Commission on Sustainable Development

First Session, June 14-25, 1993

Items 4(a) and 6 of the provisional agenda

Applying Information and Communication Technology for Sustainability:

Organizing Information Provided to the Commission, and
Transfer of Information and Communication Technology
(Intervention of the International Synergy Institute)

SUMMARY

Effective application of information and communication technology can

play a critical and indispensable role in organizing information that
is provided to the Commission on Sustainable Development. The
compilation and dissemination in electronic format of all documents
prepared by, and submitted to, the Secretariat offers substantial
benefits; not the least of these benefits is ease of access to, and
integration of, information. In order for these benefits to be
available equitably to all member States, as well as to
non-governmental organizations from all regions, there is a need to
strengthen the transfer of information and communication technology,
and for capacity-building of member States and NGOs in the use of
information and communication technology.

I. BACKGROUND

1. The preparatory process for UNCED broke new ground in the extent
to which official documents were made available in electronic format;
electronic access to the UNCED documents -- and now to those of the
Commission on Sustainable Development -- provide substantial benefits
for those who were able to obtain them in that format. The benefits
include timeliness of access, ease of reproduction and dissemination
and of retrieval, management and transport of information.

2. The systematic management of information within the UN system

relating to sustainable development -- through intelligent application
of information technology -- can play a valuable role in supporting
the integration of the large amount of information relating to
sustainability and in allowing for identification and analysis based on
the interrelatedness of much of the information pertaining to
sustainability.
3. Information and communication technology are at the leading edge of
technological innovation. Effective use and development of these
technologies are vital to creation and strengthening the
infrastructure, and the skills, by which both developed and developing
countries can respond to the requirements of sustainability.

4. Significant advances in the technologies -- for example in increased

power and storage capacity, and decreased size and costs -- were
clearly visible during the short period of preparations for UNCED, and
technological development in the area shows no signs of slowing.

5. Virtually all documents submitted to the Commission -- whether

from governments, United Nations agencies, other intergovernmental
organizations or non-governmental organizations -- have been prepared
in electronic format. However, while the Commission has been
informally requesting that documents also be submitted electronically,
as of yet, there are no systematic mechanisms or procedures, nor
specific resources allocated either for this process, or for the
dissemination of documents in electronic format.

6. The Commission, and some governments and non-governmental

organizations, are using document scanners in conjunction with optical
character recognition software to convert printed documents into
electronic format. The effective use of document scanning offers
valuable benefits and its use should be encouraged; however, it is far
more time consuming than direct copying of word processing files or
document access via electronic networks.

7. Both in relation to the use of optical character recognition

software, and to the dissemination of documents on electronic
networks, the prevailing standard used is the American Standard
Character Information Interchange (ASCII). However, the ASCII standard
does not support accented Roman characters, nor can it handle
character sets -- e.g. Russian, Arabic and Chinese -- that are not
based on the Roman alphabet.

II RECOMMENDATIONS

8. Governments, intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental

organizations should be formally requested to provide copies in
electronic format -- to the extent possible -- of all documents
submitted to the Commission in addition to printed copies.
9. The Commission should establish a Working Party -- or some other
appropriate body -- that would meet with relevant experts and
resource people from Governments, UN agencies, non-governmental
organizations and specialists in organizing information in electronic
format and prepare recommendations for the Commission as well as for
the Inter Agency Committee on Sustainable Development of the
Administrative Coordinating Committee.

10. The recommendations of such a Working Party should address: the

immediate and short term needs of the Commission; overall structural
changes in the ways that information is organized within the UN system
-- in conjunction with the UN Advisory Committee for the Coordination
of Information Systems (ACCIS) and other appropriate bodies --
particularly as those changes relate to information for sustainable
development; and cooperation with local, national and international
initiatives of non-governmental organizations, especially in developing
countries.

11. The Commission should encourage Governments with resources and

expertise in the application of information technology, and who use
those resources and expertise to organize documents and information
relating to the work of the Commission to share their expertise with
other Governments and with the Commission, and to provide support for
capacity-building in the use of information technology for other
Governments and non-governmental organizations.

12. The recommendations of the Working Party should pay particular

attention to the information and communication needs, particularly
those relating to sustainability, of developing countries. This should
include exploration of how resources such as:

(a) the Internet electronic network;

(b) technical assistance and skills development; and

(c) strengthening electronic communications infrastructure

can be made more effectively available to Governments and

non-governmental organizations from developing countries.

13. Attention should also be paid to the development and adoption of

international standards for computer-based character sets that support
communication in all languages, particularly in all the official UN
languages.