Charles Geiger (Assistant Exec Dir. WSIS) writes the CS Bureau members. FYI
----- Original Message -----
From: <charles.geiger@itu.int>
To: <westasiaregion@hotmail.com>; <fatma.harbaoui@itu.int>;
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Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2004 7:38 PM
Subject: RE: Invitation to a informal meeting at Tunis
>
> Dear members of the CSB
>
> I would like to update you on some recent events in the Executive
> Secretariat (ES), and also answer the questions of Amir Barmaki and
Roberto
> Guerra.
>
> As you may have heard, the funding from the Canton of Geneva for the
> Fondation du Devenir, which was running the civil society division in our
> ES, has come to an end. The ES, as a whole, continues to exist, but with
> less personnel than before. We may get some new colleagues into the ES,
> which could be dealing with civil society liaison and accreditation
matters.
> We will inform you as soon as this becomes reality. For the time being, we
> will inform the CSB members directly and as a whole.
>
> As you know, WSIS is a Summit in two parts. All Rules and Arrangments
> decided by Governments for the first part of WSIS continue to be valid
> during the second part. This includes Arrangments for accreditation and
> participation. All entities from civil society and business who got
> accreditation during the first part of the Summit remain accredited for
the
> second part of the Summit. Accreditation is an ongoing process, and we
will
> prepare for each PrepCom of phase 2 a new list of civil society and
business
> entities having requested accreditation, for approval by the Governments.
>
> Accreditation of civil society during the first part of the Summit was
done
> on the website of the Civil Society Division / Fondation du Devenir (FDD)
> www.geneva2003.org , which was not the official WSIS website. As the FDD
is
> outgoing, this website will not be updated anymore, and we do not have the
> capacity to manage the electronic registration they installed on their
> website. Therefore, new accreditation requests, from now on, have to be
sent
> to the Executive Secretariat electronically or by fax / normal mail, and
the
> respective forms are available on our WSIS website at
> http://www.itu.int/wsis/participation/accreditation/cs.html .
>
> Let me now turn to the invitation of Tunisia:
>
> The host country of the second phase has invited the members of the three
> Bureaus (Intergovernmental Bureau of the PrepCom, Civil Society Bureau,
> Consultative Committee of Business interlocutors) as well as the focal
point
> members of the HLSOC (High Level Summit Organizing Committee, basically
the
> interested UN Agencies) to a informal brainstorming meeting at Tunis. This
> meeting is not part of the formal preparatory process.
>
> The meeting intends to kickstart the reflection process among all
> stakeholders on what should be the value added of phase 2 of WSIS. As you
> know, agreed languange was that phase 1 would end with a Declaration and a
> Plan of Action (and it did!), and phase 2 would focus more on
developmental
> issues and also monitor and evaluate progress made since the first phase
of
> the Summit. This is a vague statement. For real monitoring and evaluation,
> the time span of 23 month between the two phases is too short, as every
> development expert knows.
>
> My guess is that the second phase will work more through thematic meetings
> (organized mainly by the UN Agencies, but also by some governments, and
even
> by Civil Society and business, perhaps). Africa and LAC will probably have
> another regional meeting, to discuss regional implementation (and perhaps
> come up with a blueprint for good national impelementation). My guess is
> further that there will be two PrepComs, one near the end of 2004 and one
> around September 2005. The discussion in Tunis will focus on the process,
> but probably also on which themes should be deepended further (besides the
> two themes Internet Governance and Financing, where the SG of the UN was
> asked in the final documents to create working groups). Such themes could
be
> Internet Security, Spam, Ethics of the Information Society, to give just
> some examples.
>
> I think we should also use the second phase to stress implementation (a
weak
> point of most previous UN Summits).
>
> At the actual stage, there is no Agenda for this informal meeting. From
the
> above, you can guess in which direction the discussion could go. Perhaps
we
> will create mixed working groups during these two days, to deepen one or
the
> other issue. The planning is done by our Tunisian colleages. I do not
think
> that the meeting will produce a document, as such document may have the
same
> fate as previous external inputs into the WSIS process. The idea is that
we
> come all together to think what the second phase could/should look like.
It
> is then up to the formal process to decide.
>
> Please note also that we have used the list of CSB members from the
exisitng
> website of the Civil Society Division. When there was more than one name
for
> a family we sent to all addresses. As the invitation extends to one member
> of each family, you may have to get in contact among yourself to determine
> who should be the invited person. There is also no obligation to accept
the
> invitation. In fact, we are well aware that perhaps not all families will
be
> represented (or have the necessary means to travel to Tunis).
