Gender Peripheries of WSIS Prep Com 3

The internet has grown and matured and it therefore prudent to believe that it is time for a greater internationalization of the management of the internet. The internet governance oversight functions have been clearly spelt out as the Gender Caucus paticipates in WSIS PrepCom III.

Culture involves both men and women and in this regard the reintroduction of culture diversity in the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) is an issue as it continues to be side lined in the process.

Grassroots issues are spelt out. The grassroots caucus lobbies the gender caucus to recognise their issues as they also have gender issues which are cross-cutting in their action plan.

Tunisia's credibility to host the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) has been questioned following the release of the report of the Tunisia Monitoring Group (TMG) as we move closer to pharse II scheduled to take place in Tunis, 16-18 November 2005.

Imagine for a moment attending a session and suddenly policeman shows up to tighten security for just this meeting. The launch of second report produced by the Tunisia Monitoring Group attracted many delegates in the WSIS PrepCom III .

"Is there such a thing as gender aspects of internet governance (IG) or does it boil down to the technical and political aspects?," asked Christine Butengwa from the African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET).

The Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) report acknowledges that there is the lack of participation of women, indigenous peoples, civil society and small enterprises in the ICT decision making processes. However women's participation is critical to shape just and equal internet use and evolution.

The joint discussion of the Association for Progressive Communications Women's Networking Support Programme (APC WNSP), African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) and the WSIS Gender Caucus showed that it is important for gender and ICT advocates to embrace MDGs in order to talk in the same language with the government.

Of course! Just when I start to get the hang of things and feel like I am finally getting a vague idea of what is going on, it’s time to go. Brenda Zulu who arrived late last night will be taking over blogging for the next week while I go home to the land of good food at reasonable prices (yipee!). It should be exciting. A real test of the promise of participatory, multi-stakeholder, transparent…

Sorry for late blog today. The WSIS Gender Caucus have come up with a draft Briefing Paper that states its positions on WSIS PrepCom-3 so far, and by the time Lenka & I worked on inputs and comments to the draft to be submitted to the caucus, I couldn’t face Fabala anymore...