IIS participates in the World Summit on the Information Society

Last week Tunis held the second (final) stage of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). The main outcomes of this landmark event indicating transition of the humanity from industrial society to the Information Society, are presented in English at the Russia Development Gateway.

Tatiana Ershova, IIS General Director and Head of PRIOR Directorate, actively participated in the preparation to the Summit as a member of interdepartmental delegation of the Russian Federation. She regularly informed Russian partners on the course and results of the meetings held by WSIS PrepCom - see materials published on the IIS site:

Tatiana Ershova and Yuri Hohlov, Chairman of IIS Board of Directors, participated in the final events of the Summit, which took place on 16-18 November in the capital of Tunis Republic.

PRIOR representatives actively participated in the events organized by the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) - the world’s first MSP operating at the global level in the area of information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D). GKP consistently promotes the building of the multi-stakeholder partnerships between government, business and civil society and consolidates the diverse and deep experience of its members through events, projects, and programs focused on ICT4D. GKP was an active contributor to the World Summit on the Information Society since the very beginning. Together with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, GKP pioneered the ICT for Development Platform at WSIS Geneva in 2003. At WSIS Tunis 2005, The Global Knowledge Partnership continued its mission of sharing knowledge and building partnerships.

Members of the Global Knowledge Partnership discussed and developed new ideas for collaboration; identified workable opportunities; and devised concrete steps forward. The GKP Pavilion at WSIS Tunis showcased 100 member institutions - innovators in ICT4D, from every sector and every global region. The Global Knowledge Partnership was a partner in the organization of the 2nd World Electronic Media Forum and the BBC World Production “Digital Dividends” watched by millions worldwide. At WSIS Tunis the Global Knowledge Partnership organized 41 Forum panels in four areas of focus: Poverty Reduction, Access to Knowledge, Education and Resource Mobilization.

On Tuesday 15th the Global Knowledge Partnership launched a new publication “Access, Empowerment & Governance: Creating a World of Equal Opportunities with ICT”. Authored by “hands-on” ICT for development experts from around the world, it strongly advocates harmonization, leapfrogging, and more tangible measurement of the impact of ICT in development. The book is physically available in the IIS library.

IIS has been a GKP member since 2000. IIS, also representing the Russian e-Development Partnership, actively participated in GKP events in Tunis.

Tatiana Ershova, joined the Building Partnerships Workshop held on 14 November 2005 in the El Hana International hotel, 49 Avenue H. Bourguiba. Facilitated by Aspiration and Bellanet International, this open space meeting was designed to ensure a flexible, collaborative meeting process where participants created and moved the agenda forward according to their needs, avoiding a focus on presentations or on the opinions.

Tatiana Ershova and Yuri Hohlov participated in the GKP Evening - "Celebrating MSPs!" - that took place at the Central Place of the ICT4All Exhibition on 15 November. ‘Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships’ (MSP) are increasingly recognized as a key element in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). GKP celebrated the MSPs that have been formed to recognize and encourage development in various areas. Sustainable development is about effective partnerships among private sector, government, civil society and international networks.

On 17 November 2005, the GKP Regional Meeting "Information Society Development in Eastern Europe and Central Asia" was held in Room 8 at the ICT4All Exhibition in Kram Palexpo. The meeting was organized by the GKP Cluster "Central & Eastern Europe" in partnership with the Institute of the Information Society, UN ICT Task Force Europe and Central Asia Regional Network and Russian e-Development Partnership.

The main goal of the meeting was to present the level of the information society development in Eastern European and Central Asian countries. Existing strategies and action plans of the information society development, as well as stocktaking activities and pilot projects implementation were discussed.

Major focus was made on the multi-stakeholder partnerships in the region within the global initiatives such as Global Knowledge Partnership, UN ICT Task Force Europe and Central Asia Regional Network, Europe and Central Asia Country Gateways Network, etc. The aim of their cooperation is to create a necessary climate for development of the information society in each country individually and in the region as a whole.

Over 30 participants from Europe and Central Asia joined the meeting. They discussed the following topics:

Tatiana Ershova also joined the panel discussion “Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships: Making ICT4D happen after Tunis” on 18 November. She invited the GKP MSP Cluster to cooperate with the WSIS MSP Family she co-coordinates together with Claudia Padovani, professor of the Iniversity of Padova (Italy).

After that panel discussion a joint meeting of GKP MSP Cluster and the WSIS MSP Family was held at the GKP Pavilion. The participants agreed to exchange information on events and initiatives related to the Multi-Stakeholder Participation agenda.

As a member of WSIS Civil Society Bureau - coordinator of Multistakeholder Partnerships Family, T. Ershova participated in the development and promotion of the Multi-Stakeholder (MuSt) Monitor Initiative - initiative to monitor multistakeholder processes of implementing WSIS decisions beyond Tunis. On 17 November 2005 the participants were presented this initiative.

After complex procedure of selecting civil society participants to WSIS official events T. Ershova was included in the list of speakers at one of the Summit round tables - RT N2 “From Commitment to Action: Implementation after Tunis”. Among the event participants there were 11 national representatives (1 Vice-President, 2 Prime Ministers and 8 Ministers), 4 representatives of international organizations (ITU, ECOSOC, UNECLAC, UNESCWA), 2 business representatives (Cisco Systems, Nokia) and 4 civil society representatives (IIS/GKP, Association for Progressive Communications, Organisation tunisienne des jeunes medecins sans frontieres, the World Blind Union). T.Ershova made a brief statement: "It is time to fully recognize competence, interest and expertise of all stakeholders”.

Tataiana Ershova and Yuri Hohlov also participated in the meeting of interdepartmental delegation of the RF, visited opening and closing ceremonies, first, fourth and sixth plenary sessions.

IIS representatives actively advocated the results of the International conference “UNESCO between the two phases of the World Summit on the Information Society" (St. Petersburg, 17-19 May 2005), organized by the Russian Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications, Ministry of Education and Science, Federal Agency of Culture and Cinematography, Russian Commission for UNESCO, UNESCO Information for All Programme National Committee of Russia, IIS and Centre for Informatization in the sphere of Culture. Many summit participants received a book of conference proceedings, a CD containing about a hundred presentations and speeches of political and public figures, leading experts from dozens of world countries, and the Final Document containing valuable recommendations to all stakeholders concerning a number of crucial aspects of the Information Society development.

After the Tunis Summit a vast amount of latest materials on a wide range of Information Society development problems, issued by WSIS participants, was added to the IIS library. The “Summit Collection” is freely available for all interested partners of the Institute.