[governance] Outcome, Messages etc.

Sat Aug 21 03:10:30 EDT 2010

Parminder: 

 I have seen any effort to improve IGF's meaningful role in global IG policy making blocked vehemently, mostly by those who otherwise call themselves adherent supporters of MSism (multistakeholderism) and of the IGF  (the latest was a very strong blocking of the proposal that IGF gives out 'messages' on key issues as the EuroDIG does).

Wolfgang:

It was me who proposed in the first MAG meeting after Athens (February 2007) to "invented" a new category of "outcome" which has not the political bagagae of a "recommendation" in the UN context. A"recommendation" is a negotiated text and you need a "drafting group" wehre all parties are represented in a balanced way. If you would start within a four day meeting with "negotiations" you unavoidably destroy any type of discussion. Parties will start to fight there there "fixed position" is reflected in the final document and the struggle goes around language which is so general that all parties feel that they have won. The formula "enhanced cooperation" is a very god example. With other words: You have an "outcome" but it is meaningless. 

To avoid this and to move forward to the discussion of substance you have to avoid such a type of negotiations where "word smithing" is more important than the issue. I understand that people want to take something home after a meeting. And they are not satisfied if they have only the Chairman´s summary and the thousands of pages of the transcripts (which are nevertheless  importanten) Against this background I proposed in the MAG
1. to produce readable proceedings in form of an "IGF book" what you can take home (free of charge), distribute to friends and put on your bookshelf (and read again if needed) and
2. to introduce as a new (undefined) category the formulaiton of "messages" as a light weight outcome from a discussion and as a visible "output" from the meeting.

My idea with the message was (and is) that each convenor/raporteur of a plenary or workshop formlates at the end of the session one or two (or three as a maximm) key conclusions and summarizes this in form of short messages. This is normally the case in each meeting but so far there is no mechanism in place to channel this type of conclusions to a audience beyond the peole sitting in the rom. These conclusions can be controversial messages (one party said so and another party said so) but it has to be concrete, precise, cover a key aspect and has to be also short (not longer than three lines/similar to the length restrictions you know from twitter). But the most important point is it would a non-negotiated text. No drafting group needed. If you have 80 workshops and plenaries you will get around 160 messages from 80 perople which avoids that one party overtake or capture the formulation of the messages. Certainly this will enhance the responsiblity of the raporteur (and the procedure to nominate a rapporteur).  

I remember very well the discussion in the MAG in February and May 2007. The Brazilians wanted to have something like a "Rio de Janeiro IGF Declaration". Bilcaho, the Brazilian governmental representative, was excited in the beginning to have "IGF Messages from Rio de Janeiro". But for a number of reasons, it did not work for Rio (and not for the following IGFs).

When we launched EURODIG, it was easier to convince the core team to think about "messages" as an alternative to "recommendations". And it workd in Strasbourg in 2008, where "Messages from Strasbourg" where produced "bottom up" and the core team just made some final polishment but did not change the substance of the messages which came from the rapporteurs of the various sessions. The same happend with the "EURODIG Geneva Messages from 2009" and now with the "2010 EURODIG Madrid Messages". The same thing happend with the German IGF where we produced a one page "IGF-D Messages from Berlin" out of four sessions. 

Why I go back to the history? The lesson here is that nothing will happen when you introduce it for the first time. If something is new, it takes time that others are convinced. And as Avri has pointed out, it is an evolutionary process which evolves bottom up. I am convinced that the idea of "messages" - if they continue to proof to be a useful outcome from regional and national IGFs - will be also attractive - sooner or later - for the global IGF. 

Best wishes

wolfgang     
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