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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>News from High Africa News Agency(HANA) </FONT></DIV>
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<P align=center class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><FONT face=Arial size=3><SPAN lang=EN-US style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-WEIGHT: bold">African civil society participation at Tunisia PrepCom1 critically low<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P align=center class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><FONT face=Arial size=3><SPAN lang=EN-US style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">By Emrakeb Assefa - Highway Africa News Agency<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-US style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-WEIGHT: bold">YASMINE HAMMAMET, TUNISIA. June 23, 2004 </SPAN></FONT></B><FONT face=Arial><SPAN lang=EN-US style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Civil Society Organizations (CSO) attending the First Preparatory Committee (PrepCom1) meeting of the Tunis Phase of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) expressed today a deep concern over the low level of African participation in the meeting.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=3><SPAN lang=EN-US style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">“Representation of African civil society organizations is very poor, and the number is so minimal as to be non-existent,” Baguma Tinkasimier Richard, General Secretary of United Nations Association of Uganda, said, noting that attending such meetings would be too expensive for most African NGOs.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He was one among the four sub-Saharan African NGOs currently participating in the Civil Society caucus meeting, a pre-event to the PrepCom1 which will open tomorrow here in Hammamet, Tunisia.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=3><SPAN lang=EN-US style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Charles Geiger, deputy executive director of the WSIS Executive Secretariat also voiced a similar concern and blamed a lack of funding for the low African attendance in the PrepCom one.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=3><SPAN lang=EN-US style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Geiger said, “We were concerned over the low level of participation from Africa in the previous WSIS in Switzerland. But we are more worried now because it has reached a critical point.” He believes the level of African participation in the Tunisia phase would be even lower because Switzerland, the host country of the first phase of WSIS, no longer provided financial support to NGOs.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=3><SPAN lang=EN-US style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Meanwhile, Moncef Achour, seconded by the Tunisian government to serve as Civil Society liaison with WSIS Executive Secretariat, admitted that African participation was indeed limited, but his government is doing its level best to overcome the financial problem.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He promised that by PrepCom Two, which is scheduled to take place in February, more finance would be made available to the African NGOs to a grater representation.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=3><SPAN lang=EN-US style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">The difficulty for African participants in the Tunisia Phase has been further exacerbated by the practical problem of travelling.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Several African delegates arriving in Tunisia complained of the time consuming and exhausting travel they had to endure in order to reach Tunisia.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=3><SPAN lang=EN-US style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">“I have to travel over three continents before reaching Tunisia,” Baguma Tinkasimier Richard complained, stating that on leaving Uganda he had to make a 30-hour trip via<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Nairobi, Dubai and Paris. “Yet, Tunisia is on the same continent as my country Uganda.”<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=3><SPAN lang=EN-US style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">The PrepCom 1 is the first of a series of PrepCom meetings to be held ahead of the Second Phase of WSIS scheduled to be take place in mid November in Tunis.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>WSIS is the first UN Summit to be held in two phases to address the issue of Information Society.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The First Phase, which was held from 10-12 December 2003 in Geneva, Switzerland, closed with governments endorsing declaration of principles and plan of action, documents aiming to address the issue of bridging the digital divide between developing and developed world.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
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<P class=MsoBodyText><I><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-ZA style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Highway Africa reports from Cairo are made possible with support from <B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation</SPAN></B>. Editorial decisions are solely the responsibility of Highway Africa.</SPAN></FONT></I><FONT face="Bookman Old Style"><SPAN lang=EN-ZA style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Bookman Old Style'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
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<P></P>_______________________________________________<BR>See also: http://www.highwayafrica.org.za/hana<BR>http://www.newsagency.blogspot.com<BR>http://www.sabcnews.com/features/africa_telecom_2004/<BR><BR><BR></DIV>
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