WSIS organizers call for volunteer involvement - April 2003

Organizers of the U.N. World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) have created a working group regarding "Volunteering and new technologies", composed of international volunteer organizations to prepare the participation of volunteers in WSIS.

The U.N. World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) is to take place in two phases, the first in December 2003 in Geneva and the second in 2005 in Tunis, the Tunisian capital. Under the patronage of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, it is expected to address the "digital divide" between rich and poor and to yield a statement of political will and a plan of action.

To date, the WSIS working group "Volunteering and new technologies" is composed of CIVICUS, European Volunteer Centre (CEV), International Association for Volunteer Effort (IAVE), International Conference Volunteers (ICVolunteers), International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme (through its UNITeS initiative).

The working group recently brought forward suggestions to "integrate the language of volunteering" into both the final Declaration of Principles and the Action Plan of the WSIS. The suggestions of the Volunteer working group will be integrated with the WSIS’ Civil Society (CS) Bureau that facilitates civil society’s participation in the Summit.

The WSIS Civil Society Bureau also established a group called "Volunteer Family" in an attempt to bring together organizations working with information technology and with volunteers to provide input volunteers’ input to the Summit. It is one of the many "families" the Civil Society Bureau created to incorporate the various issues from different sectors.

An organization called ICVolunteers is currently the focal point for Volunteer Family. ICVolunteers is a Geneva-based non-governmental organization (NGO) that connects volunteers and organizers of non-profit projects, in particular social, humanitarian, environmental and scientific conferences.

ICVolunteers is inviting volunteer organizations and those connected with information and new technologies to become regional focal points to bring volunteer projects to the summit. The organization is requesting contributions -- ideas, projects and feedback -- related to volunteering and new technologies focusing on the following topics:

Volunteering to bridge the digital divide;

E-volunteering; (online volunteering)

Community involvement through new technologies;

Volunteer research linked to ICTs;

ICT Capacity building through volunteers;

Corporate Volunteering and ICTs;

Reactivation of some of the national and regional web sites created for the IYV 2001 in view of the WSIS

 

For more information, please contact:

ICVolunteers WSIS project
WSIS Civil Society Platform
WSIS website
UNITeS