[governance] location

[McTim]

Hi Bret,

On 2/14/06, Bret Fausett <fausett at lextext.com> wrote:
> Isn't the goal that the location of the Secretariat be immaterial?


Well yes, BUT since the UN/ITU are running the pre-IGF organising it
looks like it's shaping up to be a largely UN game.

On principle, I have, on this list, mentioned NBO as a UN city that
could easily host the Secretariat.

A few weeks later, this idea was brought up on the kip-list (by a WGIG
member) and posted to AfrISPA-discuss (where African ISP folk discuss
stuff).  Here is an excerpt:

"To the detriment of developing countries however, Greece is also
proposing, at  the Geneva Consultations, to host the IGF secretariat
for the next 5 years.  There is no logical reason for Greece to host
this secretariat. Firstly, the  whole WSIS process was supposed to
benefit the developing world by tackling the  problem of the digital
world. Greece is not a developing country. Secondly, the  WSIS process
was a UN process. Greece does not host any UN Agency,   i.e. has no UN
city such as Geneva, Vienna, New York or Nairobi. Thirdly, it is
common knowledge that for persons from  developing countries to obtain
visas to go for meetings in countries in the West  such as Greece is a
humiliating and difficult, sometimes impossible exercise.  For the IGF
to be effective and serve its goals it should locate its secretariat 
in the developing world, and Nairobi,  being a UN city, would be a
natural choice. As with the DSF which was eventually  housed in
Geneva, the developed world "offers" a few facilities such as office 
space but in reality the benefits to the host country e.g. from
visitors coming  for meetings quickly outstrip the value of what was
offered."

The list of folk attending the Geneva Consultations should be a
reality check for us in re: Northern vs Southern participation.  I
count two people from Asia, one from South America, zero from Africa,
5 from EU, and 5 from North America.

I understand that Secretariat location is not an over-arching issue,
but it sure would be nice for CS to stand on principle this time.  For
the long term I am keen to see a distributed Secretariat, and "program
committee".  For the short term, let's put forward something tangible
regarding participation of developing country participants and
capacity building!!

--
Cheers,

McTim
$ whois -h whois.afrinic.net mctim

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