GKP Africa Day on Multi-Stakeholder Partnership in building the information Society
The African Regional Preparatory Conference for the WSIS
30 - 31 January 2005
I Introduction
The Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) defines Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships (MSP) as "alliances between parties drawn from government, business and civil society that strategically aggregate the resources and competencies of each to resolve the key challenges of ICT as an enabler of sustainable development, and which are founded on principles of shared risk, cost and mutual benefit." The need for such alliances is a result of the recognition that no one party can single-handedly guarantee development. The government provides the political, legal and regulatory environment for development. It provides the policies, standards and guidelines under which society should operate to achieve agreed development goals. But the government does not have the resources to provide all the necessary tools and solutions. While some resources are best provided as public goods, there are others that can be provided more effectively and efficiently by other stakeholders.
The roles of these groups are important in the development of the inclusive Information Society. However, the objective can only be achieved if their efforts coordinated. The multi-stakeholder partnership (MSP) framework provides for such a coordinated approach by the various groups. The Africa regional WSIS II Conference presents an opportunity to bring all stakeholders together to debate on the issue.
II Objective
The following forum aims to bring together GKP members, representatives of governments, regional organisations, bilateral and multilateral development partners, civil society, academia and the private sector to reflect on the concept of Multi-stakeholder partnership in the African context and share experiences and lessons learned in the quest for better options to overcome the challenges related toICT4D initiatives;
III Structure of the forum
The forum will include five plenary topics and five-breakout session's activities:
1. Plenary activities
1.1 GKP 2004 annual meeting report
This session will highlight GKP mission and the outcomes and follow-up mechanism of 2004 GKP annual meeting
1.2 PICTA 2004 annual meeting report
ECA will present PICTA mechanism and the outcome of 2004 annual PICTA meetings
1.3 Multi-stakeholders partnerships for ICT4D
The concept of MSP is still new and developing in Africa. This session, presented by a GKP member will share experience and lessons on how to develop successful partnerships amongst government, business, and civil society. This presentation will try to investigate the following questions:
What aspects or components of the information infrastructure are best provided by government?
What alternative models, other than central budgeting, could be adopted for funding public goods, with particular emphasis on ICT4D?
What organisational and administrative models should be adopted for shared responsibilities between government and non-government entities such as MSPs?
Projects, case studies and lessons learnt will be presented by Africa ICT4D Civil Society bureau with the view of exchanging ideas and knowledge.
1.4 Lobbying and resource mobilisation framework for ICT4D
(GKP information and knowledge toolkit)
This session, based on GKP resource centre toolkit, will be presented by GKP members with a view to enhancing stakeholder capacity on resource mobilisation and lobbying for MSPs;
The difference between fundraising and resource mobilisation and why this toolkit has focused on the latter will be outlined. The resource mobilization framework is introduced as having three key components namely, resource providers, resources and mechanisms for resource mobilization. This framework is then used to relate these three components to the local context - what kind of resources are needed, what kind of mechanisms work, and what kind of resource providers exist and how to lobby?
2 Breakout Session activities:
2.1 Breakout Session I on Youth in the Information Society
To discuss mutual issues surrounding their various roles in the Information Society and the road map to Tunis. The following questions will be raised and responded to through various presentations:
What can youth bring to Africa's table in her bid to "jump onto" the fast-moving Information Society train? What more does Africa need to do in order to get the best out of her youth? What kinds of mechanisms can be established for their sustained involvement in the process of building Information Society?
2.2 Breakout Session II on MPs in the Information Society
The global objective of the session will be to:
raise awareness of Africa MPs on their role in the Information Society and
discuss issues related to Africa ICT4D MPs Network.
It is expected that the following specific objectives will be accomplished:
Prepare Parliamentarians for new role in the Information Society;
Sensitise high-level African parliamentarians on the use of information and communication technologies for the development and transformation of their constituencies and nation;
Develop cross-country debates, views regarding the involvement of Parliamentarians in the Information Society;
Encourage and support inter-parliamentary cooperation in pursuit of regional integration;
Promote regional cooperation for technology and best practices transfer and localization and
Launch the Africa ICT4D MPs Network, and identify sub-regional representatives.
2.3 Breakout Session III on Academia Research Network
This session constitutes an opportunity for Academia, researchers to discuss on the challenges facing them in the Information society. It also helps review the findings of ongoing research activities in the framework of the implementation of African Information Society (AISI).
2.4 Breakout Session IV on Civil Society
The specifics goals of the session are:
To reinforce mobilization of the civil society at the national and regional levels towards a viable, strong, grass rooted and active Information Society;
To formulate a strategy to apply bests practices and lessons learned for implementing inclusive Information Society at the national and regional levels;
Design a realistic and coherent ACS agenda of activities to support the success of the second phase of the World Summit on Information Society in planned for Tunis in 2005.
3. GKP closing session
This session will be closed session for GKP members.