Group 3: Civil Society and Institutional Actors

Grande salle - 01/09/04
Moderator: Maggy Mathurin
Translation: Ayodele Hippolyte – Anglo-French.

Participants 
- Civil Society: Reina Raveles - Jan Voordouw (Panos Institute) - Murat Myrtha – Magguy Karole Gizolme – Diane Taylor -

- Institutional Actors : Daniel Prado, Raymond Noel, Angelica Ospina, Etienne Wermester, Amos Tincani, Armelle Chatelier, Danielle Bouhajeb, Paule Turmel-John

Unanimously:
Institutional actors must take on the role of support and assistance for the civil society and NGOs networks and propose accessible funds.

Supplementary observations:

No civil society bridges / backers / private sector.
Access to TIC remains too expensive (comparison continent / islands).
Need for more coordination and a coherent plan of action.
Support for the creation of a Caribbean Council of Cultures with the help of UNESCO.

Needs should be more clearly defined. It is not our generation that will solve the problem of cultural diversity.

Governments use the work of NGOs on TIC for demagogical ends without contributing finance.
Meetings do not help to affect decision makers. Many meeting are duplicated, intersect; one never knows what is happening. 
The data bases of ECLAC are unknown.

The problem of coordination and management is linked to the culture of networks by professionals; this problem could be resolved by the developing skills (‘TICpD manager’)

Conclusion – group 3: five propositions 

1- Institutional actors and States should take on the role of support and assistance for the civil society and NGOs networks and propose accessible funds in a coordinated way in the domain of cultural diversity and of the information society.

Priority:
Agent responsible: Funredes. Cardicis should suggest to regional, national and international institutions to participate
Deadline: 24 months
Means:

2- Create a Caribbean Council of cultures that would be based on the use of TIC supported by UNESCO.

Priority:
Agent responsible:
Deadline:
Means:

3- Encourage creation, reinforcement and intermediation, especially in MODs (millenary objectives for development) through TIC, as an applied instrument for the Caribbean.

Priority:
Agent responsible:
Deadline:
Means:

4- Support the creation of an observatory of the region based on a concept open content.

Priority:
Agent responsible:
Deadline:
Means:

5- Promote a legislative framework, regulated and harmonised for TIC at a regional level for a better convergence.

Priority: Large
Backers and intergovernmental organisations with participation
Deadline: 24 months
Means: participation of backers.
Agent responsible: