WSIS Volunteer Family, Phase 1 Report

Documents

CEV Conference | Dakar Symposium | Geneva Conference | Message of Dakar |

WSIS Documents | Presentations | Images

Language on Volunteering in Official WSIS Documents

WSIS Plan of Action
Summary of the Roundtable 1: Create Digital Opportunities
WSIS Civil Society Declaration

Official language on volunteering is critical to the inclusion of volunteering on the development map. This section provides excerpts from key WSIS documents.

WSIS Plan of Action

While earlier versions of the Declaration of Principles had made mention of volunteers, some disagreement among governments led to the decision of keeping the mention only in the Plan of Action, under the chapter on capacity building:

C4. Capacity Building

11. Everyone should have the necessary skills to benefit fully from the Information Society. Therefore capacity building and ICT literacy are essential. ICTs can contribute to achieving universal education worldwide, through delivery of education and training of teachers, and offering improved conditions for lifelong learning, encompassing people that are outside the formal education process, and improving professional skills.

o) Volunteering, if conducted in harmony with national policies and local cultures, can be a valuable asset for raising human capacity to make productive use of ICT tools and build a more inclusive Information Society. Activate volunteer programmes to provide capacity building on ICT for development, particularly in developing countries.

Full text of the Action Plan: .doc .pdf

Summary of the Roundtable 1: Create Digital Opportunities

10 December 2003: Roundtable under the presidency of H.E. Mr. Abdoulaye Wade, President of the Republic of Senegal, moderated by Ms. Maria Livanos Cattaui, Secretary General of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

Partnerships

12. It was widely recognized that building an open and inclusive Information Society could only succeed with effective and innovative partnerships and cooperation among all stakeholders - governments, private sector, civil society, media and international community. In this context, the important role of volunteers was emphasized.

WSIS Civil Society Declaration

2.1.1. Poverty Eradication

Poverty Eradication must be a key priority on the WSIS agenda. Without challenging existing inequalities, no sustainable development embracing the new ICTs can be achieved. People living in extreme poverty must be enabled to contribute their experiences and knowledge in a dialogue involving all parties. Challenging poverty requires more than setting 'development agendas'. It requires a fundamental commitment to examine the current frameworks, to improve local access to information that is of relevance for the specific context, to improve training in ICT-related skills, and to allocate significant financial and other resources. Also, because volunteers are working at the grassroots level, they play an important role in social inclusion.

2.4.5. Human Development - Education and Training

Only informed and educated citizens with access to empowering education, a plurality of means of information, and the outputs of research efforts can fully participate in and effectively contribute to knowledge societies. Therefore it is also essential to recognise the right to education as stated both in the Declaration on the Right to Development and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Capacity building initiatives designed to empower individuals and communities in the information society must include, in addition to basic literacy and ICT skills, media and information literacy, the ability to find, appraise, use and create information and technology. In particular, educators, students and researchers must be able to use and develop Free Software, which allows the unfettered ability to study, change, copy, distribute, and run software. Finally, capacity building initiatives should be designed to stimulate the desire for general learning and respond to specific as well as special needs: those of young and elderly people, of women, of people with impairments, of indigenous peoples, of migrant communities, of refugees and returnees in post-conflict situations, in a life-long perspective. Volunteers can help transmit knowledge and enhance capacity, in particular of marginalized groups not reached by government training institutions.

Full text of the Civil society Declaration: .pdf