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Global Processes

The Global Knowledge conference series organized by the Global Knowledge Partnership is one of the main global fora exploring ICT for development. At the second Global Knowledge conference (GK II) in 2000, IISD supported the work of the GK II Youth Forum. Given the high quality of the interventions by young people, the GKP committed to ensuring continued participation of youth in all of its activities.

The Third Global Knowledge conference, GK III, will be held December 11–13, 2007, in Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia. More information is available at the GKP Web site. For more information on IISD’s involvement, please e-mail us.

WSIS

The period between GK II and GK III was marked by growing recognition of the need to find ways to manage knowledge that would ensure sustainable development globally. The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was a four-year process aimed at opening international negotiations around all kinds of information and communication technologies, including the Internet. It consisted of two major global conferences: one held in Geneva in December 2003; and the other in Tunis in November 2005, as well as dozens of smaller ministerial meetings in between.

IISD was an active participant in the WSIS process since the first preparatory committee meeting in July 2002. Our objectives in this process were to raise the profile of three key issues:

1. the need for sustainable development to act as a guiding vision for the information society;

2. the important role of young people as leaders in using information and communication technologies (ICTs) to achieve more sustainable development in their communities and around the world; and

3. the sharing of our knowledge about the management of knowledge networks and partnerships.

Specific engagement around these themes included:

• undertaking research on national policy linkages between the information society and sustainable development;

• serving as one of the founding members of the Youth Creating Digital Opportunities (YCDO) Coalition, which has backstopped international youth engagement in WSIS and will serve as a key implementation mechanism for the WSIS commitments to youth;

• facilitating the input of Canadian youth to the national WSIS policy process;

• championing the input of young women in the WSIS process, including assisting with planning for a regional meeting of young women in ICT4D in Egypt and coordinating a global e-consultation with young women; and

• organizing workshops and panel presentations on all of these subject areas, including the launch of A Developing Connection, at the second Summit in Tunis.

Delegates to the first phase of WSIS declared a common “commitment to build a people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society, where everyone can create, access, utilize and share information and knowledge, enabling individuals, communities and peoples to achieve their full potential in promoting their sustainable development and improving their quality of life.”^[1] This pledge to sustainable development was less obvious in the Tunis stage of the process, dominated by dialogues surrounding Internet governance, financing mechanisms and the implementation of the Geneva Action Plan.

The Internet Governance Forum is one of follow-up processes to the World Summit on the Information Society.

Commentary on the WSIS

• WSIS Unfolds: Finding the right way to Tunis (PDF - 253 kb) » Terri Willard, IISD, 2005 In this IISD Commentary, IISD Project Manager Terri Willard reviews the February 2005 Preparatory Committee meeting of the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). Willard, who has been actively enagaged in the WSIS process since 2002, describes the meeting, identifies some weaknesses and casts an eye toward the remainder of the process.

• Did WSIS Miss the Point? An information society vision disconnected from sustainable development (PDF - 142 kb) » Maja Andjelkovic, IISD, 2005 The second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society was held in Tunis in November, with virtually no mention of sustainable develop­ment. Negotiations between the first phase in 2003 and this phase of the Summit centred on three main subjects: Internet governance; financing strategies; and implementation mechanisms for the Geneva Action Plan. While there were some "positives" resulting from the summit, writes IISD Associate Maja Andjelkovic, "the lack of focus on sustain­able development in the WSIS process is worrisome: without some clear, broader societal goals in mind, the information society may turn out to be unsustainable.

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