The Digital Solidarity Fund, one of the major sources of conflict at the WSIS, has been put on hold until the second phase of the information summit which is scheduled to be held in November 2005 in Tunisia.

The Fund has been one of the more contentious issues during the preparatory meetings, with Japan and the European Union (EU) fiercely resisting every reference to it. On 09 December 2003, the last day of the extended PrepCom3 meeting and a day before the Summit commenced, the EU finally agreed to at least mention the Fund although the word "voluntary" is now attached to it.

The final draft of the Plan of Action calls for a U.N. task force under the auspices of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan that will conduct a review of existing and possible financial mechanisms by December 2004.

The draft declaration of principles now reads:
"We recognise the will expressed on the one hand by some to create an international voluntary 'Digital Solidarity Fund', and by others to undertake studies concerning existing mechanisms and the efficiency and feasibility of such a Fund."

The respective part of the action plan is worded as:
"While all existing financial mechanisms should be fully exploited, a thorough review of their adequacy in meeting the challenges of ICT for development should be completed by the end of December 2004. This review shall be conducted by a Task Force under the auspices of the UN Secretary-General and submitted for consideration to the second phase of this summit. Based on the conclusion of the review, improvements and innovations of financing mechanisms will be considered including the effectiveness, the feasibility and the creation of a voluntary Digital Solidarity Fund, as mentioned in the Declaration of Principles."

Advocated by some of the poorest countries, the Digital Solidarity Fund is envisioned as a U.N.-administered fund to help technologically disadvantaged countries build telephone lines and other infrastructure in an effort to keep the digital and the wealth gap from widening further.

According to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) secretary-general Yoshio Utsumi, some1.5 million villages in developing nations are currently without telephony connectivity, and it would only cost US$1.1 billion to connect them, or US$6.3billion if internet access was included.

In a statement, ITU said these figures represent less than one percent of global fixed line revenue, or three percent of total ICT investment, and a "fraction of total sums paid for third generation (3G) licenses in the world's richest countries."

Sources: "UN Summit Postpones Digital Solidarity Fund" as posted on the Computer Business Review Online last 12 December 2003 at http://www.cbronline.com/print_friendly/84f6f75b8baaf46680256df8001e4364
"Senegal, Mayors Bypass Nations, Set Up Digital Fund" by Traci Hukill for U.N.Wire as posted on AfricaFocus last 15 December 2003 at http://africafocus.org/docs03/it0312b.php
"Finance / Final Negotiations Ended With Consensus; Digital Solidarity Fund Reviewed Until 2005" as posted on the WSIS section of the Heinrich Boll Foundation website last 09 December 2003 at http://www.worldsummit2003.de/en/web/572.htm