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Dear Daniel<br>
<br>
The DSF is dead.<br>
It had a serious birth defect<br>
the legal basis of its main financial mechanism was wrong...<br>
To force a supplier to "donate" to a third party, in the context<br>
of a purchase, is called "racket", and for whatever goof reason this<br>
donation is made. <br>
During WSIS, I warned about. a swiss DSF proponent <br>
told me that a legal study has been
made...<br>
for the city of Geneva.... it turns out that it is one of the few city<br>
in the world that there is a legal hole agains racket....<br>
<br>
the overexpenditure of the DSF staff has added to the problem...<br>
to the point of creating a mini-scandal<br>
and now there is a lack of credibility<br>
and confidence....<br>
<br>
better dissolve the current DSF, to start a completely new one,<br>
transparent from the onset, with a new financial supporting<br>
mechanism.<br>
<br>
This could be discussed, and there is a CSTD recommandation<br>
that would allow that.<br>
<br>
I would call that the real emergency is the recommendation<br>
that the CSTD has adopted last May... after the long work<br>
of the WSIS-Finance group <br>
tp://www.wsis-finance.org/<br>
<br>
<font class="line1"><font class="line">The <a
href="http://www.wsis-finance.org/cstd.html"> CSTD</a> has adopted a
recommendation in May 2008 :
<br>
<b><i>
32. Recommends that UNGIS organize focused open multistakeholder
consultations on the implementation of part B of the Tunis Agenda "
Financial Mechanisms for Meeting the Challenges of ICTs for
Development"; </i></b></font></font><br>
<br>
Jean-Louis Fullsack has not been allowed to assist to the last UNGIS
meeting.<br>
<br>
What are they doing at UNGIS ? <br>
<br>
Best <br>
<br>
Francis<br>
<br>
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_______________________________________
Dear colleagues,
I shall report on the critical situation of the Digital Solidarity
Fund (DSF) in my quality of Latin America & Caribbbean civil society
member of the Board. I wish to report in the WSIS civil society
plenary list as well as in G@ID discussion list, in the hope to
trigger some positive dynamics in both communities (and I am also
informing the DSF Board of that initiative).
The last couple of months have been of acute crisis after a change in
the DSF Presidency and coordinated complains from the new DSF
President and the President of Senegal (speaking as "historical
father") on General Secretary management: basically they do not trust
the 1% principle could be effective and wish a centering and hosting
of the DSF on Africa, as an ICT4D project management organization.
On November 25th a stormy General Assembly was held in Lyon (France)
and was unable to reach consensus on further steps. An extraordinary
Assembly was then scheduled in Bamako, January 27th, 2009. More
confused than stormy this Assembly decided that a strategical and
finance independant audit shall be organized and its results
presented to a last extraordinary Assembly to be scheduled prior to
May 27th. This last Assembly would finally decide on the proposition
of the President of Senegal to take over the management of the DSF
(he was also given the responsibility to contract this audit and
manage the interim period).
The investment made so far has reached some 6 millions of euros (a
substantial part coming from developing countries) and one of the
argument for not letting go the situation was the responsibility to
protect that invested capital (which is no more in cash but hopefully
some part has transformed into people and project experiences and
institutional moves). Furthermore, it appears that the cashflow would
allow to stand until the next Assembly but no more.
The situation as of today is that the audit has apparently not been
launched and the risk is extremely high, due to the shortness of
cashflow, that the DSF will just fade out without any decision taken
and no audit results presented. This could be the worst scenario for
one of the most concrete products the WSIS process has tried to
launch and a shameful situation for our ICT4D community in regard to
the lost investment...
In that context, I want to call upon global civil society to put
pressure on stakeholders in order to try to save whatever is possible
from the disaster. I am wondering, given the particular situation, if
the best approach would not be to try to convince a UN related structure to
take over the DSF, conduct an audit which appears a mandatory
requirement (if only for accountability of public money invested!)
and assess the situation, trying to preserve, as far as possible, the
initial principles (multistakeholder global fund to overcome the
digital divide based on innovative sources).
