The former Mayor of Geneva and DSF spokesperson, Christian Ferrazino, underlines the urgency of reducing the digital divide, if the Millennium Development Goals are to be achieved by 2015.

The lack of access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) constitutes one of the main threats to developing countries. Not only will the digital divide increase the gulf between North and South, but the shortage of connections will sideline developing countries from globalisation, with the risk of unprecedented political, economic and cultural asphyxiation. They will not even have the possibility of asserting their cultural heritage, seriously undermining the principle of cultural diversity. Indeed, they will be left without a voice, the most fundamental of human rights.

This situation will affect the achievement of the Millennium Goals adopted by the Heads of State and Government in 2000 and set out in the Millennium Declaration. It is unrealistic to think that any of these eight goals can be reached without access to ICTs. Whether or not this challenge is met by 2015 will depend on our determination (or lack of it) to connect the populations that are currently marginalised from the information society.

Today, half way to the 2015 deadline, not as much progress has been made with the Millennium Goals as we would have hoped. Not only have decision-makers failed to break with ‘business as usual’, but they have become even more hermetic in a cautious, wait-and-see mood. This is all the more astonishing given that another United Nations failure could definitively discredit the reputation of an organisation that is all too often criticised for its ineffectiveness.

Must we admit that the UN does not have the ability to manage globalisation, by providing it a slightly more human dimension? Should we just accept a bipolar world with disastrous social, political, economic and cultural consequences, assuming – such a mistake! – that the affluent will be shielded from the drama that is brewing? The tragic fate of millions of young Africans and Latin Americans who leave their homelands to take refuge in Europe or the US, sometimes even risking their lives, gives us a bitter foretaste of scenarios to come, if that is the case. We must act and seek solutions that take into account the interests of all concerned. Especially as those solutions already exist and cost nothing!

The United Nations General Assembly has advocated the implementation of “innovative sources of financing for development, provided that they do not impose an excessive burden on developing countries”. It is this approach that the Global Digital Solidarity Fund (DSF) has adopted to reduce the digital divide. The Fund proposes the introduction of an innovative financing mechanism: any private or public entity that intends to buy digital products or services includes a “digital solidarity clause” in its invitations to tender, which requires the supplier to pay 1% of the contract value to the DSF. The digital industry does not lose out, as the Fund buys other digital products or services which it invests in underdeveloped regions, thus creating new markets. The City of Geneva and the City of Lausanne, passing from words to acts, have been applying this principle for more than a year. If everyone were to participate in this effort, then the challenges of the Millennium Declaration could be met.

For the time being, we have to convince the Heads of State of developing countries. They must set the example and, in parallel, urge the international community to follow suit. At the same time, we must convince digital businesses still hesitant to get involved, even though the majority of owners of large businesses acknowledge, in private, that the work of the Fund is the right idea and that it will create new markets.

The problem is that business goes on inexorably as usual – the cancer of international relations, which has already been acknowledged by Kofi Annan. We cannot plan for the future without forgetting the all-powerful “precedent”, the never-changing golden rule of decision-making processes. What is needed is the political will to innovate and a healthy dose of good sense to overcome the administrative and legal taboos that so often paralyse our behaviour.

The future is possible, but only if we break with our old ways of thinking!