[WSIS CS-Plenary] UNICT TF => Global Alliance (WSIS side meeting, Feb. 21)
Rik Panganiban
rikp at earthlink.net
Fri Feb 18 19:27:29 GMT 2005
Further to the message from Bill Drake about the open consultation on
the Global Alliance, on Monday February 21, from 10:00-13:00 in Salle
XXI, Palais des Nations.
There is a background note posted on the UN ICT TF, which I reproduce
below.
Rik Panganiban
CONGO
------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
Global Alliance for ICT Policy and Development
Note on issues for stakeholder consideration
The UN Millennium Summit, the G8 Digital Opportunity Task Force
(DOT-Force), the UN ICT Task Force, the World Summit on the Information
Society (WSIS), and others, have launched a process of bringing
stakeholders from government, business and civil society together for
global policy debate on the Millennium Development Goals and ICT policy
and development. A truly effective and sustainable collaboration among
the principal stakeholders will be essential for follow up after the
end of the mandate of the UN ICT Task Force and the completion of MS +
5 and WSIS-Tunis in 2005 if the potential of ICT to promote development
is to be effectively harnessed.
Indeed, recent discussions, including those within the context of the
WSIS, have reiterated the need to sustain and strengthen substantive
dialogue in a global, multi-stakeholder, open, inclusive and
transparent manner. The concept of an open global platform has also
been raised within the UN ICT Task Force, and the Secretary General of
the United Nations, endorsing such a global networking approach, has
asked the Task Force to develop, in consultation with all stakeholders,
concrete proposals for a global alliance on ICT policy and development.
At this stage it is probably not feasible to outline the precise
features of any global alliance that may emerge. The note therefore
does not reflect any position of the UN ICT Task Force or its members
but suggests some issues for consideration and poses some questions to
be asked all relevant stakeholders
.
In designing the concept and modalities of a global alliance issues and
questions will most likely center on the global context, the window of
opportunity, mission and value add, modus operandi, membership,
governance, and funding, and the relationship with MS+5, WSIS and the
United Nations of any emerging entity - all posed via rigorous critical
analysis of prior experience and in open consultation.
Global Context – With the Millennium Project and the Millennium Summit
+ 5 the international community will this year lend unprecedented focus
to the issues of poverty and security confronting the developing world,
but many regions, groups and economies are falling short of the
internationally agreed development goals
If the Millennium Development Goals provide the compass, what policies
and changes are needed to unleash the ubiquitous, adaptable and
increasingly cost effective nature of ICTs to chart an accelerated
course toward their achievement by 2015?
Window of opportunity – The coincidence of MS+5 and WSIS provides a
unique and virtuous opportunity to develop policy approaches, to
identify bottlenecks and gaps and build bridges, and to strengthen
synergies and inter-linkages between the ICT and the broader
development community.
Post-2005, how can an open and credible platform be created post-2005
to keep ICT at the forefront of the global political and development
agenda, avoiding a damaging policy hiatus, and taking advantage of a
truly catalytic opportunity for achieving the MDGs?
Mission and Value Add – Any kind of global alliance for ICT policy and
development must necessarily build upon previous initiatives and
demonstrate complementarity with and value added to existing efforts in
addressing substantive issues, drawing upon the outcomes of MS+5 and
WSIS.
Will the key to success for a global alliance lie in filling the need
for an open, global, multi-stakeholder platform, a “think tank” for
cross-sector policy debate on key cross-cutting issues related to ICT
policy and development? Should it offer a flexible framework for
pre-consensus and inclusive debate on policy issues difficult to
discuss elsewhere, further strengthening existing knowledge networks,
as well as permitting a structured exchange of experience about
monitoring progress in programmes and plans of action emerging from
MS+5 and WSIS? What types of framework can be considered for a
meaningful dialogue among stakeholders on substantive policy issues?
Modus operandi, membership, governance, funding – An ICT global
alliance should by its nature employ the revolutionary collaborative
methods of the Internet but also be an effective advocacy platform at
the highest levels of policy making. Membership of recent innovative
global alliance models has been fully open and transparent to
multi-stakeholder participation. Meanwhile, any global alliance must be
adequately resourced from the time of its launch.
