[governance] Meeting report ECOSOC presentations

[Anriette Esterhuysen]

Hi all

Late response to this thread.

Applying for ECOSOC status and being approved is not all that difficult.
Filling in the 4-yearly reports is a lot of work though!  And if you
don't, then you lose your status.

I would encourage people to apply for ECOSOC status if they have the
institutional infrastructure. It does make participation in the UN
system easier.. not in the WSIS spaces so much, but in others. It also
links you to broader civil society outside of our fairly narrow internet
circles.

But I am not advocating that ECOSOC status should be a requirement for
participation in WSIS follow up processes.

Re. CSTD.

The rules are imperfect, yes. But they don't block civil society
participation in any significant way from my perspective. If you don't
have WSIS accreditation then it is very easy to register as a member of
one of the NGOs that are accredited under WSIS or under ECOSOC. Civicus,
APC, IT for Change, IISD, and there are many more.

In the longer term we should definitely support more inclusive
participation. But I don't think that is the primary barrier right now.

At the first CSTD session in 2007 APC proposed that CSTD makes use of
MAG to plan meetings. I still feel this would be useful. The secretariat
does include civil society in panels, but we should have more influence
on the actual agenda, e.g. participate in a Bureau discussion on
upcoming sessions.

I feel that the main problem has been that civil society has just not
participated EFFECTIVELY even when they get to be in the room. We cannot
really blame the CSTD for this. For example, very few organisations
attend. Many more go to ICANN meetings, or to IGF open consultations.
Why? When the CSTD requested civil society to submit input on the WSIS
review, very few did.

And then, those CS people that do attend meetings say very little. They
tend to home in on issues narrowly.. e.g. IGF or multi-stakeholder
participation. An issue like, for example, the importance of open source
software for development is raised by governments, not by CS. Some CS
present would support them, but most of us don't make substantial
interventions.  Not to mention national science and technology
policies.. a key theme at every CSTD. Perfect opportunity for CS to
participate, and to make an impression.

Our problem is not lack of accreditation in my view, but lack of
preparation.

ICC Basis comes prepared with a statement on very topic on the agenda.
If business and the tech communities participates more effectively, I
believe this can be attributed to organisation rather than accreditation
rules.

The fact that there are only 2 or 3 regular CS voices in the CSTD
creates the impression that civil society is just not that interested.
CSTD is far more open than other UN spaces (e.g. you don't have limited
numbers of speaking slots as in the Human Rights Council for example and
you don't have pre-apply for speaking slots).

My suggestion is work on improving the quality and scope of our
participation and then it will be much easier to challenge the rules,
which are not really that restrictive. Of course this not easy as we
lack time and resources.. but that in turn means we should use what time
we do have wisely.

I was thinking of recommending to CSTD that they run an orientation  for
civil society before each session. I had the impression that those CS
people who were at the CSTD for the first time did not know what the
rules of procedure were.

Anriette




-----------------------------------------------------
anriette esterhuysen anriette at apc.org
executive director, association for progressive communications
www.apc.org
po box 29755, melville 2109
south africa
tel/fax +27 11 726 1692
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