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The idea to create a Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships Working Group was brought up at the third session of Section "Stakeholders’ Partnership and Cooperation to Foster Information Society Development" within the International Conference "UNESCO between two Phases of the World Summit on the Information Society" (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation, 17-19 May 2005). One of the recommendations made by over 40 participants of this Section from 14 countries was the following:
To create an inclusive, transparent, multi-stakeholder and multi-disciplinary working group with the following missions:
- To conduct research on the new phenomenon of Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships within the context of the Information and Shared Knowledge Society, Sustainable Development and Good Governance and develop basic principles of effective, equitable, transparent and inclusive MSPs;
- To develop a set of guidelines to be endorsed by the United Nations Organisation concerning the ethical standards of Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships;
- To study and to propose new international public law mechanisms and structures that would allow for the institutionalisation and recognition of Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships accountable, among others, to the United Nations Organisation.
In response to this recommendation, and with the strong support of H.E Adama Samassekou, Françoise Rivière, Assistant to UNESCO Director-General, at the closing plenary session of the Conference declared: "It was said clearly that UNESCO should create a group on multi-stakeholder partnerships. We will be very serious about the idea, because, as I understand, there is a need for it. UNESCO is an intergovernmental organization, an organization of states, but I think it is also in the nature of UNESCO to be a platform or a window between the civil society, intellectual communities, professional organizations, the private sector and the governments. I guess that this notion of a new society, which can be built only through partnerships of various stakeholders, has to be explored not only philosophically, but mainly on an instrumental basis: how can we do it, what are the conditions, and what should be the
obstacles to be overcome."
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