[governance] the forthcoming MAG meeting and open consultations

[Sivasubramanian M]

Hello,

On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 10:44 AM, parminder <parminder at itforchange.net>wrote:

>  Hi All
>
> I wonder who all will attend the forthcoming open consultations and the MAG
> meeting (which, as on the last few occasions, is expected to be partly
> open). I myself am unable to attend because of the absence of funding
> support.
>
> I see a few important new elements vis a vis the forthcoming meeting, which
> I bring to your collective attention
>
> 1) Unlike all earlier times, the MAG has not been re-constituted before the
> May meeting. I am not sure why, and what does this mean.
>
> 2) There is no funding support for civil society MAG members from
> developing countries, unlike earlier times, and I expect most to them to be
> unable to attend. This puts a huge question-mark on the legitimacy of the
> preparatory process, especially from civil society point of view. I think we
> should raise this issue. I expect the room to be filled by non-government
> actors from developed countries, and obviously the conversation will be
> determined and lead by them (which, because of a variety of factors, do
> often happen in any case; it will simply be, shall I say, much worse this
> time).  I have on numerous occasions asked the IGF secretariat for  data
> about additional participants that turn up in open MAG meeting. I have even
> sent reminders but never got  a response. So much for transparency.
>

I agree with Parminder on this. While it is not an issue for Government and
Business stakeholder groups, Civil Society participants depend on funding.
Absence of funding for Civil Society participants (from Neutral
sponsors) creates a definite imbalance. Something must be done about this
imbalance.


> 3) Interestingly, for the first time, registration for open consultations
> and attending MAG meetings is a part of the registration for the WSIS forum.
> While I am all for convergences and doing a dialogue in common spaces with
> shared participants etc, I wonder if this new arrangement is entirely
> innocent, and if some may want to read something in this new development. I
> must mention here that one country at the WG on IGF improvements meeting
> strongly advocated for some kind of merger of the IGF process with the WSIS
> forum process.
>

We should ask the IGF Secretariat to set up a registration page for MAG
meetings in the MAG section of the intgovforum.org web.

Sivasubramanian M

>
> Parminder
>
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