Speaking for Ourselves Southern Africa and the WSIS Tracey Naughton Regional Broadcast Program Manager Media Institute of Southern Africa Getting Involved in the WSIS SACOD MISA APC ARTICLE 19 AMARC The African Charter On Broadcasting And The WSIS SADC - Southern African Development Community, which includes 14 countries Lessons from the WSSD Civil society was excluded from the main arena of negotiations Parallel events had limited impact on the main agenda Only civil society groups with an extremely pertinent point or a high profile got any media coverage Landless Peoples Movement WSIS African Regional Meeting held in Bamako, Mali in 2002 Speaking for Ourselves What we want to achieve - To have an impact on the dominant economic drivers of the information society by exposing the reality of the majority of people who are excluded and linking this to the negative effects of globalisation To have an impact on the policy that frames the information society using the African Charter on Broadcasting as the starting point To have people currently excluded from the information society involved in the process and to build a plat form in the WSIS for these voices to be heard To assert and endorse the right to communicate as a human right that exists in conformity with Article 19 To assert the legitimacy of civil society in shaping the information society at national, regional and international levels Speaking for Ourselves - What we have achieved Capacity development ICT policy curriculum developed and piloted - soon to be available on the APC website ICT Policy workshops conducted in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Johannesburg (South Africa) and Kampala (Uganda), 150 people trained and mobilised to: Run workshops in 38 African countries Lobby governments to include our people and our input in the official delegations and documents To be focal points for national mobilisation Electronic network established and active in policy development Four rural women participated in PrepCom 2 with high profile impact Speaking for Ourselves - What we have achieved Policy, Position, Perspectives Speaking for Ourselves - What we have achieved What are our issues? International Bandwidth Costs What are our issues? Africa has two percent of the worlds phone lines and twelve percent of the population. Fifty percent of these phones (and in some countries eighty to ninety percent) are in capital cities, where only ten percent of the population live. Teledensity (telephone lines per one hundred inhabitants) is 0.5 in southern Africa - excluding South Africa - compared to 4.5 in emerging economies and 52.6 in industrialised countries What are our issues? Justine Muundjua, 36 - Katatura NAMIBIA What are our issues? Mubuyaeta Beam and Mutema Mutlikita, both 16 What are our issues? Speaking for Ourselves Ester Mudlhovo, news writer Radio Muthiyana, Bairro Ferrou Rua, Maputo Mozambique Speaking for Ourselves Subsistence living does not develop a desire for information Speaking for Ourselves Cecilia Rosa, 14 Speaking for Ourselves Rapahel Hoabpindi, 30 Speaking for Ourselves REHO TV Wilhelm Brodman, 47 & Bernard Buys, 48 Rehoboth, Namibia Speaking for Ourselves Moutse Community Radio Mpuulanga Province, South Africa Speaking for Ourselves Younger generation of school goers inspires village TV Postrick Katwa, 24 Speaking for Ourselves Adult Literacy Teacher - Maria Shendembr, 21 Speaking for Ourselves