Online Forum: An Information Society for Uganda
April 14 - 30, 2003

Background

Following the WSIS PrepCom II in Geneva, two basic working documents have been produced: a draft Declaration of Principles and a draft Plan of Action. Comments to the two working documents may be submitted by May 31, 2003. PrepCom III will be convened in Geneva from September 15-26, 2003, and will consist of two weeks of negotiations on all issues related to the Summit. There will be an Intersessional Period between PrepCom-II and PrepCom-III dedicated to refining the working documents for the Draft Declaration of Principles and Draft Action Plan. The two documents, which include contributions from governments and from observers (i.e., civil society, private sector, international organisations), are available in WORD and PDF formats at http://www.itu.int/wsis under the section:
WSIS - PrepCom-3 and Intersessional Period
Geneva (Switzerland), 15-26 September 2003
Working documents for the Draft Declaration of Principles and Draft Action Plan as of 21 March 2003

Uganda's input to the WSIS PrepCom is available at: http://www.ucc.co.ug, under the section:
WSIS Preparations Document
principles and action plan to WSIS PrepCom2

Additional documents related to the PrepCom working documents have been produced including comments and highlighting priority issues and issues of concern from a gender perspective, and from civil society in general. Available at the WSIS NGO Gender Strategies Working Group (GSWG) website are the following:

• Overview of the WSIS process - Putting Gender on the Agenda, by Anne Walker IWTC.
  
  
• Documents related to the PrepCom II, including:
  Civil society comments to Draft Declaration
  Civil society comments to Draft Action Plan
  Letter of Concern to WSIS PrepCom President - Mr Samassékou's 'Non Paper'
  Submission by the NGO GSWG to WSIS PrepCom II,Geneva, February 2003
  

Also available are documents produced during the 47th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which had as one of its two thematic issues: "Participation and access to women of the media, and information and communication technologies and their impact on and use as an instrument for the advancement and empowerment of women". The documents at the GSWG website include:
African caucus statement
The "Seven Musts": Priority Issues for Gender Equality in the WSIS Process
ACTION ITEMS for Gender Equality in the Information Society

Online Forum Objectives

To facilitate contribution to the WSIS working documents, the goal of the online forum was to gather contributions from a civil society perspective. The specific objectives of the online forum were to:

• Identify the key principles that should underline an Information Society in Uganda
• Identify specific actions that are priority in order to ensure equitable access by all within the Information Society
• Identify the role of civil society in the development of ICTs and equitable information access in Uganda

Online Forum Participation

Participation in the online forum was open to everyone. The forum was email-based.

Online Forum Language

The primary language of the forum was English.

Online Forum Agenda

April 14	Introduction
April 15-16	Key principles
April 17-18	Specific actions
April 21-25	Role of civil society in the ICT policy process in Uganda
April 28-30	Wrap-up

Background documents for the online forum included the WSIS PrepCom II working documents, Uganda's input to the WSIS PrepCom 2, and documents produced by civil society. These documents are available online via the links provided above in the background section. If you wish to receive copies of the documents via email, send a note to ictpolicy@wougnet.org.

Online Forum Output

An ISUG report was produced based on the contributions during the Forum. In order to channel contributions to the WSIS Secretariat, copies of the draft report were given to the WSIS Africa Caucus, the WSIS Gender Caucus and the NGO Gender Strategies Working Group. The final report is now available for download in English (WORD - PDF) and French (WORD - PDF). French translation for the report was generously provided by Netaid.org volunteers, Murielle Lieb and Fabrice Hansé.

Additional Information

For additional information about the forum, send email to ictpolicy@wougnet.org. For information on the WSIS preparations in Uganda, click here.

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Last update: July-24, 2003