ASIA PACIFIC PREPARATORY PROCESS FOR THE WSIS

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ASIA PACIFIC PREPARATORY PROCESS FOR THE WSIS

• Prepared by
• The United Nations Economic and Social Commission
  for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) Secretariat,
• The International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
  Regional Office for Asia and Pacific
• and
• The Asia Pacific Telecommunity (APT) Secretariat
• Bangkok, Thailand.

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ASIA PACIFIC PREPARATORY PROCESS FOR THE WSIS

• CONTENTS
• WSIS background and current status
• Overall WSIS preparatory process
• Who should make inputs
• How to make inputs
• Expected outputs at the regional level
• Role of ESCAP, ITU and APT
• Regional preparatory meeting
• Consolidating regional inputs
• Work Plan- preparations for the Asia Pacific
  region

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ASIA PACIFIC PREPARATORY PROCESS FOR THE WSIS

• Background on WSIS
• ITU/PP-98 (Res. 73) instructed the ITU-SG to
  place the question of holding a World Summit on
  the Information Society on the agenda of the UN
  Administrative Committee on Coordination (April
  99)
• UN ACC supported ITU initiative to hold WSIS
• ACC 2000 expressed its satisfaction with the ITU
  Draft Plan of Action (www.itu.int/wsis/action-plan
  .htm)
• ACC 2001 approved dates, venues for WSIS and made
  suggestions on how UN should make inputs

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ASIA PACIFIC PREPARATORY PROCESS FOR THE WSIS

• WSIS Planning Current Status (1)
• Timing and Venue
• 1st Phase Geneva, 10-12 December 2003
• 2nd Phase Tunis, 2005
• Duration 3 days
• Participation
• Heads of State
• Heads of UN Agencies
• NGOs
• CEOs from private sector

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ASIA PACIFIC PREPARATORY PROCESS FOR THE WSIS

• WSIS Planning Current Status (2)
• Executive Secretariat (ES)
• based in Geneva hosted by ITU Headquarters with
  support from Swiss Government
• started work August 2001
• recruiting Executive Director
• interested agencies can contact ITU-SG about
  participating in ES

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ASIA PACIFIC PREPARATORY PROCESS FOR THE WSIS
WSIS Planning EXPECTED OUTCOME OF WSIS -
Declaration of Principles covering the whole
range of issues related to the information
society - to express the political will that
globalisation of telecommunications must take
account of harmonious evolution in policies,
regulations, networks and services. - Action
plan
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ASIA PACIFIC PREPARATORY PROCESS FOR THE WSIS

• WSIS Planning Proposed themes
• Building the infrastructure
• Opening the gates universal and equitable access
• Services and Applications the implications of
  the IS for economic, social and cultural
  development
• The needs of the users (consumer protection,
  privacy security) Content and the freedom to
  communicate
• Developing a Framework
• ICT and Education

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The Preparatory Process
ECOSOC ICT Task Force
States
ITU/WTDC ITU/PP-02
Regional Meetings    
G8 Dot Force
High Level Summit Organizing committee (HLSOC) Hea
ds of UN Agencies (1st meeting, 18/10/01)
Private Sector
NGOs Civil Society
Host Country Secretariat
Executive Secretariat Staffed by representatives
from Governments, UN Agencies, Private Sector,
NGOs Civil Society
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early 2002
Prepcom 1 (Geneva)
2nd half 2002
Prepcom 2 (Geneva)
early 2003
Prepcom 3 (Geneva)
3rdQ 2003
World Summit Geneva 2003
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ASIA PACIFIC PREPARATORY PROCESS FOR THE WSIS

• Purpose of preparatory meetings
• Prepcoms define
• who should attend the WSIS
• procedures for conducting the Summits
• administrative requirements details
• Regional Meetings define
• regional themes and priorities
• content
• identify regional positions on issues if possible

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ASIA PACIFIC PREPARATORY PROCESS FOR THE WSIS

• Who should make inputs?
• In view of the nature of the Summit,
  participation from all interested sectors is
  encouraged.
• all UN agencies in the concerned sectors -
• should be responsible for making concise input to
  the preparatory process.The agencies are also
  expected to coordinate input from the private
  sector interested in their field of activities.
  Regional inputs will be organised and coordinated
  through the Inter agency Working Group on ICT and
  the UN ESCAP coordination process.
• private sector
• those private sector companies with interests in
  ICT and its impact on their business should make
  inputs
• civil society
• the role of civil society should be highlighted
  in the Summit process. The digital divide exists
  not just between nations, but between urban and
  rural dwellers, male and female, and rich and
  poor. Thus, civil societys inputs are vital.

