Forwarded FYI only.
From: plenary-admin-wsis-cs.org] On Behalf Of Parminder Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2006 12:56 PM To: ‘plenary wsis-cs.org’ Cc: 'bureau wsis'; governance-bounces-lists.cpsr.org Subject: RE: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Highlights of GAID Steering Committee Dear All Going through the discussions summary, the following comes as a surprise, and alarms me a lot…. At the Chairman’s proposal, it was agreed that members of the Strategy Council and Steering Committee be requested to support the Global Alliance through annual contributions (in cash or in kind), according to an indicative scale, taking into account the financial constraints of some members, in particular civil society organizations and developing countries. (quote ends) This will then, sooner or later, make the reverse logic operational as well – the steering committee and strategic committee membership will begin to include an implicit or explicit criterion of ‘capacity to contribute funds’. And this logic is dangerous in public policy spaces…. There already is a growing tendency of public policy meetings and conferences sponsored heavily by interested parties which of course casts a shadow on the deliberations and outcomes, but to have a UN anchored public policy body have its governance positions linked to the criterion of ‘capacity to pay’ is going quite a few steps beyond. I find any such move very dangerous to the very fiber and structure of our public life. GAID needs to decide for itself whether it is a global public policy body, with important policy influence on ICTD policies globally, nationally and locally, or it is a non-profit which wants to challenge energies, goodwill and funds into ICTD activity. And if it is both, what is it primarily. Because in the latter mandate, it is fine to look around for funds in this manner, even offering governance positions for the purpose (though still, discretion is required to see that social responsibility funds are not used for narrow interests – commercial or otherwise, which in the long run harms the interests of the targeted group more than they benefit them immediately). And if its mandate is the former – that is mainly policy advice and influence related – GAID needs to be extra careful that its governance as well as other structures are free from narrow commercial (or other) interests. And the positions in its governance structure etc go strictly by the criterions like capacity to contribute and representative-ness of different stakeholders – more of those who could with some legitimacy be seen as representing the poor and marginalized sections (as the UN Secretary General advised during the deliberation, and I quote form the enclosed document – “the Alliance must keep the interest of the poor and marginalized foremost in mind”. Going by the statement of GAID’s mission given out by the press statement from the UN Secretary General’s office that announced the launch of GAID, it seems to be oriented more as a platform for ICTD policy dialogue and advocacy. To quote the press statement – “The mission of the Global Alliance for ICT and Development will be to facilitate and promote such integration by providing a platform for an open, inclusive, multi-stakeholder cross-sectoral policy dialogue on the role of information and communication technology in development”. Of course funds are needed, and contributions are welcome. But these can not be tied to positions in the governance structures. We all need to take a clear position on this issue. There is a great danger in requesting the members of governance bodies to contribute – this links the membership to contributions, even if implicitly, and in the long term. The call for contributions should instead be open – to all those who agree with the stated purpose and polices of GAID to contribute. I will request CS members in these deliberations to report in more detail on such issues, and their implications, though I understand the insider-outsider dilemma of participation in such high level bodies. And we also need to have a general CS view on these issues, and keep up a broader engagement with post-WSIS bodies through these elists, and other associations. This is specifically so because this group was asked to, and it did, contribute to the process of selection of the governance structures. regards Parminder ________________________________________________ Parminder Jeet Singh IT for Change, Bangalore Bridging Development Realities and Technological Possibilities Tel: (+91-80) 2665 4134, 2653 6890 Fax: (+91-80) 4146 1055 HYPERLINK "http://www.itforchange.net/"www.ITforChange.net _____ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Renate Bloem Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2006 12:51 AM To: CS Plenary Cc: bureau wsis; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Highlights of GAID Steering Committee Dear all, Please see attached a brief outline from the Secretariat of the GAID Steering Committee discussion held 27-28 September in New York. You will see that the essence for GAID is to provide a distinguished but broad platform to promote, scale up and accelerate action on initiatives provided by communities of expertise and some Flagship Partnership Initiatives. A summary of the meeting is being drafted by the Secretariat and will be published shortly. The statements by Secretary-General Kofi Annan and President of ECOSOC Amb Ali Hachani are available at HYPERLINK "http://www.un-gaid.org/steering/annan_27sept06.html"http://www.un-gaid.org/ steering/annan_27sept06.html and HYPERLINK "http://www.un-gaid.org/steering/hachani_27sept06.html"http://www.un-gaid.or g/steering/hachani_27sept06.html respectively. Best, Renate Bloem President of the Conference of NGOs (CONGO) 11, Avenue de la Paix CH-1202 Geneva Tel: +41 22 301 1000 Fax: +41 22 301 2000 E-mail: HYPERLINK "mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]"[EMAIL PROTECTED] Website: HYPERLINK "http://www.ngocongo.org/"www.ngocongo.org -- No virus found in this outgoing message. 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