Preface:
The project took the European semester of Italian Presidency as a starting point, drew inspiration from the Ministry of Innovation and Technologies, had indications by the Ministry for Equal Opportunities and has been urged by the female associations of European, Mediterranean and Eastern countries, that have sensitized since a long time to treat these themes. The international Association Women of the Mediterranean from its origins has been an interpreter of them, ratifying it statutorily.

Patronages and collaborations:
- Presidency of the Council of Italian Ministers
- Ministry for Equal Opportunities
- Ministry of Innovation and Technologies
- Ministry of the Public Function
- Ministry of Communications
- Ministry of Productive Activities
- Ministry of Labour and Social Politics
- Ministry of Economy and Finance
- Ministry of Education
- Ministry for Community Politics
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Ministry of Interior
- European Community
- ANCI (National Association of Italian Municipalities)
- UPI (Union of Italian Provinces)
- INTA (International Network for Urban Development)
- CENSIS
- Ernst & Young
- Regions, Provinces and cities involved.

Outline of the project
The project is articulated throughout a series of transversal and agreed actions.

Period: from September 2003 to September 2006.

The aim is to involve at least 100 Italian cities and other cities of the world.

Cycle of Italian seminars:
The involvement of a meaningful sample of all the Italian cities from December 2003 to December 2004, which can allow us through their experience to give concreteness to a White Book on the themes of innovation and ICT, with concrete and useful cases of “good practices” to propose to the international community on the occasion of conferences, debates, seminars, etc.
The formalities of participation to the project are specified in an announcement of competition published on the website of Woman of the Mediterranean and on some ministerial websites.

Awarding of prizes:
Prizes to the best Italian realized initiatives and project ideas, selected by a technical Committee composed of members of the Italian involved Ministries and of other technical partners of the project.
The event is programmed at the opening of the international conference.
The event will be presided by the Italian Minister for Equal Opportunities and by the Italian Minister of Innovation and Technologies.

International conference:
On 2008 will take place in a city to define the international conference participated by the European countries, by the countries just entered in the European Community, by the Mediterranean countries, and by a delegation of Asian, American and African countries.
We will present the White Book including the experiences of the Italian good practices, that will be object of discussion and will be divulged by the European Community and by Public Institutions, and the most meaningful and useful cases of the participant Countries in the field of innovation and ICT carried out by women holding public offices (Mayors, Presidents of Province or Region, Governors, Councillors, Parity Advisers, Responsible of Equal Opportunities committees, etc.).
The proceedings of the Conference will be included in a CD-Rom distributed to the participants and to those people that will do application of it, and will appear also on the website of Women of the Mediterranean.

Italy as Ambassador in the world:
After the international conference the Italian Country system, constituted by the public and private sector, will bring its own experience in the Italian Embassies all over the world with a series of meetings addressed to the local public and private decision-makers. The aim is to present the Italian experiences included in the White Book to propose them in other contexts and eventually to create the premises for commercial agreements with the strong Italian lobbies which live abroad and with local actors.

Communicational process:
The whole project will have a wide national and international popularization through press releases, journalistic articles, editorials, debates and on the website of Women of the Mediterranean.
The White Book (also distributed on CD-Rom) will be annually updated and translated into English, French and Spanish.

Denomination of the project:
The whole project will be identified with the label “WEMED PLUS” (registered trademark).

The aim of the project is to verify the innovative and most meaningful realized and/or promoted actions in the various fields and in the ICT carried out by women holding public offices (Mayors, Presidents of Province, Councillors, Parity Advisers, Responsible of Equal Opportunities committees, etc.) in Local Public Administrations (Regions, Provinces, Municipalities, Mountain Communities) during their mandate of Administrators.

The fields of the debate are:

• EDUCATION AND CULTURE:
  ENVIRONMENT
  CULTURAL GOODS AND ACTIVITIES
  TRAINING
  INSTRUCTION
• INSTITUTIONS AND DECISIONAL PROCESSES:
  COMMUNICATION
  EMPOWERMENT
  INNOVATIVE FINANCE
  e-GOVERNMENT
• LABOUR AND ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES:
  PRODUCTIVE ACTIVITIES
  OCCUPATION
  DEVELOPMENT
  TOURISM
• ORGANIZATION:
  TIMES CONCILIATION
  MOBILITY
  LABOUR ORGANIZATION
  CIVILE SOCIETY
• SOCIAL POLITICS:
  ELDERLY PEOPLE
  DISABLED PEOPLE
  FAMILY
  MINORS
  HEALTH
  

The aim of the project is to make a mutual reflection on the demand of Public Administrations to communicate their own efficiency and the available new services for the citizens; at the same time the initiative will be helpful to verify which are the needs of the population and which are the means and the information tools existing on the territory to answer to such necessities.

