[WSIS CS-Plenary] Situation and way forward in Sub-Committee B at beggining of second week

[Bertrand de La Chapelle]

Dear all,
 A brief point on the situation at the beggining of the second week of
PrepCom.
 1) The Governments draft is out
 A "clean text" from the Chair (Lindall Shope-Mafole) came out during the
week-end on chapters one and four (implementation and follow-up). It is
becoming very long (10 pages) and still lacks a clear structure. There are
also many repetitions. Important new paragraphs have been added.
 The word "partnership" is being used repetitively, sometimes to insert
civil society in places where it was not mentioned before (which can be
good), in other cases to replace participation or involvement (which is less
pleasant). In our view, there is more a shared responsibility than a
partnership.
 We need a thorough combing of the text by all and will designate during
today's meeting of the WG B (10 to 11:30) a focal point to aggregate
specific comments and wording. Please send comments on the followup list and
not on the Plenary.
 2) Consultations with governments
 Informal discussions have taken place Friday and during the week-end with
some governements (Salvador, Canada, Greece, Sweden, United Kingdom), on the
basis of the document prepared by the Working Group B. The purpose was to
receive their comments on our formulations and the general architecture we
propose. This triggered a very positive response in a context where
governments themselves are struggling to define an appropriate architecture.
 The proposed strategy this week is to continue those consultations during
the week and outreach on a systemetic basis to regional governemental groups
with a view to formulate a balancede formulation that could get the support
of some governements.
 3) Notion of a Coordination body
 One of the key points discussed in Sub-Committe B is the creation of a
coordination body. It is a strong point of dissension among governements.
The WG has made a statement on this issue but will explore it in more detail
during the coming WG B meeting, particularly on the following points :
- name of such a body
- composition
- mandat
- hosting/secretariat
- modalities for establishment after Tunis
 This should be a key point to focus upon in the coming week in our
discussion, particularly to find formulations in the perspective of the last
minute negociations that will necessary take place in the few days before
the summit.
 I hope this helps people not in Geneva understand what is going on.
 Plese subscribe to the WG B mailing list through
www.wsis-cs.org<http://www.wsis-cs.org>to participate in this
discussion.
 Best
 Bertrand
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