The text of the so-called Dhaka Declaration from this week's WSIS conference in Bangladesh has been published. Here's a copy of it for your convenience. -andy

DHAKA DECLARATION

We, the ICT stakeholders representing Governments, Private Sector, Academicia and the Civil Society, having come from six continents of the world, assembled in Dhaka, Bangladesh from 23 to 25 October 2005 in an International Workshop entitled “Building an Information Society : Road 2 Tunis”, organized under the auspices of the Ministry of Science and Information & Communication Technology, Government of Bangladesh in collaboration with UNDP Bangladesh and in association with World Summit Award (WSA), Austria;

after extensive deliberations on the issues of e-governance, transparency & accountability, public and private sector partnership, internet governance, security vis-à-vis privacy, e-content & creativity, holistic ICT education & training for all, rural & universal ICT access, ICT4D leading to poverty alleviation and inclusion of women, children, the underprivileged & people with disabilities as well as the financing aspects of the solidarity fund;

hereby declare our common desire and commitment to build a free multi-stakeholder, people-centric, inclusive and development-oriented knowledge based Information Society in the world at large :

emphasizing that a primary aim of the Information Society must be to provide basic information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure to people to facilitate full utilization of ICT at all levels in society including the grass roots and hence enable the sharing of social and economic benefits by all by means of ubiquitous access to information networks, while preserving cultural diversity and heritage of humankind all over the world;

endorsing the important role that ICT can play in achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which describe a fundamental set of principles and guidelines for combating poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and gender inequality;

recognizing that the concept of a knowledge-based Information Society is one in which affordable access to information & communication technology through content in accessible language and formats can help people achieve their full potential, promote sustainable economic and social development, facilitate participatory decision-making processes in sustaining democracy and good governance and improving quality of life for all;

appreciating the efforts of the UN in convening the WSIS and of the ITU in implementing the summit in two phases, Geneva 2003 - Tunis 2005 and

committing ourselves to the Declared Principles and Plan of Action at the Geneva Phase of the Summit and leading to the Tunis Phase of WSIS.

This Dhaka Declaration adopted at the conclusion of the International Workshop entitled “Building an Information Society : Road 2 Tunis” 23-25 October 2005, Dhaka, Bangladesh and is submitted as input to the Second Phase of the WSIS in Tunis during 16-18 November 2005 through the Secretary General of the ITU and will also be disseminated through governments, civil society, private sector, NGOs and the media.

Dhaka 25 October 2005

The Workshop deliberations and views expressed shall be made available to all ICT stakeholders on the website http://www.mosict.gov.bd/road2tunis.

It's just before 7am in Dubai... Arrived here from Bangladesh around midnight; Emirates airlines gave me a room at a hotel, where I think I got four or so hours of sleep. If all goes well I'll be home in less than 24 hours... -andy

My final podcast from Bangladesh. I talk about the close of the conference, shopping for souvenirs and learning the right way to pronounce Dhaka. -andy

Over the course of the last week, several people including my friend Osama Manzar had suggested I go shopping at a place called Aarong. They'd commented on the high quality of clothing and handicrafts available there, saying that the store even had a fashionable outpost in London.

During the iftar on the last day of the conference, Shahiduddin Akbar suggested we go to Aarong after dinner. He was planning to go with a friend, and wanted to know if I'd like to come along. Word soon spread around the table, and my colleagues Josie and Milton expressed interest in coming along. So the five of us said our goodbyes to everyone at the banquet and jumped in Shahid's pickup truck for the ride to the store, located in Dhaka's Gulshan neighborhood.

Arriving at Aarong, we passed a group of security guards before entering. Inside, literally hundreds of Bangladeshis were shopping at a furious pace. It's tradition to shop at night during Ramadan, purchasing clothes and other items for Eid, the holiday immediately following the month of fasting. The store was a cross between the fair trade handicrafts store Ten Thousand Villages and Filene's Basement in Boston: aisle after aisle of clothes and handmade goods, with shoppers creating heaps of their Eid booty.

We decided to fan out and regroup by the entrance in 30 minutes, then re-evaluate whether we needed more time. I headed straight for the men's clothes department, where I thumbed through several hundred shirts. The t-shirt selection was excellent, while the button-down shirts were the Bangladeshi equivalent of Hawaiian shirts, featuring elaborate, colorful prints. I eventually settled on five shirts averaging around four dollars each before moving on to the handicrafts section, where I purchased a 12-piece set of hand-woven table settings, costing another four dollars. The bargains here seemed bottomless.

As I stood in the checkout line, I noticed various signs referencing BRAC, the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee. BRAC is an enormous NGO focusing on economic development and women's empowerment at the village level. I asked Shahid if Aarong was affiliated with BRAC; it turns out the store is one of their biggest projects. Rural villagers craft all of the goods available at the store, receiving a fair wage while generating revenue for BRAC's economic development work. I'd been to similar handicraft stores in other parts of the world, but none of them had the crowds and the vibrancy seen here.

The prices at Aarong may be a little higher than your average Bangladeshi shop, but spending the extra takas was well worth it. Nothing like buying souvenirs to help lift people out of poverty. -andy