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Organised by DiploFoundation, the Maltese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Global Knowledge Partnership and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation On the weekend of February 11 – 13, 90 delegates from all around the world are visiting Malta to attend an international conference on a new approach to diplomacy and international cooperation. The conference was opened on the Friday morning by The Hon. Dr. Francis Zammit Dimech, Minister for Tourism and Culture and the keynote address was delivered by H.E. Professor Guido de Marco, Chairman of the Commonwealth Foundation and President Emeritus of Malta.
Speakers at this event focussed on the multistakeholder approach to diplomacy, promoting the idea that in today’s increasingly interconnected world, traditional diplomacy is no longer enough to address complex issues such as international crises response, health, environmental protection and trade. More and more, other actors are involved, such as non-governmental organisations, universities, the private sector and media. The international response to the recent tsunami is a good example of multistakeholder cooperation.
One of the main conference topics was the Information Society, an area where Malta plays a prominent role. Information Society issues are not just about technology, but also about the social and economic issues that touch all of our everyday lives. Malta is increasingly in the spotlight in the global digital discussion, and will host the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in November 2005. The central theme of this meeting will be Information and Communication Technologies for Development. DiploFoundation is one of the many Malta-based organisations offering training and assistance to developing countries, in the case of Diplo, though courses on Internet Governance.
Through the conference on Multistakeholder diplomacy, Malta will make an official contribution to the World Summit on the Information Society process.
Maltese Ambassador Saviour Borg presented the “Malta – Salina Bay Conclusions” on Multistakeholder Diplomacy at the Plenary of the WSIS Prepcomm meeting held in Geneva in the following week.
Some of the prominent participants were:
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Walter Fust - Head of Swiss Development Corporation - who has been actively involved in the distribution of aid for the Tsunami disaster on behalf of the Swiss
Government
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Rinalia Abdul Rahim - Director of Global Knowledge Partnership
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Christopher Lamb - Senior Advisor of International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
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Theresa Swinehart - ICANN
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Marcus Kummer - Head of the Working group on Internet Governance.
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H.E. Professor
Guido de Marco, President Emeritus of Malta
and Professor Dietrich Kappeler, President of
DiploFoundation
Rinalia Abdul Rahim, Director of Global
Knowledge Partnership,
Hon. Dr. Francis Zammit Dimech, Minister for Tourism and Culture,
Dietrich Kappeler, President
of DiploFoundation,
Jovan Kurbalija, Director
of DiploFoundation and
Ambassador Saviour Borg, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Malta to the UN, Geneva
Hon. Dr. Francis Zammit Dimech, Minister for Tourism and Culture
and
Professor Dietrich Kappeler, President of
DiploFoundation
Marcus Kummer, Head of the Working group on
Internet Governance
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