Resolutions of Dhaka WSIS Consultations

After extensive discussion on ICT policy by participants from the
government, civil society, private sector, academia and the media
from the South Asian region, the WSIS Consultation meeting held in
Dhaka, Bangladesh from 5-7 January 2005 under the auspices of the
Bangladesh Friendship Education Society (BFES) and the Bangladesh
Working Group on WSIS (in collaboration with APC and One World South
Asia) resolves as follows:

The following issues should be drawn to the attention of the South
Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) at their next
meeting:

(1) That SAARC undertake a study on the establishment of a regional
Internet exchange to connect the national Internet exchanges to
contain regional traffic within South Asia in order to promote
equitable regional trade in services and save on the cost of
international connectivity and thereby enhance regional cooperation;

(2) That SAARC consider the establishment of a regional registry for
IP address allocations (SANIC) to ensure that IP addresses are
fairly distributed in South Asia;

(3) That SAARC recommend that South Asian member states develop a
common approach to the issue of Internet Governance and Financial
Mechanisms for ICTD during the second phase of the World Summit on
the Information Society which culminates in Tunis in November 2005;

(4) That as part of this common approach to WSIS, consideration be
given to the transformation of ICANN into a multi-stakeholder body
accountable to the global community;

(5) That expanding access to ICTs in South Asia in terms of the WSIS
Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action is a global public good
that enhances the value of global information networks and hence
benefits everyone including developed countries. A Global Fund for
ICTD should, therefore, be established to support the goal of
increasing access to ICTs by 2015 and this should be recommended by
South Asian member states at the WSIS Prepcom 2 in February 2005;

(6) That SAARC should take inputs from South Asian member states,
the private sector and civil society to formulate a regional e-
strategy to implement the WSIS Plan of Action in South Asia as a
whole;

(7) That the regional e-strategy should adopt a regional public
goods approach to financing ICTD which would explore the
relationship between creating a development-oriented policy
environment and the exploitation of existing and prospective
financial mechanisms to enable ICTs for the achievement of the MDGs
and poverty reduction targets in the region;

(8) That SAARC should encourage multi-stakeholder participation by
member states, the private sector and civil society in the
UNDP/APDIP WSIS consultation process on Internet Governance as a way
of raising awareness of the importance of Internet policy and
governance in South Asia;

(9) That SAARC should undertake specific programmes for
mainstreaming ICTs in poverty alleviation strategies and achieving
the MDGs through the integration of efforts undertaken by
governments, the private sector and civil society in the region;

(10) That SAARC should support initiatives to promote local content
and languages on ICTs in South Asia;

(11) That SAARC should seriously consider ways of integrating gender
equality into ICT policy issues at the regional level;

(12) That serious consideration should be given to the licensing of
community radio stations by member states as a key component of an
early warning system in response to the Tsunami tragedy in the
region as well as community radio's role in enabling development.
Consideration should be given to best practices in community radio
in the region such as those in Nepal;

(13) That the regional e-strategy should consider the problems of
implementation of ICT policy in the region and develop an approach
to ensuring successful implementation of ICT policy at country
level;

(14) That SAARC should establish and fund a Regional ICT Forum to
undertake these above-mentioned tasks and involve stakeholders from
the private sector and civil society in the process.

BRAC Center, Dhaka,
Dhaka, Bangladesh 7 January 2005