It is with great sorrow that we from ICT4Peace have learned today of the passing of Kofi Annan. Kofi Annan was a great statesman and a globally admired and highly respected UN Secretary General. Because of his tireless work for Peace and Security and Human Rights, he and the United Nations received the Nobel Peace Prize Kofi Annan made an enormous contribution to Peace and Security and Sustainable Development around the world.
I had the privilege to work with Kofi Annan and his team, as the Delegate of the Swiss Federal Council and Ambassador to host the World Summit for Social Development Review Conference in 2000 in Geneva and subsequently as the Chief Representative of the Swiss Federal Council to host the first World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in 2003. I will never forget his enormous charisma as a leader, his elegance, politeness and modesty.
He also was one of the very first global leaders to embrace and truly understand the role and impact of emerging Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), for global society and especially for the developing world. I was privileged to serve as a member of the UN ICT Task Force, which Kofi Annan launched in November 2001.
We from ICT4Peace are particularly proud that Kofi Annan was one of the first supporters of the idea and project of ICT4Peace in 2004. In 2005 he gracefully wrote the Preface of the first ever book on ICT for Peace: The Role of ICT in Preventing, Responding to and Recovering from Conflict.
In his visionary Preface, Kofi Annan wrote in 2005:
We are all becoming more familiar with the extraordinary power of information and communication technologies. From trade to telemedicine, from education to environmental protection, ICTs give us potential to improve standards of living throughout the world. Our challenge is to harness that potential for the benefit of all people.
Less well known than the role of ICTs in efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals is the contributions they make in our work to promote peace and help the victims of humanitarian emergencies.
As the underpinning for early warning systems, ICTs are crucial in weather- forecasting and in building resilient communities better able to respond to humanitarian emergencies. When disaster does strike, ICTs are helping us to better coordinate complex relief missions. This role has taken on even greater significance in the past year, following the Indian Ocean tsunami, hurricane-related flooding in Central America and a devastating earthquake in Pakistan.
ICTs are also critical tools in peacekeeping operations, including in logistics. Moreover, ICTs can help address the root causes of violent conflict. By promoting access to knowledge, they can promote mutual understanding, an essential factor in conflict prevention and post-conflict reconciliation. ICTs also offers ways to reveal human rights abuses, promote transparent governance, and give people living under repressive regimes access to uncensored information and an outlet to air their grievances and appeal for help.
The technology by itself is no panacea or magic formula. Political will is required to respond to information, to share it widely and equitably, and to ensure global dissemination of ICTs. In that context, I strongly welcome the initiative taken by the Government of Switzerland to study the role of science and technology in advancing our work for peace. This report showcases many instances of actors coming together to use technology to prevent, stop and remedy man-made disasters. It also offers valuable policy recommendations covering such key issues as trust, security, inter-agency coordination, best practices and common standards. I commend the information and analysis contained here to a wide global audience.
Daniel Stauffacher
Zurich, 18 August 2018