[governance] my remarks prepared now

[Izumi AIZU]

This is my draft, I plan to read this not representing IGC, but still .
In 10 min or so...  any immediate comment welcome,

izumi


A comment from civil society participants
at the IGF Open Consultation

14 Febtruaru2012

I am one of the two co-coordinators of the Civil Society Internet
Governance Caucus, or CS IGC, and also a civil society member of the
CSTD Working Group on IGF improvements.

This is not to represent the whole IGC formaly, but still I would like
to make the following remarks for the record as a member of the civil
society, long particiapted in WSIS I, WGIG WSIS II, all IGFs and CSTD
meetings for IGF.

First, we are encouraged to see many of our friends in our room and
also those who could not physically present here but participating
remotely who all have strong interest to continue our work, for
organizing the second round of the IGF.

As you all know, Civil Society is a very important component of the
multi-stakeholder framework and operation of IGF. This means that we
like to work with you, government, private sector, techincal and
academic community, among others, all stakeholders together. First and
foremost, we would like to keep this spriti high, and also like to see
enhanced multi-stakeholder participation for the IGF 2.0

We are also very much in favor of enhancing the participation from the
developing parts of the world in IGF, its consultation meetings like
today, MAG, and other important areas.

In this regard, we are very concerend that the current economic
situation is putting some shades into the financial parts of the IGF
organization.
We feel very strongly that funding support is very much needed to make
IGF further success. We, Civil Society, are one of the least
resourceful stakeholders and therefore we always seek for funding
support, especially for the MAG and CSTD works, and also for the main
IGF meetings.
Unfortunately, with the lack of funding support, many civils society
colleagues including MAG members could not make it this time.
Likewise, we have learned that our CSTD Working Group members will not
be able to physically attend the meeting next week again due to lack
of funding.

Civil society and other groups with limited resources, such as
associations or networks of small businesses, need support to
participate in Internet Governance processes. Such support has been
inconsistent – not just in the case of the working group, but also in
the case of other important fora such as MAG meetings. This
consistently hampers full multistakeholder participation and restricts
the overall evolution - and results - of these processes. If the rules
and mechanisms of participation in IG processes privileges groups that
already have power and resources this 'imbalance' will be reflected in
the outcomes of these processes.

We know we are not alone, however. People from the least developing
countries, small island nations, innovative but small SMEs, some
academics and even governments are often suffering from lack of
propser funding, and therefore, we don’t see many of these people in
this room or other IGF related meetings.
We acknolwdge the various kind donors who had provided great financial
and in-kind support for the civil society participation, as well as
developing country pariticipation, and hope to work together with you
again.

Deepening democracy and multistakeholder participation in governance
requires the inclusion of groups and people who have a stake in the
issues under discussion but who are frequently   excluded or
marginalized. It is not enough to grant the right to participate to
these stakeholders; provisions must be made to ensure that they can
exercise this right in full.

Ensuring multistakeholder participation in the context of the WSIS
principles and the Tunis Agenda is not just about adhering to
commitments which many governments agreed to.  The ultimate goal is to
generate better and more sustainable policy outcomes that reflect the
diversity of voices, ideas, concerns and needs of all relevant
stakeholders.

We will work on this issue among us, to find mutual solustion, and we
also ask you to work together with us on this matter.
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