerous independent, self-financed groups of partners. Each group will focus on at least
one of three workstreams, such as affordable
ICT access through expanding the reach of
existing mobile phone networks in remote
rural areas.
At the same time, ITU is concentrating on
strengthening emergency communications
for disaster prevention and mitigation. Natural
disasters kill over one million people
every decade – more if that decade happens
to include a particularly lethal catastrophe
like the Indian Ocean tsunami that claimed
as many as 250,000 lives. While both developing
and developed countries are equally
vulnerable to natural disasters, poorer nations
are hardest hit because of their already
fragile economies and lack of resources.
We are dedicated to ensuring access to communications
anytime anywhere and at an
affordable price.
Do you have a strategy that will in
fact connect everyone to information
and communication technologies?
As I said, we have only eight years until 2015.
If we are to fast-track the UN Millennium
Development Goals, we will have to rely on
the latest technologies that scientists, innovators
and manufacturers can deliver. We
have to rapidly mobilize the human, financial
and technical resources required to connect
all cities and villages and above all create the
necessary regulatory environment that is conducive
to more partnership and growth.
To achieve the connectivity goals endorsed by world leaders at WSIS to bridge the Digital
Divide, I have engaged ITU in a more
focused Regional approach aimed at building
massive partnership arrangements involving
all the stakeholders in a win-win mode.
I have proposed that we begin with Africa.
This will entail pulling up our sleeves and
putting in place a Marshall-type plan, bringing
to bear all the resources we can muster.
Led by the African Union, our partners the
UN Global Alliance for Information and Communication
Development, the World Bank,
the African Development Bank, the African
Telecommunication Union and the UN Economic
Commission for Africa are joining us
in this endeavour. We will launch Connect
Africa, the first of a series of regional initiatives
to help achieve the WSIS connectivity
goals, at a high-level gathering of government
and industry leaders that will be held in
Kigali, Rwanda from 29 – 30 October. We
will go there with the personal blessings of
President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
I believe Connect Africa will accelerate the
roll-out of ICT infrastructure and connectivity,
including broadband, as an essential precondition
for ICT access and services needed
to boost social and economic development
in the region. This collaborative effort will
attract a range of stakeholders, including the
Government of China, G8, OECD and other
countries active in the region, major ICT
companies, international organizations and
civil society. It will complement and reinforce
existing public and private sector
initiatives and investments in the region by
placing a special emphasis on filling in
major gaps and enhancing coordination
between stakeholders on the implementation
and allocation of resources, based on regionally
established priorities. It will target
progress on several “quick win” projects of
significant, catalysing impact that can be
realized in the short-term, in addition to
longer-term initiatives.
In order to stimulate the needed investment
in ICT infrastructure and services, Connect
Africa will also help expand efforts to develop
an enabling environment across the
continent, through policy and regulatory
modernization and harmonization, strengthened
cybersecurity enhanced support for
migration to next-generation networks and
capacity building.
You mentioned that ITU
is working on security in cyberspace.
Is that a real concern?
Indeed Cybersecurity and Cyberpeace are
the most critical concerns in this information
age. With more than a billion Internet
users in the world today criminals are on the
prowl to prey on the unwary and use their
technical skills to break into networks not
only for financial gain but also to collect information,
invade privacy, steal identities,
sow hatred and, worst of all, pander to the
nefarious habits of paedophiles. Financial
loss alone is estimated to run into several billion
dollars both from fraud on the Internet
and from the costs of rebuilding networks
that have suffered cyberattacks. Moreover
National security can be at risk if hostilities
and extremism is taken into cyberspace.
Making a simple transaction on the Internet
using a credit card can be fraught with danger.
Imagine the difficulties faced in the increasingly
networked world of e-commerce
and e-government. Hackers can thwart
sophisticated banking systems. Children,
students and senior citizens communicating
by Internet or mobile phone are equally exposed.
A patient could lose his life if the
medical files are tampered with.