ITU, G@ID or UNDP (which has been out of that field for some years
now) are possible options. I am not sure that any of them is eager to
take over a project in such a difficult situation; what I am quite
sure is that it is my duty as a civil society involved actor to
alert, inform and contribute to the search for a solution (I shall
also remember as a possible contribution that Agence de la
Francophonie had offered during the DSF Board debates to take
responsibility to contract an audit of the DSF... although it was
decided to do it another way).
Daniel Pimienta
Networks & Development Foundation
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://funredes.org">http://funredes.org</a>
Member of APC Network
As LA&C civil society member of the DSF Board
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<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
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Francis F. Ph.D MUGUET KNIS/ENSTA
Pôle de Développement pour l'Information Scientifique
"Réseaux de la Connaissance et Société de l'Information"
Scientific Information Development Laboratory
"Knowledge Networks & Information Society" (KNIS)
ENSTA/KNIS <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://knis.org">http://knis.org</a>
32 Blvd Victor 75739 PARIS cedex FRANCE
Phone: (33)1 45 52 60 19 Fax: (33)1 45 52 52 82
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:muguet@ensta.fr">muguet@ensta.fr</a> <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.ensta.fr/%7Emuguet">http://www.ensta.fr/~muguet</a>
PC4D : <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.pc4d.org">http://www.pc4d.org</a>
MDPI Foundation Open Access Journals
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.mdpi.org">http://www.mdpi.org</a> <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.mdpi.net">http://www.mdpi.net</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:muguet@mdpi.org">muguet@mdpi.org</a> <a
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:muguet@mdpi.net">muguet@mdpi.net</a>
World Summit On the Information Society (WSIS)
Civil Society Working Groups
Scientific Information : <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.wsis-si.org">http://www.wsis-si.org</a> chair
Patents & Copyrights : <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.wsis-pct.org">http://www.wsis-pct.org</a> co-chair
Financing Mechanismns : <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.wsis-finance.org">http://www.wsis-finance.org</a> web
Info. Net. Govermance : <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.wsis-gov.org">http://www.wsis-gov.org</a> web
NET4D : <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.net4D.org">http://www.net4D.org</a>
UNMSP : <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.unmsp.org">http://www.unmsp.org</a>
WTIS : <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.wtis.org">http://www.wtis.org</a> REUSSI : <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.reussi.org">http://www.reussi.org</a>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
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Francis F. MUGUET Ph.D
World Tour of the Information Society (WTIS)
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:muguet@wtis.org">muguet@wtis.org</a> <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://wtis.org">http://wtis.org</a> <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://wtis.tv">http://wtis.tv</a>
REUSSI : <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://reussi.org">http://reussi.org</a>
KNIS/ENSTA <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://knis.org">http://knis.org</a>
32 Blvd Victor 75739 PARIS cedex FRANCE
Phone: (33)1 45 52 60 19 Fax: (33)1 45 52 52 82
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:muguet@ensta.fr">muguet@ensta.fr</a> <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.ensta.fr/%7Emuguet">http://www.ensta.fr/~muguet</a>
PC4D : <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.pc4d.org">http://www.pc4d.org</a>
MDPI Foundation Open Access Journals
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.mdpi.org">http://www.mdpi.org</a> <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.mdpi.net">http://www.mdpi.net</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:muguet@mdpi.org">muguet@mdpi.org</a> <a
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:muguet@mdpi.net">muguet@mdpi.net</a>
World Summit On the Information Society (WSIS)
Civil Society Working Groups
Scientific Information : <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.wsis-si.org">http://www.wsis-si.org</a> chair
Patents & Copyrights : <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.wsis-pct.org">http://www.wsis-pct.org</a> co-chair
Financing Mechanismns : <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.wsis-finance.org">http://www.wsis-finance.org</a> web
Info. Net. Govermance : <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.wsis-gov.org">http://www.wsis-gov.org</a> web
NET4D : <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.net4D.org">http://www.net4D.org</a>
UNMSP : <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.unmsp.org">http://www.unmsp.org</a>
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