broadband strategies handbook.pdf - Khazar University

Box 7.1: The Eight Millennium Development Goals• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.• Achieve universal primary education.• Promote gender equality and empowerwomen.• Reduce child mortality.• Improve maternal health.• Combat HIV/AIDS (human immunodeficiencyvirus/acquired immunodeficiencysyndrome), malaria, and other diseases.• Ensure environmental sustainability.• Develop a global partnership for development.Source: United Nations, MDG Monitor.MDGs (for example, see ITU 2003; Broadband Commission 2010). Broadbandis no different, and its impact on the MDGs may be greater than thatof any other ICT. For example, one of the barriers to achieving Goal 2 onuniversal primary education is the lack of primary school teachers. Broadband,in particular, can facilitate fast-track teacher training through distanceeducation and e-learning. In addition, three of the MDGs are relatedto health, and high-speed networks can have an impact through applicationssuch as telemedicine. The importance of ICTs for achieving theMDGs is also highlighted by Goal 8 on developing a global partnership fordevelopment, specifically Target 8.F: “In cooperation with the private sector,make available the benefits of new technologies, especially informationand communications.” 3 As an ICT itself, as well as a “pipe” capable of deliveringICTs, broadband may be considered an integral part of Target 8.F.The WSIS, which was held in two phases, in 2003 in Geneva and in 2005in Tunis, set an internationally agreed agenda for the adoption of ICTsworldwide and illustrated the level of global political commitment todeploying broadband networks across different sectors. 4 The Declaration ofPrinciples identifies ICTs as an “essential foundation for the informationsociety,” noting, “A well-developed information and communication networkinfrastructure and applications, adapted to regional, national, andlocal conditions, easily accessible and affordable, and making greater use ofbroadband and other innovative technologies where possible, can acceleratethe social and economic progress of countries, and the well-being of allindividuals, communities, and peoples.” WSIS adopted 10 targets addressingconnectivity across different sectors (box 7.2). The International TelecommunicationUnion (ITU) has reviewed progress toward the WSISGlobal Footprints: Stories from and for the Developing World 297