[governance] Comments on Rio - Suggestions for Delhi - main
Don MacLean
donjmac at sympatico.ca
Mon Feb 18 11:22:15 EST 2008
Dear Adam,
A belated reply to this message to thank you for calling the list's
attention to the paper I co-authored with Tony Vetter and Heather Creech of
IISD as a contribution to the February 26 preparatory meeting. In response
to some of the reaction that followed, we thought it would be useful to
provide some background information about the paper, as well as to highlight
its main points for those who may not have had a chance to read it.
Our paper proposing sustainable development as a theme for New Delhi is part
of a project IISD began in 2002 to examine the linkages between the
information society, Internet governance, and sustainable development. This
project included both independent research and active participation in the
Geneva and Tunis phases of WSIS, as well as the first two IGFs. So far, it
has resulted in fifteen papers, reports and other publications, some of
which are referenced in the paper and all of which are available for
download at
http://www.iisd.org/publications/publication_list.aspx?themeid=18&page=1 .
One of these publications, "Internet Governance and Sustainable Development:
Towards a Common Agenda" was launched at the Rio IGF.
The project grew out of IISD's observation that, even though there are
increasingly close linkages between ICTs, the Internet and sustainable
development in both developed and developing countries, the IG and SD policy
communities operate in largely separate governance universes. The goal of
the project is to help bridge this gap by encouraging members of the two
communities to work together in areas where their interests are shared or
complementary, and where each community could benefit from the others'
experience, expertise, and policy leverage.
We think the IGF provides an excellent opportunity to encourage stronger
cooperation between the IG and SD communities for a number of reasons.
* Since development is a cross-cutting theme of the IGF, the Forum
would benefit from greater participation by sustainable development experts
- directly through the contributions they could make to discussions, and
indirectly through the influence IGF participation could exert on SD
policies, programs and activities.
* Since both communities have experience with multi-stakeholder
governance models, and since both are committed to enhancing
multi-stakeholder governance principles and processes in their respective
areas, there may be lessons they can learn from each other's experience.
* As demonstrated in our paper, cooperation and collaboration between
the IG and SD communities could help fulfil many of the elements of the IGF
mandate.
* As discussed in the conclusion to "Internet Governance and
Sustainable Development: Towards a Common Agenda", there are significant,
emerging linkages between the technical, economic, social, and environmental
dimensions of many of the issues discussed and debated in the IGF and other
Internet governance forums on the one hand, and the technical, economic,
social, and environmental dimensions of many of the issues discussed and
debated in sustainable development forums on the other hand.
While we think all these points are important reasons why sustainable
development should be a theme of the New Delhi IGF, and why the relationship
between Internet governance and sustainable development should be the
subject of a plenary session, the latter point is perhaps the most
important.
IISD is convinced that a stable, secure Internet, which is accessible to all
and which provides free, affordable access to information and knowledge, is
prerequisite to achieving many of the major goals of the sustainable
development community - goals such as poverty reduction through economic
development that is environmentally and socially sustainable in the long
term; mitigation of climate change; protection of natural resources; and new
approaches to governance that engage government, the private sector, civil
society, and the scientific and technical community in developing solutions
to sustainability challenges.
As a result of our involvement in the first two IGFs, we believe that the
Forum can potentially play an important role in influencing the development
of policies, programs and governance processes on issues related to Internet
governance, at both the national and international levels, in ways that are
conducive to sustainable development. However, to do this effectively, we
think the third IGF needs to adopt a more focused approach to the
development theme, and that it also needs to undertake a more rigorous and
systematic analysis of the linkages between Internet governance and
sustainable development.
This is why we have proposed sustainable development as a theme of the New
Delhi IGF, and why we have suggested that one of its plenary sessions be
devoted to exploring the linkages between Internet governance and
sustainable development. If this proposal is accepted, we hope it will
provide a foundation for engaging members of the sustainable development
community in the work of the IGF, and result in benefits to both communities
in terms of learning, collaborative action, policy effectiveness, and
governance innovation.
