[governance] IGF, ECOSOC and WSIS III

[William Drake]

Hi

I was pretty astonished that DESA apparently chose this path apparently without informing member governments of the UN.  The Swiss (chair of CSTD) were really taken aback, other Europeans commented in a similar vein (Bertrand made a quite good statement).  So the ground is well laid, and a statement could inter alia say we share the concerns already expressed by governments etc.  Hopefully there are follow up inquiries happening now, including from concerned governments that either didn't get a chance to speak since this happened at the every end of the consultation, or that weren't even in the room (sigh...).

On Feb 14, 2010, at 12:04 PM, Kleinwächter, Wolfgang wrote:

> I do not know whether this is just a speculation but for some people the planned move of the IGF Secretariat from Geneva to New York is driven also by the political strategic aim to remove "multistakehoderism" from the Internet policy process. The public arguments, used by some governments (and unfortunately supported by some CS people) in favour of NY are: budget security for the secretariat, closer link to UN leadership, higher efficiency, formal outcomes. But the flip side of such a process is to silence non-governmental stakeholders, and in particular civil society. Do not buy this "efficiency" pill. This is very poisend.   

Probably it's not a big deal, but in retrospect I wish we had word smithed this more precisely (overlooked amidst the messy process of drafting the statement):

> 
> Submission of the IGC in taking stock of the Sharm el Sheikh meeting of the IGF
> 
> None of these suggestions would fundamentally alter the IGF as an institution; for example, we are content that it remain formally convened by the UN Secretary General, with an independent budget and a Secretariat under contract with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA).  We do not see any benefit to the IGF in moving underneath a different UN body such as the ITU.

We left out something like "and based in Geneva and working in open dialogue with all stakeholders" or whatever, so it could be twisted/read as friendly to a move.  Perhaps one time to be happy that if governments aren't carefully reading our statements...

Bill
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