Letter to Ministers of Finance on Global Connect initiative

April, 2016

To:

The Honourable Ministers of Finance and dignitaries
present at the 2016 Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank Group

CC: United States Secretary of State John Kerry and World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim

Dear Honorable Ministers and Dignitaries,

We write to you as a group of civil society organizations who are actively engaged in a collaborative effort to strengthen policies and investments directed to increasing the access, adoption, and use of information and communications technologies (ICTs), particularly broadband internet access. We ask you to work towards universal, open, secure, and affordable broadband connectivity, with full protection of human rights.

Despite the growing access to broadband, over four billion people lack access to the internet. As civil society organizations, we cannot accept this enormous digital divide, which prevents the exercise of fundamental human rights for all. Such inequality also reveals an untapped development opportunity. Thus, we urge the Ministers of Finance attending the 2016 Spring Meetings of the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to guarantee that internet connectivity becomes an integral part of national development policies moving forward. Internet connectivity consistent with human rights principles should be an essential element in every grant, loan, technology transfer, or policy training program that MDBs facilitate.

Considering the timely opportunity of the 2016 Spring Meetings of the MDBs, we present our commitment as public-interest organizations in supporting access to rights-respecting ICTs and broadband connectivity and urge you to adopt the following commitments:

• Integrate internet connectivity and access to digital technologies (“ICT infrastructure”) as key components of national development, borrowing, and investment strategies;
• Foster the growth of internet connectivity by urging national development agencies to prioritize digital access as an essential element of national infrastructure plans and investing sufficient funds for implementation¹²;
• Invest in increasing technical expertise in digital connectivity at national and local levels;
• Design ICT policies and practices based on respect for human rights online and offline, upholding network neutrality, the rule of law, and rights-respecting connectivity;
• Invest in internet connectivity based on a core understanding that the internet is a global resource and that it should be managed in the public interest as a democratic, secure, free, open, inclusive and pluralistic communication platform;
• Support public access facilities, such as libraries, which facilitate significant gains in connectivity and sustainable development;
• Support and invest in unlicensed and open spectrum, to expand connectivity within a community, to additional homes and institutions;
• Foster digital literacy, and enable and promote the development of locally relevant content, applications, and services as they are essential to widespread adoption of the internet and increase its social and economic value to people, families, and communities;
• Create enabling environments by adopting policies and strategies that focus not only on spurring connectivity, but also entrepreneurship, cross-border information flows, and open and competitive marketplaces;
• Invest in and adopt more effective policies that ensure: equitable and efficient access to radio spectrum; infrastructure sharing and lower barriers to entry for access providers with new technologies; better and targeted subsidies, direct investment in infrastructure roll out; and more transparent and accountable public-private partnerships.

We look forward to working with you on this important set of initiatives.

¹ IDB launches DigiLAC, a new platform for measuring broadband penetration in Latin America, May 14, 2014 http://www.iadb.org/en/news/news–releases/2014-05-14/index–that–measures–broadband–penetration,10816.html

² World Bank Information Communications Technology for Development http://live.worldbank.org/information–communications–technology–development

³ Internet matters: The Net’s sweeping impact on growth, jobs, and prosperity, May 2011 http://www.mckinsey.com/industries/high–tech/our–insights/internet–matters

⁴ How Information and Communications Technology Can Achieve The Sustainable Development Goals, September 2015 http://www.ericsson.com/res/docs/2015/ict–and–sdg–interim–report.pdf

⁵ Outcome document of the high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the overall review of the implementation of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society, December 2015 http://workspace.unpan.org/sites/Internet/Documents/UNPAN95735.pdf

⁶ Connect 2020 Agenda for Global Telecommunication/ICT Development http://www.itu.int/en/connect2020/Pages/default.aspx

⁷ Global Connect initiative https://share.america.gov/globalconnect/

⁸ Civil Society Statement on the Launch of the Global Connect Initiative, September 24, 2015 http://bestbits.net/global–connect–initiative/

⁹ See Section 8 of the MOBILE NOW Act (S. 2555), approved by the 114th U.S. Congress on March 3, 2016 http://www.commerce.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/8805bde8-408f-4b5e–a5fa–d867eed9d84f/146C427A5D018C04CE7E9C925D398163.mobile–now–act.pdf

¹⁰ David Kaye & Brett Solomon, Slate, “Merely Connecting the Developing World to the Internet Isn’t Enough”, October 13, 2015 http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2015/10/13/the_u_n_wants_to_connect_the_world_to_the_internet_that_s_not_enough.html

¹¹ The International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance (the “Necessary and Proportionate Principles” or “13 Principles”)https://necessaryandproportionate.org/

¹² As the U.S. has done with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) http://www.state.gov/e/rls/rmk/247375.htm