[WSIS CS-Plenary] The March meeting: suggestions

[karen banks]

Dear plenary,

I was going to ask for further information about the March meeting, who was 
attending, on what basis etc, but the recent posting from Mr. Geiger is 
useful in that respect.

[extract..

>Let me now turn to the invitation of Tunisia:
>
>The host country of the second phase has invited the members of the three
>Bureaus (Intergovernmental Bureau of the PrepCom, Civil Society Bureau,
>Consultative Committee of Business interlocutors) as well as the focal point
>members of the HLSOC (High Level Summit Organizing Committee, basically the
>interested UN Agencies) to a informal brainstorming meeting at Tunis. This
>meeting is not part of the formal preparatory process.

It is good to see that Civil Society has been invited,  along with other 
stake-holders, in the representation of the CS Bureau.

However, and although this meeting is not part of the formal preparatory 
process, i think we all know that this will be a very important meeting, 
that will layout a possible shape and direction for the implemenation of 
Phase II.

I'm sure that the host country - and all participants - will want to ensure 
that the outcomes of this meeting, inform the first preparatory meeting, 
and the entire preparatory process. No doubt it will deal with process 
issues, but i would imagine it will also deal with content issues. As Mr. 
Grieger goes on to say:

>The meeting intends to kickstart the reflection process among all
>stakeholders on what should be the value added of phase 2 of WSIS. As you
>know, agreed languange was that phase 1 would end with a Declaration and a
>Plan of Action (and it did!), and phase 2 would focus more on developmental
>issues and also monitor and evaluate progress made since the first phase of
>the Summit. This is a vague statement. For real monitoring and evaluation,
>the time span of 23 month between the two phases is too short, as every
>development expert knows.

In that respect, I feel it is very important that we uphold our ways of 
working during WSIS phase I, and extend an invitation to the Content and 
Themes working group, to identify a representaive for the meeting.

The ICCB is attending and i imagine will certainly wish to focus on some 
content issues, i believe it's imperative that the WSIS Content and themes 
group is simiarily represented.

I understand the funding contraints, but the issue here is also one of 
principle, if we can agree on that first, then we can second deal with the 
financial difficulties.

I would like to know how others feel about this?

karen