The ITU and the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) of the Republic of Korea have formed a partnership to help achieve the internationally agreed upon goals of the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). Through an initial contribution of CHF540000 from the Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity and Promotion (KADO), the Digital Bridges Initiative will provide tools to measure the gap in access to information and communications technologies (ICT) that exists between developed and developing nations.
The aim is to address the vast inequality in access to information that threatens to slow the formation of a truly global, inclusive information society. The current digital divide in high speed Internet connectivity is a growing concern, but one where new technologies and policies can help, as highlighted in the Plan of Action from the WSIS. Therefore, new tools such as national and international digital divide indices to identify digital gaps and policy insight to close them are required. To this end, the initiative will provide policy and technical expertise to close the digital divide, and a financial contribution towards the second phase of WSIS.