[governance] IGF consultations - extending IGF's mandate

[Parminder]

Dear All

The Feb open consultations of the IGF have a specific purpose of getting 
views on the issue of extending the IGF's mandate. This issue will be 
considered by CSTD (commission of science and technology) and later UN's 
ECOSOC in 2010. The WSIS (world summit on the information society) 
mandated that the decision on the issue will be taken in 'consultation 
with IGF participants'. It is the first time that open consultations 
will be for 2 days, and the reason for this is that oneday will be 
exclusively devoted to considering this particular issue.

Now, it is not entirely clear if 'IGF participants' are only those who 
gather for the annual IGF, or the open consultations also in some form 
comprises of IGF participants. In any case, the open consultations in 
Geneva are supposed to give MAG its directions, and since MAG takes all 
process decisions, inputting into the forthcoming consultations can have 
important bearing on the process that will be followed in terms of what 
may constitute 'consultations with forum participants' for deciding on 
continuation of the IGF. However, I am of the opinion that we should 
also put in our substantive comments on the continuation of the IGF 
right away.

Just to kickstart the discussion, my view is that;

(1) First of all we should clearly, and unambiguously, state that we 
will that IGF has a crucial and unparalleled role in the area of IG, 
specifically global public policy making in this area. For this reason, 
not only the IGF should be continued beyond 2010, but it should be 
suitably strengthened.

(2) We should also assert that there are two clear, and relatively 
distinct, mandates of the IGF -  first, regarding public policy 
functions, as a forum for multistakeholder policy dialogue, and second, 
regarding capacity building. Both aspects of the IGF's role needs to be 
strengthened. Especially, one role (for instance, capacity building) 
should not be promoted to the exclusion of the other (policy related 
role). If the IGF is assessed not to be sufficiently contributing to its 
one or the other principal roles, adequate measures should be considered 
to improve its effectivenesses vis-a-vis that role.

(3) The IGF should be assured stable and sufficient public funding to be 
able to carry its functions effectively, and impartially in global 
public interest.

Also is enclosed the contribution IGC made late last year to the 
synthesis paper on this subject.

parminder



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