Mission Report
Second Meeting of the Task Force on Financing Mechanisms (TFFM)
Pape Gorgui TOURE
Objectives
I represented the ITU in the second and last meeting of the TFFM which was aimed at adopting
the final draft of its report to the Secretary General of the United nations (SGUN) following the
conclusions of the first meeting held on October 4th.
Participants
The meeting was opened by Mr. Mark Malloc Brown , Administrator of UNDP and chairman of the
TFFM, and effectively chaired by Mr. Nishimoto.
Topics discussed
Mr. Brown introduced the meeting recalling the ICT development paradigm with the attempts made
by technical groups like OECD (“ Private sector can do the job”) and G77 (“massive public sector
intervention is unavoidable”) to solve it their way.
A quick round-table followed, at the occasion of which many comments were made among which
the information given by Mr. Mohsen Khalil, representing the World Bank Group, on the on going
thoughts within that institution in view of a possible revision of the Bank’s policy regarding the
financing of ICT which, according to Mr. Khalil, is both a sector in its own right and also a sector
mainstreaming tool. It was also noted the need to go beyond the description of existing financing
mechanisms and suggest some options reflective of the diverse situations.
M. Brown concluded the round table by calling the two sides to avoid easy ways and recognize
that, in poor countries the private sector alone may not be able to find all the solutions, and that
multi-stakeholder partnerships can be a great opportunity to cease.
Charles Geiger updated the TFFM on the most recent developments of the preparation of WSISTunis, in particular on:
 The activities of the group of Friends of the Chair;
 The Internet governance with the discussions on the composition of the group and the
choice of topics it has to discuss;
 The civil society issues;
 The summit bureau (36 countries) and the need to decide during PrepCom 2 on the formal
part of the summit (Tunisian Officials would like the same format as the one used in
Geneva);
 The possibility to organize an information session on the findings of the TFFM;
A new summary report was distribute which the TFFM found concise enough and decided to make
its own with a few amendments. On that basis, because ICT financing schemes are necessarily
complex, it was decided to focus on some key items.
Access/Infrastructure
The TFFM agreed that it was crucial to build on the momentum gained over the last ten years and
find answers about how to expand services beyond the limit private sector may not cross; in many
countries addressing the infrastructure need can be translated as follows: 1) how to promote
universal access, 2) what to do with the incumbent, 3) how to mobilize local capital.
Enabling environment
It was agreed that efforts should continue in that regard. It was also highlighted that an enabling
environment should be seen as a whole so as to encompass all new policies, including financing
and cost of capital reduction.
In particular it was found necessary to renew the existing mechanisms listed in the detailed report;
in that regard the need to draw down the cost of transaction advice was highlighted.
Some argued that governments should give priority to bigger cities in order to increase the
incentives private sector investors.
The ITU opinion as already put to the TFFM by writing was recalled: the financing schemes that
are applied to profitable areas in developing countries will certainly be strengthened. In the other
hand a government cannot afford to isolate part of its population because they do not live in the
“right” places. If ICT has to be part of the solution to poverty, it has to be accessible by poor
people, physically, financially and without discrimination. The best way would be to encourage
SME participation, including local entrepreneurship, by combining public and private resources in
financing the network backbone. Some have called it “virtual financing”. One of the intermediate
objectives is to reduce cost of capital.
Content and applications
It was agreed that there are difficulties concerning content and applications in that they need to be
demand driven if private sector has to be involved.
Some of them are considered as public goods and should attract public funds as well as private.
The role a government can play in that regard, both as main provider and main user, was
mentioned in case public donors would like to support ICT based applications and services.
Digital Solidarity Fund (DSF)
Following the clarification given by the secretary general of the ITU during the information session
organized in November in Geneva, the TFFM agreed that the DSF announced at the end of WSISGeneva could not be reviewed because it is not operational yet, and so should be viewed as a new
initiative.
Conclusions
The TFFM made a big step forward during its meeting on November 29, 2004. The elements of the
mandate given to it by the Secretary general of the United Nations were carefully analyzed: as
requested the existing financing mechanisms were reviewed (see the detailed report already
circulated) and, having summarized the main findings, the conclusions of the review were
prepared.
Comments can be submitted until December 8, 2004. The final report will be submitted to the
SGUN by Mr. Mark Malloc Brown by end of December 2004.
Way forward
It is expected that the SGUN will submit his report for consideration by Precom 2.
The draft report is attached for information.