[WSIS CS-Plenary] CS contributions to WSIS stocktaking

[Ralf Bendrath]

There can also be a different opinion on this:

We as Civil Society did not endorse the Geneva Declaration, and even much 
less the Geneva Plan of Action, which is really bad and was never 
discussed properly. We were also highly critical to the idea of a fat ITU 
database for stocktaking (remember Karen's and Steve's remarks in Geneva 
when they had consultations on this). Why on earth should we feed a 
database we don't like on a Plan of Action we don't like?

I am really afraid that with new new Swiss proposal, the summit will only 
be a showcase of everybody's pet project. I mean, I could think of a 
handful of projects that I've been involved in that could be counted as 
part of the WSIS. But it would of course only be a marketing exercise, and 
nicely fit into this official "summit of solutions" slogan. But this is 
just nice, and it has nothing to do with politics.

What we really have to think about and ask for are benchmarking and 
binding agreements on priorities and next steps for all governments. 
Otherwise the whole exercise will end in an extremely liberal trade fair.

We should start from our Civil Society Declaration, and we should start 
maybe working on implementation mechanisms that would serve our values.

Just my 2 cents.

Ralf

Rik Panganiban schrieb:
> Further to this, I think it would be particularly important for our 
> different caucuses and working groups to disseminate information about 
> the stocktaking exercise to their respective networks and affiliates "on 
> the ground." I.e. the disability caucus, youth caucus, women's caucus, 
> human rights caucus, telecentres caucus, indigenous peoples' caucus, and 
> others must have knowledge of innovative projects being conducted by 
> civil society in the field that should be part of this database.
> 
>  From the political front, it will be harder for us to argue for our 
> seat at the table on the policy side if we are not seen as being 
> involved on the other end on the implementation end. So spread the word! 
> Put this notice on your websites and send it around to your lists.