The first preparatory meeting (PrepCom I) for the Tunis phase of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS), held in Hammamet in Tunisia at the weekend, has agreed on a roadmap for the Tunisian leg of the WSIS.
Broad agreement was reached on the issues that should form the focus of the Tunis Summit and the structure of the preparatory process for the second phase was also decided upon.
Some 425 delegates representing 127 governments and the European Community, 272 observers from 113 organisations representing civil society and a further 71 observers from 33 international organisations attended the meeting.
The meeting, led by Janis Karklins of Latvia who was elected president of PrepCom, concluded that the Tunis Summit was to be action-oriented.
"What is now needed is to refine some of the broad goals and hammer out the specifics that will translate them into measurable results, so we should aim for this to be a summit of solutions," says Karklins.
The aim of PrepCom I was to define the issues of the Information Society that should form the focus of the Tunis Summit, the shape the outcome of the Tunis Summit should take, and the way to reach the goals set in the Geneva Action Plan.
In response to a call from the ITU Secretary-General to the international community for voluntary contributions, several governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations announced contributions to the WSIS fund.
A total of 907 000 Swiss Francs (CHF) was raised during the course of the Hammamet meeting, bringing the total of the fund to CHF1.3 million, or 26% of the CHF5 million goal.
Prior to the Hammamet meeting, the fund stood at 8% of the total goal.
In addition, Tunisia announced a contribution of CHF400 000 for enabling the participation of civil society from least developed countries - especially those concerned with the disabled, women and the youth - in order to facilitate their participation in the second phase of the summit in Tunis.
"In the same way Hannibal crossed the Alps from Tunisia to make a landmark in history, we have today crossed the Alps to Tunisia, representing the migration of the WSIS from north to south," says ITU secretary-general, Yoshio Utsumi.
"By so doing, we are building the bridges to connect different peoples across geographical, knowledge and information divides, while at the same time, we are beginning to connect the dots embedded in the WSIS Action Plan that will form a truly inclusive and equitable Information Society."
The second PrepCom will take place in Geneva from 17 to 25 February 2005.
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