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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On Tuesday 01 September 2015 11:52 PM,
Anja Kovacs wrote:<br>
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cite="mid:CAJqNAHB0ZCGEmkrxYVeq1eFs2-dmf6yp20Cn7zSjGipfj31D1A@mail.gmail.com"
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<div>Hi Parminder,<br>
<br>
</div>
I have not discussed this with my co-organisers, but as the
person who first came up with this idea and also the one to
send the message to which you responded, I am happy to provide
some answers. <br>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
Hi Anja<br>
<br>
I am unable to see in your email answers to the questions that I
asked.<br>
<br>
40 people gathering for an international meeting for 3 days involves
a huge sum. I am asking, who is paying for it? I have no problem
about groups and networks holding their meetings as they please -
although funding transparency is a basic requirement for all civil
society activity. The real issue here is that you are speaking about
a "Regional Asia Consultation" for a UN process - a point I
emphasized in my email but which finds no reference in your
response... Any such meeting must be fully transparent in its
funding, and the manner of making organisational decisions,
including giving invitation and participation funding.... Why do you
not just share that information upfront? Why are you keeping it
back?<br>
<br>
(When Just Net Coalition held a meeting last year - even though it
was clearly declared to be a <i>partisan meeting</i> for evolving a
new civil society network around certain key advocacy issues, with
no claims at all to be representative of all views etc- as your
meeting is - much less a 'consultation' with the self-assumed name
of 'Asia Regional Consultation' - we shared every bit of information
about the meeting, including full details of financial
contributions. Why are you hesitating? Is there nothing like civil
society/ NGO governance, transparency and accountability? )<br>
<br>
I look forward to the information that I have requested. I am asking
for it not because I need it, but because it is in public interest.
<br>
<br>
Thanks, parminder<br>
<br>
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<div><br>
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<div>Perhaps first a note on what we are trying to do here. As
we all know, the modalities explicitly made the Review a
government-led process. Also, details on the way in which the
informal consultations with other stakeholders would be
facilitated remained extremely scanty even eight months before
the review was supposed to take place. Even when the Review
process was formally announced, it wasn't clear to what extent
inputs from stakeholders other than governments would be taken
into account. This meeting is an attempt to be proactive in
that situation, trying to amplify voices from our region to
make sure that concerns from this region actually find
resonance in New York - something that, seeing how far removed
we are from there, isn't guaranteed at all. <br>
<br>
</div>
<div>The organisations that are co-organising this meeting are
organisations that all got enthused by this prospect, and were
willing to put part of their organisational budgets, of their
staff's time and minds, or of all of these up to make this
event happen. No funding was secured specifically for this
meeting (though I tried). What this meant is that the funding
pool was limited, and difficult decisions indeed did have to
be made. What we aimed for was to have a balanced
representation across Asia's sub-regions as well as a group
that could address a mix of issues from a range of
perspectives. A direct engagement with the WSIS+10 Review
process over the past two years was definitely seen as a plus,
but not a must. <br>
<br>
As is bound to happen in such circumstances, there are indeed
people who would be able to offer valuable inputs to the
meeting but who we were not able to offer funding. Luckily,
some of those are able to self-fund their attendance. In
addition, we tried to alleviate the restrictions imposed by
the limited funding by deciding to provide remote
participation, so as to allow all those interested in
participating to do so. The full modalities of how this will
work is something that we are still working out: as this is
intended to be a working meeting, ensuring that remote
participation is substantive is not a given. We are doing our
very best to try and pull off successfully what I think is a
first in our region for a meeting of this kind. <br>
<br>
</div>
<div>Your claim that nobody from the Just Net Coalition has been
invited is of course not correct. One organisation was on our
shortlist from day one. Another is attending on its own force,
and we are very happy that they, as well as others, have been
able to draw on their own resources to attend this event and
contribute to its success. <br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>On APRCEM, thanks for the heads-up. I am glad to hear that
they are now intending to work on issues related to science
and technology as well, and that they are even engaging with
the Internet Social Forum initiative on this. Though I am on
an email list that is dedicated to discussing the Internet
Social Forum, I don't seem to be able to locate that
information there. Do please feel free to pass on the message
about this event to them though. If any representative of
APRCEM would be interested in attending, either in person or
remotely, they are very welcome to do so, as are you.<br>
<br>
</div>
<div>Hope this clarifies.<br>
<br>
</div>
<div>Regards,<br>
</div>
<div>Anja<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On 31 August 2015 at 18:47, parminder
<span dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:parminder@itforchange.net" target="_blank">parminder@itforchange.net</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
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<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"> Dear organisers of
the <b>Asian Regional Consultation on the WIS+10
Review,<br>
<br>
</b>With your permission I have some questions to ask
you. I know this is a treacherous territory, given an
extra ordinary (and completely inappropriate)
sensitivity to being asked questions by some groups, but
my apologies, I cannot but ask them in pursuance of my
public interest work, however distasteful it may be even
for me to get into this thing....<br>
<br>
This is being called a 'consultation' and further an
'Asian Regional' consultation, on what is a global
governance process, and so some questions arise in my
mind:<br>
<br>
(1) who is funding this 'consultation'<br>
<br>
(2) on what criteria participants were determined, and
invitations sent, and by whom - were all concerned
people invited (that, in my view, would be a
consultation)<br>
<br>
(3) On what criteria funding for participation was
provided, and by whom, and who decided it..<br>
<br>
Thanks for answering these public interest questions...<br>
<br>
I may declare that my interest got evoked from the
knowledge that no member of the Just Net Coalition has
been invited... IT for Change is among very few groups
in Asia Pacific which has been engaged with the WSIS
process from the start, and very thoroughly engaged.
