[governance] location

[Jeanette Hofmann]

Bertrand de La Chapelle wrote:
> Dear all,
>  
> On that topic, please make the distinction between the location of the 
> secretariat and the location of the activities of the Forum.
>  
> I support the initial core of the secretariat to be located in Geneva, 
> for all the reasons already mentionned by others.
>  
> But the activities of the Forum (annual meetings, possible thematic 
> meetings in betwee and/or working groups meetings if any) can be 
> distributed in various locations, *and should be*.
>  
> Furthermore, there is no reason to force a single location in the long 
> term for secretariat activities. I would support indeed the notion of a 
> "distributed secretariat" progressively built around a certain number of 
> locations, to take advantage of in-kind support (for instance secondment 
> by certain entities), address certain specific issues and facilitate 
> inclusiveness.

Some months ago I would have supported the concept of a distributed 
secretariat. I remember Avri and I discussing the idea to have a 
rotating secretariat moving from one international org to another. Today 
I'd say this is a recipe for desaster. We have to keep in mind that 
these international organizations are competing for tasks and are 
disagreeing in terms of regulatory paradigms.

What I find much more important today is that the secretariat takes a 
neutral stance on such matters and tries to remain light-weight. Ideas 
like distributed secretariat should be considered in the future once the 
forum is a well established, widely acknowledged institution.

jeanette


>  
> The notion of a single secretariat location and a single venue for 
> events points towards the creation of a totally traditionnal 
> inter-governmental institution. Is this what we really need/want ? How 
> long before we discuss the creation of "permanent representatives" to 
> the IGF, with income-tax free status and the respective perks ? And the 
> special building of the Forum ?
>  
> Please keep the IGF in the spirit of the Internet, as discussed in Malta 
> : flexible, networked, distributed and scalable. 
>  
> Bertrand 
> 
>  
> On 2/14/06, *William Drake* <drake at hei.unige.ch 
> <mailto:drake at hei.unige.ch>> wrote:
> 
>     Hi,
> 
>      > -----Original Message-----
>      > From: governance-bounces at lists.cpsr.org
>     <mailto:governance-bounces at lists.cpsr.org>
>      > [mailto:governance-bounces at lists.cpsr.org
>     <mailto:governance-bounces at lists.cpsr.org>]On Behalf Of Jeanette Hofmann
> 
>      > Does the caucus have an opinion regarding the question of the
>      > secretariat's location? (Perhaps I should raise this question in a
>      > seperate email as it concerns the Geneva meeting later this week.)
> 
>     I'd bet it will need to be a UN seat, including because of the missions
>     (case in point, as of last week anyway the US was planning on sending
>     mission people rather than Washingtonians to the consultation
>     tomorrow...).
>     While I'd be happy to have more excuses to visit New York, this
>     wouldn't
>     make sense due to costs, the lack of relevant international orgs
>     with which
>     the forum will need to interact, and the difficulties many people
>     experience
>     getting in and out of the US these days.  Plus, related to the
>     latter, I
>     doubt many countries would be enthused about the US under any
>     circumstances
>     right now.   With similar considerations in mind, it would not make
>     sense to
>     put it in the other spots being loosely mentioned, e.g. Athens,
>     Budapest,
>     Addis, Nairobi, etc.   In comparison, the arguments against Geneva
>     are not
>     obvious.  If resources allow, there should also be geographically
>     dispersed
>     meetings, either the annuals or parallel regionals.
> 
>     More generally, given the complex way the politics are shaping up, I
>     would
>     suggest that we should be supportive of a UN-coordinated process
>     building
>     out from prior experience.  CS would lose in any other configuration.
> 
>     Best,
> 
>     Bill
> 
> 
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