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Jul 4th, 2002 - 11:31:15 |
Nick Moraitis
YOUTH @ WSIS
The Newsletter of the Youth Caucus of the World Summit on the Information Society, Volume 1: Issue 3, Thursday, 4 July 2002, Geneva, Switzerland, First Preparatory Committee Meeting 1.
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Youth build on previous processes to craft platform
With the intergovernmental process now turning from procedures to substance, the Youth Caucus will be working this morning to draft an initial position paper on input to the thematic process. In creating this initial contribution, the youth will draw upon the many declarations produced by their peers at numerous international conferences in recent years. For example, the Youth Forum of the 31st UNESCO General Conference in 2001, to which nearly 90 countries sent delegates, highlighted the importance of pre-requisites such as health, literacy and renewable energy; that access to information is important to be a full citizen, the need for the, free movement of information and access to the Internet without censorship, and the possibilities for cross-border communication to enhance peace and understanding. The World Youth Forum of the UN system (Dakar, 2001) emphasized the possibility for technology to enhance youths interaction with government and participation in decision-making. The Global Knowledge Partnerships Youth Building Knowledge Societies e-conference and input to the DotForce emphasized the role of ICTS for education, entrepreneurship and employment .
Connecting the outcomes and recommendations of these previous forums into the WSIS and other mainstream processes is a key goal of the Youth Caucus. (The caucus would be pleased to provide copies of these documents for any interested delegates).
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Youth work overtime!
After the third day at the PrepCom, youth have made themselves ubiquitous throughout civil society subcommittees and caucuses. Government delegations have also courted the youth caucus for ideas towards successful youth participation at WSIS.
Four youth from Asia-Pacific contributed towards the first meeting of the Asian caucus. Mervin, from India, is managing the mailing list and Gaurab, from Nepal, has been given the responsibility of drafting the first statement of the caucus. In the civil society press group, young people were instrumental in negotiating an arrangement for the civil society press conference with the WSIS secretariat, which has tentatively been scheduled for Friday. Two young people, Gustavo and Sasha, are liaisons to the civil society content committee. Meanwhile, in the civil society finance committee, Amara, from Nigeria, made sure that civil society will include youth participation in their fundraising efforts.
Youth have also been busy lobbying with government delegations from different countries for proactive youth involvement at WSIS. The presentation on Youth Creating Digital Opportunity, scheduled for Thursday, has received a lot of attention and requests for information from country delegations.
At the same time, individual youth caucus members are working overtime to propose their own substantive themes for the WSIS, in collaboration with like-minded people. Gustavo and Gaurab are working on a proposal for Open Source Software theme. Gaurab is also working with a Japanese civil society participant to propose a thematic session on local language issues in computing. Similarly, Ha Lan Anh has been putting efforts into bringing together young people working in media.
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Technology Reaching the Orphanage
Maitreyi Doshi, an 18 year old girl from India has worked on various ICT projects since she was selected to attend the Junior Summit 1998 held at MIT Media Lab in Boston. Since that Summit, she has been closely working on followup activities. She has been an editor of the Junior Journal., and is currently the Student Facilitator of iEARN India. (International Education and Resource Network). She is also a youth representative for Taking IT Global.
Nachiketa BalGram (Bal Children, Gram Village), situated in Pune, India is a home to destitute children. The aim of BalGram is to bring home a destitute child, who has been deprived of the family and help the child to attain full growth as a decent human being in conditions like that of a natural family. The BalGram will support the child fully till he/she turns 18. Currently there are 20 children in the orphanage who are 5-13 years old.
Maitreyi Doshi, is volunteering in this BalGram and is introducing computer and technology to these children. The children come once a week to her home and play around on her computer. Maitreyi strongly believes that the best way to learn a computer is just play around with it, and allows them to explore it in their own way. The major challenge she says is that of language. These children have no formal education in English. They only know their local language, some of them are really small and cannot read and write but they have over come this problem and are really excited to work with the computer. To get in touch with the project you can write to: mitu@ip.eth.net
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How YOU can be involved in the Youth Caucus
ü Attend our meetings
ü Participate in our online discussion at ict.takingitglobal.org
ü Join our mailing list wsisyouth@yahoogroups.com
ü Fund youth participation in Prepcom 2 and regional meetings
ü Write about us in the media.
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Email us at wsisprepcom1youth@yahoogroups.com - this works now!
