[WSIS CS-Plenary] Summary of the Briefing for NGOs on WSIS outcomes

[mclauglm at po.muohio.edu]

I think that it may be worthwhile to remind CS, 
as set of actors in the presumed 
multi-stakeholder negotiations, that the 
following was the ITU's version of events (news 
release) after the conclusion of the first phase 
of the WSIS, December 2003. Several new 
actors/groups joined CS after this event, while 
others dropped out. Please recall that the ITU 
actually mentions that "The Summit's most notable 
achievement was across-the-board consensus earned 
for a Declaration of Principles and Plan of 
Action wording around several contentious issues, 
and the spirit of cooperation that permeated the 
Summit." No mention of the fact that CS had its 
own Declaration (which was all a bit "watered 
down" in any case, at least from the earlier 
version which took on neo-liberal orthodoxies 
directly).

Without any intention of undermining or devaluing 
the efforts of CS in the WSIS effort, I have to 
say that I can't consider the WSIS without 
considering Karl Marx's The Eighteenth Brumaire 
of Louis Bonaparte:

"Hegel remarks somewhere that all facts and 
personages of great importance in the world 
occur, as it were twice. He forgot to add: the 
first time as tragedy, the second time as farce." 
Perhaps it's time to "find once more the spirit 
of revolution, not of making its ghost walk about 
again."

I know that Marx is no longer in vogue, but he 
was on to something, perhaps something that would 
help to wean CS from the official, governmental 
agenda that, in the end, created an "internet 
summit," full of "e-strategies" as the 
appropriate response to poverty in the world.


Best, Lisa


INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION NEWS RELEASE:


Geneva, 12 December 2003 — The World Summit on the Information Society closed
on an optimistic note of consensus and 
commitment, but Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary-
General of the International Telecommunication Union and Summit cautioned that
the meeting was only the start of a long and complex process.

"Telephones will not feed the poor, and computers will not replace textbooks.
But ICTs can be used effectively as part of the toolbox for addressing global
problems. The Summit’s successes now give us the necessary momentum to achieve
this," he said.

"Building the inclusive information society requires a multi-stakeholder
approach. The challenges raised — in areas like Internet governance, access,
investment, security, the development of applications, intellectual property
rights and privacy — require a new commitment to work together if we are to
realize the benefits of the information society."

Seeing the fruits of today’s powerful knowledge-based tools in the most
impoverished economies will be the true test of an engaged, empowered and
egalitarian information society, he added.

Over 54 Heads of State, Prime Ministers, Presidents, Vice-Presidents and 83
ministers and vice-ministers from 176 countries came together in Geneva to
endorse a Declaration of Principles — or a common vision of an information
society’s values – and a Plan of Action which sets forth a road map to build on
that vision and to bring the benefits of ICTs to underserved economies.

The three-day Summit is the first multi-stakeholder global effort to share and
shape the use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) for a
better world.

But the Summit was groundbreaking in other ways too. It offered a
genuine "venue of opportunity" in a unique meeting of leaders, policy-makers,
ICT business people, voluntary and non-governmental organizations of every
possible kind, and top-level thinkers and speakers. Alongside the three-days of
Plenary meetings and high-level roundtables, nearly 300 side-events helped
bring the dream of an inclusive information society one-step closer to becoming
reality.

Partnership announcements included a USD 400,000 grant by the US Government for
ICT development in low-income countries. Cisco and ITU also signed a Memorandum
of Understanding to open 20 more Internet Training Centres in developing
countries. As well, Hewlett-Packard will provide low-cost products that will
help overcome the illiteracy barrier to ICT. Handwritten texts for example will
be recognized for e-mail transmission. Microsoft, working with UNDP, will
provide a billion dollar programme over 5 years to bring ICT skills to
underserved communities. One innovative initiative announced to bridge the
digital divide is the Bhutan E-Post project. For faster, cheaper and more
reliable communication to remote, mountainous areas of Bhutan, the Government
of India will deliver e-post services to the Bhutanese Postal Service via a USD
400,000 a V-satellite network and solar panels power system. The partners
include ITU, Bhutan Telecom and Post, Worldspace and Encore India. And at the
very close of the Summit, the cities of Geneva and Lyon and the Government of
Senegal have announced contributions totaling about 1 million euros to fund
information technology in developing countries. The contributions will
represent the first three payments towards the Digital Solidarity Fund, the
creation of which is to be considered by a UN 
working group for the Tunis phase.

The second phase of the Summit takes place in Tunis in 2005 and will measure
ambitious goals set this week. With WSIS phase I over, the hard work begins and
hard work lies ahead in the two years before Tunis, to show that the
information society is on the right path.