Will the optimum mix for a global alliance be periodic high level and
face-to-face interaction supported by online means? Should openness and
transparency be its fundamental guiding principal? Would an appropriate
and equitable funding strategy be one based, for example, on the
principle of ability to pay?
Relationship with MS+5, WSIS and the United Nations – It is
strategically important to align the MS+5 and WSIS output and a number
of options are currently under discussion for the follow-up mechanisms
to both summits. Meanwhile, a global alliance could be direct
initiative of the United Nations Secretary-General for an open,
multi-stakeholder platform for ICT policy and development within the
declared timeframe of the Millennium Development Goals.
What are the mechanisms and elements that can be identified to bring
together the ICT and broader development communities that can lead to
an alignment of interests in MS+5 and WSIS outputs? What should be the
short, medium and long-term relationship of a global alliance with the
United Nations and its member organizations?
Your input on these and other relevant issues will be very much
appreciated. Please address your comments to [icttaskforce at un dot
org]
On Feb 4, 2005, at 2:06 PM, William Drake wrote:
> Hi Karen,
>
> (I'm having a problem posting to the governance list. Could you please
> forward this there?)
>
> The UNICT Task Force is considering a follow-up mechanism for when the
> TF's
> mandate has concluded. The idea under discussion is to launch an open,
> multistakeholder Global Alliance on ICT policy and development issues
> (there
> are various proposals on the name, unresolved). The secretariat held a
> small brainstorming meeting in New York a few weeks ago at which we
> developed various ideas on substance and modalities, and these and
> other
> inputs are to be discussed next by the TF bureau Feb 14.
>
> There will be an open consultation meeting on the global alliance
> concept
> during PrepCom 2. The session will be Monday 21, from 10:00-13:00,
> I'm told
> in in Salle XXI of the Palais (don't think it's on the website yet).
> Amb.
> Karklins has agreed to participate, and Mr. Ocampo may participate.
> Civil
> society people are very much encouraged to attend and weigh in on this.
>
> Separately, since the UNICT meeting in Berlin, there has been some
> discussion among a group of civil society and private sector people
> about
> the potential value of some ongoing dialogue between the two sides on
> global
> ICT policy matters in WSIS and beyond---clarifying areas of agreement
> and
> disagreement, etc. on substantive and procedural/institutional matters.
> This could be linked to the global alliance concept, or it could be a
> separate activity; it's an entirely fluid concept at present, which
> was part
> of why I suggested we might want to briefly address the general
> question of
> follow up mechanisms in the meeting on the 15th. Anyway, here too
> there's a
> need for an open consultation to see what people think. That is the
> lunch
> meeting currently penciled in for 23rd.
>
> Presumably, when both meetings are fully nailed down there will be
> formal
> announcements, but since everyone's schedules are filling up it's good
> to
> get these dates on the table now.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Bill
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: karen banks [mailto:karenb at gn.apc.org]
>> Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2005 1:00 PM
>> To: Governance
>> Subject: RE: [governance] Re: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Re: WGIG - Caucuses
>> meeting?
>>
>>
>> bill
>>
>>> *A discussion of possible post-WGIG/WSIS institutional
>>> reforms/additions
>>> that could address, on an open global multistakeholder basis,
>>> holistic
>>> approaches and the horizontal institutional issues. There will be a
>>> meeting, probably on the 21st, on the proposed Global Alliance
>> successor to
>>> the UNICT TF, and there are various other ideas floating around about
>>> reforms/new arrangements, the potential interrelationships of which
>>> are
>>> unclear. It might be useful to have at least a brief discussion on
>>> strategic orientations toward such initiatives.
>>
>> as we're trying to confirm dates of second meeting, can you
>> clarify re the
>> above? is this different to the informal meeting proposed by
>> ayesha between
>> CS and CCBI now penciled for lunch on 23rd? can you send more details
>> - i
>> don't see it in posts around the global alliance..
>>
>> karen
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Plenary mailing list
> Plenary at wsis-cs.org
> http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/plenary
>
>
===============================================
RIK PANGANIBAN Communications Coordinator
Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations
(CONGO)
web: http://www.ngocongo.org
email: rik.panganiban at ngocongo.org
mobile: (+1) 917-710-5524
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: text/enriched
Size: 9988 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/pipermail/plenary/attachments/20050218/5a8dfc49/attachment.bin
More information about the Plenary
mailing list