Transcript The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)

The World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS)
What I shall cover
Background to Summit
The Objectives & Envisaged Outcomes
The Processes – What happened?
The Actors – Who were they? What did they
want?
Some of the Contested Issues at WSIS
Africa and WSIS
An Insider’s Account
Background
International Telecomm Union
UN General Assembly
The Objectives & Envisaged
Outcomes
Vision: To develop a common
understanding of the information
society
Access: To promote the urgently
needed access to all the world’s
inhabitants to information, knowledge
and communication technologies for
development
Objectives – cont’d
Applications: “To harness the potential
of knowledge and technology for
promoting the goals of the United
Nationals Millennium Declaration”
The goals:
Development & Poverty Eradication
Democracy & Governance
Common Heritage
Protecting the vulnerable & meeting the special needs of Africa
The Processes
The UNGA Resolution recommends that the
preparations for the Summit take place
through an open-ended intergovernmental
preparatory committee. It also encourages
effective contributions from, and active
participation of, a wide range of bodies
including UN agencies…non-governmental
organizations, civil society and the private
sector.
Processes
High Level Summit Organizing Committee
Executive Secretariat
Informal Consultations
Regional Conferences & Thematic Meetings
Preparatory Committee Meetings
Phase One Summit: Geneva, Dec, 2003
Phase Two: Tunis, Nov,2005
The Actors
National Governments
UN Agencies
Intergovernmental Organisations
Civil Society (NGOs, labour unions,
universities)
Private Sector
Media???
Some of the Contested Issues
Internet Governance
Security
Free and Open Software
Communication Rights
Intellectual Property
Human Rights
Finance
The Outcomes
Declarations of Principles
Plan of Action
Africa and WSIS
Bamako Declaration
Civil Society Processes: Bamako Bureau,
Southern African bodies (MISA, APC,
SACOD, A19, HA), East Africa (Femnet),
West Africa
African Positions
Governments: Digital Solidarity
Civil Society: Gender & ICTs, Open
Source & Free Software, Education &
ICTs
Media: A19, pluralism & diversity, 3 tiers
of broadcasting, content
The End Result?
Disappointing process: false
expectations
Watered down outcome: more
development focused principles without
attendant focus on fundamental rights
Still the documents are there and task
is on how to use them (refer APC)
Some lessons
Understand process
Understand the issues
Be organized (deployment)
Be skilled (advocacy & lobbying,
presentation skills)
Have money & equipment
Make feedback and re-organize
The Road to Geneva and Tunis
Charter on African Broadcasting (ACB) –
A19, MISA, SACOD, AMARC, APC
Bamako Declaration
PrepCom 1,2,3, Intersessional Meetings
Geneva Summit – Plenary, WEMF,
Parallel Events, HANA coverage
Next: Nairobi, HA, Tunis 2005
Checklist: Why is it necessary to have a
national WSIS consultation? Ref: APC
It creates awareness
It broadens social participation
It builds consensus between social
actors
It creates demand and expectation for
delivery
It is an opportunity for CSOs to lead the
process and thereby optimise its
interests