[WSIS CS-Plenary] Digital Solidarity Fund

[Hervé Le Crosnier]

Meryem Marzouki wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> According to a press wire by AFP, dated April 3 (see below, in French), 
> a UN agency will be created, called "international agency for digital 
> solidarity" to manage this issue. The secretariat would be based in 
> Geneva, while main activities will be hosted in Lyon, France. I'm not 
> sure AFP is right when they call it a UN agency : it surely takes a lot 
> more formal process to create a UN agency. It may very well be an 
> international initiative led and managed by local authorities (cities). 
> The creation of the agency should be announced in early May in Paris, 
> during the congress of the organization named "united cities and local 
> governments".
> Meryem
> ==========

	Hello,

	Sure it's not a UN agency, but a consequence
	of the "Sommet des villes et des pouvoirs locaux dans
	la société de l'information" held in Lyon last november.

	It means that many actors are on the process to create
	a digital solidarity fund. The problem is the one of
	the multistakeholder approach for the funding (in the
	Wade prposal, only voluntary funding by consumers ;
	the CS communique about this call for more open solution
	including intergouvernemental funding and private
	funding from TIC producers).

	The other one is about control of funds. I'm not very well
	with the center of such a fund in the North when usage is
	on the South.

	Last, we must always remain that any digital solidarity fund
	is a transitional solution. Stopping the debt of the South
	is much more usefull and efficient. They already fullfill
	the debt, and only financial mechanisms allow North to
	postpone new debts over the old one.

	Hope this will not be the case for digital solidarity,
	with a never ending debt, 'cause gap is not only very
	large, but also enlarging every time following innovation
	(large bandwidth, électric power... and new usages such
	à TV on the net, images and vidéo, music and radio...).

	Sorry for my bad english writing.

Hervé Le Crosnier