Highway Africa News Agency (Grahamstown)
Angella Nabwowe
21 February 2005
Geneva — Tempers flared as representatives from over 25 African non-governmental organisations (NGOs) debated the way forward for fair representation in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) process.
The NGOs under the umbrella of the African Civil Society on the Information Society (ACSIS) argue that their counterparts from the developed west are making their presence felt in the WSIS meetings because of their powerful financial backing.
The meeting comes barely a day after the group presented a paper to the government plenary session about funding for the participation of the African civil society in the (WSIS) process. The group is scheduled to meet the Tunisian minister of telecommunications to discuss funding possibilities to attend the Tunis phase of the WSIS in November 2005.
Pape Diouf, speaking on behalf of Africans in the diaspora, noted that the question of funding needs to be considered in a more transparent manner both within the civil society structures and the executive bureau of the WSIS.
"This is a UN summit, we are not just gathering like friends on the street. Money raised from the international community for such causes should meet the required needs and should be timely," Diouf said.
He pointed out that the caucus wants to set up a committee at the international civil society level, with fair representation from Africa to discuss money matters.
Mohamed Tijani Ben Jemaa from Tunisia remarked, "It is a long task to address, people cannot come without money, the question of finances and fair representation is a complex one."
The participants concurred that there is an urgent need to put on pressure the Tunisian government and the WSIS secretariat to make money available for African civil society to be present in big numbers at the WSIS summit in Tunis.
According to the ACSIS report from the WSIS Africa Regional preparatory conference in Accra, Ghana, one of their chief tasks is to ensure African civil society representation on a range of information communication technology (ICT) related commissions and bodies.
Although the debate within the African civil society group is very Afro-centric, deliberations are not always representative of all the peoples of the continent. Nnenna Nwakanma, one of the more vocal members of the group noted that only the francophone countries appear to be represented. "Maybe you should write that all the African caucus meetings are taking place in only French, when we do our things in English, people don't want to attend."
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