[huridocs-tech] WSIS: Africa Civil Society Caucus Group

Dear all,

You are invited to join a  new discussion list for the 'Africa Civil Society
Caucus Group' of the World Summit for Information Society (WSIS). The
purpose of this list is to discuss and prepare inputs for WSIS.

To subscribe to this list please visit:
http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/africa

This list will be facilitated by Emmanuel Njenga from APC as elected
coordinator of the African Civil Society Caucus content working group.

The resolutions that are adopted at the meetings of the WSIS will have a
profound impact on Africa's development. It is important for African Civil
society organizations to drive the process in a way that will benefit
everyone in society and will not reinforce the development divide between
rich and poor nations. If we get involved now, then we have the opportunity
to help set the agenda for the future of the Information Society.

We hope you will take part in this discussion.


1. The WSIS process:

Following the WSIS PrepCom II in Geneva, two basic working documents have
been produced: a draft Declaration of Principles and a draft Plan of Action.
These documents are available at http://www.itu.int/wsis All comments to the
two working documents must be submitted by May 31, 2003. It is envisioned
that this discussion list will help facilitate African civil society input
to these documents.

There will be an Intersessional Period between PrepCom-II and PrepCom-III
dedicated to refining the working documents for the Draft Declaration of
Principles and Draft Action Plan. PrepCom III will be convened in Geneva
from September 15-26, 2003, and will consist of two weeks of negotiations on
all issues related to the Summit.


2. The Africa Civil Society Caucus:

The African Civil Society Caucus was formed through joint efforts of civil
society organisations present at the first Preparatory committee meeting
(PrepCom1) of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), and
through various online discussions and physical meetings.  The aim of the
Caucus is to strengthen African civil society's capacity to ensure African
perspectives on the information society are articulated in the WSIS process.

Open and inclusive platform:

The Caucus is an open platform and invites all individuals and organizations
in, or with an interest in, Africa to participate. Interactions of the
caucus take place through online discussions and physical meetings are
constituted whenever possible. A steering committee has been formed during
PrepCom 2 of the WSIS in Geneva in February 2003.

The aim of the African caucus over the coming months is to strengthen
African participation in the upcoming Prepcoms and ensuring African civil
society inputs into the process.

3. Discussion Forum:

Following the civil society plenary in Geneva on Feb 28th, the wsis-cs.org
domain was created as a space
for the establishment of lists to discuss and share information between WSIS
PrepComs and the Summit.

All regional and thematic caucuses were invited to use this domainfor the
creation of mailing lists to facilitate their work. In
addition, lists have, or will be created for use by the Civil Society
Plenary, the Civil Society Bureau and the Civil Society Content and themes
group.

Subsequently a mailing list has been created for the Africa Civil Society
Caucus <africa@wsis-cs.org> to facilitate information sharing and
communications on WSIS. You are all now urged to join this mailing list and
use this as a central space for WSIS related issues by civil society
organizations.

http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/africa

The discussed list has been convened by the content working group of the
Africa Civil Society Caucus. This group will be responsible for the
discussion list as well as provision of weekly summaries and translation
services for the duration of the discussion forum.


Current members of the steering committee content working group are:

Emmanuel Njenga (as Co-ordinator) of the APC
Alice Munyua of Femnet
Tracey Naughton of MISA
Mr Mustapha Masmoudi of Association Tunisienne de la Communication
Dianna Mercorios of Abantu for Development
Dr. Habib Sy of Aid Transparency
John Dada of Fantsuam Foundation
Natasha Primo of Womensnet
Ken Lohento of Oridev



4. About the APC

The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is an international
network of civil society organisations dedicated to empowering and
supporting groups and individuals through the strategic use of ICTs,
especially Internet-related technologies. We are committed to supporting
awareness-raising, training and support to African Civil Society
Organisations that wish to add their voices to the WSIS process.

The APC is also involved in the Communication Rights in the Information
Society (CRIS) campaign which aims to ensure that communication rights are
central to the information society and WSIS. We believe that the Information
Society should be based on principles of transparency, diversity,
participation and social and economic justice, and inspired by equitable
gender, cultural and regional perspectives.


  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Emmanuel Njenga Njuguna
Project Coordinator
AFRICA ICT POLICY MONITOR PROJECT
E-mail: njenga@apc.org or africa.rights@apc.org
URL: http://africa.rights.apc.org
Association for Progressive Communications
http://www.apc.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



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