Information

African Youth Commitment on the Information Society

07/07/2005 (DoC) -- Noting that we constitute the majority of the population of our countries, and that we are the leading creators and earliest adopters of ICT;



Inspired by the vision of integrating African youth into the global Information Society;



United in our belief of the need for the youth of the continent to play a leading role in the growth and social development of Africa as a whole, and to influence positively the global ICT agenda for development;



Concerned by the disparities and asymmetrical distribution of ICT resources that exist between countries and within countries and the resultant gap;



Recognising that today, more than ever before in history, the participation in the knowledge based global digital economy is fundamental to the socio-economic well being of the African;



Accepting that the renaissance of the continent has highlighted new terrains of struggle in which we should engage vigorously;



Recalling the Millennium Declaration in New York in September 2001 that “in order to reduce global poverty by half in 2015 ”ICTs are central, enablers, cross cutting, and crucial tools for sustainable social and economic development”;



Determined to be active participants in building the information society at local, national, regional, continental and global level;



Re-affirm that access to information that enables people to acquire knowledge as well as to communicate is a fundamental human right;







ADOPT this Commitment as a foundation for youth participation in the programmes that shall follow it, as it will be amended from time to time, and resolve to uphold the following principles:


Principles

* The principle of universal and equal access to ICT initiatives regardless of race, disability, gender, location, and association, is paramount.

· It is essential that youth play a central role in the creation of the Information Society.

· Youth should be afforded the opportunity to inform decision-making about the Information Society at all levels.

· Cognizance should be taken of the promotion of local culture and language, and of the fostering of cultural diversity.

· The promotion of a culture of solving our own problems as Africans is necessary.

· Africans should not only be consumers of content, but creators and exporters of content, including ideas and solutions.

· Solutions should be informed by the needs of communities.

· The importance of ICTs as a tool for development should be reflected in national spending plans as well as those of donors.

· Networking the youth should be recognized as a powerful means of solving Africa’s problems.



Outcomes

The conference has led to the creation of a report on our concerns about the challenges facing the development of the Information Society in Africa, and our suggestions and our role in resolving these challenges. Examples of the suggestions on resolving these challenges include:



· Projects engaged by stakeholders should be based on the needs of the communities into which these projects are deployed.

· We see a role for ourselves as youth, with knowledge of and no fear of ICTs, to lead the awareness-building activities in communities.

· The way of thinking of our peers needs to be revolutionized to embrace the multifaceted development benefits of ICTs.

· We see a role for ourselves to be involved in massive voluntary peer education in ICTs, particularly in rural communities and pro-poor urban areas.

· We see the need to empower youth activists to form a network to actively push for faster development of policy and infrastructure in Africa.



Moving forward

We finally resolve to continue our activities in discovering the concerns of our peers, and to identify our role in developing the Information Society.

· A working group will be appointed to develop a plan of action to resolve the concerns which arose at the conference and to act on our suggestions.

· A web site will be created to allow us to continue to interact as a group of young Africans to discuss new concerns and suggestions, and to report back on our activities and successes in our various countries.

· We shall strive to ensure that the concerns of African youth are made prominent within the second phase of the WSIS.

· We shall endeavor to create a network of African youth activists who advocate the development of an inclusive Information Society based on our principles.

Date: 07/07/2005
Location:
Theme: WSIS
Source: DoC

Comments
			15 Jul 2005 09:08		Henry Ekwuruke	I support us