The overarching goal of the Summit has been to gain the will and commitment of
policy-makers to make ICTs a top priority, and to bring together public and
private sector players to forge an inclusive dialogue based on the interests of
all. In these two respects, the Summit has been heralded a success.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan told delegates "technology has
given birth to the information age. Now it is up to all of us to build an
information society from trade to telemedicine, from education to environmental
protection, we have in our hands, on our desktops and in the skies above, the
ability to improve standards of living for millions upon millions of people.

Top Summit targets now remain to be achieved, including connecting all schools,
villages, governments and hospitals, and bringing half the world’s population
within ICT reach, all by the year 2015.

The Summit has clearly identified national e-strategies as the key vehicle to
meet the targets. Connecting public places, revising school curricula,
extending the reach of TV and radio broadcasting services and fostering rich
multilingual content are all recognized as needing strong national-level
governmental commitments. To encourage and assist national and local
governments in this work, the Summit also foresees the development of
international statistical indicators to provide yardsticks of progress;
exchanges of experience to help develop "best practice" models, and the
fostering of public-private partnerships internationally in the interests of
sustainable ICT development.

Indeed, collaboration across the complex information society chain — from the
scientists that create powerful ICT tools, to the governments that foster a
culture of investment and rule of law, to the businesses that build
infrastructure and supply services, to the media that create and disseminate
content and — above all —human society which ultimately employs such tools and
shapes their use —lays the foundation for an inclusive knowledge-based world on
which the riches of an information society can flourish.

The Summit’s most notable achievement was across-the-board consensus earned for
a Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action wording around several
contentious issues, and the spirit of cooperation that permeated the Summit.

Internet governance, and financing ICT investments in underserved economies
were two of the issues which called for long negotiations. On the issue of
Internet management, the involvement of all stakeholders and intergovernmental
organizations to address both technical and public policy issues has been
underscored although global Internet governance is set to be the subject of
deeper talks up to Tunis in 2005. An open and inclusive working group will be
set up on the topic, in order to review and make proposals for action by the
2005 Summit.

Similarly on the issue of financing for underserved economies, a task force
will be established to undertake a review of existing ICT funding mechanisms
and will also study the feasibility of an international voluntary Digital
Solidarity Fund.

On the areas of intellectual property rights and the need for enabling
environments, universal access policies, and multilingual, diverse and
culturally appropriate content to speed ICT adoption and use — particularly in
the world’s most underserved economies — government-level commitment to follow
a set of common values and principles has been attained.

Although these achievements fuel hope and may stoke further collaboration, Mr.
Utsumi, together with many world leaders, appealed to all stakeholders keep the
spirit of cooperation alive well beyond the two years to Tunis, and to back up
universally agreed principles with concrete actions to spark more peace and
prosperity across the planet.

"The realization of the Plan of Action is crucial to the long-term success of
the Summit. We need imagination and creativity to develop projects and
programmes that can really make a difference. We need commitment — on the part
of governments, the private sector and civil society — to realistic targets and
concrete actions. We need the mobilization of resources and investment," he
said.

"With the unique occasion of a World Summit, we have the chance to scale up our
ambitions to the global level, which is equal to the size of the challenge. Let
us not miss this opportunity."

To access the Declaration and the Plan of Action go to:
http://www.itu.int/wsis/documents/listing-all-en-s|1.asp





>
>McTim wrote:
>
>>>Mr. Utsumi <snip> mentioned the participation of civil society
>>>steadily increased throughout the process, so that at the end
>>>stakeholders fully participated in the final negotiations.
>>
>>I want some of what this guy was smoking !
>There was more like this, already in Tunis. I attended the closing plenary
>session on the 18th, and Adama Sammassekou, the president of the Geneva
>phase of the WSIS, even was so bold to state that "all stakeholders have
>adopted the Tunis Agenda and Commitment" - though there was never such a
>decision, and clearly will not be, by any civil society body, and AFAIK
>also not by the CCBI.
>
>This has two interesting aspects:
>
>1. They obviously see a need for getting us more 
>and more on board and enhancing our 
>participation in order to have a legitimate 
>outcome.
>
>2. If we participate in these processes and not 
>cleary and openly disassociate ourselves from 
>the outcomes (like we did in Geneva with the 
>statement at PrepCom3a and the CS Summit 
>Declaration), we are considered supporting them.
>
>Therefore, I felt like many others that it would 
>be important to have an independent statement 
>from civil society, and that was one of the 
>reasons we started the drafting process. (By the 
>way: I will try to send out a last final version 
>on Sunday night.) But there are more aspects to 
>this, and we need to think how to use this 
>strategically in future occasions.
>
>Best, Ralf
>_______________________________________________
>Plenary mailing list
>Plenary at wsis-cs.org
>http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/plenary


-- 
Lisa McLaughlin, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Mass Communication & Women's Studies
Editor, Feminist Media Studies
Director of Graduate Studies, M.A. Program in Mass Communication
Union for Democratic Communications Representative,
World Summit on the Information Society

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