Rotterdam, Nederlands – December 13, 2005

Recently AIESEC representatives traveled to Tunisia to participate in the second phase of the World Summit for the Information Society (WSIS), a follow up to the initial meeting in Geneva in 2003.

The summit was designed to bring together representatives from over 190 countries including over 50 heads of state, government ministers, and global leadership in civil society organizations and non-governmental organizations.The meeting was an end result to months of consultation and negotiation talks among member states, private and non-governmental organizations to share a broad spectrum of experiences and issues related to the Information Society.

AIESEC representative, Tom Gara, shed light on the issue by discussing internet enabled technology that drives AIESEC’s core work:a program called Insight II, which facilitates our exchange program, as well as AIESEC.net, a web of communities that power our global learning networks between young people across the globe.

“It is hard to remember what work in AIESEC was like before we adopted the Insight II software,” says Gara.“With the high number of international exchanges that we match each year, AIESEC needed a technology that would enable us to work in the most efficient manner and carry us to the future.I think this is relevant to any organization wanting to move forward.”

The summit held from November 16 - 18, in Tunis, Tunisia saw the unanimous adoption by all UN member states of the Tunis Commitment, agreeing to break down the digital divide and ensure that the benefit of Information and Communications Technology is felt by all of humanity.

One way in which participants felt this could be done was by the launch of the Digital Solidarity Fund, which will help to see resources put forward to ensure the world’s poorest people gain access to technology.

AIESEC is recognized by the United Nations as the largest student run organization in the world.In participating in summits such as the WSIS, AIESEC is able to provide a youthful perspective on issues that plague the world today, such as the digital divide.

AIESEC is the international platform for young people to discover and develop their potential.AIESEC’s membership stands at 20,000 members and is present in over 800 universities across 90 countries worldwide. For media information contact Abhinav Gupta, Global Communication Manager.

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Brodie Boland and Petr Skvaril attended the United Nations Global Compact Summit recently hosted in Shanghai. Along with hundreds of other senior leaders of China and the world's leading business and civil society organizations, they engaged in the Global Compact's dialogue around how business can contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. The Global Compact is a coalition of organizations that voluntarily commit to adhering by ten principles of corporate responsibility.

The fact that the Summit took place in Shanghai was significant in that a number of Chinese organizations were present. It represented a major opportunity for both AIESEC and the Global Compact to deepen our reach and impact in one of the world's most dynamic economies.

For more information on the Global Compact, visit www.unglobalcompact.org/Portal/

Last week, AIESEC, the world’s largest student organization, was awarded with the Media-Tenor Special Award at the Sixth Annual International Agenda Setting Conference in Lugano, Switzerland.

Matthias Vollbracht, Executive Director of Media-Tenor, who comments, presented the award, “We give this award to an organization we feel has been relevant in tackling issues but does not get enough credit in the media. For this, Media-Tenor extends the award by providing one year free consultancy to this organization to help them gain media visibility for the work they are doing around the globe.”

“Over the past 57 years of existence, AIESEC has constantly evolved its values, activities and processes to ensure our relevance in building the leaders the world requires.” says Abhinav Gupta, Communications Manager on AIESEC International. “Even today, AIESEC is carrying out various activities that are ensuring that it’s creating more impact in more places.”

Today, AIESEC’s biggest focuses include :

1. Expansion into the Middle East – in order to give youth the opportunity to develop themselves using the AIESEC international platform, AIESEC is expanding its borders to reach out to the Middle East . Recently AIESEC extended membership to Afghanistan, Pakistan and the UAE and this year is looking at 6 more countries joining the network.

2. Empowering Africa – by using AIESEC’s resources around the world to develop the youth in Africa and set up programs that directly affect the lives of these youth, such as the fight against HIV/AIDS.

3. Globally connecting youth on hot topics – to enhance their understanding and work to gain experience within the areas of Energy, Finance, Corporate Social Responsibility, Education and HIV/AIDS.

Media Tenor presents its special award to an institution whose work represents a great contribution to society and public life but is not represented adequately as it deserves in opinion-leading media. The first award was presented to AIDS Orphans, followed by Transparency International and Amnesty International.

T he Media Tenor Institute for Media Content Analysis is the world‘s leading provider of international media content analysis on a continuous and wide-ranging basis.

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