WSIS COUNTRY PREPARATIONS
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> WSIS Country Preparations WSIS preparations in African countries Ethiopia | Ghana | Nigeria | Uganda The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), in collaboration with the Ethiopian Telecommunication Agency (ETA) has organized a half-day national WSIS consultation workshop on Thursday, 13 February 2003 that took place at the United Nations Conference Center (UNCC). The objective of the workshop
was to sensitize participants on the genesis, objectives and development of the WSIS, to
assess Ethiopia's readiness for the information society vis a vis the WSIS process and
revisit the roles of various stakeholders in enhancing the entry of Africa into the
information age. The workshop has also provided stakeholders with an opportunity to
discuss and brainstorm on Ethiopia’s digital agenda and its participation in the
forthcoming WSIS events: PrepCom2, PrepCom3, the summits in Geneva and Tunis. About 50
participants drawn from government, private sector, civil society and development partners
have attended the workshop. The Task Force has prepared Ethiopia's input to the WSIS, reviewed through online discussion list facilitated by ECA, and submitted the report to WSIS Secretariat in May 2003. For the report click here >> [PDF format] More on the consultation workshop >> A meeting of the national preparatory committee for the WSIS was held on 20th January 2002 at the ministry of communications and technology. About 28 participants drawn from the government, civil society, private sector, and academic institutions have attended the meeting. In his opening address Hon. Felix K. Owusu-Adjapong, minister of Communications and Technology has drawn the attention of the participants to Ghana’s recent election to the Council of ITU and acknowledged the interest demonstrated by the development partners towards Ghana’s participation in the Summit. The Chairman of the National ICT Policy and Plan Development Committee, Prof. Clement Dzidonou, gave an account of the consultation exercise that is being undertaken with the stakeholders in the country to develop for Ghana an ICT-led socio-economic Development Policy and Plan. Furthermore, the coordinator of the National Preparatory Committee, Prof. Ansu-Kyeremeh, expressed satisfaction at the attendance and urged the meeting to take advantage of the WSIS and send contributions that will feature in the Declaration of Principles and Action Plan for the world. The coordinator called for the formation of a Committee to undertake the drafting of the national presentation at the Summit. WSIS
preparations in Nigeria The forum, which focused on fine-tuning the nation’s core-concerns on the forthcoming World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), to be submitted, as Nigeria’s contribution. Attendants cut-across the public and private sector as well as the civil society and the media largely. Over 20 ICT-media professionals attended the WSIS forum. Director-General of the National Information Development Agency (NITDA), Prof. Gabriel Olalere Ajayi, in his welcome address, stated that the forum was a follow-up to the WSIS forum earlier held last month, under the auspices of NITDA in Abuja. The forum, he noted was in
fulfillment of the Nigerian delegates to PrepCom 2, held in Geneva, to harmonise views and
input, which outcome was the consideration of a Nigerian position paper to form an
integral part of African regional proposal to the WSIS PrepCom. Prof. Ajayi, enumerated
drafts of principles and action plan that guided the forum, to include the building of the
Information Society: A new global challenge in the new millennium; Common vision of the
Info Society and an Info Society for all: Key principles. Other issues discussed by participants were enabling environment; promotion and development – oriented ICT applications for all; cultural identity and linguistic diversity, local contents and development; identifying and overcoming barriers to the achievement of Info Society with perspective – ethical dimension and international and regional co-operation. On January 27, 2003, a National WSIS Taskforce was created to coordinate Uganda's input to the WSIS PrepCom II, Geneva. Current members of the taskforce are representatives of Ministry of Works, Housing and Communications, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), MTN, Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST), and WOUGNET. A public meeting was held on Tuesday, February 4, 2003, to consult on Uganda's national position on WSIS. The output of this meeting was the basis of Uganda's input to the second global preparatory committee meeting (PrepCom2). Contact:
Uganda's input was evolved by the WSIS National Task Force and further improved upon during a Public Consultative Meeting held February 4, 2003 at the Nile International Conference Centre. The Public Consultative meeting was organised and sponsored by the Uganda Communications Commission. Over 70 participants attended from a wide cross-section of representation including government, private sector, civil society, media, and NGOs. The meeting was opened by the Minister of State for Communications, Ministry of Works, Housing and Communications (MoWHC), Hon. Werikhe and presided over by the Executive Director, Uganda Communications Commission, Mr. Patrick Masambu. After the keynote address by Hon. Werikhe and the presentation of the WSIS Working Document by Dr. Turahi, Assistant Commissioner - MoWHC and member of the Task Force, meeting participants split up into four groups. Each group discussed two themes of the Working document. The groups were structured as follows: Group 1 - Themes 1&3,
moderated by Mr. Vincent Musubira After the discussions, each group presented the outcomes of its discussion during an open session where meeting participants made remarks on the various presentations. Following the Public Consultative meeting, the taskforce amended the WSIS Working Document - taking into account the recommendations by the meeting participants. A final version of Uganda's input to the Principles and Plan of Action for the WSIS has now been prepared for submission to the WSIS PrepCom II in Geneva. The Commission has expressed its sincere thanks to all those who worked tirelessly to develop Uganda's input to WSIS. Special thanks went to the Task Force which included Ambassador Mugume, Dr. Turahi (MoWHC), Mr. Barugahara (UNCST), Mr. Aineruhanga (WOUGNET), Ms. Namumbya (WOUGNET), Ms. Lutimba (MoWHC) and the four workshop moderators during the Public Consultative meeting. A copy of the final version of
Uganda's input will be made available online. Online Forum An online forum hosted by WOUGNET aims to facilitate contributions to the WSIS working documents: the Draft Declaration of Principles and the Draft Action Plan of 21 March 2003. It will also focus on Uganda's Input to the WSIS. In addition, the contributions from the forum will be submitted to the WSIS Africa Civil Society Caucus working group on content. Details about the forum is available at: http://www.wougnet.org/WSIS/ug/isug.html
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