WSIS Geneva PLan of Action

Action Lines

There are 11 Actions Lines in the Geneva Plan of Action, which constitute the implementation framework for the post WSIS phase.

1. The role of public governance authorities and all stakeholders in the promotion of ICTs for development
2. Information and communication infrastructure
3. Access to information and knowledge
4. Capacity building
5. Building confidence and security in the use of ICTs
6. Enabling environment
7. ICT applications: benefits in all aspects of life
   
   • E-government
   • E-business
   • E-learning
   • E-health
   • E-Employment
   • E-environment
   • E-agriculture
   • E-science
8. Cultural diversity and identity, linguistic diversity and local content
9. Media
10. Ethical dimensions of the Information Society
11. International and regional cooperation

Themes

In addition to Action Lines, WSIS outcome documents have also focused on themes including Internet Governance, Financing ICT for Development and Measuring the Information Society.

1. Internet Governance Forum
2. Financing ICT for Development
3. Measuring the Information Society

Click here to view actual official documents. 

WSIS- end of Phase 1 Geneva Meeting 2003

WSIS, as fairly typical of a UN Conference of a relatively non-contentious topic, closed on happy tension. I'm just hoping that, in these early days of ICT in Development, that it is not just tech hype, and that technology is used as a relevant tool (vs an ends) to reach goals that will reduce poverty. 

Brief facts:

• The three-day Summit is the first multi-stakeholder global effort to discuss "the use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) for a better world". 
• 175 countries came together in Geneva 
• Documents: 
• a Declaration of Principles — or a common vision of an information society’s values – and 
• a Plan of Action which sets forth a road map to build on that vision and to bring the benefits of ICTs to underserved economies. The plan sets out an ambitious goal of bringing 50 percent of the world's population online by 2015 but does not spell out any specifics of how this might be achieved. (see next blog post for the summary plan of action)
• Other groups also created "unofficial documents", including a document by NGOs called a document called "Shaping Information Societies for Human Needs" that brought together a wide range of issues under a human rights and communication rights umbrella." 
• Go to:http://www.itu.int/wsis/documents/listing-all-en-s|1.asp for the actual documents. See http://www.worldsummit2003.de/en/web/586.htm for a list of official and 'unofficial' documents). 
• An issue that emerged was Internet governance and the dominant role that the USA in policy making. The most radical ideas about devolving this authority were those supporting a civil society approach to Internet governance.
• The Geneva summit also left unresolved more controversial issues, including the question of Internet governance and funding.

Press Release:

Global Information Society Summit Spurs Solidarity, Alliances But Hard Work, Action Ahead

Geneva, 12 December 2003 — The World Summit on the Information Society closed on an optimistic note of consensus and commitment, but Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union and Summit cautioned that the meeting was only the start of a long and complex process. 

A Legal Framework for Promoting ICT entrepreneurship in Developing Countries

My friend and colleague at the Berkman Center, Colin Maclay, facilitated a Workshop on Global ICT Education Program last month, which aims to offer training courses to young ICT leaders of developing countries. I'm hoping that I can connect my contacts in Asian eGovernance and eLaw to the program. 

What I found interesting, though, was ( Berkman Executive Director) John Palfrey's panel presentation on how to create a legal framework for ICT entrepreneurship in developing countries. You can access his well written post on his blog, but I give a summary as follows: 

• Adopt a value and culture of Rule of Law
• But understand that there is no 'one-size-fit-all' solutions
• Enact predictable and consistent laws/regulations
• Most crucial areas:
• Telecommunications regulations
• Pricing controls
• Intellectual property
• Needs an integrated approach to all existing relevant laws, not just focus on a narrow 'e-commerce law'
• Control corruption
• Promote competition

I think that this is a great overall framework, and much too have been written about the actual the policies and laws themselves, that I hope to blog about some time soon. 

Worries about WSIS in Geneva next month

The Civil Society Group for WSIS has released a statement after PrepCom 3 setting out their worries about the upcoming summit next month. This group includes NGOs, educational institutions, media and others who are participating as "civil society" in the preparations for the summit as well as the WSIS itself. It aims to broaden civil society participation at the summit and to push certain issues onto the agenda, including human rights, human-centered development, and freedom of speech and press.

The group's statement allows an intereting glimpse into the politics and chaos of the process that official documents and statements do not. I suspect that this is not exceptionally different than other high level, multi-stakeholder global conference. Note in particular the two major issues that this group warns of 1. politics, in particular who pays for it, and 2. the philosophical basis:

"Through our observation of the process we have identified two main problem areas that impede progress in the WSIS:

1. How to correct imbalances in riches, imbalances of rights, imbalances of power, or imbalances of access. In particular, governments do not agree on even the principle of a financial effort to overcome the so- called Digital Divide; this is all the mor difficult to accept given that the summit process was started two years ago with precisely that objective.

2. The struggle over human rights. Not even the basis of human life in dignity and equality, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights finds support as the basis for the Information Society. Governments are not able to agree on a comittment to basic human right standards as the basis for the Information Society, most prominent in this case being the freedom of expression. 

