[WSIS CS-Plenary] notes from alliance consultation, 11 april

[Rik Panganiban]

Sorry this is late.  I have been ill.

Rik Panganiban
CONGO

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Meeting on Global Alliance for ICT Development
11 April 2005
United Nations, Conference Room 5
Notes by Rik Panganiban, CONGO


The following are my notes from the consultation with civil society on 
the Global Alliance conducted by Mr. Sabruland Khan on behalf of the UN 
ICT Task Force on 11 April at the United Nations in New York.

A short proposal on the Alliance was circulated to those at the meeting.

Khan began the meeting by noting that we have a unique window of 
opportunity with several strands coming together: Millennium+5, WSIS, 
UN ICT Task Force. He commented that the Alliance must bring together a 
strong network of key stakeholders:
•	Civil society- to criticize and contribute constructively
•	Private sector- to invest and show responsibility and views
•	Governments – to enforce and legislate, and provide enabling 
environment
•	Multi-lateral institutions - to provide platform

The process forward:
1.	The Dublin Task Force meeting will discuss the Global Alliance 
further.  There will be online opportunities to participate. The Task 
Force will prepare a proposal, which will be consulted widely.
2.	This proposal will be submitted to the UN Secretary General by 
mid-May.
3.	On 13 September there will be a roundtable on the Global Alliance in 
New York highlighting the role of technology in achieving the MDGs.
4.	The Alliance will be launched in Tunis in November

Bahiyyah Chaffers, of the Bahai, asked what will be the relationship of 
the Global Alliance to the private sector.  And what will be its 
relationship to the UN Secretary General’s Office.

Mr Khan noted that the Alliance must function under the umbrella of the 
United Nations but must be more than just a traditional UN agency.

Michael Gurstein asked how to integrate into the Global Allliance the 
several hundred thousands of community based technology projects around 
the world that don’t function like traditional NGOs. The don’t have 
resources or interest in coming into these processes.

Rik Panganiban, CONGO, delivered a statement proposing the creation a 
standing online “observatory” of ICT development and an annual 
conference in the developing world on ICT development issues.

Veni Markovski, Internet Society Bulgaria, noted that Bulgarian 
elections will be over in June. All parties are endorsing developing 
e-government, e-governance policies. Will be a good possibility for 
building something from the ground up in partnership with the Alliance.

Cyril Ritchie noted that while the members will be accorded the same 
rights regardless of their level of contribution to the Alliance, he 
wondered if those who pay more (i.e. corporate members) will not feel 
obliged to get more out of their membership, and have more weight in 
their voice in the Alliance.

Mavic Cabrera-Balleza, International Women’s Centre, asked about how 
the Alliance will ensure active women’s participation.

Alejandra Davidziuk, Argentina Observatory, LINKS, discussed the 
challenges of stimulating debate at the national level in Argentina, 
and asked how the Alliance could foster this.

Mark Bench, World Press Freedom Committee, asked that with freedom of 
the press not existing in many parts of the world, how was there to be 
a meaningful dialogue among actors?

A representative of the Global Youth Action Network noted that young 
people should be partners in development since they are often 
innovators in the use of technology for development.

Rik Panganiban, CONGO, commented that it might be helpful to think of 
the Alliance as not “the” alliance but as “an” alliance of actors.  
Thus we don’t necessarily need to get caught up in whether or not every 
constituency, government, and issue area is represented.  But we only 
should see what a “critical” number of actors getting together might 
look like, and how it might grow over time in an evolutionary way.

Dennis Gillolli, UN ICT Task Force, reminded participants that the 
Alliance proposal should be seen as part of the overall UN reform 
process.  Innovative processes have come out of the Dot-Force, the UN 
ICT Task Force and the WSIS.  This was just carrying forward the 
momentum.  Mozambique is good example of multi-stakeholder partnerships 
that generate funds, and foster democratic governance.  The Alliance 
can help bridge the
rift between development community and ICT community.



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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

* Information on the WSIS at http://www.ngocongo.org/wsis
* Information on Millennium+5 at http://www.ngocongo.org/mdg
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