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Following WSIS Phase 1, countries and international organisations were called upon to develop methodologies and put resources to provide ICT statistics, with basic indicators and analysis of its dimensions -- to create a global Partnership for Measuring ICT for Development.

The main objectives of the Partnership are:
(i) to agree on a common set of core ICT indicators that are comparable at the international level
(ii) to assist in building statistical capacity in the developing countries, and
(iii) to set up a global database to host the data of the core ICT indicators.

Several workshops on statistics were held, including a Thematic Meeting, that agreed on a first core list of ICT indicators, available in English, French, and Spanish. At the "Tunis phase" of WSIS, the Partnership will hold a parallel event on the 15th of November, to raise awareness among ICT policy makers on the importance of measuring the information society for ICT policy making and development.

Input of national statistics offices (NSOs) has been of utmost importance to the Partnership: --more advanced NSOs provided guidance on methodologies and experiences in ICT data collection, analysis and dissemination and --NSOs from developing countries shared their specific challenges and needs.

The OECD's main contribution to the capacity building objective of the Partnership will be the currently-in-progress Guide to Measuring the Information Society, documenting the statistical work of the Working Party on Indicators for the Information Society (WPIIS) and related work being done in the OECD and elsewhere. The Guide will contain an annex http://www.oecd.org/sti/ictmetadata on the application of OECD recommendations to developing countries as well as an annex on measurement activities in non-member economies and by other regional and international organisations.