There is also ongoing fight over issues such as media, internet governance, limited intellectual monopolies such as copyright, Free Software, security and so on. This underlines our assessment that there is a lack of a common vision."

2003-11-14 Civil Society at the End of the Preparatory Process for the WSIS

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Civil Society Statement at the End of the Preparatory Process for the World Summit on the Information Society Geneva, November 14, 2003


I. Where do we stand now?


We have come to the last day of PrepCom 3a. This extra week of preparatory work was neccesary after governments failed to reach agreement during the supposed final preparatory conference in September 2003. In spite of the extra expenditure of time and money, the deadlock continues – and sets in already on the very first article of the declaration, where governments are not able to agree on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, as the common foundation of the summit declaration.

A Dialogue on ICTs and Poverty: The IDRC-Harvard Forum

As part of the WSIS Geneva 2003 pep process, IDRC and Harvard held their first groundbreaking forum on ICTs and poverty in September 2003, - 30 experts from around the world gathered at Harvard University to discuss how information and communication technologies (ICTs) can help to reduce poverty. The participants included members of the Harvard faculty, educators, academics, and engineers from developing countries, and Nobel prize winning economists. 


Some quick facts:



Their objectives were:

• to discuss the connections between diffusion of ICTs, and poverty, in developing countries of different kinds; 
• to consider ways which ICT policies, management and investments can be more effective for poverty reduction; 
• to consider priority areas for action and research, for increasing the contribution of ICTs to poverty reduction.

Highlights:

You can access the summary of the forum here. A summary video, interviews with participants, and an extensive background survey of ICTs for Poverty Reduction, can be accessed at the IDRC site here. This is a really new and multidisciplinary field, with much more to be learned for sure. I'm surely excited to be at the forefront of this movement in ICT4D!

‘Legal Empowerment: Advancing Good Governance and Poverty Reduction’ - An ABD/TAF pubication

I recently questioned in this post if Rule of Law (ROL) programs, as practiced, are really just a resurrection of the Law and Development Movement (which I also blogged about here). My reaction was a pragmatic one: While I am interested in these debates and intend to continue to follow them, my belief is that there will not be one true solution, and I seek solace in the practical differences I make to people. Still, from my humble bottom-up grassroots beginnings in the development world, in recent years I find myself focusing increasingly on strategic and institutional issues, governance and legal/judicial reform work, and high level policy and law. Definitely top-down. And at the 1000 foot level it is sometimes different to see if we do make any impact at all.

Recently, however, The Asia Foundation, with funding from the ABD, published a paper suggesting a bottom-up approach: ‘Legal Empowerment: Advancing Good Governance and Poverty Reduction’, in Law and Policy Reform at the Asian Development Bank, by Stephen Golub and Kim McQuay Manila, 2001 (Full document at the ADB's website.) This article speaks to me, in light of my past experiences in the field, with NGOs like the one mentioned in the paper. Moving away from top-down ROL via institutions, the article uses disadvantaged groups as the focal point of asking: How can legal services and related activities increase their control over their lives? This also intersects nicely with Sen's 'freedom' concept, as well as the 'Rights Based' approaches that many prominent grassroots focussed NGOs- like CARE and Oxfam- have adopted.

Summary:

Worldsummit2003.org- information on WSIS, seen with German lens.

Stumbled upon a great 'unofficial' resource of WSIS, with lots of good facts and repository of documents. In Germany, a WSIS working group initiated by the Network New Media and the Heinrich Böll Foundation, has been meeting continuously since mid-2002. This group has gradually developed into a broader Germany-wide civil society coordination for the WSIS, and worldsummit2003.org is their site:


Worldsummit2003.org offers background information and latest news on the WSIS process and on the issues and debates around the summit. It was set up by the Heinrich Boell Foundation in February 2003 and is part of the efforts of the Foundation to spread knowledge and information about the summit, both in Germany and internationally. The site editors are members of the German WSIS Civil Society Coordinating Group and are also active in the international civil society activities on WSIS.

The site seeks to combine several objectives. It is
1. a general info site about the WSIS for civil society worldwide
2. an information source for German civil society, particularly
3. a window for the rest of the world to find out about WSIS preparation in Germany


http://www.worldsummit2003.de

Berkman Center's Internet Law Program at Stanford, June 30-July 4

The Berkman Center's Internet Law Program, presented in conjunction with Stanford's Center for Internet and Society, will take place at Stanford on June 30-July 4.

Fees range from $700 (for a day session) to $2,500 (standard registration). No prior background in the subject of Internet Law is required; however, American lawyers may be eligible for Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credit. Check out the agenda - it spans across a wide and interesting range of subjects (as fitting for this cross cutting, emerging topic)  to explore all aspects of contemporary Internet Law, delivered via a series of lectures and discussions designed. I am suspecting that, like all Harvard programs, this will be intensive, interactive, group based and case-method centered.

(updated 9/4/05): Check out a the even wider scope schedule for the 2005 program.