[WSIS CS-Plenary] West Asia Regional conference 22-23 November, Damascus

Wed Sep 15 19:34:58 BST 2004

Dear Colleagues,

For those who have not seen this, there are plans for a West Asia 
Regional Conference from 22-23 November 2004 in Damascus Syria, under 
the cosponsorship of ESCWA, UNESCO and the Syrian government.  Perhaps 
Amir Barmaki and our other West Asian colleagues can inform us if they 
plan on attending and other information about this meeting.

More information can be found at 
http://www.escwa.org.lb/wsis/conference2/main.html .

Rik Panganiban
Communications Coordinator
CONGO
=================================================

SECOND REGIONAL PREPARATORY CONFERENCE FOR WSIS,
  DAMASCUS, 22-23 November 2004

  Information Note

The first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), 
held in Geneva during 10-12 December 2003, adopted a Declaration of 
Principles (DoP) and a global Plan of Action (PoA), setting the stage 
for international cooperation to close the existing digital divide 
between developing and developed countries while involving all 
stakeholders in building an inclusive information society. A key goal 
was set to develop universally accessible, equitable and affordable 
information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure and 
services; and it was recognized that only through creating an enabling 
environment based on clear policies, laws and regulatory frameworks and 
building trust and confidence in ICT, that access can become truly 
universal.

  The PoA attempted to set a roadmap to build such an environment and to 
make it sustainable, through planning for capacity building activities, 
including educating populations, establishing research, development and 
innovation practices as well as promoting ICT enterprises. Women as 
well as marginalized and vulnerable groups were looked upon as 
important constituents of the sought global information society, and in 
need of empowerment. The development of a multilingual, diverse and 
culturally appropriate content on the Internet, as well as the 
independence and pluralism of the media were considered essential for a 
global and inclusive information society. Actions were also suggested 
to share knowledge while respecting intellectual property rights to 
spur innovation and creativity.

  The two issues that remained unsolved, however, were the global 
Internet governance and the funding of development projects. The United 
Nations Secretary General formed a Working Group on Internet Governance 
and a Task Force on Financial Mechanisms to study and make 
recommendations on both issues. The outputs of both groups should feed 
into the preparatory process for the second phase of WSIS, leading to 
appropriate decisions and actions.

  As decided in the first Preparatory Committee meeting (PrepCom-1), the 
second phase of WSIS, to be held in Tunis during 16-18 November 2005, 
will focus on the "follow-up and implementation of the Geneva 
Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action by stakeholders at 
national, regional and international levels" . Preparations will be 
carried at the regional and global levels through regional, 
sub-regional and thematic conferences, the outcomes of which will feed 
into the (global) Preparatory Committee meetings, to produce draft 
documents to be adopted at the Tunis Summit. The Second Regional 
Preparatory Conference for WSIS, focusing on partnership for building 
the Arab information society, is part of the preparatory process for 
this second phase of the WSIS. While the Western Asia Preparatory 
Conference for WSIS, held in Beirut (February 2003), produced the 
Beirut Declaration, providing regional input to the Geneva DoP and PoA, 
this Conference should produce a Regional Plan of Action, taking into 
account regional needs for building a sustainable Arab information 
society.

Objectives:

  The Second Regional Preparatory Conference for WSIS will follow up on 
the outcome of the first phase of the Summit, held in Geneva (December 
2003), and will launch regional preparations for the second phase in 
Tunis (November 2005). Since the Tunis Summit will focus on the 
implementation of a global PoA, this Conference has the following 
objectives:
	• 	
Review of actions taken by Arab countries to reduce the digital divide 
in light of the outcome of the Geneva phase of WSIS;
	• 	
Adoption of a Regional Plan of Action, based on the Arab Strategy for 
Communications and Information, adopted by the Arab Summit in Amman 
(March 2001) and the global PoA adopted in the Geneva Summit;
	• 	
Active promotion of partnerships among the various stakeholders of the 
information society, including Government, private sector, 
non-governmental and international/regional organizations, in order to 
implement the Regional Plan of Action;
	• 	
Launching key regional projects that have the necessary funding and 
partnership to insure a high rate of success.

