Whether or not the potential of ICT will be used to deepen and promote democracy will depend on the policies and strategies formulated and implemented by national governments and the international community. Outlined below are some initial, broad policy recommendations to help ensure that the opportunities that the information revolution presents to enhance democracy are realized. An overarching policy goal for governments and the international community must be to ensure that the benefits of information technology reach all the world's people. This potential must be realized and fully harnessed.
Democracy requires the active participation of all citizens.
Every effort must be made to make sure that the digital gender gap does not grow and that women are not left behind. An essential policy must be to invest in basic and higher education, as well as in technology training. In many developing countries access to education and technical training is restricted to a minority of the population. Policies must be in place to provided mass access to education and technical training to enable developing countries to take full advantage of the possibilities presented by the information revolution. Additionally, in order to handle the increased flow of information, ICT companies, countries, regions and international organizations must address the issue of how to increase bandwidth on a global level.