Second annual report of the Information and Communication Technologies Task Force

In its second year, the Information and Communication Technologies Task Force, through its core activities, working groups, and regional nodes, successfully served as a multi-stakeholder mechanism to facilitate and promote collaborative initiatives at the regional, subregional and national levels and to mobilize new public and private resources to support information and communication technologies (ICT)-for-development programmes and projects. The Task Force facilitated the pooling of relevant experience of both developed and developing countries and the sharing of lessons learned in introducing and promoting ICT. Its ability to leverage extensive networks and to develop new models of collaboration to advance the global effort to bridge the digital divide and foster digital opportunity has established the Task Force as an effective and influential platform to mobilize worldwide support and action to harness the potential of ICT for the objective of attaining the Millennium Development Goals. The Task Force was instrumental in placing development at the centre of the outcomes of the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society held in Geneva. It will continue to pursue a focused strategy to build upon its demonstrated success.