Issues:

The main issues to be dealt with at the Conference consist of those 
raised in the global DoP that are of primary concern to the region, 
particularly:
	1.  	
National ICT strategies and plans – lessons learned and regional 
coordination;
	2.  	
Regional Plan of Action for building the information society – towards 
the advancement, coordination and implementation of national and 
regional ICT activities for socio-economic development;
	3.  	
National and regional profiling – developing and sustaining the process;
	4.  	
Measuring the information society – collaboration in the specification 
of appropriate indicators, timely data collection/dissemination and 
building a regional framework for monitoring progress;
	5.  	
Priority ICT projects for the region – scope, partnership and financing;
	6.  	
Internet governance and the Arabic Domain Names;
	7.  	
  Capacity-building, knowledge sharing, and innovation;
	8.  	
Empowering women in the Arab information society;
	9.  	
Enabling marginalized and disadvantaged communities;
	10.  	
Reaching the Millennium Development Goals in building the Arab 
information society.

Outcomes:

The most important outcome of the Conference will be the Regional Plan 
of Action, which will encompass major activities to be carried out at 
the regional and national levels, and which consists of:
	• 	
A strategic framework containing ten areas addressing a multitude of 
issues for building the information society and contributing to the 
creation of adequate endogenous capabilities for harnessing information 
and knowledge, thereby promoting socio-economic development in the 
region;
	• 	
Action lines aimed at streamlining actions at the regional level and at 
promoting the development of national capacity for achieving 
significant changes in the areas of the strategic framework and at a 
number of levels of intervention, with a view to serve women, youth, 
elderly, and special segments of the population such as impoverished 
communities and the disabled;
	• 	
Programmes aimed at triggering high-level partnerships and inducing 
interactive participation from a broad base of stakeholders, through 
serving the main areas of the strategic framework and identifying and 
developing a number of regional projects;
	• 	
Projects aimed at fulfilling the objectives of the programmes and at 
instigating fruitful partnerships and securing the necessary resources 
to proceed with implementation, thus acting as the building blocks for 
developing the information society;
	• 	
Partnership and funding mechanisms aimed at producing the desired 
impetus to migrate towards the information society in the region.

A "Call for Partnership" will also be launched during the conference in 
order to provide the momentum for a regional multi-stakeholder 
collaboration, enabling the successful implementation of projects and 
leading to the building of solid foundations for the Arab information 
society.

Organization:

  The Second Regional Preparatory Conference for WSIS will be held under 
the patronage of H.E. Eng. Mohammad Naji Otri, Prime Minister of the 
Syrian Arab Republic, at the Umayyad Congress Palace, during 22-23 
November 2004. The Conference is jointly organized by the United 
Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), the 
United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization 
(UNESCO) Cairo Office and the Syrian Ministry of Communications and 
Technology (MCT). It will be held in collaboration with other 
international and regional organizations and prominent civil society 
and private sector institutions.

  Preceding the Conference, a Partnership Forum will be organized on 21 
November 2004, with the aim of bringing donors, technical experts and 
beneficiaries together in order to discuss and agree on a number of 
projects and form partnerships for their implementation.

Participants/registration:

  Governments, businesses, civil society institutions, 
regional/international organizations, media as well as individual 
experts in ICT policies, applications, and services, concerned with 
building the information society in the Arab region, are invited to 
actively participate through papers, presentations and discussions on 
the above topics related to ICT and the development of the information 
society.

  Registration can be performed  on-line. Since a username and password 
are required for registration and to allow updating of information in 
the participants central database, an application form should be 
submitted first, electronically at the above location in order to 
provide you with login information.

Language:

  Both Arabic and English languages will be the working languages at the 
Conference. Therefore, simultaneous translation from Arabic to English 
and vice-versa will be provided during the sessions.

Additional information:

  Submissions, inquiries and requests for additional information should 
be addressed to:

Mr. Ahmed Farahat, Director
ICT Division, ESCWA
  P.O. Box 11-8575
  Beirut, Lebanon
  Email: farahat at un.org
  Tel: +961-1-978549
  Fax: +961-1-981510

Mr. Mohamed Abdul Razzak, Director
UNESCO Cairo Office
  8, Abdel Rahman Fahmy Street, Garden City
  Cairo 11541, Egypt
  Email: mabdulrazzak at unesco-cairo.org
  Tel : 20-2-7943036
  Fax: 20-2-7945296

Inquiries regarding logistics, including travel and accommodation, 
should be directed to:

Mr. Ramzi Ramadan, Director
Public Relations
  Syrian Telecommunication Establishment
  Mazeh Autostrade, PO Box 35108
  Syrian Arab Republic
  Email: pub-dir at net.sy
  Tel: +963-11-6122645
  Fax: +963-11-6121645
===============================================
RIK PANGANIBAN       Communications Coordinator

Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship
with the United Nations (CONGO)
web: http://www.ngocongo.org
email: rik.panganiban at ngocongo.org
mobile: (+1) 917-710-5524 
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