AW: [CS Bureau] FW: PrepCom2 Fellowships

Mon Dec 27 17:21:06 GMT 2004

Dear all,

this is the report of the WSIS CS Philantropic Institutions and Foundations.

Best regards

Wolfgang Kleinwächter

Annual Report of the WSIS Civil Society Family of Philantropic Institutions and Foundations (PIF) for the year 2004

1.  The main initiative of the PIF Family in 2004 is the further   development of the "Global Marshal Plan (GMP)" initiative. The GMP is initiatied and promoted by the Global Contract Foundation. The "GMP" is aimed to generate additional material and non-material ressources to overcome, inter alia, the digital divide. The Global Marshal Plan is support by a dozen institutions, including the Club of Rome and the Global Society Dialogue. The interim results are summarized in a publication, edited by Professor Franz Josef Radermacher, Chair of the Global Society Dialogue "Global Marshall Plan - A Planetary Contract. For a worldwide Eco-Social Market Economy." The book include input from more than 50 organisations. 

See also http://www.global-contract.de/e39/e180/index_eng.html#e181

2. The PIF Family and the Global Contract Foundation supported furthermore a broad WSIS related initiative of a group of youth organisations (YOIS & Taking ITGlobal) which produced a publication "Wh at t's next? The future of information society - a youth perspective". 

See also http://www.global-contract.de/e39/e180/index_eng.html#e181

3. Representativers of the PIF Family - Maike Sippel, Fritjof Finkbeiner, Wolfgang Kleinwächter - participated as speakers or moderators in numerous academic conferences and practical round tables, including a WSIS Round Table in cooperation with UNESCO during the 10th  International eLearning Conference in Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden (Learntec 2004), April 2004. 

See also: http://www.learntec.net/final.htm

4. Members of the PIF Family made active contributions to the follow up of the WSIS I, in particular by participating and intervening during meetings of the UN ICT Task Force in New York (March 2004) and Berlin (November 2004), the UN Working Group on Internet Governance in Geneva (September 2004 and November 2004) and the  WSIS Group of the Friends of the Chair in Geneva (October 2004).

See also: http://www.itu.int/wsis/documents/listing.asp?lang=en&c_event=gfc|1&c_type=s|

5. PIF Family Co-Chair Wolfgang Kleinwächter participated in the CS WSIS Bureau meeting in Cape Town in December 2004. 

6. The PIF Family undertook a number of efforts to broaden its bases and to win new members. It distributed a round mail (see Annex 1) to more than 500 foundations around the world. Unfortunately the reaction to this mail was limited so far. Another round mail will be distributed in March 2005, after PrepCom2, with the aim to mobilize more participants for PrepCom3 and in particular for the Tunis Summit, where the Global Contract Foundation in cooperation with other philantropic institutions and foundations, plans a series of side events. 

Fritjof Finkbeiner & Wolfgang Kleinwächter

Co-Chairs.   

Annex 1:

PIF Outreach e-Mail to about 500 foundations around the world from April 2004

Dear Collegues,

As you probably know, the United Nations have organized in December 2003 the world´s first Summit on the Global Information Society (see: http://www.itu.int/wsis/ <http://www.itu.int/wsis/> ). The "World Summit on the Information Society" (WSIS) was attended by nearly 15 000 delegates from governments, including about 50 heads of states, private sector and civil society. The governments adopted two final documents: A "Declaration of Principles" and a "Plan of Action". Civil Society also adopted a Declaration "Shaping Information Societies for Human Needs". One of the main objectives of WSIS is to contribute to the Millenium Development Goals, in particular in the field of information and communication, to bridge the digital divide and to enable everybody to participate in the new opportunities of the information age. Until the year 2015, each village of the world should have access to the Internet. The second phase of the Summit is scheduled for November 2005 in Tunis.

A new principle - the principle of "Multistakeholderism" - was introduced into the procedures of the summit. For the first time in the history of UN Summits, WSIS brought together not only Head of States, but also leaders of the private sector and the civil society. This new "multistakeholder (trilateral) approach" is seen as a fundamental innovation in UN policies. The equal inclusion of non-governmental actors in the WSIS process is a result of the growing complexity of the "Global Information Revolution" which needs reflections and actions by all stakeholders: governments, private industry and civil society. 

Key issues of the WSIS process are, inter alia, the digital divide, information infrastructure, access, sustainable development, human rights on information and communication, cultural and liguistic diversity, information security, intellectual property, global knowledge and education. For two issues -  internet governance and financial mechanism - WSIS I decided to crate special working groups which will report to WSIS II. .  

The Civil Society - which was represented with more than 5000 delegates during WSIS I - has organized itself in a so called "Civil Society Plenary" (CSP), which is based on two working groups on "Procedures" and "Content and Themes". The "Content and Themes Working Group" has about 25 so-called "Content Caucuses", which discuss on an expert level the substance and details of proposals and projects from a civil society point of view (see: http://www.geneva2003.org/wsis/indexa01.htm <http://www.geneva2003.org/wsis/indexa01.htm> ). 

To facilitate a structured dialogue and a constructive interaction among the key stakeholders, the WSIS Secretariat has encouraged representatives of the Civil Society, to form a "Civil Society Bureau" (CSB). During PrepCom2, a process was initiated which has led to the establishment of 23 socalled "WSIS CS Families". Among the "WSIS CS Families" are groups like the media, social movements, youth and gender groups, think tanks, academia, trade unions, volunteers and others. One of the 23 families is the group of "Philantropic Institutions and Foundations" (PIF). The CSB acts as a communication bridge between Civil Society, Private Sector and Governments. During PrepCome 2, Frithjof Finkbeiner from the Global Contract Foundation and Prof. Wolfgang Kleinwaechter from the Global Society Dialogue has been nominated by family members to serve as their representatives in the CSB. 

To promote the input of philantropic institutions and foundations into the bottom up policy development process within WSIS, we invite you, 

a.	to become a member of the "family" (this is an "informal" process because the "PIF Family" is not a legal body); 
b.	to become involved in the discussion and to indicate where your special interest is; 
c.	to comment on the drafts of the documents which will be prepared for the Tunis Summit and to channel your input either directly or via the CSB to the WSIS Secretairat; 
d.	to offer any kind of contribution, in particular with regard to the implementation of the summit´s decisions. 

To promote communication among the PIF Family Members we have opened a "WSIS PIF Family Website" under www.wsis-philantropic.org <http://www.wsis-philantropic.org>  soon. On this website you will find further information on the WSIS process, on the special role of philantropic institutions and foundations and additional links. 

If you want to become an informal member of the WSIS PIF Family, please send an e-mail to member at wsis-philantropic.org <mailto:member at wsis-philantropic.org%20>  with the following information 

a.	name of your institution 
b.	contact person (e-mail, address, telephone number) 
c.	area of interest 
d.	scope of your activities 

If you have further questions please contact us. 

Global Contract Foundation, Rissener Landstrasse 193, D - 22559 Hamburg, per Fax ++49-40-82290-421 

mailto: kleinwaechter at wsis-philantropic.org <mailto:kleinwaechter at wsis-philantropic.org>  or finkbeiner at wsis-philantropic.org <mailto:finkbeiner at wsis-philantropic.org> . 

Best regards

Wolfgang Kleinwächter, Global Society Dialogue, CSB Member 

Frithjof Finkbeiner, Global Contract Foundation, CSB Member 

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