[governance] main themes

William Drake william.drake at graduateinstitute.ch
Thu Feb 21 06:57:15 EST 2008


On 2/21/08 12:11 PM, "Parminder" <parminder at itforchange.net> wrote:

> Bill
>  
Would it not be better to use ŒSwiss gov¹ instead of Swiss OfCom in the
theme proposals. Makes it weightier and also more accessible to everyone.
Parminder 

---------

Good point.  Because it was OfCom specifically that offered to co-sponsor
the DA workshop in Rio (just like other ministries that have done so in
their own names for other workshops) and the new statement is signed by
OfCom I didn¹t differentiate, but in fact the statement is labeled ³Swiss
Comments² so presumably it¹s ok to attribute it to the Swiss government
generally.  Also, in rushing out a text, I failed to note also the
co-sponsorship of the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee; since the
Brazilian government has publicly supported the DA idea (not just in Rio,
but also in responding to a talk I gave at an UNCTAD meeting in Geneva) it
would be dumb not to flag their support and invite their comment on the
proposal.  So how about we consider the revised texts below.  Corrected a
typo as well.

BD

> 4. A Development Agenda for Internet Governance
> 
> Development is a key focus of the Tunis Agenda and its mandate for the IGF.
> Development also was listed as a cross-cutting theme of the Athens and Rio
> conferences, but neither featured a main session that devoted significant,
> focused attention to the linkages between Internet governance mechanisms and
> development.  However, at Rio a workshop was organized by civil society actors
> in collaboration with the Swiss Office of Communications, the Brazilian
> Internet Steering Committee, and partners from other stakeholder groups on,
> ³Toward a Development Agenda for Internet Governance.²  The workshop
> considered the options for establishing a holistic program of analysis and
> action that would help mainstream development considerations into Internet
> governance decision making processes. Attendees at this workshop expressed
> strong interest in further work on the topic being pursued in the IGF.  Hence,
> we believe the Development Agenda concept should be taken up in a main session
> at New Delhi, and that this would be of keen interest to a great many
> participants there.  We also support the Swiss proposal to consider
> establishing a multi-stakeholder Working Group that could develop
> recommendations to the IGF on a development agenda.
> 
> 
> 5. Transparency and Inclusive Participation in Internet Governance
> 
> The WSIS principles hold that Internet governance processes ³should be
> multilateral, transparent and democratic, with the full involvement of
> governments, the private sector, civil society and international
> organizations.² Governments invoked these principles throughout the WSIS
> process, and in the Tunis Agenda mandated the IGF to, ³promote and assess, on
> an ongoing basis, the embodiment of WSIS principles in Internet Governance
> processes.²  Nevertheless, the IGF has not held any follow-up discussion on
> how to pursue this key element of its mandate.  The Internet Governance Caucus
> has consistently programmatic activity in this arena, and hence welcomes the
> Swiss statement that implementation of the WSIS principles should be added as
> a cross-cutting issue at the core of all IGF discussions.  To help kick-start
> that cross-cutting consideration, we propose that a main session in New Delhi
> concentrate on two WSIS principles of general applicability for which progress
> in implementation can be most readily assessed: transparency, and inclusive
> participation.  The session could consider patterns of practice across
> Internet governance mechanisms, and identify generalizable lessons concerning
> good or best practices.

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