Subscribe| Lyon conference for digital solidarity |
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New forms of solidarity for development
On November 24th 2008, Lyon will be hosting an international conference on digital solidarity at the invitation of President Nicolas Sarkozy, on a proposal made by the President of Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade, and under the French presidency of the European Union. Almost 300 personalities are expected, including several heads of state and government and leading members of territorial authorities, international organisations, NGOs, companies and foundations.
This conference is a follow-up to the World Summits on the Information Society held in 2003 and 2005 in Geneva and Tunis, which gave rise to the creation of the Global Digital Solidarity Fund and the World Digital Solidarity Agency. Today, at a time when the digital gap is ceaselessly expanding on a world-wide level, the Lyon Conference will bring all the main individuals trying to bridge the digital divide together for a whole day’s work, so enabling concerted world action to be taken for providing better answers to the issues at stake in this key sector of development. Redefining major issues, creating networks and a commitment are the conference’s main objectives. It is clear that, for a long time, large numbers of people have been implementing different initiatives in the world of new information and communication technologies for development, and it is important that all these different actions are federated at international levels. In an endeavour to facilitate networking, interactive round tables will be set up for finding common solutions to issues in several major priority domains such as education, health, reuse and recycling of digital waste and connectivity in isolated areas. Plenary sessions will deal with strategic questions on the partnerships and financing operations that need to be implemented for bridging the world digital divide sustainably, as well as creating decisive commitment amongst local authorities via decentralised cooperation. The conference is jointly organised by:
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