A statistical Italian survey will verify the citizens “Customer satisfaction” referring to the public services, and in particular their correspondence degree to real needs.

Promoter:
Women of the Mediterranean - ONLUS (www.donnedelmediterraneo.org)
International no-profit organization born in 1998 for will of different institutional, academic and cultural bodies, national and of the Mediterranean countries, with the exact intent to constitute a network of women and men and a link between all the female associations existing on the territory.
Its social purpose is to give a contribution to the socioeconomic development of the Euro-Mediterranean region and to sustainable tourism, to favour and to promote the interchange of information, experiences and projects, to facilitate the international cooperation and sensitizing public and private decision-makers, in particular on problems concerning women.
It has a successful history, has shown an absolute independence from influences or external exploitations of any kind and/or political parties and it has an innovative statute in comparison to the common standards, centred on the use and the diffusion of technological tools. From these actions it has drawn experiences and international recognitions, among them a silver medal given by the President of the Italian Republic Carlo Azelio Ciampi.

Technical support:
Parilli & Torraco - Associated Consultants (www.parilli-torraco.org)
International group specialized since thirty years in the socioeconomic development of the territories. It has given its contribution to many countries and successful cities in the world. It intervenes in the communicational and technical aspects of the project.

We quote compared data referring to a previous project on a cycle of Italian seminars made in 2000/2001 on the theme “Women and tourism: how to live and build a sustainable tourism. Challenges and opportunities”, presuming what could happen with the actual project.

The novelty of these seminars:
a) It was the first time in the world that a cycle of seminars structured like that was organized, dedicated exclusively to women, to their problems, their necessities, and that at the same time is aimed to individualize the opportunities offered by the market globalization.
b) It was the first time in the world that different bodies were involved in such a short time (only three months), in a cycle of seminars that involved directly 78 Italian cities, other 1200 connected cities, European bodies and public and private decision-makers from all over the world. In the actual project the object is to develop it with 100 cities.
c) It was the first time in the world that an Association like ours tried to give voice above all to the audience and the students, who worked to find the solutions with the teachers in a joint meeting. On this occasion we will listen to Public Administrations and citizens.

The figures:
The project carried out, involving all the Italian territory, foresaw an esteemed expense of about 682,000 Euro. The actual project has an esteemed expense of 720,000 Euro.

Communicational process for the cities involved in the study:
• 20 regions, 78 cities and 45 provinces directly involved in the project, and others interested but not included in the brochure for organizational reasons.
• 1200 connected cities which are part of the statistical survey.
• Involved countries besides Italy: Algeria, Austria, Egypt, England, France, Greece, Jordan, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, Spain, Tunisia, USA.
• Published pages, articles and journalistic editorial announces with a medium esteem (prudential calculation) of about 300, besides local news-bulletins esteemed in about 350 (local TV and press). Presumed medium cost of communicational impact for every single administration: Euro 5,08 divided into two years – Euro 2,54 per year.
• More than 8 millions of people have been involved in the initiative.
• We declared that the communicational process had been developed in geometrical progression in favor of all the cities and territories involved, independently from how they operated.
This remark can be pointed out today with the same cities participating the past project,
included in the enclosed brochure.
• 210.000 printed brochures, 100.000 adhesion cards, 25.000 bulletins, 10.000 folders and other papery material for about 2,6 paper tons, besides 80.000 photocopies, ink for printers, headed paper, etc.
• 5600 letters sent
• 650 registered letters
• 800 letters sent by courier mail
• 240 packages.

The budget given to every single Administration was an integral part of the Manual of the procedures and was equipped with exemplifications and set of forms according to the Community indications and in conformity to the provisions UNI EN 29001 (UNI EN ISO 9001), referring to the certification of the quality system.

Referring to these results, considering the great topical subjects to deal with, a priority for Governments and for public Administrations, we reasonably think that the return in terms of communication and promotion for the involved partners will be certainly meaningful.