|
|
|
 About |
 |
Title: Information Society and Sustainable Development: Next Generation Policy Directions
Location:
Global
Categories: Technology & Innovation
Sustainable Development
Status:
Completed
Timeline:
Ongoing
Description:
According to the organizers of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), "We are in the midst of a revolution, perhaps the greatest that humanity has ever experienced. To benefit the world community, the successful and continued growth of this new dynamic requires global discussion and harmonization in appropriate areas." Unfortunately, until recently, few discussions have focused on harmonizing the visions of the emerging information society with the principles and priorities articulated by the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD).
Meaningful discussions about national policy coherence between these processes have been limited by restricted thinking about the information society (IS) and sustainable development (SD). Each has emerged from a different community with a different vocabulary and process for determining national priorities. Information society specialists within national governments have primarily been drawn from the fields of telecommunications and economic development. Meanwhile, sustainable development has frequently been delegated solely to environment ministries despite the best efforts of its practitioners to articulate a holistic vision of integrated economic, social and environmental decision-making.
From January-July 2003, IISD led a scoping study with support from IDRC to assess the potential for engaging young researchers to catalyze changes in policy and practice in developing countries around the convergence of the information society and sustainable development. The literature review conducted revealed that while there is considerable research on the information society and sustainable development, it is primarily focused on applications and policy frameworks within Europe and North America. These frameworks have not been adequately tested for their applicability in developing country contexts nor for their comprehensiveness. In addition, there may be other visions of the convergence between sustainable development and the information society growing out of developing country priorities which have not yet been introduced to the international debate. Given that information policy frameworks are not well advanced in the South at the present time, there is also an opportunity to introduce new approaches based on the more mature state of national dialogues around sustainable development.
Based on the success of the WSIS Youth Caucus members from developing countries in initiating and influencing national debates regarding visions of the information society, the scoping study noted that young people might serve as powerful catalysts for building a southern dialogue on sustainable development and the information society.
Objectives:
The overall objective of the research project is to build research capacity and confidence among young researchers from developing countries to undertake applied policy research and analysis on harnessing the information society to achieve national sustainable development priorities. The specific objectives of the project are as follows:
* to engage developing country researchers and policy-makers in national and international dialogues on the information society and sustainable development; and
* to identify and investigate priority areas for national policy and programme development at the convergence of sustainable development and the information society.
Tags:
You must be logged in to add tags.
|
 |
 |
 |
|
Menu