>
> To answer Roberto Guerra's 3 questions:
>
> 1. Tunisair flies to Paris, you could try to get a cheap ticket
> Canada-Paris. The ITU arrangements do not work for non-ITU personnel. Air
> France was an official carrier for WSIS phase 1, you can always try if
this
> arrangements still work (it is likely that the advantages ended with the
> Geneva Summit). Infos are at
> http://www.itu.int/wsis/practical/carriers/index.html . At the actual
stage,
> Tunisair has not yet confirmed its "official carrier" status for the
second
> phase of WSIS. Therefore, we do not exactly know what rebates they will
> offer. A decision will hopefully be taken within the next few days.
>
> 2. The invitation is from Tunisia, and they are hosting the event. You
would
> have to ask them directly if they would be ready to host you longer. There
> are also some inexpensive Hotels in Tunis (take the Lonely Planet Guide),
if
> you want to stay longer. There are interesting historical places in and
> around Tunis, and the weather is surely warmer than here in Geneva or in
> Canada.
>
> 3. The idea of the meeting is to have some sort of retreat to think about
> phase 2. So my guess is that there are no Audio or Video-conferencing
> facilites. It could also be contrary of the idea of a retreat. Again, you
> may ask the organizers at the e-mail address indicated in the inscription
> form. But I don't think they are equipped or will consider the request.
>
>
>
> One last information: Tunisair has direct flights from and to Geneva on
> Monday, Thursday and Saturday. This was also one of the reasons why the
> meeting is scheduled on Tuesday and Wednesday.
>
>
> Yours sincerely
>
> Charles Geiger
> Assistant Executive Director WSIS
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: west Asia [mailto:westasiaregion@hotmail.com]
> Sent: mercredi, 11. fñ×rier 2004 16:28
> > Cc: charles.geiger@itu.int
> Subject: Re: Invitation to a informal meeting at Tunis
>
>
> Dear Fatma
>
> I will participate in that informal meeting event from Middle East and
West
> Asia region family (CSB). Thanks for informing us, my question is who
should
> be contacted for arrangements there and what is the exact agenda of the
> meetings?
>
> Thanks
>
> Amir Barmaki
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <fatma.harbaoui@itu.int>
> To: <ajp@glocom.ac.jp>; <adel.elzaim@canti.com>; <alalegre@fma.ph>;
> <alex@takingitglobal.org>; <krikorian@ipa-uie.org>; <munyua@femnet.or.ke>;
> <alke.boessiger@union-network.org>; <abarmaki@irancsos.net>;
> <amkt@apcwomen.org>; <busaniche@caminandoutopias.org.ar>;
> <bvigano@genderwsis.org>; <congo@ngocongo.org>; <carthage@icsu.org>;
> <charlotte@icvolunteers.org>; <greve@gnu.org>; <hkawa@attglobal.net>;
> <briquemont@ebu.ch>; <j.gagain@funglode.org>; <cic@coi-tn.org>;
> <kend@easterndoor.com>; <mth.bellamy@geneva.icftu.org>;
> <nick@takingitglobal.org>; <events@genderwsis.org>; <info@laneta.apc.org>;
> <anais_ac@yahoo.fr>; <info@cities-lyon.org>; <rebloem@ngocongo.org>;
> <rguerra@cpsr.org>; <ross.shimmon@ifla.nl>; <sean@nexus.ie>;
> <nyaka@sn.apc.org>; <viola@icvolunteers.org>; <Yjpark@myepark.com>
> Cc: <charles.geiger@itu.int>
> Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2004 12:03 PM
> Subject: FW: Invitation to a informal meeting at Tunis
>
>
>
>
> > Dear members of the Civil Society Bureau
> >
> > Please find attached an invitation letter, signed by the Minister for
> > Communication Technology and Transport, Republic of Tunisia, and by the
> > Secretary General of the ITU, to an informal brainstorming meeting at
> > Tunis.
> >
> > Please note that this meeting is not a part of the official preparatory
> > process. The idea of the organizers is to bring together a group or
> > persons which has been actively involved in the process of phase I of
> > WSIS. In order not to make an arbitrary selection of persons, the
> > organizers did choose to invite the members of the different bureaus as
> > well as the members of the HLSOC in their personal capacity. With regard
> > to the CSB, one member of each family is invited.
> >
> > The organizers will pay the costs of accommodation at Tunis (only
> > telephone charges and alcoholic beverages are charged to participants).
> > Travel costs have to be paid by the participants (there is a rebate in
> > case you use Tunisair). As the meeting has an informal character and the
> > invitation is restricted, we regret to inform you that no fellowships
from
> > the ITU WSIS trust fund are available.
> >
> > With best regards
> >
> > Charles Geiger
> > Assistant Executive Director
> >
> >
> >
> > <<Letter Tunis English, rev.1.doc>> <<Lettre Tunis version franíÂise,
> > rev.1.doc>> <<Formulaire RñÖnion Tunis rev.1.doc>>
> >