Untitled 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 . Information on membership and programme of action can be found at .

    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:

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