Further, there is in fact an <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.asiapacificrcem.org/" target="_blank">Asia
Pacific Regional CSO Engagement Mechanism</a>, which
describes itself as<br>
<br>
<blockquote>"APRCEM is a civil society platform aimed to
enable stronger cross constituency coordination and
ensure that voices of all sub-regions of Asia Pacific
are heard in intergovernmental processes in regional
and global level. The platform is initiated, owned and
driven by the CSOs, and has been set up under the
auspices of UN-ESCAP and seeks to engage with UN
agencies and Member States on the Post-2015 as well as
other development related issues/processes. "<br>
</blockquote>
In fact the APRCEM also has an Science and Technology
Constituency which works as an active network (of which
IT for Change is a member) which has begun to work
closely with the Just Net Coalition (many JNC members
also being its members) and the Internet Social Forum
initiatives, which shows its interest in Internet
issues... As far as I know no member of this network, or
the network as a whole, has been involved in this
so-called "Asia Regional Consultation' which being on a
UN process this group would be natural constituency...
All of which makes me wonder, and so my questions..<br>
<br>
<br>
parminder <br>
<div>
<div class="h5"> <br>
<br>
<div>On Wednesday 26 August 2015 08:21 PM, Anja
Kovacs wrote:<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
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<div class="h5">
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<div>Dear all,<br>
<br>
</div>
The Internet Democracy Project, Bytes for All,
APNIC, the Association for Progressive
Communications, ISOC, Global Partners Digital
and ICT Watch are together organising an <b>Asian
Regional Consultation on the WIS+10 Review</b>
from 3 to 5 September in Pattaya, Thailand. <br>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Asian Regional
Consultation on the WSIS+10 Review will bring
together experts from different backgrounds
and from around the Asian region who are
concerned about issues concerning ICTs,
sustainable development, human rights and
Internet governance, to ask: <b>what are the
issues that our governments need to squarely
address in the process of the review? <br>
</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The meeting is timed so as
to be able for the group to comment on the
non-paper that will have been released by the
co-facilitators of the review process in late
August (inputs into that paper can be made by
all stakeholders and are due on 31 July).<span>
The group will take stock of the extent to
which priorities for the Asian region have
been reflected in the non-paper, and will
work together on formulating a joint comment
on the non-paper</span> (comments on the
non-paper will be due in mid-September, and
will be drawn on by the co-facilitators to
formulate a zero-draft). <span>The group will
also look forward to consider which further
inputs could be made or actions could be
taken strategically to ensure that
priorities from the Asian region are fully
taken onto board in the final WSIS+10 Review
outcome documents. </span>If there are
other processes the group believes this work
could usefully feed into, these might be taken
into consideration as well. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>The meeting is conceived
as a highly interactive working meeting that
is geared towards producing a joint
submission to the next input round on the
Review outcome document. </b>Participants
will be drawn from all non-government
stakeholder groups, and will have a wide and
rich variety of backgrounds, both in terms of
professional expertise and geographical
location. What unites all, however, is a
shared commitment to a free and open Internet
and to the use of technology to benefit the
development and human rights of all in our
region. <br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>We're very happy to let
you know that remote participation will be
available. </b>For more information on
remote participation and the event in general,
please see the <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.wsis10.asia/"
target="_blank">event website</a>. Or follow
us on Twitter @WSISAsia #wsis10.<br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We look forward to your
inputs into this event. Do please let me know
if you have any comments or questions.<br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Warm regards,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Anja<br>
</p>
<br>
<div>
<div><br>
-- <br>
<div>Dr. Anja Kovacs<br>
The Internet Democracy Project<br>
<br>
+91 9899028053 | @anjakovacs<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.internetdemocracy.in/"
target="_blank">www.internetdemocracy.in</a><br>
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<br>
<br clear="all">
<br>
-- <br>
<div class="gmail_signature">Dr. Anja Kovacs<br>
The Internet Democracy Project<br>
<br>
+91 9899028053 | @anjakovacs<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.internetdemocracy.in/" target="_blank">www.internetdemocracy.in</a><br>
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