WSIS Online Forum: Paving the Way to Tunis, July 11 - 29, 2005
1. INTRODUCTION
Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) invites you to participate in an online
forum on key issues for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)
to share your views, experiences, knowledge and concerns. In particular,
the forum will focus on ICT policy priorities for Uganda as well as the two
outstanding issues for the WSIS - internet governance and financing
mechanisms.
1.1 THEMES AND SCHEDULE
11 - 17 July 2005: ICT Policy Priorities for Uganda
http://www.wougnet.org/WSIS/ug/WSIS2005/policypriorities.html
18 - 24 July 2005: Internet Governance - What are the issues?
http://www.wougnet.org/WSIS/ug/WSIS2005/internetgovernance.html
25 - 31 July 2005: Financing ICT4D in Uganda - What strategies?
http://www.wougnet.org/WSIS/ug/WSIS2005/financingmechanisms.html
The outcome of the discussions will be summarised thematically, and posted
on the forum webpage,
http://www.wougnet.org/WSIS/ug/WSIS2005/wsis2005forum.html
1.2 HOW TO PARTICIPATE
To participate in the email discussion, please send an email to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] indicating your interest to participate in the WSIS
online forum.
We would be grateful if you could help us disseminate this call for
participation to your network, organisations or individuals that may be
interested to engage in this issue.
2. BACKGROUND INFORMATION
This discussion will be moderated by Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET),
http://www.wougnet.org, and will be for a period of three weeks, starting
from July 11 - 29, 2005. The objective of the forum is to create awareness
of the two outstanding issues, Internet Governance and Financing, as well
as to gather input on Uganda's position and identify gender concerns. The
outcome of the online forum will be submitted to the National WSIS
Taskforce to feed into their preparations and activities towards WSIS II.
In April 2005, WOUGNET in collaboration with OneWorld Africa hosted a
multi-stakeholder consultative meeting under the theme, "The role of ICT in
Socio-Economic Development" (the workshop report is available online - WORD
format). The specific thematic focus of the meeting was on ICT in Health,
Agriculture and Education, as well as the World Summit on the Information
Society (WSIS) and its relevance to Uganda as a developing country. The
primary objective of the workshop was to develop strategies for
mainstreaming ICT for Development (ICT4D). Mainstreaming ICT4D is the
systematic placing of modern information and communication technologies in
efforts and strategies designed to realize important development goals. The
meeting was attended by over 50 participants drawn from government
ministries and autonomous bodies, civil society, private sector,
development partners and United Nations agencies. The meeting also
discussed priority issues for Uganda within the WSIS process, strategies
and mechanisms to improve participation in the WSIS, strategies for
promoting the sustainability of ongoing ICT initiatives, and the role of
the media in awareness/sensitization campaigns about the WSIS and ICT
policy processes in Uganda. Participants observed that there was need to
conduct regular consultative meetings as well as conduct public awareness
campaigns on how ICTs can be sustainably applied to address the Millenium
Development Goals (MDGs).
In the first World Summit on Information Society (WSIS), gender was very
nearly dropped out of the language in the declaration. Multi-national
profit driven companies were given the edge in setting the agenda and
powerful governments in the economic 'North' are facilitating this
imbalance of power (for an overview, Bridge ICT & Gender Pack:
http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/reports_gend_CEP.html#ICTs). Now that we are in
the process of preparing for Phase II of this Summit, to be held in Tunis
later this year (http://www.itu.int/wsis/), it becomes all the more urgent
that gender and how ICTs impact on women's rights issues are rendered
visible and vocalised as a concern.
Further, the recent 49th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) that
sought to reaffirm and reassess the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) was
conspicuously silent on the issue of women and the media. Section J of the
BPFA, which deals with women's participation in the media and issues of
representation, was not highlighted in the discussions prior to or indeed,
rendered visible during the event. This demonstrates a worrying lack of
political consciousness or will to view communication and information
rights as urgent and critical issues for the women's movement. Women
largely being in the poorest sections of community are much affected with
regards to the issue of access to infrastructure, skills and information
communities, particularly in new ICTs.
We call for your participation to create a collective understanding to the
two WSIS issues, from the particular perspective of Uganda, and also to
strategise for actions that can be taken. WOUGNET is actively engaged with
policy advocacy in the field of ICTs, and your views, expertise and
experience are important to mutually enrich each others' work in addressing
ICT for Development in Uganda. On World Telecommunications Day, May 17,
2005, Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) in partnership with the
Ministry of Works, Housing and Communications (MoWHC) and WOUGNET hosted a
symposium under the theme "Creating an equitable Information Society: Time
for Action". The objectives of the symposium were to:
- Raise awareness of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)
process and consider ways to incorporate the targets for universal access
as outlined in the WSIS Action Plan
- Raise awareness of the state of telecommunications in Uganda and assess
the problems that stand in the way of achieving the connectivity goals set
out in the WSIS Action Plan
- Promote awareness of ICTs as a tool for economic and social development
Attended by over 150 participants from government, civil society, private
sector, media and international agencies and embassies, the keynote address
was by Hon. John Nasasira, Minister of Works, Housing and Communications.
The keynote address and other presentations delivered on the day form the
background material on Uganda for this online forum. The presentations,
available online at <http://www.ucc.co.ug/wtDaySympo.html>, were:
- Creating an enabling environment for the information society: A critical
Analysis of Laws and Polices in the ICT Sector
- Coordination and Implementation framework for the National ICT policy
- Realizing WSIS Objectives: Actions taken (by Government)
- The Role of Civil Society in the Information Society
- The Media and the Information Society
- Private Sector Initiatives in Enhancing WSIS goals
WOUGNET would like to thank the Africa Civil Society in the Information
Society (ACSIS) for allowing the use and adaptation of ACSIS discussion
papers on the topics of this online forum. WOUGNET would also like to
acknowledge Association for Progressive Communications (APC).
For further information about the WSIS 2005 online forum, please send
e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more information about WSIS
preparations in Uganda, visit http://www.wougnet.org/WSIS/ug/ugandawsis.html
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