[WSIS CS-Plenary] [SPAM] Deconstructing "Multi-Stakeholderism"

[arne]

Hi all!
As the latest "WSIS E-Flash" leads with another story on participatory 
appraches, we thought some of you might be interested in a piece of 
analysis on this issue which we have recently put up on the site. Read 
more on www.worldsummit2003.org/.de.
Good luck to all at Prep3a!
Arne

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Multi-Stakeholder Process as Safety-Belt
Civil Society legitimation is crucial for WSIS

The recent initiative by the president of the WSIS preparatory 
committee to solve issues of conflict between governments has once more 
highlighted the role of civil society organisations as legitimizing 
force of the summit. Even before the decisive negotiations with 
government delegations, Mr Samassekou approached the civil society 
Content&Themes group to find out which sections of his "non-paper" it 
would not support. So, although NGOs dont sit at the negotiating table 
and dont offer any quantifiable trading issues, their support is being 
valued higher than that of some governments.

The negotiating position of civil society is based on the 
"multi-stakeholder process". The latter describes a main goal of the 
WSIS: the participation of all concerned social forces in the summit 
process. Not only governments, but also business and civil society are 
called upon to take part in the WSIS and to support its outcomes.

During the third preparatory conference PrepCom3, it became 
increasingly obvious that the opportunities for civil society to 
participate in the summit process are by no means the result of a 
gracious gesture by the WSIS organisers. Rather, letting NGOs 
participate has served to integrate potentially critical voices. A 
repetition of scenes of street confrontation, as in Seattle, Genoa, or 
just recently during the G8 summit in Geneva itself, damaging as they 
would be to publicity efforts, had to be prevented. Thus the 
"multi-stakeholder approach" has represented a direct response both to 
the summit protests of the past years and to the lack of legitimacy of 
large government summits, which had been highlighted by those protests.

At PrepCom3, even the most cautious points of criticism by the 
essentially excluded and thereby frustrated NGOs led to sensitive 
reactions by the WSIS secretariat, the governments, and PrepCom 
President Samassekou. Attempts to pacify and accomodate civil society 
were triggered, particularly, by plans for an alternative civil society 
declaration as that document would have the potential to destroy the 
carefully nurtured impression of broad civil society support to the 
official WSIS declaration (also see the article "Civil Society 
organisations will draft own declaration" on this website).

At the same time, many civil society representatives present at 
PrepCom3 developed an increasingly critical awareness of their own role 
as a legitimizing force. Civil society meetings discussed the limits of 
lobbying, agreed on "non-negotiables" to serve as landmarks for either 
supporting or rejecting the WSIS declaration, and the final civil 
society press statement started with the words: "If governments 
continue to exclude our principles, we will not lend legitimacy to the 
final official WSIS documents".

Due to the inability of government delegations to develop a meaningful 
and substance-rich declaration, the multi-stakeholder character of the 
summit has become even more crucial since PrepCom3. The official press 
statement at the end of PrepCom3 does not emphasize the (poor) thematic 
outcomes of the WSIS but rather carries the heading: "Summit Breaks New 
Ground with Multi-Stakeholder Approach". As the only true innovation 
left from the previously high aims of the summit, the multi-stakeholder 
approach must now guarantee the success of the summit.

It is exactly this dilemma which offers an increased negotiating 
position to those civil society organisations involved in the WSIS. If 
the legitimization card is played strategically, and if all possible 
alternatives to participation are taken serious, then those 
organisations could move from the margins to the very centre of the 
WSIS process.

What could be helpful is the fact that a broad network of a variety of 
events is currently developing between "inside" and "outside". While 
some have rejected the legitimization game from the outset and have 
been planning alternative events outside the WSIS framework under the 
name "WSIS? We Seize!" , others are occupying the cutting edges between 
participation and fundamental criticism, for example with the World 
Forum on Communication Rights or the Community Media Forum. The 
bandwith of possible interventions is large, civil society is not 
dependent on lobbying, and this certainty could (and should) raise the 
minimum level for civil society legitimation of the summit.

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