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ASIA PACIFIC PREPARATORY PROCESS FOR THE WSIS

• How to make inputs?
• It will be necessary to design a standard format
  for making the regional input.This format will be
  prepared keeping in view the key agenda items for
  WSIS.
• Additional contributions can be made in
  accordance with the procedure established by the
  WSIS secretariat.
• Agencies will be encouraged to consult formally
  and informally among themselves and with others
  concerned.
• The Asia Pacific Inter-agency ICT WG (established
  in August 2001, coordinated jointly by ESCAP, APT
  and ITU) can meet more often to facilitate
  coordination

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ASIA PACIFIC PREPARATORY PROCESS FOR THE WSIS

• Expected outputs at the regional level
• In view of limitations on time and volume of
  documentation, it is preferred to make the input
  from the region to the WSIS Preparatory Process
  in the form of
• Draft resolutions
• A set of recommendations
• Opinion documents
• Draft Policy documents
• Activity Plans
• Other supporting contributions and information
  documents

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ASIA PACIFIC PREPARATORY PROCESS FOR THE WSIS

• Role of ESCAP, ITU APT
• ESCAP is expected to
• play a key role in the Asia Pacific Preparatory
  process by soliciting input from political and
  policy making levels from the public and private
  sectors and civil society
• organise meetings at high policy level in late
  2002 or early 2003
• utilise its existing mechanism for soliciting
  input from the various donors
• obtain host country agreement for holding of a
  high policy level regional preparatory meeting
• work with APT and ITU to coordinate inter-agency
  consultation and inputs through the Inter-agency
  ICT working group

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ASIA PACIFIC PREPARATORY PROCESS FOR THE WSIS

• ITU APT will provide input from Communication
  and Information technology sectors in the ASP
  region
• ITU regional office will provide continuous
  liaison with the WSIS Executive Secretariat, ITU
  Geneva
• APT will organise a regional preparatory meeting
  for the ICT sector in second half of 2002
• APT will establish coordination with other
  regional organisations involved in the work of
  ICT and will facilitate inter regional
  coordination among them
• APT will co-organise meetings of the Interagency
  ICT Working Group with ESCAP and ITU
• APT will establish and maintain a website for
  facilitating inter agency coordination

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ASIA PACIFIC PREPARATORY PROCESS FOR THE WSIS

• Regional Preparatory Meeting
• By the end of November 2001, APT will inform of
  the details of the Regional Preparatory Meeting.
• The Regional Preparatory meeting is likely to be
  held in the second half of 2002.
• All members of ITU and APT are expected to play
  an active part in the preparation and in the
  meeting.

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ASIA PACIFIC PREPARATORY PROCESS FOR THE WSIS

• Consolidating various regional inputs
• The regional inputs will be consolidated in the
  meetings of the Inter-agency ICT Working Group

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ASIA PACIFIC PREPARATORY PROCESS FOR THE WSIS

• Work Plan (1)
• 30 November 2001- Decision by the APT Management
  Committee about APT Preparatory meeting for WSIS
• 10 Dec 2001-Presentation by APT and ITU about
  Regional preparations for WSIS
• Dec-Jan 2002-Preparatory work by APT ,
  coordination with ESCAP and ITU
• End Jan 2002-Meeting of ICT Working Group
• Feb-March 2002-Follow up with other
  agencies,ESCAP coordination with UN, ITU Regional
  office coordination with ITU Geneva

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ASIA PACIFIC PREPARATORY PROCESS FOR THE WSIS

• Work Plan (2)
• Mid 2002 APT Preparatory meeting and mid year
  review of the progress.
• Continuous working by electronic means

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ASIA PACIFIC PREPARATORY PROCESS FOR THE WSIS

• Contact details
• ESCAP
• Dr. Guennadi Fedorov
• Chief, Technology Section
• International Trade and Industry Division
• United Nations Building, Rajdamnern Ave.,
• Bangkok 10200, Thailand
• Tel [phone] Fax [phone]
• E-mail fedorov.unescap_at_un.org
• ITU
• Dr. Michael A. Calvano, Head
• ITU Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
• P.O. Box 178, 89/2, Chaengwattana Road
• Bangkok 10210, Thailand
• Tel [phone], Fax [phone]
• E-mail michael.calvano_at_itu.int

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THANKS VERY MUCH

• APT
• Mr. A. Narayan
• Deputy Executive Director
• 12/49 Soi 5, Chaengwattana Road
• Bangkok 10210, Thailand
• Tel [phone] ext 102
• Fax [phone]
• E-mail narayan_at_aptsec.org

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More information ?
Dr. Eun-Ju Kim Senior Adviser for Asia
Pacific, ITU Tel)66 2 574 8565 Fax)66 2
574 9328 eun-ju.kim_at_itu.int

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