United Nations Radio

PRES: Telecom World is a unique event for the information and communication technology (ICT) community which brings together the top names from across the industry and around the world. The global forum is organized by the United Nations International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and is taking place in Geneva with over 40,000 participants, including 50 world leaders. Jocelyne Sambira has the story.

NARR: Telecom World is an event where governments, industry leaders, customers and manufacturers all come together. Key global issues are being discussed this year ranging from the financial crisis, to climate change and world peace. It is providing a platform for decision-makers, and consumers alike to see how the information and communication technology or ICT community can play a key role in solving some of these issues. ITU Secretary General Hamadoun Toure speaks about how the industry has been able to weather the storm.

TOURE: On the global financial crisis, as you know the ICT sector has been the most resilient so far. It has been the industry that has created the most jobs than any other sector of the past five years- two thirds of the new jobs have been created in the high tech sector.

NARR: Neither have people cut off their cell phones, during this economic crash adds Hamadoun Toure. It is technologies like mobile phones, which are being used by the United Nations to achieve its goals of development, says the UN Secretary General, Mr Ban Ki-moon. For decades, the United Nations has provided seeds and fertilizers, but it is now adding to that a new kind of tool, text messages.

BAN: Earlier this year, we teamed up with mobile phone companies and other partners to install 5,000 new weather stations across Africa. The weather stations will monitor the impact of climate change. When there is news, we will be able to transmit it immediately to farmers' mobile phones - because seven out of ten Africans rely on farming to survive.

NARR: This is one way in which ICTs are being used to raise awareness on climate change. However, these technologies are also being used to improve the lives of ordinary people, even in building democracy. President Paul Kagame, whose country is fast developing this technology, tells us how it reinforces citizen participation.

KAGAME: We have seen that in our own situation where decentralization has taken place effectively in rural areas where citizens are connected to sources of information, are able to exchange information not only for markets, for their produce, not only for education or for information on health issues or general awareness but also to being able to understand the ongoing and enable them to make the right choices for themselves.

NARR: According to the ITU Secretary General, Hamadoun Toure, it is also important to make sure the next war is not fought on cyber ground. Cyber security, he says, is a key issue today and this meeting will allow stakeholders to broker a deal to make sure this does not happen. Jocelyne Sambira, UN Radio.

Duration: 2'35"