[governance] Caucus Statement: another proposal [Revision]

[Ralf Bendrath]

McTim wrote:

> IIRC, the mandate is to do capacity building.
No. The mandate is much more, including to
-discuss public policy issues;
-interface with appropriate inter-governmental organisations and other 
institutions on matters under their purview;
-identify emerging issues, bring them to the attention of the relevant 
bodies and the general public, and, where appropriate, make recommendations;
-promote and assess, on an ongoing basis, the embodiment of WSIS 
principles in Internet governance processes;
-discuss, inter alia, issues relating to critical Internet resources;
help to find solutions to the issues arising from the use and misuse of 
the Internet, of particular concern to everyday users.
(Just a small selection, look at the Tunis agenda, para 72).

> If all the cash that was spent on it was spent on real capacity 
> buillding in the developing world, instead of talking about capacity 
> building, we'd be better off.
While I understand and know this sentiment, I insist it is about more than 
just distributing money. First of all, the money for IGF would not be 
available for any Internet-related issues if there were no IGF. How do you 
get money for capacity-building if you don't talk about it before?
But more important, there are problems that can not be solved by throwing 
money at things. They instead have to be dealt with as matters of public 
policy. Be it privacy protection, intellectual property regulations, spam, 
free speech, whatever. The IGF is a unique venue for raising matters of 
public interest, for focusing the attention of policy-makers and others, 
and for adressing issues that are so cross-border that they can not be 
solved on the national level - and for discussing which are which. (If it 
fulfills its mandate of course - but we are still working on this, I 
understand.)

Best, Ralf
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