More information at: http://projects.takingitglobal.org/wsisprepcom1
At Prepcom 1, the Youth Caucus has been supported by the Global Knowledge Partnership together with IISD and TIG
Jul 4th, 2002 - 11:26:45 |
Nick Moraitis
Youth Provide Framework For Procedure
2-June-2002. When Ha Lan Anh, 17, from Vietnam spoke at the plenary of the WSIS today, it was the entire youth caucus speaking. After Lan Anh took the time to communicate the issues relating to youth participation, at the PrepCom and ultimately the WSIS, it was met with great applause from the distinguished delegates. Before taking center stage, the youth caucus had intense brainstorming sessions and came up with a youth recommendation for the procedures framework.
Recognizing young people were leading innovations in all aspects of ICT, the youth communiqué stressed that youth participation cuts across representation on civil society, business and governments. The need to acknowledge youth as one of the major stakeholders in the rules and procedures of the WSIS process, including provisions for a youth caucus was conveyed to the delegates. To ensure greater participation of youth organizations, simpler accreditation mechanisms was suggested. The youth caucus invited all to adopt the youth theme.
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Youth Creating Digital Opportunity
Youth participation in the WSIS is part of a larger strategy to nurture, promote and organize young people worldwide on matters of Information and Communications Technologies and Knowledge for Development. The Youth Creating Digital Opportunity (YCDO) framework emphasizes the importance of supporting young people's activities in three areas:
· participation within key ICT decision-making forums;
· development of tangible ICT projects; and
· sharing their experiences with ICT policy and practice with their peers.
Drafted by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and TakingITGlobal (TIG), the framework was adopted by the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) as its youth strategy in April 2002.
However, the YCDO aims to serve as the foundation of a broad coalition of organizations with substantial commitment to supporting youth-led ICT activities.
We would like to invite representatives from UN agencies and bi-lateral donors to join us for a short discussion about the potential of the YCDO to enable future partnerships and coordination between our organizations on Thursday.
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Quotes of the day
Mervin, 16, UAE
“I think that the second day of the PrepCom was more productive. As a youth, we were a lot happier because we were able to speak at the main plenary.
Gaurab, 25, Nepal
Things moved a lot today on both the government and civil society participation. I am looking forward towards the rest of the PrepCom.
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Principles of Youth Involvement
Young people around the world want WSIS to ensure that it is:
· Relevant to young people
· Allows for involvement of all
· Is sustained
· Is heard
· Includes Follow up
Jul 4th, 2002 - 11:22:42 |
Nick Moraitis
YOUTH @ WSIS
The Newsletter of the Youth Caucus of the World Summit on the Information Society Volume 1: Issue 1
Tuesday, July 2nd, 2002, Geneva, Switzerland, First Preparatory Committee Meeting 1.
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Young people create Caucus for Information Society Conference
Youth from around the world are attending the first Preparatory Meeting for the WSIS this week in Geneva. The youth participating in the conference were selected from an online mailing list of young people in more than 40 countries who have been discussing the issues online for some months. Ha Lan Anh, 17, a delegate from Vietnam says it was "wonderful to meet the other youth delegates and hear about the work they do with technology and media in their countries" Lan Anh coordinates a national youth radio program on the Voice of Vietnam that is broadcast to more than 30 million weekly listeners. One motivation for the establishment of the Caucus is to increase the involvement of young people in the WSIS process, given the fact that young people are the leaders of the information society.
"It is a pity that there are not more young people coming to this Prepcom1"said Mervin Jebaraj, 16 from U.A.E. He notes that only about two percent of the total delegates are youth. Nevertheless, small can mean effective! Prepcom 1 youth activities have been supported by the Global Knowledge Partnership.
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Young people must be involved !
If ever there were an area where young people are the leaders not only of the future, but also of today, it is the emerging information society. From web development to information access, we are growing up with the latest technologies - and extending them, providing innovative solutions to global challenges. Technology is what young people (more than anyone else) grown up with.
We see technology as a tool, and often as an income source, as they seek to educate and involve others in critical social issues and broader development objectives. Clearly, if the World Summit on the Information Society is to effect real change, it must involve us in decision-making; afterall, we will be needed for implementation!
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QUOTES OF THE DAY:
Gustavo, 19 Brasil
People are slowly getting the idea of what needs to be done to achieve the proposed goals. BUT the week looks promising
Maitreyi , 18 India
I really hope to see that young people are involved with the decision making. This could be achieved by involving them in their Country delegation.
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TODAYS YOUTH EVENTS:
10am CIVIL SOCIETY PROGRAM: A Youth Perspective on the Information Society, Room A CICG
2pm Development of Youth Position Paper - Montbrillant Room (M1)
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Email us at wsisprepcomyouth@yahoogroups.com
More information at: http://projects.takingitglobal.org/wsisprepcom1
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