<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small;display:inline">

<p class=""><span style="font-size:12pt">Dear Best Bits members,</span></p>

<p class=""><span style="font-size:12pt">
In this email, I'm forwarding to you the official call from of the CSCG.</span></p>

<p class=""><span style="font-size:12pt"></span></p>

<p class=""><span style="font-size:12pt">As I stated in my earlier
email:</span></p>

<p class=""><span style="font-size:12pt">to
those who are interested to come forward and nominate themselves through Best
Bits lis<span style="background:white none repeat scroll 0% 0%">t <b><u>by March 12^th,</u></b>. 
a</span>fter this date,  I will generate a candidate list with the Bios to
be presented to you all to have a <b>3 days of endorsement period</b>. 
Based on the endorsement I will generate a short listing and submitted to the
NomCom of the Civil Society Coordination Group by the end of  <b>March 15^th</b>.</span></p>

<p class=""><span style="font-size:12pt">I
highlighted below a sentence in bold to bring the attention to those from
developing countries. </span></p>

<p class=""><span style="font-size:12pt">If you have any questions,
please do not hesitate to contact me.</span></p>

<p class=""><span style="font-size:12pt">Best wishes,</span></p><p class=""><span style="font-size:12pt">Nadira Alaraj</span><span style="font-size:12pt"><br></span></p><p class=""><span style="font-size:12pt">Liaise of BestBits
nominees to the CSCG </span>

