[9] In 1999, the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC) dedicated a series of high-level substantive meetings for their 2000 Period of Sessions to the theme "Development and international cooperation in the 21st century: the role of information technology in the context of a global knowledge-based economy."
In response, the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, convened by the Government of Brazil and ECLAC in July 2000, signed the Florianopolis Declaration, which focused on the use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) for development.
The Bávaro Declaration (January 2003) was an important step in the establishment of the fundamental principles for Latin America and the Caribbean in their transition towards information societies, given that they helped to identify the main characteristics of this phenomenon in the region.
The repercussions of this document are noteworthy; in effect, since its approval, the analysis of Internet governance and open-source software were officially incorporated in the CMSI process for the first time, as issues that have come to take on great importance during this meeting and subsequent events.
The region has taken as its long-term strategic guide the Geneva Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action adopted at the World Summit on the Information Society, which lays down targets to be met by 2015, together with the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals.