[governance] Development Agenda workshop at IGF

[William Drake]

Workshop 49. A Development Agenda for Internet Governance: From  
Principle to Practice

Friday 5 December 2008

16:00-17:30, room 6

A development agenda is a holistic program of analysis and action  
intended to mainstream development considerations into the procedures  
and policy outputs of global governance mechanisms. In recent years,  
many stakeholders have worked to promote such agendas in the  
multilateral institutions dealing with such issues as international  
trade and intellectual property. But in the field of global Internet  
governance, there has not been any debate about whether a development  
agenda could be functionally effective and politically feasible.

To begin filling this gap, a workshop entitled, Toward a Development  
Agenda for Internet Governance was held at the 2nd IGF in Rio de  
Janeiro on 14 November 2007. Participants who spoke to the point in  
this lively multistakeholder session agreed that in principle, a  
properly configured and consensual development agenda could help to  
promote a more open, accessible, diverse, and secure global Internet.  
They also agreed that the IGF provides the right venue for further  
non-binding dialogue on the possible substance and modalities of a  
development agenda. Accordingly, the proposed workshop would provide  
the expected follow-up to the discussion in Rio. It would move beyond  
the question of whether a development agenda is desirable in  
principle to consider what this might actually involve in practice.  
Two sets of questions would be explored. The first concerns the  
possible substantive focus of such an agenda. This could include  
assessing both the policy outputs of governance mechanisms pertaining  
to Internet infrastructures and their use for networked information,  
communication, and commerce (the vertical dimension); and procedural  
or institutional issues, such as the transparency and inclusive  
participation called for by the WSIS principles on Internet  
governance (the horizontal dimension). In both cases, current  
activities could be assessed in relation to developmental objectives  
in order to identify potentially generalizable best practices and  
lessons learned that organizations could choose to consider when  
pursuing their respective work programs.

The second set of questions to be explored concerns the operational  
aspects of establishing and promoting a development agenda. Given the  
highly distributed character of the Internet governance ecosystem,  
such an agenda would need to be flexibly configured so as to  
facilitate variable responses in accordance with the specific  
characteristics of the governmental, private sector and  
multistakeholder mechanisms involved. This and other parameters of  
the Internet environment would require an innovative,  
multistakeholder model that is informed by but different from other  
development agenda experiences.

The workshop theme is very important, as it concerns ways to enhance  
the fit between Internet governance and the needs and interests of  
developing and transitional countries. This is of direct relevance to  
the IGF and its mandate, and to the overarching IG4D framing of its  
meetings.


Moderator:

William J. Drake, Senior Associate, Centre for International  
Governance, Graduate Institute for International and Development  
Studies, Geneva, Switzerland

Panelists:

Fiona Alexander, Associate Administrator (Head of Office) for  
International Affairs, National
Telecommunications and Information Administration, Department of  
Commerce, Government of the United States

Olga Cavalli, Advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and  
representative to the Governmental Advisor Committee of ICANN,  
Government of Argentina

Raul Echeberría, Executive Director, LACNIC (Internet Address  
Registry for Latin America and the Caribbean), Uruguay

Anriette Esterhuysen, Executive Director, Association for Progressive  
Communications, South Africa

Jose Vitor Carvalho Hansem, Deputy Head of the Division of Science  
and Technology, Ministry of External Relations, Government of Brazil


Co-Organizers:

Centre for International Governance, Graduate Institute for  
International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland

Federal Office of Communication, Government of Switzerland

Association for Progressive Communications

Consultative Committee on UN Information Technology, China  
Association for Science and Technology

Diplo Foundation

Internet Society of China

Ian Peter and Associates Pty Ltd.

Panos Institute West Africa, Cipaco Project


***********************************************************
William J. Drake
Senior Associate
Centre for International Governance
Graduate Institute of International and
   Development Studies
Geneva, Switzerland
william.drake at graduateinstitute.ch
***********************************************************

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