CARISNET- Strengthening the Caribbean ICT Stakeholders Virtual Community (CIVIC ) Prepared for CARDICIS 2, Juan Dolio, Dominican Republic Dec 5-7, 2005

Goal To establish the CIVIC forum as a multistakeholder mechanism able to build a common vision/perspective on ICTs in the region, promote a Caribbean strategy and foster regional Caribbean-wide actions that address critical development issues.

Project Implementers s Jamaica Sustainable Development Network s Fundación Taiguey (Dominican Republic) s Foundation Networks & Development (FUNREDES) s DevNet (Guyana)

Project Objectives s To revitalize and sustain the online CIVIC forum s To promote membership among French and Spanish speaking countries. s To create a multilingual regional ICT clearinghouse s To establish project priority areas and develop collaborative project proposals. s To promote dialogue between donors and the CIVIC community

Key Activities s The creation of a Caribbean regional ICT clearinghouse s The promotion of CIVIC membership in the French and Spanish speaking areas s The animation of CIVIC discussions to focus on collaboration and sharing of experiences and give momentum to the CIVIC forum.  The promotion of dialogue with interested donors to identify their support strategies and priority areas.

Outputs to date s Project Launch, website ( s Moderated discussions position paper on WSIS/WGIG, presented to various international and regional forums s Support from Agencie Francophonie (EU $10,000) for diversity promotion s Prelim. data on diversity profile of CIVIC

Outputs (cont’d) s Parameters for the ICT Clearinghouse developed; existing databases analysed; editorial policy and data validation mechanisms documented s Technical aspects of the database 70% established s List of countries to be included in clearinghouse identified

Next steps s Discussions and documenting outputs on: CIVIC articulation with CARICOM Steering committee, Defining CIVIC, Regional telecentre network etc s Establishing clearinghouse on projects,initiatives, professionals, donors etc s Enhancing diversity of participants in CIVIC s Improving Auto translation devices

Next steps (cont’d) s Mapping of ICT donors and matching of projects with donors s Call for proposals s Develop a plan for long term sustainability of CIVIC s Document process of collaboration of a geographically, linguistically diverse consortium

How can YOU participate? s Become an active part of CIVIC s Complete the diversity questionnaire s Participate in the CIVIC discussions s Assist in populating the clearinghouse s Register in the ICT professionals page s Respond to Call for proposals