By Emrakeb Assefa

ACCRA- The message put across during the African Civil Society forum held at the WSIS Africa Regional Preparatory Conference was simple: “If we want to get listened to at global negotiation tables, we should save ourselves, and not expect saving from outsiders.”
This is in sharp contrast to the earlier talks at the WSIS preparatory committee meetings (prepcoms) where African NGOs voiced deep-seated concerns over the low level of African participation. The overwhelming majority of African NGOs did not have the necessary financial resources to attend the meetings and, as a result, their interests were sidelined.
"Representation of African civil society organisations is very poor, and the number is so minimal as to be non-existent," said Richard Baguma Tinkasimier, the general secretary of the United Nations Association of Uganda. He explained the absence of African civil society pointing to the exorbitant costs of international travel.
Charles Geiger, the deputy executive director of the WSIS Executive Secretariat, voiced a similar concern, blaming a lack of funding for the low African attendance at the first prepcom in Tunisia last June. Geiger said, "We were concerned over the low level of participation from Africa in the previous WSIS in Switzerland. But we are more worried now because it has reached a critical point."
The level of African participation in the Tunisia phase is expected to be lower than that of the Swiss phase because the host country of the first phase of WSIS is not going to provide financial assistance for NGOs to attend the second phase.
Despite these concerns, the spirit of independence was clearly expressed at the civil society forum here in Accra over the weekend. Participants noted their weariness over the “dependency syndrome” that characterises the work of African NGOs. Indeed NGOs were told in no uncertain terms by international agencies such as UNESCO that they should not take international financial assistance for granted. UNESCO told the gathering: “Save yourself, and don’t ask us to save you.”
Tunji Lardner, founder of Wangonet, a West African NGO Network that provides intellectual and ICT resources to NGOs, agrees with this sentiment.
“We should go beyond our hand-wringing mentality, expecting that we would be organised from without, believing somehow we cannot do without external assistance,” he stated.
Lardner said such a stance is “inherently unsustainable”, though worry over African civil society under-representation is a “legitimate complaint.” He stressed that African civil society “has to be at the table to negotiate and the ability to be represented at major forums which affect Civil Society Organisations’ in the WSIS (context) is crucial.”
Lardner, noted, however, that African NGOs should stop thinking of “civil society participation as a birthright” and should instead create the space for building local capacity. “We should make a collective effort to build our own capacity before we think of building a collective mass to be heard at international negotiation tables such as WSIS,” he added.
The forum examined obstacles hindering African Civil Society’s full participation in an inclusive information society and examined the conditions under which it can optimise its contribution to the WSIS process.
A lack of financial capacity among African civil society organisations was identified as one of several bottlenecks that stifle effective African Civil Society participation in the information society.
The forum said, “Digitally literate Civil Society can make intelligent use of a mix of ICT tools to provide information to others on policy issues, engage citizens and government in policy process and increase participation in national, regional and global ICT governance issues.”
But Lardner admitted, “The price of this global communication is digital access, and who pays for that ticket is the question.”