The Digital Solidarity Fund and the

The Digital Solidarity Fund and the « Geneva Principle »

The Digital Solidarity Fund is sustained through the voluntary commitment of public authorities and/or private entities who decide to implement a new financing mechanism for development, named the « Geneva Principle » by H.E. Abdoulaye Wade, President of Senegal.

The Geneva Principle involves a 1% contribution on public ICT procurement contracts, paid by the vendor on his profit margin. Clearly stated in all ICT public call for bids, this obligation to contribute 1% of the transaction to the Fund is neither subject to interpretation nor negotiation, and thus does not cause distortion of market competition. The contribution awards the vendor a « digital solidarity » label.

Implementation of the « Geneva Principle »

As of 1st January 2005, the City of Geneva, founding member of the Digital Solidarity Fund, has endorsed the « Geneva Principle ». It therefore commits to include in all its calls for bids related to the procurement of information technologies, services or telecoms, a clause whereby the vendor who wins the bid must contribute 1% of the total amount of the transaction to the Digital Solidarity Fund, paid on his benefit margin.

The « Geneva Principle » must be considered as an additional condition for participating in public call for bids related to information technologies and telecommunications issued by the City of Geneva. Therefore, the DSI (Department of Information Systems of the City of Geneva) demands from the bidding vendors a declaration of contribution to the Digital Solidarity Fund, to be submitted in addition to the documents requested for their participation in the call for bids.

In terms of regulations, the « Geneva Principle » enters into force following the decision of the Administrative Council (Executive Council of the City of Geneva) of 15 December 2004 that sets the rules of its implementation within the municipal Administration.

Excerpt from the Decision of the City of Geneva–
Session of the Administrative Council of 15 December 2004

Noting that :

- The City of Geneva, founding member of the Global Digital Solidarity Fund (hereafter : the Fund), will adhere to the Geneva Principle, whereby public authorities commit to include in all their calls for bids related to information systems and telecommunications, a clause requesting the vendor that wins the bid to contribute 1% of the total amount of the contract, paid on its margin, to the Fund ;

- The DSI manages all operational budgets and investment credits related to information and communication systems of the City of Geneva ;

- According to article 2 of the Rule on the information and communication systems utilisation of 8 October 2003, these cover the following : work stations, portable computers, electronic agendas and pocket computers, servers, peripherals (screens, keyboards, mouse, hard disks, etc.), printers, scanners, fixed or mobile phones, telecommunication material, cabling, Internet and Intranet, electronic messaging, software, databases and exploitation systems ;

The Council decides, as of 1st January 2005 :

- To complement article 8 of the Rules and regulations for purchasing and for subcontracting of the General Administration as follows: " in addition, as concerns markets related to information systems and telecommunications, each bidding vendor must submit a declaration of contribution to the Digital Solidarity Fund (Geneva Principle) " ;

- To hand to the DSI the elaboration of the declaration form, in coordination with the Fund ;

- To entrust the DSI with the management of all municipal Administration budgets related to cabling, information systems networks and telecom, communication materials, information systems services.

This latter point is purely administrative and bears no consequences on the overall budget of the City of Geneva.