Youssou N’dour Ambassador ICT for Africa

He is certainly not the first celebrity who decided to lend his name for a good cause, but he is certainly one with an impressive track record when it comes to fighting for the good cause. Youssou N'dour announced his ambassadorial role at the Lyon conference for digital solidarity. IICD’s Managing Director was one of the participants at this conference: a follow-up to the World Summits on the Information Society held in 2003 and 2005.

According to the Solidaruty Movement the digital divide is not so much a technical problem, but a political issue that highlights the disparity between populations, countries and continents in respect of access to knowledge. The aim of the movementis to put ICTs at the service of human development and to facilitate access to knowledge for everybody, thereby contributing to the Millennium Development Goals. Actors from all parts of society are involved in the fund: cities, regions, states and civil society including IICD. Hence the name ‘Digital Solidarity Fund’.

One of the initiatives of the movement is the “one percent for digital solidarity” principle. Private sector companies and public institutions all over the world who wish to contribute to reducing the digital divide can donate 1% of the value of an investment, contract, project or anything else that involves the procurement of goods and services related to ICTs to the Global Digital Solidarity Movement. The nice thing about it is that it entails no cost and in the long term, both the North and the South will benefit from it. For the money that is deducted by public authorities from transactions involving digital products and services will be channelled back to businesses in the ICT sector through the purchase of equipment or services for community-based projects in insolvent countries. Thus the “1% digital solidarity contribution” will help to enlarge the market for suppliers of these new technologies and develop a digital economy in countries currently on the margins of globalisation.

One of the first countries to adopt the 1% digital solidarity principle is Senegal. In September the President of the Republic of Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade, enacted a law introducing a voluntary contribution of one percent on public procurement contracts for digital goods and services. President Wade himself sees it is a necessary act to prevent the countries already left out of the digital revolution from lagging so far behind that there will be dramatic consequences. Large groups of people might be forced to migrate’. ’It is unrealistic to think that developing countries will be able to survive in a position of ‘digital exclusion.’ ‘If we miss this deadline, we risk a catastrophe. It is for this reason that the move made by Senegal is exemplary. By taking the decision to implement the “1% digital solidarity” contribution devised by the Global Digital Solidarity Movement, not only is Senegal helping raise awareness of the issue, it is also promoting a mechanism that, if applied globally, will be an effective means of reducing the digital gap.’  

Hopefully it will not take long before other countries follow the example of Senegal too.

Sources: http://www.dsf-fsn.org/cms/content/view/41/75/lang,en/
http://www.dsf-fsn.org/cms/content/view/333/120/lang,en/