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----- Original Message -----
From: Sally Burch - ALAI <sburch@alainet.org>
To: <ct@wsis-cs.org>; <Plenary@wsis-cs.org>
Sent: Friday, February 27, 2004 2:31 AM
Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Informal CS Bureau Meeting, ITU, 26 Februa
> I am forwarding the report of the CT representatives at the CS
> bureau meeting in Geneva today. Sally
> -------------------
>
> This is a quick summary by Chris Zielinski, edited by Thomas Ruddy, from
> notes of the informal CS Bureau Meeting held in ITU on 26 February. A
report
> will be provided by the Bureau in due course. In the interests of
protecting
> the guilty, I do not attribute the following remarks to anybody, nor are
the
> opinions expressed necessarily mine.
>
> 18 people attended the meeting, including representatives from a number of
> CS Bureau Families. Francis Muguet, Wolfgang Kleinwaechter, Thomas Ruddy
and
> Chris Zielinski attended from the CT group. Alain Clerc of the Civil
Society
> Division of the Executive Secretariat presided.
>
> The following Agenda was proposed for the meeting: 1) Information on Phase
> II, 2) Practical and financial arrangements, 3) CS Bureau evaluation for
> Phase 1, and 4) CS Bureau communication. In practice, most of the 90
minutes
> was spent on item 1.
>
> The bottom line is that there is no clear leadership in place in the run
up
> to the WSIS Phase 2 Summit in Tunis.
>
> According to General Assembly Resolution 56-183, the first Phase of the
> Summit was to elaborate a declaration and action plan, while no clear
> objective was set for Phase 2. It is not even clear if the coordinating
> group set up for Phase 1 (the "Executive Secretariat") was to carry on to
> Phase 2.
>
> For civil society, the picture is a bit simpler. The CS Bureau was set up
at
> PrepCom 2, and it has been developed in reaction to discussions. This is
the
> first such Civil Society Bureau ever, and is an experiment. Along with the
> Bureau, some 20 "families" were established. Some of these are
geographical,
> representing particular regions, and the rest are sectoral.
>
> It had been agreed that the situation would be reconsidered after Phase
1 -
> both in terms of the objectives of Phase 2 and the procedural and
structural
> aspects, such as the CS Bureau.
>
> Technically speaking, Phase 2 started immediately on the conclusion of the
> Geneva phase on 13 December. Since that time, not much has happened in
terms
> of establishing the framework for phase 2. A decision was taken to have a
> PrepCom in the first six months of 2004 (this is in the Action Plan that
was
> adopted at the Geneva Summit), but nobody seems to be driving it forward.
> The Tunisian government wants to hold this as soon as possible, while the
> ITU Secretariat argues for a July date.
>
> Governments are unclear about the process towards Tunis, and the ITU,
> although it was accorded the leading managerial role in the UN Resolution,
> seems to have lost heart, i.e. is in a funding crisis itself.
>
> There are a number of reasons for the ITU's changed perception of it role.
> At the end of Phase 1, ITU DG Yoshio Utsumi decided that Pierre Gagné
should
> no longer continue as Executive Secretary of WSIS. Utsumi took the role
for
> himself, assisted by Charles Geiger (Swiss Government appointee) and T.
> Nakaya (Japanese Government appointee).
>
> Although the ITU had fought hard to get the lead role, it gradually
> recognized that relatively little of the dissuasion at WSIS-1 was related
to
> ITU's narrow mandate. Given its lack of funds and lack of political will
or
> skills (as a purely technical agency), the ITU has been increasingly
> unwilling to go it alone.
>
> This is clearly reflected in a paper just posted on the ITU website ("ITU
> Role in Preparing for the Tunis phase of the WSIS" at
> http://www.itu.int/council/wsis/wsis_WG.html):
>
> "It is proposed that the ITU should focus on those action lines that
relate
> specifically to its mandate; it should not assume a lead role, but
> contribute to possible global mechanisms established to follow-up on and
> monitor the results of the Geneva phase".
>
> ITU has indeed been trying to get out of shouldering the full financial
and
> managerial burden of organizing the conference. Utsumi went to Kofi Annan
to
> ask him to ensure that other organizations contributed to WSIS activities
> and budget, but Annan made no response. The ITU wanted it, got it, and
> should now do it.
>
> In consequence, Governments have had no guidance or proposals for future
> work at this point.. While the Swiss Government could afford to spend
> significant sums in support of WSIS 1, Tunisia is not able to be so
> forthcoming for WSIS 2.
>
> In the absence of guidance from the Secretariat, the Tunisian Government
has
> been acting independently, with mixed results. Two ideas were put on the
> table:
>
> 1. The Tunis Summit should concentrate on a "new charter" - but nobody has
> specified exactly what this is. Another declaration?
> 2. A regional approach should be adopted.
>
> There has been no real discussion of these ideas, and it is not clear who
if
> anyone supports them.
>
> There is also activity at the regional level: in Lyon with its "Cities
> United" project (convening again in May in Paris), Italy on finance and
> Barcelona working on cultural diversity.
>
> The Bureau feels that the second phase should develop a thematic approach.
> An alternative or supplementary approach would be to consider Tunis to be
an
> implementation conference (a Tunis +2, analogous to the Environmental
> Summit's +5), although this is really a short time frame in which to see
any
> real implementation of the Plan of Action.
>
> Two action groups have been proposed:
>
> 1. An action group on financial maters (under the auspices of Kofi Annan)
> 2. An action group on Internet Governance (under the auspices of ITU)
>
> The UN's ICT Task Force, which is meeting shortly (early April) could take
a
> look at these proposals and make recommendations about how to move
forward.
> Failing this, the next PrepCom would tackle this, which would mean that
for
> all practical purposes the Working Groups could not be constituted much
> before October 2004 and report in June 2005.
>
> So it is now being proposed to take advantage of next week's brainstorming
> in Tunis to push these proposals. In particular, civil society should have
> the same role as in the first Phase in establishing the agenda for the
next
> Summit, as Tunisian Ambassador Mansour announced at a NGOCONGO briefing a
> week ago. Concrete proposals should come from civil society now.
>
> In summary, the Bureau supports the thematic approach, feels that the
> working groups should be mobilized at once, and stresses the need for
civil
> society to participate fully in all upcoming phases of work towards, and
at,
> the Tunis Summit.
>
> Among the financial proposals, Louise Lassonde said "We are working hard
to
> get resources. We have considered opening up a fund for CS participation.
We
> could apply for InfoDev funding."
>
> Some explanations were given about the two e-mail lists founded for WSIS
> (both in the same week), the lack of archives at bureau@geneve2003.org,
and
> the like. Technical reasons were blamed for the lack of archives. In any
> case, Louise Lassonde announced that a new list going live in the next few
> days at bureau@tunis2005.org would address these issues and provide an
open
> archive.
>
> Wolfgang Kleinwaechter called for issuing a warning statement to the Tunis
> brainstorming session. It would not come from the CS Bureau, but rather
the
> CT Group. It would complain about the lack of follow-up, which governments
> and international organizations should be undertaking. Governments should
> not shirk their responsibility. CS only wanted to share responsibility. It
> is unrealistic to expect CS to take the lead.
> _______________________________________________
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> Content & Themes Documents:
> http://mboom.draper.albany.edu/~mciver/WSIS/CSDeclaration/
> Drafting Portal: [TBA]
> ------- End of forwarded message -------
>
> __________________________________________________________
> Sally Burch - Directora Ejecutiva
> Agencia Latinomericana de Informacion -
> INTERNET: sburch@alainet.org
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