[cr-india] CR and Dhaka WSIS Consultations

[sajan venniyoor]

One of the Resolutions of the Dhaka WSIS Consultations, to be taken up with SAARC, relates to Community Radio: 

(12) That serious consideration should be given to the licensing of 
community radio stations by member states as a key component of an 
early warning system in response to the Tsunami tragedy in the 
region as well as community radio's role in enabling development. 
Consideration should be given to best practices in community radio 
in the region such as those in Nepal; 

Sajan.
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Resolutions of Dhaka WSIS Consultations 

BRAC Center, Dhaka, Bangladesh 7 January 2005

After extensive discussion on ICT policy by participants from the 
government, civil society, private sector, academia and the media 
from the South Asian region, the WSIS Consultation meeting held in 
Dhaka, Bangladesh from 5-7 January 2005 under the auspices of the 
Bangladesh Friendship Education Society (BFES) and the Bangladesh 
Working Group on WSIS (in collaboration with APC and One World South 
Asia) resolves as follows: 
 
The following issues should be drawn to the attention of the South 
Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) at their next 
meeting: 
 
(1) That SAARC undertake a study on the establishment of a regional 
Internet exchange to connect the national Internet exchanges to 
contain regional traffic within South Asia in order to promote 
equitable regional trade in services and save on the cost of 
international connectivity and thereby enhance regional cooperation; 
 
(2) That SAARC consider the establishment of a regional registry for 
IP address allocations (SANIC) to ensure that IP addresses are 
fairly distributed in South Asia; 
 
(3) That SAARC recommend that South Asian member states develop a 
common approach to the issue of Internet Governance and Financial 
Mechanisms for ICTD during the second phase of the World Summit on 
the Information Society which culminates in Tunis in November 2005; 
 
(4) That as part of this common approach to WSIS, consideration be 
given to the transformation of ICANN into a multi-stakeholder body 
accountable to the global community; 
 
(5) That expanding access to ICTs in South Asia in terms of the WSIS 
Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action is a global public good 
that enhances the value of global information networks and hence 
benefits everyone including developed countries. A Global Fund for 
ICTD should, therefore, be established to support the goal of 
increasing access to ICTs by 2015 and this should be recommended by 
South Asian member states at the WSIS Prepcom 2 in February 2005; 
 
(6) That SAARC should take inputs from South Asian member states, 
the private sector and civil society to formulate a regional e-
strategy to implement the WSIS Plan of Action in South Asia as a 
whole; 
 
(7) That the regional e-strategy should adopt a regional public 
goods approach to financing ICTD which would explore the 
relationship between creating a development-oriented policy 
environment and the exploitation of existing and prospective 
financial mechanisms to enable ICTs for the achievement of the MDGs 
and poverty reduction targets in the region; 
 
(8) That SAARC should encourage multi-stakeholder participation by 
member states, the private sector and civil society in the 
UNDP/APDIP WSIS consultation process on Internet Governance as a way 
of raising awareness of the importance of Internet policy and 
governance in South Asia; 
 
(9) That SAARC should undertake specific programmes for 
mainstreaming ICTs in poverty alleviation strategies and achieving 
the MDGs through the integration of efforts undertaken by 
governments, the private sector and civil society in the region; 
 
(10) That SAARC should support initiatives to promote local content 
and languages on ICTs in South Asia; 
 
(11) That SAARC should seriously consider ways of integrating gender 
equality into ICT policy issues at the regional level; 

(12) That serious consideration should be given to the licensing of 
community radio stations by member states as a key component of an 
early warning system in response to the Tsunami tragedy in the 
region as well as community radio's role in enabling development. 
Consideration should be given to best practices in community radio 
in the region such as those in Nepal; 
 
(13) That the regional e-strategy should consider the problems of 
implementation of ICT policy in the region and develop an approach 
to ensuring successful implementation of ICT policy at country 
level; 
 
(14) That SAARC should establish and fund a Regional ICT Forum to 
undertake these above-mentioned tasks and involve stakeholders from 
the private sector and civil society in the process. 
 
Dhaka, Bangladesh 7 January 2005
  
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