[bestbits] Civil Society MAG Appointments - Call for comments

[jmalcolm]

Folks, this is a lengthy message requesting your feedback as regards 
Internet Governance Forum Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) 
nominations and the role that the Internet Governance Civil Society Co 
ordination Group (CSCG) might play.

The history that led to this has been that, in the past various, civil 
society groups have nominated separately, with the result being that the 
Secretariat made its own decisions, including in some cases people with 
no active involvement with the civil society groups. Last year for the 
first time we were able to achieve a degree of cross-endorsements 
between our groups, but this was still confusing to the IGF Secretariat. 
To remedy this, we are looking this year for the first time to have a 
more comprehensive civil-society endorsement process for candidates.

In this respect, we expect to issue a call for candidates next Thursday 
(September 18). In the meantime, as we finalise this approach, your 
comments are sought on the following.

TIMETABLE

The draft timetable is as follows. Bear in mind that each coalition 
member will be calling for its own nominations which will be collated 
with others at a later stage

     Thurs, Sep 18 - release call for nominations and final selection 
criteria
     Tues, September 30 - close of nominations
     October 1-3 - collation of nominations and shortlisting from 
various coalitions
     October 4- 14 - completion of selections and publication of names 
to lists
     October 16 - forwarding names to IGF Secretariat.

Your comments on this are welcome.

PROCEDURES

The draft procedures follow. These are still being refined within CSCG, 
but your input is welcome.

The role of CSCG is to ensure a co-ordinated civil society response and 
conduit when it comes to making civil society appointments to outside 
bodies.

The following is the procedure which CSCG follows when a request for 
civil society appointments is received.

1.  CSCG may be involved in nominations when requested to do so by 
either one of its members or by an outside organisation requesting CS 
involvement. When such a request is received, CSCG will clarify what has 
been requested and, in a case where CS already has representation, 
consult with existing representatives in clarifying the involvement 
required.

2.  CSCG will not be involved in any appointments of CS representatives 
if more than 35% of its coalition members determine not to be involved 
in the process, or where the number with a clear determination to be 
involved does not exceed those expressing a wish not to be involved. 
(Others may have a neutral or undecided stance) Where coalition members 
choose not to be involved and a decision to proceed is made, their 
decision to do so will be announced (if they so wish) as part of any 
announcement of chosen representatives. The decision to be involved or 
not is the primary responsibility of each constituency.

3.  Any CSCG member who wishes to be eligible for selection as part of 
any process must announce that intention before a call for candidates is 
announced, and may nominate another representative of their coalition to 
take their place on the Nomcom.

4.  CSCG as a whole will determine selection criteria for any 
appointments and announce them as part of a call for candidates.

5.  CSCG will determine and manage a timetable for the process.

6.  A separate CSCG mailing list will be established for each 
nomination process.

7.  Unless otherwise determined by CSCG members, each coalition will 
issue its own call for candidates, and forward appropriate names to CSCG 
at the nominated close of nominations. Coalitions are at liberty to 
shortlist their own candidates and only submit appropriate names, or to 
forward all names received

8.  Where time permits and as appropriate, candidates may be asked to 
address selection criteria in their nominations.

9.  The CSCG Nomcom will consist of all voting members and the non 
voting chair, with the exception of representatives of coalitions who 
choose not to participate in a particular process.

10.  The Nomcom in making its decisions should determine appropriate 
procedures to arrive at a final decision. But unless circumstances 
suggest otherwise, it is suggested that selection should begin with a 
shortlisting process, which will assist in identifying most favoured 
candidates and which candidates should be examined more closely. 
Following from shortlisting, which is a guide only and not an indication 
of which candidates should be selected, Â Nomcom members will arrive at 
the final candidates list, using on line exchanges and if necessary 
conference linkups to determine the final slates.

11.  All members of the Nomcom are required to consider the interests 
of civil society as a whole, and not just their own coalition, in 
determining appropriate representatives

12.  All Nomcoms 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. Â While realising that complete balance will 
not be able to be achieved in every individual instance. CSCG members 
are requested to take into account any such deficits in balances in 
previous CSCG decisions in making selections, with an objective of 
achieving balance over a period of time which may not be achievable in 
every particular case.

13.  The records of each Nomcom will be destroyed six months after the 
process is completed.



SELECTION CRITERIA

The following are suggested selection criteria for MAG for your 
comments (see also comments above re achieving balance across the slate 
of candidates)



1.  Past record of active engagement as part of civil society groups 
working on internet governance issues

2.  Consultative style

3.  Previous attendee at IGF

4.  Able to work constructively with other stakeholder groups



A period for comments and suggestions is now open. A call for 
candidates will be issued on Thursday, September 18.

Ian Peter

(Independent Chair, CSCG)



CSCG members are:

Association for Progressive Communications,  represented by Chat Garcia 
Ramilo, Deputy Executive Director

Best Bits, represented by Jeremy Malcolm, Steering Committee member

Civicus, represented by Mandeep Tiwana, Head of Policy and Research

Diplo Foundation,  represented by Ginger (Virginia) Paque,  Internet 
Governance Programmes

Just Net Coalition, represented by Norbert Bollow, Co-convenor

Internet Governance Caucus, represented by Dr Mawaki Chango, 
Co-Coordinator

The Non-Commercial Stakeholders Group, (NCSG) represented by Robin 
Gross, NCSG Executive Committee