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IT for Change was closely associated with the drafting of the Civil Society Statement on WSIS during Phase II at Tunis. The broad mandate for WSIS was to address the long-standing issues in economic and social development from the newly emerging perspectives of the opportunities and risks posed by the revolution in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). WSIS was expected to identify and articulate new development possibilities and paradigms being made possible in the information society, and to evolve public policy options for enabling and realising these opportunities. Overall, it is impossible not to conclude that WSIS has failed to live up to these expectations. The Tunis phase in particular, which was presented as the “summit of solutions”, did not provide concrete achievements to meaningfully address development priorities.
High Level Asia-Pacific Conference for the World Summit on the Information Society, Tehran Parminder Jeet Singh attended The Asia Pacific Regional WSIS conference held in Tehran which was the culmination of the pre-Tunis regional WSIS processes. This process which began with a regional conference in Tokyo in 2003 was followed by one in Bangkok in 2004, after which four sub-regional conferences were held. UNESCAP (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific) was the main organizer of all these conferences. To read the complete report on the Tehran Conference click here.
To read the response from Civil Society click here.
To read background documentation click here. PREPCOM III To read the WSIS Civil Society summit statement click here. Submission made by the informal coalition to sub-committee A on Internet Governance at Prepcom 3
The Informal Coalition on Financing ICTD contributed to Section 4 Measures to promote development of the Chair’s paper on Chapter 3 on Internet Governance. To read more click here.
Statement on behalf of the Civil Society Working Group on WSIS follow-upStatement on behalf of the Civil Society Working Group on WSIS follow-up Sub-Committee B of the WSIS PrepCom3 on September 22, 2005. Joint submission to the 7th meeting of the WSIS GFC
Joint submission to the 7th meeting of the WSIS GFC by civil society organisations and individuals on the proposed draft text for paragraphs 10, 11 and 29 of the operational part of the Tunis document. A group of organisations and individuals from the civil society strongly opposed the move to make the proposed changes in paragraphs 10, 11 and 29 of the operational part of the Tunis document, as per the new input document circulated by the President of the PrepCom. These changes do not represent the contributions of the various stakeholders to the existing text, and their acceptance will defeat the stated purpose of the Tunis summit, described as the ‘summit of solutions’, to make some real headway in implementing the promises of the Geneva summit. They suggested that implementation and follow-up mechanisms for WSIS are based on multi-stakeholder teams around action lines with a well-defined overall co-ordination body, as contained in the existing paragraphs 10, 11 and 29. The text of these paragraphs should be further improved and elaborated through a multi stakeholder consultative process in order to ensure that an adequate post-WSIS structure is in place. The purpose of such a structure will not only be to implement the outcomes of WSIS but also to take up information society issues as they emerge.
PREPCOM II
Inputs on Chapter 1 of the operational part of the Tunis documents This document was jointly submitted by the informal coalition on financing and WSIS-Gender Caucus. As part of the coalition of NGOs which came together at prepcom 2 of the Tunis phase to lobby on the financing issue, IT for Change made substantial contributions to the issue. WSIS Preparatory Committee II, 17th-25th February 2005, Geneva- Anita Gurumurthy, on behalf of the Association for Progressive Communications, Bread for All, CRIS, Instituto del Tercer Mundo (ITeM), IT for Change, and the Gender Caucus, read out a Statement at the main government plenary on Financing the Information Society .
- Gender Caucus Position on Financing Mechanisms drafted on behalf of WSIS Gender Caucus by DAWN, AMARC Africa and IT for Change.
This report was written for APC News by Anita Gurumurthy and Parminder Jeet Singh of IT for Change.
Substantive Inputs made by IT for Change to the emerging outcome documents from WSIS
The chapter on Financing ICTD as it stands (almost) agreed by governments, with points on 'public finance' and 'initiatives driven by local governments and local communities' as suggested by IT for Change and some other NGOs accepted and included (these insertions are highlighted in the text). Suggested amendments to Chapter Two (on financial mechanisms) of the Operational Part of the WSIS - Tunis document - Inputs made by the following civil society organizations: CRIS, APC, ITeM, Bread for All, Digital Divide Data and IT for Change.
Suggested amendments to Chapter One of the Operational Part of the WSIS - Tunis document - Inputs made by the following civil society organizations: CRIS, APC, ITeM, Bread for All, Digital Divide Data and IT for Change.
Suggested amendments to Political Chapeau WSIS - Tunis document - Input made by CRIS, APC, ITeM, Bread for All, Digital Divide Data and IT for Change
Second Regional Preparatory Conference for WSIS, Damascus
IT for Change participated in the Second Regional Prepcom Conference held in Damascus on 22nd-23rd November 2004. Anita Gurumurthy presented a paper on A Gender Perspective to ICTs and Development: Reflections towards Tunis.
Regional Consultation For WSIS, Dhaka At the Regional Consultation in Dhaka on 5th-7th January 2005 , Parminder Jeet Singh spoke on 'ICTD Funding' and discussed the lessons from recent case studies conducted for the WSIS Task Force on Financial Mechanism and Anita Gurumurthy presented a paper on 'ICT Policy and Gender Issues: Lessons from the past and homework for now'.
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Events