​</p></div><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<div dir="ltr"><div><span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:18.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:700;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">Call for nominations for CSTD WG on Enhanced Cooperation</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The Civil Society Coordination Groups  (CSCG) is seeking civil society nominations from developed and developing countries as well as from economies in transition, all geographic areas, and policy orientations to serve as civil society representatives on the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation (WGEC), the announcement for which can be found at  </span><a href="http://unctad.org/en/pages/newsdetails.aspx?OriginalVersionID=1193" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">http://unctad.org/en/pages/newsdetails.aspx?OriginalVersionID=1193</span></a><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">. More information about the WG proposal can be found at </span><a href="http://unctad.org/meetings/en/Presentation/CSTD_2015_s11_Major_en.pdf" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">http://unctad.org/meetings/en/Presentation/CSTD_2015_s11_Major_en.pdf</span></a><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent"> .</span><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> While the exact timeframe for the working group has not been established, nominees are asked to consider  a service period of 2016-2017 (and eventually the beginning of 2018).</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Peter Major, the Chair of the CSTD, has appointed CSCG as the focal point for appointments of Civil Society representatives on the WGEC, and CSCG has correspondingly established a nominations committee (Nomcom) for this selection task. We are seeking one CS representative from each of the five geographical areas: Africa, Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe, GRULAC, and WEOG. The Chair has requested that we include, to the extent  possible, selection of former members of the previous working group in order to ensure the continuation of institutional memory, and the point in the UNGA resolution to “take into consideration the work that has been done on this matter so far.” While remote participation will most probably be available, he also notes that remote participation “may not be very efficient in case of intensive debates and drafting”. <b>In addition, he notes that</b></span><b><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent"> “As for funding, the Secretariat of the  CSTD will try and find means to facilitate participation from developing countries”.</span></b></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">Nominations should be submitted to the CSCG’s nominations committee via the email address </span><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">nomcom06 [at] internetgov-cs [dot] org</span><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent"> no later than 15 March 2016, or via one of the member coalitions (IGC, Best Bits, JNC, NCSG, APC) following their procedures. Independent civil society experts (i.e. those who are not nominated by a civil society organisation or network) are welcome to send self-nominations directly to the CSCG nomcom by the same deadline. </span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">Nominations should include a short bio of one paragraph, one paragraph of motivation to be a civil society representative to the WGEC, one paragraph describing substantive proposals or a vision on “how to further implement enhanced cooperation as envisioned in the Tunis Agenda”, and one paragraph describing experience or qualifications to represent civil society on the WGEC. Name, gender, regional/geographical, as well as any appropriate affiliation information and contact information should be included as well. Proficiency in English is necessary for communications within the WGEC. It is understood that nominees must be able to attend (most) meetings as established by the WGEC.</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:700;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">About CSCG and the current nomcom:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The Civil Society Coordination Group (CSCG) exists solely to ensure a coordinated civil society response and conduit when it comes to making civil society appointments to outside bodies. It comprises representatives of the coalition members of the Best Bits, Association for Progressive Communications, Internet Governance Caucus, Just Net Coalition, and Non-Commercial Stakeholders Group of ICANN. </span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">As per the CSCG's procedures (available at </span><a href="http://internetgov-cs.org/procedures" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">http://internetgov-cs.org/procedures</span></a><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">), for any selection task, the CSCG will determine selection criteria and announce them as part of a call for candidates, which will then be circulated as appropriate, in this case as broadly as possible across as many different constituencies as possible. </span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Selection criteria for WGEC:  </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">--substantive proposals or a vision on “how to further implement enhanced cooperation as envisioned in the Tunis Agenda”</span><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">; </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">--experience in </span><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">or qualifications to represent civil society on the WG</span><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">; </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">--English language proficiency;</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> all to be evaluated using the information submitted with the nomination. Final selection will consider gender and geographical location, to ensure an appropriate balance.</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">All members of the CSCG nomination</span><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent"> committee a</span><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">re required to consider the interests of civil society as a whole, and not just those of their own coalition, in determining appropriate representatives. The nomination committee will take into account geographic and gender balance in determining their final selections, while considering also the need for the breadth of viewpoints/worldviews represented within civil society to be represented.</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Please feel free to contact us if you need further information or to discuss how we can work together to ensure our mutual objective to ensure the best possible civil society representation on this Working Group. The co-chairs of CSCG, Ginger Paque and Ian Peter, are available for inquiries.</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The members of the CSCG nomcom for the CSTD WGEC are:</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Deirdre Williams, representative of the Civil Society Internet Governance</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Caucus (IGC), and recent Co-Coordinator of the IGC</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Chat Garcia Ramilo, representative of the Association for Progressive</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Communications (APC), and Deputy Executive Director of APC</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Ginger (Virginia) Paque, non-voting Co-Chair of CSCG, and with Diplo</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Foundation, Internet Governance Programmes (contact: virginiap [at] diplomacy [dot] edu)</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Ian Peter, non-voting Co-Chair of CSCG, independent (contact: ian [dot] peter [at] ianpeter [dot com)</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Nadira Alaraj, representative of Best Bits</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Norbert Bollow, representative of the Just Net Coalition (JNC), and</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Co-Convenor of JNC</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Robin Gross, representative of </span><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">ICANN’s </span><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Non-Commercial Stakeholders Group</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">(NCSG), and member of the NCSG Executive Committee</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt"><span style="font-size:18.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:700;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Information on the Previous WGEC</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:700;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">Previous representatives from civil society  </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">Mr. Carlos A. Afonso, Executive Director, NUPEF Institute  </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">Ms. Avri Doria, Independent Researcher  </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">Ms. Grace Githaiga, Associate, Kenya ICT Action Network  </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">Ms. Joy Liddicoat, Programme Leader for Human Rights on the Internet, Association for Progressive Communications  </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">Mr. Parminder Jeet Singh, Executive Director, IT for Change</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">Documents produced during or following previous WGEC meetings can be found on the CSTD website. Of particular interest:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><a href="http://unctad.org/en/pages/MeetingDetails.aspx?meetingid=330" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">http://unctad.org/en/pages/MeetingDetails.aspx?meetingid=330</span></a></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><a href="http://unctad.org/en/pages/MeetingDetails.aspx?meetingid=396" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">http://unctad.org/en/pages/MeetingDetails.aspx?meetingid=396</span></a></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><a href="http://unctad.org/en/pages/MeetingDetails.aspx?meetingid=425" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">http://unctad.org/en/pages/MeetingDetails.aspx?meetingid=425</span></a></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><a href="http://unctad.org/en/pages/MeetingDetails.aspx?meetingid=545" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">http://unctad.org/en/pages/MeetingDetails.aspx?meetingid=545</span></a></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><a href="http://unctad.org/en/pages/MeetingDetails.aspx?meetingid=610" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">http://unctad.org/en/pages/MeetingDetails.aspx?meetingid=610</span></a></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:rgb(208,224,227)">.</span></p><div><span style="font-size:14.6667px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><br></span></div></span><br></div></div></div>-- <br><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><br></p>
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