For all these reasons, the World Summit on
the Information Society, when it met in
Tunisia in November 2005, asked ITU to
coordinate a mechanism for building confidence
and security in the use of ICT. World
leaders turned to ITU because of its experience
in this area. A global perspective is
needed, and ITU is ideally suited for the task
because it combines public and private interests
and has a track record of brokering
agreements involving government and industry
and of levelling the playing field ever
since its inception in 1865. That is why, since
my election as Secretary-General I have been
inviting all stakeholders to make Cybersecurity
and Cyberpeace the corner stones of our
Development strategies.
There is no simple definition for cybersecurity, but the magnitude of the issue nevertheless
calls for a coordinated global response.
Cybercrime is not limited by
geographic boundaries; when a cyberattack
occurs in one country, it can have devastating
effects in any other connected country. It
is therefore important to foster a common
understanding of the importance of cybersecurity
and it is equally important that all
stakeholders come together and agree on
how to deal with cybercrime – because just
like in the conventional world
cybercriminals use weaknesses wherever
they can be found. Unless there is close international
cooperation, even countries with
strong cybersecurity measures in place will
be at risk because they will not be able to
prosecute criminals outside their national or
regional jurisdictions.
This is why, on 17 May, World Telecommunication
and Information Society Day, I
launched an important initiative – the Global
Cybersecurity Agenda – intended to create a
platform where governments (including law
enforcement authorities), the private sector,
international organizations and civil society
can work together to defeat cybercrime. The
Agenda will have a two-year timeframe to
bring all countries to speed and come up
with agreement on the five pillars of this
international effort. These involve finding
workable technical solutions for every
environment; developing interoperable
legislative frameworks; implementing capacity-building schemes; setting up appropriate
organizational structures; and adopting
effective international cooperation
mechanisms. A major step will be for every
country to have a national cybersecurity
policy and response team.
Security in cyberspace is only as secure as the
weakest link. We must therefore increase the
level of awareness about cybersecurity and
build human and institutional capacities in
every corner of the globe; we need enforceable
national laws that are interoperable
worldwide so that there can be no safe heavens
for cybercriminals; We need to assess
vulnerabilities and threats and anticipate dangers
collectively to adapt our strategies and solutions
at all levels and, to this end, we must
put in place organizational structures that can
monitor, identify and respond to cyber-threats.
And we need technical measures not only at
the application level but also at every point of
the infrastructure to secure networks.
This is why we need the Global Cybersecurity
Agenda. ITU will act as a catalyst and
facili tator, bringing public and private partners
together to share experiences and best
practices both online and in physical meetings
and to fast-track a global response to
cybercrime. We will provide the tools and
appropriate environment to ensure that all
elements are linked to enhance security and
confidence in cyberspace. To begin with,
ITU will focus on the 50 least developed
countries, as they are the most vulnerable.
How do you see the future development
of telecommunications?
Telecommunications is a key component of
the global village. As people talk to each
other more easily, age-old barriers inevitably
come down. A few years ago, making an
international call was difficult and prohibitively
expensive. Today, you can make free
calls on the Internet virtually anywhere in the
world. Not only that, but with a webcam
you can even see the person you’re talking
to. In fact, my wife sometimes baby-sits our
granddaughter in the United States while
using the Internet phone from Geneva.
The watchword is “convergence”. It’s changing
the nature of what we once called
telecommunications services, it’s reshaping
the way we consume and access those services
– and it’s transforming the networks by
which they are delivered. These so-called
next-generation networks bring together the
whole gamut of information and communication
technologies such as mobile phones,
television, computers and the Internet promising
seamless global connectivity over any
network, any device, any time and anywhere.
Even devices will be communicating more
and more with us and with each other in
order to simplify complex tasks.
The basis of our social and economic life –
and our lifestyles – are increasingly dependant
on these new, state-of-the-art information and
communication technologies. And ITU is at
the forefront of this next digital revolution.
Our standards in telecommunication and
radiocommunication already underpin the
entire global communications framework –
and will serve as the platform for a whole
range of as yet undreamt-of services, and our
Development Sector ensures that no one is
left out of the Digital revolution.
The future is wired – and wireless: More
mobile applications and an exponential
growth of the Internet which is today still
in its infancy. Finally, I believe more will be
achieved in Speech Recognition Technologies,
breaking all language and literacy
barriers, making the world a true Knowledge
Society.
