[WSIS CS-Plenary] Up-coming launch of the Global Alliance on ICT for Development

Thu Apr 6 12:00:55 BST 2006

Dear all, 

Many thanks to Ralf and Rik for having forwarded Mr. Khan
<http://www.ngocongo.org/index.php?what=pag&id=10211> 's letter about the
up-coming launch of the Global Alliance on ICT for Development.

As highlighted in Mr. Khan's letter, the governance structure of the Global
Alliance will be articulated around a three tier structure:

            . The Strategy Council will offer strategic guidance and
priority setting for the work of the Global Alliance. It would be comprise
of 35 to 40 personalities representing the key constituencies (one third for
civil society representatives) and would meet once or twice a year.

            . The Steering Committee will provide continuous executive
oversight and guidance to the work of the Secretariat. It would be composed
of a Chair and several Vice-Chairs representing key constituencies of the
Global Alliance and would meet monthly or bimonthly using modern
communication devices.

            . The Secretariat will be small structure composed of staff
seconded by partners and hosted by UN DESA, would serve the overall work of
the Global Alliance. It would provide analytical support to the Steering
Committee and to the Strategy Council.

The Global Alliance will be open to membership for all stakeholders involved
in ICT policies for development and providing advocacy and oversight on
Information Society issues and implementing programs addressing MDGs. For
civil society, it will include all NGOs, CSOs, foundations, scientific,
academic and ICT communities and individuals around the world involved in
the UN development agenda priorities. Therefore, participation in the Global
Alliance should put together a very broad scope of NGOs, involving but going
far beyond the WSIS civil society and should also include the worldwide NGO
community to development. The Global Alliance will constitute a unique
opportunity for NGOs to be directly involved in the ICT4D agenda and in the
global development agenda within the UN. Further information on how you can
join the Global Alliance would be circulated soon.

The Global Alliance would serve as a global inclusive forum to facilitate
dialogue and encourage initiatives and partnerships on all cross cutting
issues related to the use of ICT policies for development for the fulfilment
of internationally agreed development goals, in particular in the framework
of the MDGs. The view is to mobilize actors in order to advance the
development agenda of the United Nations through ICT related policies.

To that end, the Global Alliance would represent the major multi-stakeholder
component to interact and feed into the WSIS integrated follow-up process
entrusted to ECOSOC through the UN CSTD by the WSIS outcome document. The
Global Alliance will closely work with ECOSOC and the CSTD to bring further
the follow-up to WSIS decisions in ICT policies for development, and
participants in the Global Alliance would have direct access to the CSTD,
through in-depth collaboration with the Secretariat of the UN CSTD. However
the Global Alliance would neither constitute an operational body, nor flow
into the action lines implementation process.

Next steps include:

-          Selection process of Strategy Council members. They will be
appointed by the UN SG, following a self selection process within each group
of constituencies. CONGO has been asked by UN DESA to facilitate the self
selection process for civil society Members.

-          Information meetings, including in Geneva during the time of the
CSTD session (15-19 May 2006): 15 May 2006, time to be confirmed.

-          Inaugural meeting of the Global Alliance (in the week of 19 June
2006), in Kuala Lumpur.

Information will be made available on modalities to get involved into this
initiative and we would keep you informed on the most recent developments. 

Let me remind you than an up-dated program of meetings for the week 15-19
May is available at http://www.csbureau.org/posttunis.htm, and additional
information on the post-Tunis WSIS mechanisms is available on the CONGO
<http://www.ngocongo.org/index.php?what=resources&id=278&start=1>  website.

Best regards, 

Philippe Dam

Philippe Dam
CONGO - WSIS CS Secretariat 
11, Avenue de la Paix
CH-1202 Geneva
Tel: +41 22 301 1000
Fax: +41 22 301 2000
E-mail:  <mailto:wsis at ngocongo.org> wsis at ngocongo.org
Website:  <BLOCKED::http://www.ngocongo.org> www.ngocongo.org 

The Conference of NGOs (CONGO) is an international, membership association
that facilitates the participation of NGOs in United Nations debates and
decisions. Founded in 1948, CONGO's major objective is to ensure the
presence of NGOs in exchanges among the world's governments and United
Nations agencies on issues of global concern.  For more information see our
website at www.ngocongo.org <BLOCKED::http://www.ngocongo.org/> 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/pipermail/plenary/attachments/20060406/e6c91647/attachment.htm