Working Group on LDCs (WG-LDCs)

Chaired by Ambassador Cheick Sidi Diarra of Mali, UN High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries & Small Island Developing States

Background

The Broadband Commission for Digital Development was launched by Dr. Hamadoun Touré, Secretary-General of the ITU, and Ms Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, in May 2010 in response to the call by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, to step up UN efforts to help accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Its main aim is to highlight the importance of broadband in helping boost achievement of the MDGs. It unites senior policy-makers and top executives from the telecommunication industry in a bid to extend the benefits of high-speed Internet to people around the world. To focus the work of this influential set of leaders, the Commission established eight Working Groups on various key thematic areas.

Objectives

This Working Group aims to focus on the special issues affecting Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and will seek to find innovative ways through which Information and Communication Technology (ICT) particularly broadband, could help countries attain the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. ICT has been recognized as one of the key enablers of human development and poverty alleviation advocated by the MDGs both by being part of the MDGs themselves (MDG 8, Target 18) and for its role in strengthening MDGs monitoring and evaluation systems.

Activities

WG-LDCs was launched in Istanbul on 5 May 2011, at the Fourth United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries (UN-LDC IV), held in Istanbul, Turkey from 9 – 13 May 2011. It also met again in Kigali, Rwanda, on 8-9 September.

Outcomes

The WG-LDCs has published an outcome document containing a set of recommendations that will feed into the Broadband Leadership Summit in October 2011 in Geneva. It has also helped ensure that the important views and perspectives of LDCs are taken into account and represented in the work of the Commission.