H.E. Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, President of the General Assembly

TRIP REPORT

United Nations Millennium Goals Conference: “Our Common Humanity in the Information Age: Principles and Values for Development”

Summary: To my enormous surprise, every single plenary speaker focused on the role of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) as a means of receiving early warning, acquiring needed information in real time, and preserving institutional memory, while facilitating information sharing and consensus building among disparate organizations that had not clear shared “leader” but could use ICT to establish shared agendas, goals, plans, budgets, and behaviors. An underlying theme, quite important, focused on the role of women in combating evil and enhancing the stability and sustainability of shared values. Another theme is that freedom creation takes time, and does not occur through the application of force. A final theme that caught my attention was that of focusing on youth and ensuring that they have the tools and the access to information to acquire and share the good values associated with the Millennium Goals and our Common Humanity.

H.E. Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, President of the General Assembly

Challenges do not recognize borders. 2015 is the target date for achieving the Millennium Goals. Tools essential to achieving these goals are provided by ICT.

H.E. Mr. Ali Hachani, President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (EUCOSOC) Socio-economic conditions directly impact on peace. We must understand them and address them.

H.E. Mr. Martti Ahtisaari, Former President of the Republic of Finland

This was the most comprehensive statement. Discussed the huge potential of ICT, and its value in early warning to inspire timely intervention and crisis management. Noted in passing the importance of engaging and empowering women. Noted that the plethora of organizations relevant to creating peace and prosperity, organizations that do not have a common superior authority, makes ICT a virtual form of consensus building and coordination that is without peer. ICT can provide access to real time information as well as access to the institutional memory.

Jeffrey Sachs (Afternoon Keynote) on Poverty

Focus on ICT to achieve Millennium goals. Sub-Saharan Africa is the epicenter. Major differences in success and failure were not those of policies or quality of governance. Certain structural conditions with great weight were causative of extreme poverty.

1) No breakthrough in agriculture, no green revolution. In Asia went from 1 to 3 tons per hectare, not done in Africa.

2) Disease

3) Economic isolation—remote, land-locked, islands off trade routes.

4) Natural hazards—droughts, floods, climate vulnerabaility.

It is in this context that ICT can play a role, addressing each of these four conditions in turn. There is plenty of evidence that African agriculture can replicate success of Asian agriculture if the inputs can be provided; if the health interventions can save millions and save communities from being weighted down by malaria, AIDS, TB, other prevalent diseases. Economic isolation is also remediable, with a road network from east to west. Similarly hazards are to some respects predictable, but forecasts are not communicated, understood, nor acting upon. ICT can make a difference in all of these areas. Cell phone, one phone per village, one truck within 10-20 kilometers, are revolutionary and can implement emergency responses. Telemedicine is a coming wave, with monthly live visits, the rest of time via cell phone. Broadband now costs roughly $10,000 per village of 5,000. Ability to make a breakthrough here is profound. Really focused on the digital divide, it needs to be addressed. The costs are now easily affordable! Africa still lacks a submarine cable up the East Coast. This could be completed by 2007 or 2008. Costs of continent scale fiber is roughly one billion to collect all of the major cities in Africa (terrestrial lines). India is the leader in creative solutions at the village level. One can train large numbers of people with a high school education for data entry, translation, other IT services that can come in on line and be sent out online. E-governance is making a difference, governments can outsource to their own rural areas.

We are at halfway mark for Millenium Goals.

Larry Brilliant, MD MPH, President, Google Foundation (Google.org)

Not going to talk about Google. Instead will try to talk about the theme, our common humanity, and the role of the United Nations. We are all in this together, literally. A good metaphor is the world of communicable diseases. Slide lists 19 sovereigns that died from a communicable disease (smallpox). No amount of wealth or distance can protect you from a disease for which there is no cure. Pandemics do not respect racial divisions or political boundaries. We learn from this metaphor that we are all in this together. It was the UN that eradicated smallpox. Only the UN could have done that, or eradicated polio. The UN is central to the great accomplishments that we must produce. Asked by the moderator to expand on polio, he says we are now at a crossroads. Only 2000 cases of polio in the world. Google is supporting the UN Foundation, trying to help people on the ground with management and technology support. This is an important battlefield for both public health and the United Nations.

The balance of the event can be examined via their webcast record and other details at