Comments on: Improving the region’s participation in international ICT discussions https://ict-pulse.com/2012/05/improving-the-regions-participation-in-international-ict-discussions/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=improving-the-regions-participation-in-international-ict-discussions&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=improving-the-regions-participation-in-international-ict-discussions Discussing ICT, telecommunications and technology Issues from a Caribbean perspective Fri, 31 Aug 2012 12:23:46 +0000 hourly 1 By: Rodney https://ict-pulse.com/2012/05/improving-the-regions-participation-in-international-ict-discussions/#comment-4526 Sat, 02 Jun 2012 13:21:03 +0000 http://www.ict-pulse.com/?p=3991#comment-4526 Good points Carlton. Often the reality in the Caribbean is that governments represent us, particularly in international fora. At the IGF you will notice a different paradigm. You may have ‘official’ representation from the government but there are so many other stakeholders from NGOs and civil society who seem to have their own funding mechanisms to do this. So if our leaders are not engaged on these ‘nebulous’ issues then issues such as climate change, tourism, agriculture etc will take precedence. Part of the challenge is for us to show the linkages between ICT and all of the other ‘important’ issues. To demonstrate that ICT has an impact across all economic sectors in a knowledge based economy. This is one of the reasons the CTU hosts 2 Ministerial Strategic Seminars per year and try to bring these issues to the attention of the Telecomms/ICT ministers so they can see the linkages, the relevance/importance and be empowered to speak in clear terms to their respective heads of governments and to the electorate and to set clear policy at the national level.

]]> By: Carlton Samuels https://ict-pulse.com/2012/05/improving-the-regions-participation-in-international-ict-discussions/#comment-4408 Thu, 31 May 2012 18:41:23 +0000 http://www.ict-pulse.com/?p=3991#comment-4408 I’m encouraged by this conversation. I fully agree that there is a real deficit in regional involvement with the global IG agenda, bet it in the IGF, IETF, or ICANN. Yes, we are undoubtedly resource-constrained. But it isn’t just about funds. While I fully endorse that money helps us to be ‘in the room’ and that is critical to our notice and acceptance as stakeholder, we should also collectively make more effort to inform ourselves across the board on the pertinent issues. And we must stay current with the conversation. This takes individual time, commitment and ‘sticktuitiveness’, uncompensated. And for a wider pool of human resources, much of this will be uncompensated.

It would also be important to note that inter-regional collaboration is itself dependent on people actually talking with people. One example I can point to is the At-Large constituency of ICANN. There is a dedicated group of us – notably from T&T, Barbados, Guyana and Jamaica – who have only survived and made our mark because we commit to collaborate and regularly exchange views. We have made many recruitment forays. But the results to date have been spotty, at best.

It takes hard work and a lot of volunteer time to be engaged.

Carlton Samuels
Vice Chair, At-Large Advisory Committee [ICANN]

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