Dear GKD Members, The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) will be held in Geneva, Switzerland, from 10 - 12 December 2003 and in Tunis, Tunisia, in 2005. In order to finalize local authorities contribution to this World Summit, two proccesses in parallel and in coordination are being developed:
* regional contribution through a process led by CIFAL BILBAO, a project developed by UNITAR and Public Basque Institutions in order to strengthen cooperation among regions all over the world in the field of Information Society. * cities contribution though a process that will have its main milestone at the World Summit for Cities and Local Authorities on the Information Society (WSLAIS) that will be held in Lyon, France from 4 - 5 December 2003. In preparation of these two Summits, several Conferences are being organised, starting by the European Regional Congress Bilbao IT4ALL (Bilbao, February 2003). The second Regional Congress will be the Forum of African Local Authorities on the Information Society which will be held in Nouakchott, Mauritania from 8 - 10 July 2003. The Forum is co-organised by the State Secretariat in Charge of New Technologies, Mauritania, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (Programme on Decentralised Cooperation), the Civil Society Division of the WSIS Executive Secretariat and the World Federation of United Cities (UTO) on behalf of the World Association of Cities and Local Authorities Coordination (WACLAC) and CIFAL BILBAO (a UNITAR and Public Basque Institution partnership). This event will showcase local and regional African projects on e-governance, e-health, e-education, e-inclusion and e-economy, with the aim of bringing to the fore African experiences in order to strengthen local authorities' capacities for implementing and promoting the effective use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) throughout urban and/or rural communities in Africa. The Forum's outcomes to be presented at the Lyon Summit will be a Declaration of Principles and a Plan of Action of Cities and Regions, with concrete recommendations for filling gaps, avoiding overlaps and exploiting complementarities in support of local actors. The exercise will span the full range of options from south-south decentralised cooperation to training in specialised skills. This will allow local actors to prepare themselves effectively for their important role in the new Information Society. The main objectives of this Regional Forum are to: (a) Present the WSLAIS and WSIS challenges for regions and local authorities; (b) Document and examine regional and local authorities' expertise in the field of Information Society to be implemented in the context of NEPAD; (c) Analyze the factors of success and the constraints faced by regional and local authorities in their efforts to develop the Information Society in Africa; (d) Prepare the position of African regional and local actors to be presented at the WLAIS and WSIS. Expected outcomes from the Regional Forum are: (a) Definition of the role and responsibilities of regions and local authorities in the Information Society; (b) Definition of relations and identification of potential partnerships between local actors, central governments, civil society and private sector in a South-South and North-South context; (c) Assessment of capacity building needs in the field of the Information Society at the sub-national and local level; (d) Outlined political Declaration of regions and local authorities to be presented at the WSLAIS and WSIS; (e) Outlined Plan of Action of regions and local authorities to be presented at the WSLAIS and WSIS. Key participants are: representatives of counties, regions, provinces, departments and municipalities (Governors, Mayors, Counsellors, etc.); their partners in the public, private and civil society sectors; as well as international organisations working with local authorities. We would be very pleased if you could participate in this event and would be most grateful if you could confirm your personal availability (or nominate your representative) at your earliest convenience. Please return by the attached registration form to Mrs Eliane PILLEVUIT (Phone: + 41.22.917.85.79, Fax: + 41.22.917.80.47; Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]) Please note that UNITAR will be able to cover only the cost of certain local authorities of Africa with good case studies. Nevertheless we were able to book rooms at a very affordable price, and most of the dinners and lunches are offered to us -- through the kind gesture of the Municipality of Nouakchott. In order to prepare the Regional Forum under the best possible conditions, we would appreciate it very much if we could receive a brief description (1 page) of one local project/initiative in your city/region in the field of the Information Society. Attached please find a "Call for Case Studies" with guidelines, that has been widely disseminated in order to collect relevant African experiences on the subject matter. Please transmit your case study outline before 18 June 2003 to Elizabeth Vosloo [EMAIL PROTECTED] These case studies will allow us to prepare the Forum proceedings, which ultimately will be presented at the WSLAIS in Lyon and at the WSIS in Geneva. This exercise will also allow the creation of a database in order to facilitate transfer of know-how at the international level. For substantive matters you can contact either Christophe NUTTALL at UNITAR ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) or Liliane URSACHE at the Executive Secretariat of the WSIS ([EMAIL PROTECTED] ). On behalf of all our partners, we look forward to meeting you in Nouakchott, and we thank you for your kind cooperation. Marcel A. Boisard Executive Director of UNITAR United Nations Assistant Secretary-General ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** 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/>
