[WSIS CS-Plenary] Activity schedule/Where is Asia?; onsite reports; CS structures; continuing orientation; CSOs in natl delegations

[Al Alegre]

Hi Karen and all

Thanks for this activity schedule Karen, extremely helpful...

For those wondering why there are still no meetings scheduled of the
Asia/Pacific Family, please don't worry.

The plan is to have a short organizational caucus first--probably during the
CONGO sponsored orientation in the afternoon at CICG tomorrow (14th)--to
figure out where all the people are in terms of involvement in other
caucuses and initiatives over the next two weeks, and then decide on a
*feasible* schedule on when to meet as a Regional Family.

The current reality is that many attendees from Asia are participants
(leaders, key people) in other caucuses and families (e.g, Gender Strategies
WG, Youth, Content and Themes, Internet Governance, Social Movements, etc.,
as well as with CRIS, GKP, etc.), and we have realized that we need to be
strategic and streamline participation of our members so we don't overextend
ourselves and achieve limited impact.

Since we viewed PrepCom 2-3 (including the intersessionals) as primarily a
"content-focused" venue, with the need for formal and informal lobbying
work, the practice of Asian CSOs has been to fully support the Content &
Themes work of Civil Society by assisting in those caucuses/families that
were developing content. It was felt that *this level of content development
and negotiation work with governments is best done through the other
families, as well as through lobbying with national delegations*.

We will therefore try not to overlap with much of the important work going
on elsewhere, which will probably mean the Asian Family will be mainly
meeting in short caucuses after the CS plenaries/CSB meetings or--if the
need arises, informally during meals or in the evenings.


Onsite Reporting

What we will  do though aside from meetings is to publish onsite reports to
our constituencies who are not able to go to Geneva. We are hoping that
these reports will foster the "distance participation" we have to do as we
did not have the resources to send more people. We therefore will link up
with anyone who is in charge of doing the daily reports (is it still Rik
P/Thomas R for CONGO?) to coordinate and help out.


Civil Society Structures

In addition, may I say that we also are in full support of the other CS
structures outlined by Renata, Sean, and Wolfgang in an earlier mail, and we
seek to prioritize the major CS structures as the most strategic venues for
engagement. (In this regard, we would like to reiterate Adam Peake's
suggestion that the reference document--as it will be finalized--be
distributed as widely as possible through the participants pigeonholes; an
additional suggestion is to a mindset of "continuing orientation" (via the
Plenaries) and if it is still feasible to have a mid-PrepCom Status
report/Assessment of where we are after the first week. (This will also
serve to orient those attendees only arriving for the second week of the
PrepCom.)


CS People in National Delegations

On a final note: some of us may have succeeded in being included in national
delegations. Taking off from Karen's half serious comment that we may not
have enough time for official meetings becuase of the sheer volume of CS
meetings :-), I hope there will be a mechanism where those CS people in
national delegations can caucus and help each other balance the time for
both official (i.e., government-related) work, and CS engagement. Can I
suggest that an informal audit be done during the first days of PrepCom3,
and an informal meeting (I know....another meeting :-( sigh...) be set just
to touch base and know each other.

Thank you and good luck to all going to Geneva. To all not able to come, we
appeal for your prayers and support that we may achieve some impact in the
coming two weeks.

In solidarity

Al Alegre/FMA-APC
Philippines
CSB member/co-focal point, Asian Family

----- Original Message -----
From: "karen banks" <karenb at gn.apc.org>
To: <plenary at wsis-cs.org>; <ct at wsis-cs.org>
Sent: Friday, September 12, 2003 10:32 PM
Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Update: Activity schedule


> hi
>
> i've updated the colour-coded-cs-activity schedule here - and boy does it
> look full!.. i'm not sure how people will have time for the official
> sessions ;)
>
> http://www.wsis-cs.org/PrepComIII/schedule.htm
>
> main additions are corrections to LAC caucus meetings, and additions of
> African Caucus, CRIS Daily briefings, World Forum on Communication Rights
> meeting and the NGO Briefing on the Secretary-General's High Level Panel
on
> UN-Civil Society Relations.
>
> that will probably be it from me til geneva..
>
> karen
>
>
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