We hope this additional information is helpful, welcome comments on our
paper, and look forward to next week's discussions.
Best regards,
Don MacLean
-----Original Message-----
From: Adam Peake [mailto:ajp at glocom.ac.jp]
Sent: February 13, 2008 11:23 AM
To: governance at lists.cpsr.org
Subject: Re: [governance] Comments on Rio - Suggestions for Delhi - main
>Hi,
>
>Too much mail so briefly, I hope we can suggest
>
>> We propose that 'An assessment of the current global policy
institutional
>> framework and mechanism for the Internet, in terms of existing and
emerging
>
>As an overarching focus of the meeting (and the forum), rather than just
one
>session. Do away with the four generic main session topics from Athens and
>replace with new ones, one of which could be development, another could be
>assessing implementation of the WSIS principles (how are transparency and
>inclusion done across native administrative and intergovernmental
>institutions, best practices etc---a linked workshop could go deeper into
>this). If someone could explain IG and the environment (as opposed to
>Internet/ICT and the environment) and we can agree there's something there,
>maybe that'd interest people and please Fujitsu etc.
Arghhh... what's the point of trying to report
what the guy who leads the IGF secretariat is
saying and what's going to come up in the MAG?
The first paragraph of the IISD paper I mentioned
would also be part of the push for
ICT/environment/sustainable development in the
IGF:
1. In response to the request for comments
and views on the November 2007 Rio de Janeiro
meeting, and suggestions regarding the format and
content of the December 2008 New Delhi meeting,
this paper proposes that Sustainable Development
be considered as a theme for the New Delhi
meeting, and that one of its plenary sessions be
devoted to "exploring the linkages between
Internet governance and sustainable development"
etc etc
available at
<http://www.intgovforum.org/rio_reports/Sustainable_Development%20-%20Theme_
Proposal_for_IGF_New%20Delhi%20-%20IISD_FINAL.doc>
Enjoy.
Thanks,
Adam
>BD
>
>On 2/13/08 12:57 PM, "Parminder" <parminder at itforchange.net> wrote:
>
>> Some views have been expressed on this list that repeating the same main
>> themes - that are just too general - will not contribute to any
meaningful
>> impact of IGF, and will not enable it to move towards fulfilling its
>> mandate. (APCs statement also is against recycling the same main themes
in
>> the plenary.) This was also accepted by the IGC when we proposed 4 new
>> themes during the May 2007 consultations.
>>
>> I am suggesting one such main themes. Responses to this suggestion, and
>> other possible themes are welcome.
>>
>>
>> 'Main issues for discussion at IGF New Delhi'
>>
>> We are of the opinion that we should move towards taking up of more
specific
>> issues of global Internet related public policy for discussion in the
>> plenaries and the associated workshops, from different speakers just
making
>> what are often disconnected statements on diffuse and general issues
that
>> are the subjects of the plenaries at present. A set of issues should be
>> chosen for the New Delhi with this spirit.
>>
>> We propose that 'An assessment of the current global policy
institutional
>> framework and mechanism for the Internet, in terms of existing and
emerging
>> policy related challenges' (crisper title welcome) be one of the main
>> session themes.
>>
>> IGF was borne is an context which recognized significant gaps in the
global
>> Internet public policy framework, and one its public policy tasks has
to be
>> a continued multi-stakeholder examination of this framework, and come
out
>> with suggestions for evolutionary/ corrective possibilities, if any. No
body
>> is making such an assessment at present at a time when new challenges in
the
>> area of global Internet public policy keep emerging. IGF is an important
>> responsibility of doing this as per its mandate.
>>
>> We will like specific workshops (of type A) devoted to examining the
issue
>> of ensuring transparency, accountability and multi-stakeholder-ism in
all
>> for a involved in Internet governance and another one devoted to
developing
>> a code for public participation in all such fora (Swiss and APC
>> contributions mention these)
>>
>> Both these workshops can feed into the main session on 'assessment of
the
> > current global policy institutional framework' proposed above
>>
>> (ends)
>>
>> Parminder
>
>
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