The World Summit on Information Society (WSIS), called by the United Nations (Geneva 2003 and Tunis 2005), established an intensive and permanent vision: people-centered, inclusive, and development-oriented information to build a society where everyone has the right to make, use, and share information and knowledge. In the two decades since its inception, the advancement of this vision is unwavering, with the main principle of multi-interest partnership.
Digital age challenges – by ensuring frequent digital division and ensuring digital safety to conduct emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) – are very spacious and complex for any single unit. The WSIS Framework recognized it from the beginning, identifying multi-interest cooperation not only as an ideal, but as a fundamental requirement. A continuous, associate effort is required to pursue the WSIS vision to governments, the private sector, civil society, academics, the technical community, and international organizations.
The Foundational Role of Multi-Stakeholderism
The WSIS process itself stands as a testament to the power of multi-stakeholderism. Unlike traditional intergovernmental summits, the WSIS was designed to bring all relevant actors to the table. This philosophy is enshrined in the Declaration of Geneva Principles and the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society, which clearly define the roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder group:
- Governments: Play a leading role in developing and implementing comprehensive national e-strategies, setting the policy and regulatory environment, and ensuring the protection of human rights in the digital sphere.
- Private sector: Critical to the development and deployment of information and communication technologies (ICT), fostering innovation, investing in infrastructure, and ensuring affordability of products and services.
- Civil society: Plays an important role in representing the interests of ordinary citizens, especially marginalized and vulnerable groups, holding power accountable, and contributing to the implementation of development-oriented initiatives at the grassroots level.
- International and Regional Institutions (United Nations Agencies): Provide an overall outline, facilitate cooperation, integrate the use of ICT in broader growth processes, and collect resources. Prominent co-agents include the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), UNESCO, United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
- Academia and technical communities: Research, development of open standards, capacity building, and ensuring technological development and safety of the Internet are essential.
This shared ownership ensures that digital development strategies are overall, people-centered, and are based on the realities of diverse global communities.
The WSIS Action Lines: A Framework for Partnership
The Geneva Plan of Action established 11 WSIS Action Lines (C1 to C11) that serve as the operational framework to achieve the WSIS Vision. These action lines, which cover everything from infrastructure to ethics, are the concrete areas where multi-stakeholder partnerships have proven most effective:
C2: Information and Communication Infrastructure
The target of universal, inexpensive access is a very large venture that directly addresses the digital divide. Partnership here is important:
- Public-Private Participation (PPP): Governments determine the regulatory environment (eg, spectrum allocation, universal service liability), while the private sector invests billions in fiber laying, launching satellites, and deploying 5G networks.
- Community-led initiatives: Civil society and non-profit organizations often work with local governments to establish multi-purpose community public access points in remote areas, ensuring access to those who cannot afford personal connectivity expenses.
C3 & C4: Access to Information and Knowledge & Capacity Building
These action lines focus on meaningful use of technology, which is only moving beyond connectivity.
- Material and education participation: In partnership with UNESCO, educational institutions, and private sector, promotes initiative for open academic resources (OR) and e-learning, ensuring that educational materials are accessible and culturally relevant.
- Digital skills coalitions: Governments, technical companies, and non-government organizations (NGOs) collaborate in national digital literacy programs, which target specific groups such as women, older individuals, and disabled individuals, leaving a digital skills gap.
C5 & C10: Building Confidence and Security & Ethical Dimensions
Addressing the deep side of digitization-cybercrime, misuse of data, and algorithm bias requires healthy, cross-sector coordination.
- Cyber Security Information sharing: Partnerships between international bodies such as National Computer Safety incident response teams (CSIRTS), the private sector (security firms), and ITU are important for real-time danger intelligence sharing and reaction to the event.
- Ethical AI regime: a multi-interestful process is important for developing a rights-prescribed structure. For example, UNESCO’s recommendation on the morality of Artificial Intelligence was developed through an advisory process involving experts from all stakeholder groups, assuming that moral principles should be informed by diverse cultural and social perspectives.
WSIS in the Context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
A major development of WSIS Vision was a formal alignment with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development after reviewing WSIS +10 in 2015. This alignment strengthened the role of ICT as a powerful means of implementation for the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Each Wsis action line directly contributes to one or more SDGs. For example:
- C7: E-Health supports SDG 3 (good health and welfare) through telemedicine and remote diagnostics, which is often run in partnership between the United Nations Agencies (WHO), governments, and mobile network operators.
- C7: E-Krishi supports SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), which enables participation that provides market information through real-time season data and mobile apps, often a cooperation between FAOs, Tech Startups, and the Ministry of Agriculture.
- The overall WSIS commitment for multi-stakeholder partnership reflects SDG 17 (participation in goals), strengthening the idea that global challenges require global cooperation for global challenges.
ICT for Development, co-aggregated by ITU, UNESCO, UNDP, and UNCTAD, is the world’s largest annual meeting and acts as a primary mechanism for this alignment. It provides a unique, inclusive platform to coordinate implementation activities for stakeholders, share best practices and create a new partnership, and ensure that digital change efforts are targeted directly towards achieving the SDG.
The Future of Partnership: WSIS+20 and Beyond
As the WSIS process moves towards its WSIS +20 review in 2025, the need for a strong and effective partnership is more important than ever, especially in the face of new digital realities:
Developed digital division
While global internet penetration has increased significantly since 2005, the focus has moved from simple access to meaningful connectivity. This requires the participation of those who know:
- Strength: Governments and regulators should work with private companies to reduce the cost of equipment and data.
- Relevance (local content): The partnership between civil society, educational linguists, and platform developers needs to be addressed to the Action Line C8, to ensure the manufacture of diverse, local, and multilingual materials.
- Gender Digital Divide: Specific participation, often necessary to address socio-cultural obstacles and lack of digital literacy that affect women.
Global Digital Governance
The debate about controlling the Internet and emerging technologies is highly active. The WSIS multi-stakeholder model has provided basic theory for bodies such as the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), which facilitates non-dialogue dialogue in all fields. Should focus on future partnership:
- Strengthening IGF: Ensuring IGF is a sustainable mandate and is a resource to remain an inclusive and effective platform.
- Alignment with the Global Digital Compact (GDC): Wsis+20 reviews are required to ensure the results of reviews and an open, independent, and safe digital future for an open, independent and secure digital future is a high-level compromise and strengthening the main principles of the WSIS vision.
Addressing Power Imbalances
An important challenge is ensuring that participation is really inclusive. Often, the most marginalized societies, the voices of the grassroots organizations and developing countries, appear less than those of large governments and corporate institutions. Future partnership efforts need:
- Increase in capacity building: Global policy provides financial and logistical assistance to civil society and local organizations to take meaningful participation in discussions.
- Promoting transparency and accountability: Installing a clear mechanism to monitor the impact of private sector and government digital initiatives and moral compliance, ensuring that they align with human rights principles.
Finally, the partnership information is the life of the Society Project to carry forward the WSIS vision. The WSIS Framework provided a blueprint for digital cooperation, and its success in two decades is a direct result of multi-non-non-non-non-non-non-non-non-non-cooperation that promotes it. Since the world moves towards a deep digital future, a renewed and strong commitment to these inclusive partnerships remains the most important factor for achieving a digital future that is actually people-focused, justified, and durable.