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Key Recommendations of the WSIS Gender Caucus
The African Regional Preparatory Meeting
for the World Summit on the Information Society WSIS
Bamako, Mali
May 25-30 2002
The WSIS Gender Caucus urges all stakeholders involved in preparation for the WSIS:
To commit to work in partnership, to ensure co-ordination, co-operation and collaboration in the development of a shared vision and common understanding of a World Information Society that contributes to sustainable human development based on agreed principles including recognition of women's human rights and right to communicate;
To commit to reducing the disparities that currently exist in access to and participation in the Information Society, particularly with respect to the widening gender digital divide;
To actively encourage, facilitate and support women's active participation in the Global Information Society;
To take forward all the recommendations made by the WSIS Gender Caucus at Bamako 2002 particularly in all of the preparatory processes for the WSIS 2003 and 2005;
To provide specific opportunities for the discussion and further elaboration of the issues raised and the recommendations made by the WSIS Gender Caucus to be included in the programme of activities planned for Geneva 2003 and Tunis 2005;
To commit to ensuring that ICTs be used as an effective tool in reaching collective goals of sustainable human development, including developing applications for health, education, security and reducing gender based violence;
To ensure that all the proposed training and capacity development programmes to support developing countries effective participation in the WSIS including the UNITAR programme integrates appropriate consideration of the gender dimension and includes full participation of women;
To use a broad information dissemination programme, that integrates radio traditional media and other 'low-technology' applications to widely distribute the results of the discussions and to invite broader participation in the development of a shared understanding and common vision;
To integrate programme development at the World Summits on the Information Society with the regional and global preparation for World Conference on Women (Beijing+10) and other sustainable development initiatives particularly WSSD; and
To actively engage in mobilising human and financial resources that are required to integrate efforts for reducing the gender digital divide into the work programme arising from the World Summit on the Information Society.
The formation of the WSIS Gender Caucus was led by representatives of twenty-two organisations that responded to an invitation by UNIFEM. The work of the WSIS Gender Caucus will focus on ensuring that gender dimensions are included in the process of defining and creating a Global Information Society that contributes to sustainable development and human security.
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