Action Line C3 “Access to information and knowledge”

Terms of Reference for the functioning of the multi-stakeholder team¹

The present Terms of Reference are intended to serve as a guideline for the organizing the work of the stakeholders of Action Line C3.

A. Role of Multi-stakeholder Team

1. The Multi-stakeholder Team for Action Line C3 (referred to as “Team”) is comprised of all interested parties including governments, private sector, civil society and international organizations; the number of its members will be open-ended.

2. The overall goal of the Team is to facilitate the implementation of WSIS Action Line C3, mainly through networking stakeholders, enhancing information exchange, knowledge creation, sharing good practices, examining opportunities for collaboration and establishing partnerships among interested parties.

3. The Team will define its working methods, work plan and time table, as well as expected outcomes of its activities taking account of the terms of reference for moderators/facilitators of WSIS Action Lines, prepared on the occasion of the consultation meeting of action line moderators/facilitators (Geneva, 24 February 2006) (see Annex).

4. The Team will identify actors, in addition to WSIS stakeholders, for the implementation of Action Line C3, including IGOs, NGOs, civil society groups, academia and private sector and will “map” their activities in order to understand who the actors are and the scope of their interest in Action Line C3.

5. Considering the breadth of the topics covered under Action Line C3 and the varied expertise and priorities among the stakeholders, the Team may consider establishing complementary sub-groups working on specific areas/topics of Action Line C3.

6. For Action Line C3, a lead facilitator should be designated (referred to as “Facilitator”). whose task will be defined in the subsequent paragraphs. The Facilitator could be a representative from government, intergovernmental organization, private sector or civil society.

7. Should the Team decide to divide Action Line C3 into several sub-groups, the Team may also designate a moderator for each sub-group (referred to as “Sub-group Moderator”)².

B. Role of Facilitator and Sub-group Moderators

8. The main task of the Facilitator will be to coordinate the work of the Team as defined in paragraphs above so as to facilitate the networking, information exchange, sharing of experiences and good practices and identification of synergies among stakeholders, inter alia, by providing on-line interoperable networking tools, suggesting processes and templates and/or organizing physical meeting, as appropriate. The Facilitator will work in cooperation with any Sub-group Moderators, who will carry out similar functions in respect of their sub-group.

9. The Facilitator will compile a report³ on the activities of the Team on the basis of the inputs from the Team Members, with a view to enabling the agencies leading the overall implementation process (ITU, UNESCO and UNDP) to have a complete picture of implementation across all action lines. The Facilitator will follow the instruction from the lead agencies as regards to the frequency and period of submission of such report.

10. The Facilitator will participate, where necessary, in the coordination meeting of all facilitators of Action Lines and contribute to the overall reporting on WSIS implementation.

11. Should the Team decide to designate Sub-group Moderator(s), the main task of any such Sub-group Moderator will be to assist the work of the Facilitator by ensuring the networking of, as well as information exchange and sharing of good practices among the stakeholders of a specific sub-group. The Sub-group Moderator will also assist the Facilitator in reporting on the activities of the Team.

12. The Facilitator and the Sub-group Moderators should be able to provide sufficient resources in their own budgets to cover the costs of their own activities and to contribute to the overall coordination and implementation of Action Line C3.

    C. Role of Team Members

13. Each Team Member will: carry out concrete activities to further the objectives and implementation of Action Line C3 within the framework of its own mandate, programmes and resources; provide to the Team information on its respective initiatives including events, projects and studies; share its experience, knowledge and good practices with other Team Members through the modalities to be defined.

14. Each Team Member will provide inputs to the Facilitator and/or Sub-group Moderators on its activities related to the follow-up of Action Line C3 with a view to facilitate reporting.

Annex

Terms of Reference for Moderators/Facilitators of WSIS Action Lines⁴

Context

Paras 108-109 of the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society set out a plan for multi-stakeholder implementation at the international level of the WSIS Plan of Action. The Annex to the document proposes a list of moderators/facilitators for stakeholder teams for each Action Line.

Responsibilities of Action Line Moderators/Facilitators

1. The primary goal of each multi-stakeholder team is implementation of the WSIS Plan of Action at the international level. A secondary objective is information-sharing and promotion of WSIS goals.

2. For each action line, moderators/facilitators should take the lead in facilitating the work of multi-stakeholder teams of interested parties (including governments, private sector, civil society, and international organisations).

3. For each action line, there may be several moderators/facilitators, including representatives from governments, private sector and civil society as well as appropriate UN agencies or Regional Commissions. However, one or two of the moderators should be nominated as exercising the lead role for the purposes of coordination.

4. UN agencies or Regional Commissions and other stakeholders may be involved in more than one action line, both as moderators/facilitators and as participants.

5. The coordination of the implementation of each action line should help to avoid duplication of activities by, inter alia, information exchange, creation of knowledge, sharing of best practices and assistance in developing multi-stakeholder and public/private partnership (Tunis Agenda, para 110).

6. The modalities of coordination for each action line are to be worked out among the moderators/facilitators, as well as among the participants in the multi-stakeholder team. They may involve, for instance, a combination of face-to-face meetings, teleconferences, online forums, joint projects or programmes, websites, databases, newsletters etc.

7. Each multi-stakeholder team should seek inputs from national implementation mechanisms (para 100) and from regional implementation activities (para 101).

8. Each multi-stakeholder team should develop reports on an [annual] basis for submission [before the end of November each year] to enable the suggested lead agencies—ITU, UNESCO and UNDP—to report on a complete picture across the action lines. These reports may also take the form of updates or additions to the WSIS stocktaking database, to be maintained and updated by ITU and the WSIS-ES.

9. Candidates to serve as Action Line Moderators/Facilitators should be able to provide sufficient resources to cover the costs of their own activities, and/or to contribute to overall WSIS implementation.

10. Action Line Moderators/Facilitators should be prepared to participate in coordination meetings among all moderators/facilitators, to be held [once or twice per year] and to contribute to the development of overall reports on WSIS implementation.

11. In the event of queries, action line moderators should refer to the lead agencies.

Annex: list of moderators/facilitators for stakeholder teams for each Action Line

(From the WSIS official web site http://www.itu.int/wsis/implementation/facilitators.html where more information is available)

Note: Additions proposed at the meeting of action line moderators/facilitators on 24 February are [underlined and in square brackets]. Civil society entities are indicated in italics. Those agencies shown in bold would be the provisional focal point for each action line