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The OpenWSIS
Initiative : Convening the Convenors for the success of the WSIS Process
Around
the world, numerous public, private and non-profit “Convenors”
will organize workshops, seminars and consultations in 2003 to prepare for WSIS
and engage actors in their respective networks.
Unfortunately,
strong uncertainties remain on the modalities of participation of civil
society and the private sector in the summit. Most actors remain
reluctant to mobilize with so little visibility.
In
that context, to facilitate the involvement of and interaction between all
stakeholders during the whole process, a “coalition
of the willing”
has emerged under the name : OpenWSIS
Initiative.
Its goal is
threefold :
- Raise
awareness
on the importance of the WSIS process and the need to involve civil society and
the private sector
- Create
and develop contacts between public, private and civil society “convenors”
addressing similar issues during 2003
- Manage
within Palexpo in December a physical
space for them to hold multi-stakeholder thematic workshops
This would
guarantee a clear and previsible framework for all stakeholders to present their
positions and a neutral space
for debate on difficult issues. In particular, the workshops will gather the
convenors that addressed separately a similar issue during 2003
This should
allow common formulations of the key
challenges to emerge and new multi-stakeholder mechanisms could then address each of them between
Geneva and Tunis.
All
convenors (be
they public, private, non-profit or international organizations) who share these
objectives and want to contribute to the creation and success of an Open WSIS are
therefore invited to join this effort
by describing themselves and the issues they intend to adress during 2003 at convenors@openwsis.org.
A first discussion of
this Initiative took place during the workshop on « Civil Society and
the WSIS Process » that was held during PrepCom2.
For a more detailed
presentation, see : www.wsis-japan.jp/documents/ngo_12.pdf
More information is available from : Bertrand de LA CHAPELLE (lachapelle@openwsis.org)
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