UN ICT Task Force Europe and Central Asia Regional Network Call for Participation
In March 2001, the United Nations Economic and Social Council requested the Secretary-General to establish an Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Task Force. This initiative is intended to lend a truly global dimension to the multitude of efforts to bridge the global digital divide, foster digital opportunity and thus firmly put ICT at the service of development for all. The objective of the Task Force is to "provide overall leadership to the United Nations role in helping to formulate strategies for the development of information and communication technologies and putting those technologies at the service of development and, on the basis of consultations with all stakeholders and Member States, forging a strategic partnership between the United Nations system, private industry and financing trusts and foundations, donors, programme countries and other relevant stakeholders in accordance with relevant United Nations resolutions." The Task Force had its first inaugural meeting on 19-20 November 2001 and its second meeting on 3-4 February 2002. At its first meeting, the Task Force adopted its Plan of Action. It also established six Working Groups. These thematic Working Groups are open for participation by non-members of the Task Force. A decision was also made to establish regional nodes of the Task Force, initially in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and for the group of Arab States. The UN ICT Task Force requested the Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) secretariat to host a meeting to launch the European Regional Network on 29th April 2002 and to help to ensure that the UN ICT for Development process makes a dynamic contribution to the regional preparations for the World Summit on the Information Society (2003), reducing duplication and promoting synergies for the benefit of the Member States and other stakeholders throughout the region. The meeting in Geneva has two objectives: first, to set up the regional network to support the UN ICT for Development process; second, to help define the focus for the European regional preparatory conference on the WSIS, scheduled for November 2002 in Bucharest. In order to develop a dynamic network, we plan to invite a wide range of stakeholders: international organisations, regional institutions, civil society, the academic and research community, and business. We would welcome your suggestions as to civil society participants from your country that we should invite. Please pass the invitation, attached agenda, and registration form on to all those whom you think would contribute to the meeting. We would appreciate if you could kindly circulate this information to your contacts as widely as possible. ________________________________________________________________ Dear colleagues, I am the coordinator of the Working Group, which was established recently on the initiative of Andrey Korotkov, Member of the UN ICT Task Force and National Coordinator of the Russian e-Development Partnership (PRIOR), to organize the UN ICT Task Force Europe and Central Asia Regional Network Launch Meeting. For convenience we set up a discussion group un-ict-tf-eucas on Yahoo (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/un-ict-tf-eucas/) where you can find additional materials on the Geneva meeting. To subscribe to the group you need to come to the above address of the group and follow the instructions. Looking forward for our fruitful cooperation and with best regards, Yuri ___________________________________ Dr. Yuri Hohlov Chairman of the Expert Committee Russian e-Development Partnership P.O. Box 716, 101000 Moscow Russia Tel./Fax: +7 (095) 925-1727 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL: http://www.russia-gateway.ru ___________________________________ Chairman of the Board Institute of the Information Society - Russia P.O. Box 189, 103009 Moscow Russia Tel./Fax: +7 (095) 925-1727 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL: http://www.iis.ru ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, an NGO that is a GKP member*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/>
