Concise Description:
This workshop will examine the challenges facing all economies at this time, with a special recognition that policy and regulatory decisions are critical in developing economies to address the continued need for investment in high speed networks, Internet access and services, and supportive policies for growth and development.
Using a multi-stakeholder approach in workshop organization and delivery, we will examine various initiatives of the private sector and of governments, including the important roles of governments “as users”. Participants will be invited to discuss initiatives involving e-health, e-government; e-education and ICT and the Environment.
Emphasis will be placed on highlighting relevant policy drivers that are supporting continued digital growth in the current economic environment. The workshop aims to identify key policy themes as its objective.
b) Describe how you will take steps to adhere to the multi-stakeholder principle, including geographical diversity.
In all of the workshops the GIIC has hosted as a part of the IGF in the past, we have recognized the critical importance that the multi-stakeholder approach plays within the IGF.
As you can see from the broad range of panelists for our workshop, we have made certain to include representatives of the business community, civil society, international organizations (OECD) and national governments.
It is our intention to utilize these different perspectives to provide a comprehensive analysis of how all stakeholders need to meet the challenge of continued investment and digital growth in a very difficult global economic environment.
c) Does the proposed workshop provide different perspectives on the issues under discussion?
As mentioned, the workshop was set-up and designed from the multi-stakeholder perspective and thus the business community, civil society, international organizations (OECD) and national governments will all be seated at the table to provide a broad range of views on this pressing issue for the ICT community.
Speakers are as follows:
• US Department of State - Richard Beaird, Senior Deputy United States Coordinator, International Communications and Information Policy
• Global Information Infrastructure Commission (GIIC) – Hisham El-Sherif, GIIC Commissioner and Middle East Regional Director
• World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA) – Phil Bond, President
• Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) -- Virat Bhatia, AT&T
• OECD – Graham Vickery, Head, Information Economy Group
