This conference is about inclusion. Equitable access is perhaps the most pressing issue we face as a global community. Despite great leaps in information and communication technologies, millions of people still grapple with poverty, hunger, illiteracy, disease and powerlessness. The new technologies offer renewed hope for human progress, but they are not a panacea. They are tools, and for maximum impact, they require a close linkage to progress in the economic, social and political sectors.
Access is also a matter of appropriate technology and capacity building.
It is community radio to link small search and rescue parties with the home base in Canada's far north. It is an Internet connection that links a doctor in a community health centre in Zambia to the Lusaka Medical School. It is a community access centre in the mountains of Peru, where farmers can telephone for information on local markets to get the best prices for their produce. But hardware is not enough. We need standards, regulations and laws that will help us get the most out of the infrastructure we have put in place.