On 17-19 May Saint Petersburg held an International Conference “UNESCO between Two Phases of the World Summit on the Information Society”. Konstantinovsky Palace, sea-side residence of the President of the Russian Federation, hosted over 480 delegates from 47 countries representing all continents.

This conference was the largest UNESCO event in preparation to the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society to be conducted in Tunis on 16-18 November 2005.

The Saint Petersburg conference covered all dimensions of UNESCO activity: culture, science, education, communications and information, while its main aim, according to the UNESCO Director General Koïchiro Matsuura, was discussion of further steps and principal decisions to be taken by UNESCO in the sphere of transition to the global Information Society (for more information about the conference please visit its web site).

The conference provided a timely and fruitful dialogue, a sort of “brainstorming” which was attended by heads and representatives of Russian and foreign public authorities and non-governmental organizations, private sector, research and educational community, cultural sector, authoritative experts, scholars that are shaping, sharing and putting to life high human ideals of UNESCO. Leading experts, well-known scholars and politicians discussed a wide range of topics in Saint Petersburg. One of them was "Stakeholders’ Partnership and Cooperation to Foster Information Society Development".

One of the plenary talks was devoted to this issue:

• WSIS: Emergence of a Multistakeholder Partnership for a New World (FR)
  H.E. Adama Samassékou, President of the African Academy of Languages; President of WSIS Preparatory Committee for Geneva Phase; Former Minister of Education of Mali (Mali)

A special section sponsored by the Global Knowledge Partnership and the Russian Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications was organized to discuss this important issue.

The following papers were delivered at the Section's meetings:

• Welcome address (EN, RU)
  Ambassador Walter Fust, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Global Knowledge Partnership; Director General of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
• Multi-stakeholder partnerships definition, principles, typology, and partnering process (EN, RU)
  Andrei Mikheyev, Chief of News Department, Internet Policy Center at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (Moscow, Russia)
• Stakeholders’ Participation and Cooperation to Foster Information Society Development (EN)
  Rinalia Abdul Rahim, Executive Director, Global Knowledge Partnership (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
• United Nations Information and Communication Technologies Task Force and Its Regional Network for Europe and Central Asia (RU)
  Ivan Kurnosov, Adviser, Department of Mass Communications, Culture and Education, Government of Russian Federation (Moscow, Russia)
• Russian e-Development Partnership and Its Self-Standing Segment in the North-West of Russia (RU)
  Tatiana Ershova, General Director, Institute of the Information Society (Moscow, Russia); Andrey Chugunov, Director, PRIOR North-West Non-Commercial Partnership (St. Petersburg, Russia) 
• Cooperation of Business, Government and Society in Providing Maximum Access to and Effective Use of Socially Important Information for Development Purposes (RU)
  Natalia Klimova, Director for Corporate Affairs and Strategic Communications, RosBusinessConsulting (Moscow, Russia)
• Experience of implementations of ICT projects with international technical support based on participants partnership (EN, RU) 
  Igor Tavgen, UNDP-Belarus project manager (Minsk, Belarus)
• Multi-stakeholder Partnerships in Moldova to Strengthen the Information Society for All: Case Study (EN)
  Veronica Cretu, President, “CMB” Training Center (Chisinau, Moldova)