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IWTC Women's GlobalNet #198
Initiatives and Activities of Women Worldwide
By Anne S. Walker
July 18, 2002
PUTTING GENDER ON THE AGENDA OF THE
WORLD SUMMIT ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETY (WSIS)
The first PrepCom for WSIS was held in Geneva July 1-5, 2002. IWTC
participated in the meeting, joining forces with other women to find
ways to place gender and gender perspectives onto the agenda.
BACKGROUND TO WSIS
In 1998, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) resolved to
place the question of the holding of a World Summit on the Information
Society (WSIS) on the agenda of the United Nations Administrative
Committee on Coordination (ACC). The UN Secretary- General indicated
that the ACC had reacted positively and that a majority of other
organizations and agencies had expressed interest in being associated
with the preparation and holding of the Summit. It was decided that the
Summit would be held under the high patronage of the UN
Secretary-General, with ITU taking the lead role in preparations.
TWO WORLD SUMMITS
In 2001, the ITU Council decided to hold the Summit in two phases with
the first phase to be held from 10 to 12 December 2003, in Geneva,
Switzerland and the second in 2005 in Tunis, Tunisia.
WSIS Gender Caucus
The WSIS Gender Caucus is a multi-stakeholder group consisting of women
and men from national governments, civil society organizations,
non-governmental organizations, the private sector and the United
Nations system. The strategic objective of the WSIS-Gender Caucus is to
ensure that gender equality and womenÕs rights are integrated into WSIS
and its outcome processes.
The Caucus, facilitated by Gillian Marcelle, was formed during the
African Regional Preparatory Conference (Bamako 2002), -which took place
in Mali from 25-30th May 2002, to ensure that gender perspectives are
taken seriously as core principles in the planning and preparation for
the WSIS. The Caucus urges all stakeholders, in planning the preparatory
processes, the Summit, and the follow-up programmes, to:
- Include gender equality goals in the agenda, programme, and
background;
- Mainstream participation by UN system gender advocacy units in
planning and preparatory mechanisms at all levels;
- Ensure the participation of national machineries for women, women NGOs
and the UN system gender focal points;
- Include women's participation in all the planned capacity building and
training programmes;
- Encourage member states and other participating entities to include at
least 30% women including gender and ICT experts in delegations and to
ensure participation by civil society representatives .
The Caucus plans to gather at each of the WSIS Regional Preparatory
Conferences, and at WSIS PrepComs to be held in Geneva in March and
September 2003.
To contact the WSIS-Gender Caucus, write to
<secretariat-wsisgendercaucus@wougnet.org>. Information on membership
and programme of action can be found at
<http://www.wougnet.org/WSIS/wsisgc.html>.
Other WSIS and Gender Meetings Planned:
In an effort to further encourage participation of women from every
world region in the discussion around gender issues and perspectives at
WSIS and in media policy as it relates to gender in general, IWTC, with
APC Women's Network Support Programme, Isis International/Manila and
other interested women's information and media networks, will undertake
WSIS and gender panels and discussions at several international and
regional meetings during 2002 and 2003.
Included amongst these are:
The Know How Conference on Women's Information Resources & Networking,
Kampala, Uganda, July 21-26, 2002.
The Asian WENT: (Women's Electronic Networking Training), Seoul, Korea,
August 8-16, 2002.
The AWID International Forum, Guadalajara, Mexico, October 3-6, 2002
The Global Communities Congress, Montreal, Canada, October 7-14, 2002
The Feminist Encuentro, Costa Rica, December 2002.
For further information on Civil Society and the World Summit on the
Information Society, go to: <http://www.geneva2003.org/home/index01.htm>
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