WSIS follow-up Meetings in Geneva,2007

OWA

20 July 2007

The summits in Geneva and Tunis are behind us, but the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) is being actively followed up. The main thrust of the follow-up work concerns the eleven action lines described in the Geneva Plan of action (WSIS 2003). For each action line a United Nations organisation (e.g. ITU or UNESCO) has been appointed as a "facilitator" or "moderator", with an individual being designated as the "focal point". Starting in 2006, various "facilitation" and consultation meetings have been taking place to set the follow-up activities in motion. A second series of meetings took place in May 2007.

There were several outcomes in the meeting but the questions still remains whether these will be translated into tangible results especially for developing countries.

In the developing countries alot still need to b addressed in terms of infrastructure and government's political will to develop sustainable programmes that will make grass roots have a share in the use of ICTs.

Policy developing in some countries have been at a snail's pace making the road map to the reliasation of needed outcomes very difficult.