[WSIS CS-Plenary] Update from Asia alternative focal point on the CSB

[RunningToddler]

Hello everyone,

First, my apologies for writing such a long e-mail. I feel obliged to write and apprise everyone of what's happening right now. I have seen a lot of e-mail expressing frustration around the final selection of fellowships under the CS Facility Fund. As you recall, during the last days of Prepcom 3 in September, Amir Bamarki, focal point for Western Asia and Middle East and Chairperson at the time, informed all of you of the plans we had in ensuring an efficient database of applications which would allow full transparency in terms of decisions around fellowships vis-a-vis issue (caucus/family) and geographic representation, as well as other criteria of LDCs, DCs, etc. etc. Unfortunately, that plan fell through as the CSD made the decision on 29th September not to follow the proposal of the sub-working group on Finance after discussing the proposal quite extensively in a CSB meeting citing budgetary constraints. 

I think Amir at this point would have updated all of you in plenary and content and themes on this, but had probably wanted to give the process of the CSD a chance to prove itself. I won't go into the details of the CSD's process of selection and final decision-making since I don't seem to have all the information myself, except to say that some of the CSB members have taken the lead in drafting a letter to SDC as the main funder for WSIS, and to ask for additional funding, raising issues around the rigidity of the LDC vs DC requirement and the fact that a number of active civil society participants come from DCs and Countries in Transition. We have of course also highlighted the appaling results of this rigidity, leaving women very much under-represented in the granting of fellowships.

So far, CSB members who are willing to sign this letter come from:

Youth
NGOs
Asia and the Pacific
Western Asia and Middle East
Education and Academia
North America and Europe

We have not received a response from the gender caucus/CSB focal point, nor from Africa or Latin America. It is two days now since the letter was drafted. Would leaders of caucuses not represented by the families in the CSB like to add their names to this letter as well? This support is urgently needed if we are to be able to move now. Hence, the letter is not open for further editing on content, but just for endorsement. Time is short and flights to Geneva seem to be full. Renate Bloem has agreed to send this letter on behalf of Civil Society and the Bureau.

The letter is below.

Warm regards,

Angela

*******************************************************************************

Dear Sir/Madam,

We are writing on behalf of civil society actors in the World Summit on
the Information Society to seek your urgent assistance in ensuring basic
representation of NGOs at the Geneva Summit this December 10-12th. As
you are aware, the WSIS is the major United Nations Summit of 2003, with
more than 50 world leaders and almost ten thousand people from
government, business and civil society expected to participate to
explore the impact of information and communications technologies for
development.

It has just now come to the attention of the Civil Society Bureau (the
formal structure coordinating civil society involvement with
representatives from more than 20 groupings such as Gender, Trade
Unions, Youth, NGOs, Community Media and the five major regions of Asia and
the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe and North America,
Middle East and Western Asia, and Africa) that the Civil Society
Fellowship Fund administered by the WSIS Executive Secretariat is
severely under-financed. It was expected (and communicated to us) that
almost 100 fellowships would be available civil society to physically attend the WSIS in
Geneva this December, but we have less than half the expected budget, and we are
left with only a little over 30 fellowships possible. In addition, the
stipulation of the major donor, SDC, requires that more than 60% of
available funds are spent on Least Developing Countries. We deeply
appreciate the commitments already made and the priority to LDCs, but we
are concerned that unless more financial support is pledged towards civil
society participation, this major stakeholder will be forced to play only a
marginal role in the Summit.

Many Civil Society actors are now in a difficult position - some of the
most active participants who have expected fellowships were there
a slightly larger amount are now likely to miss out on funds to attend
the Summit. The reality is that the majority of
those most active around WSIS have come from Developing Countries and
Countries in Transition, rather than
Least Developed Countries. Their presence will be sorely missed and will
very much limit the ability of our groups to coordinate activities such as
presentations at side events, speaking slots, and the brokerage of partnerships that should be the culmination of a long process, which WSIS has committed to strive for.
The wanting financial situation has also resulted in severe under-representation of women to the Summit.

We are therefore urgently seeking:
- 150,000 CHF for 35 additional fellowships.
- 75% of those selected will be female.
- All will be from Developing Countries/Countries in Transition or Least
Developed Countries.
- All will have played key roles within civil society in the leadup to
the Summit at a national, regional or international level.

All the processes are already in place to identify the participants and
to arrange their travel and logistics. We believe this is a modest
number of fellowships overall considering the importance of the World
Summit and the key role of civil society groups in this field.

Yours truly,


Civil Society Bureau
on behalf of the following civil society groups and caucuses

Name, family/caucus
Name, family/caucus
Name, family/caucus
etc. etc.


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/pipermail/plenary/attachments/20031121/d379ceac/attachment.htm