[WSIS CS-Plenary] Renate Bloem: Statement for the Welcome Ceremony

[karen banks]

Dear All

Here is a copy of Renate Bloem's statement to the Swiss Host country 
opening ceremony..

karen

Welcome Ceremony to the
World Summit on the Information Society


Statement by Renate D. Bloem

President of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the 
United Nations (CONGO)
Mr. President, Mr. Secretary General&
Excellencies & Ladies and Gentleman, Colleagues and Friends

It is indeed a great honor to be here tonight and I thank the Swiss 
authorities for inviting me to bring a voice of civil society to this 
Opening Ceremony. I honor them for having so well understood and supported 
the assertion of the Secretary General, Mr. Kofi Annan, when he said 
(already in 1999 at the World Civil Society Conference in Montreal) that 
for the United Nations, co-operation with civil society is not an option, 
it is a necessity.

Never before has civil society so deeply and passionately been involved and 
has participated in such a way as in this two year process leading up to 
this first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society. With the 
green light given by the General Assembly Resolution (56/183) for a multi- 
stake holder approach, the door opened (at least a little bit) to what I 
call a new era in UN-civil society relations, in which governments, civil 
society, the private sector and intergovernmental organizations, -all in 
their respective roles sit more equally together to define and negotiate 
our societies- knowledge and information societies- of tomorrow.

With the establishment of the Civil Society Bureau as counterpart to the 
Governmental Bureau, a Content and Themes Group that coordinated the 
substantive input from the Caucuses and a CS Plenary that gave legitimacy 
to the overall activities CS organized itself in a way that allowed maximum 
participation and diversity of opinion. It created also the possibility 
both on-line and off-line to shape common positions for input into the 
ongoing negotiations of the outcome document.

We are proud that we helped to move the discussion from ICTs as an end in 
itself to ICTs as a means to social and economic development. And although 
we became often frustrated during the process that our contributions were 
heard but not enough taken into consideration, we moved slowly from input 
to impact. We established essential benchmarks our ethical framework -, and 
after the deadlock at Prepcom 3 started to write our own Declaration that 
will be officially presented to the Summit on Thursday afternoon. We ask 
that this Declaration becomes an official document of the Summit.

At the same time we are immensely pleased to recognize today that, after 
the latest rounds of negotiations much progress has been made and most or 
as I hear now all of the bracketed controversial areas, particularly 
regarding human rights, have found new consensus language. Even the tricky 
financial issue seems to come closer to an agreement.

Will this Summit then become a real watershed, a turning point?

This question was asked during our CONGO General Assembly held here last 
week when we became painfully aware that the large majority of the world's 
six billion people is not in a position to access the ICT systems or are at 
ease with the programs that make it work. Millions of them have still to 
make their first telephone call.

Panelists observed:

·      The digital divide is linked directly to a gender divide, an 
economic divide, an urban-rural divide, and a generational divide

·       The ICT challenge that we face is a critical component of the 
Millennium Development Goals and it will not be possible to achieve those 
goals without meaningful cooperation and communication among all sectors of 
the UN constituency and the private sector

·       Meaningful communication implies a commitment to a new development 
formula that implements integrated communication strategies&such strategies 
as entertainment education, service provider relationships, media and 
community-based support on a needs basis.

·       There is an ongoing need for leadership development, human capacity 
building, e-volunteering and evaluation of impact and lessons learned. This 
will provide the best practices experience that will move us forward and 
bring us together as a global community of responsible citizens seeking 
continuous improvement and learning from our mistakes.

·       The realization that information is not knowledge and contact is 
not communication should guide our efforts and keep us on track

CONGO was asked to set up an open-ended WSIS Support Task Force to monitor 
progress and urge governments to acknowledge and implement gender equality, 
women and childrens rights, older persons issues and access for disabled 
individuals and communities.

CONGO should play a watchdog role to assure that issues of security, 
freedom of expression, access to information and equal opportunity are 
maintained and expanded.

CONGO calls therefore on the summit to be bold and courageous in adopting a 
plan of action that includes innovative communication strategies that have 
been pioneered by the womens movement, by older persons and by indigenous 
populations who have learned the value of community based problem-solving 
and low cost alternatives to fancy and fragile hardware that may not be 
appropriate.

Above all, the Summit should recognize that ICTs do not represent a means 
for the north to communicate its views to the south but rather a system of 
dialogue in which the south has as much to offer in the information society 
as the north. When it comes to communication and knowledge, we are all 
underdeveloped and seeking ways to improve ourselves and our communities.

Let us therefore use this important Summit to find the way forward to a 
better world of peace and prosperity for all!










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