[governance] MAG Selection [URGENT]

Marilia Maciel mariliamaciel at gmail.com
Fri Feb 3 07:42:02 EST 2012


Congratulations to the tentative list of nominees. Thanks to NomCom for
performing this important task and thanks in advance for the report they
are producing.



As you know, one of the topics that are being discussed in the WG on IGF
improvements is precisely the process for nominating MAG members and the
role of MAG. MAG will have an even more fundamental role in a strengthened
IGF and the next group of selected MAG members will be invited to find
concrete mechanisms to give shape to some of the suggestions for
improvement that will come out of the WG. That is to say that, in my view,
the next group of MAG members will be appointed in a crucial moment.



It is very important that they are supported by the community and that they
are able to reverberate this support and legitimacy. The selection process
is important on this regard, as it puts in place an important cornerstone.
This is why this process needs to be documented and that the parameters for
selection need to be made clear.



The WG has been discussing parameters for the selection of MAG and also
some of the responsibilities of MAG members. I reproduce below a
compilation (rough text) of points raised by the WG about the MAG, not only
as a contribution for the report of the NomCom (if some of these topics
could be covered in their report, it would be great, as we would be walking
the talk), but also for discussion. From this thread I am sure that this
topic is a concern of the community, and it would be great to have feedback
about what is being discussed in the WG about it. The report will probably
be structured with broad agreements as "headlines", further detailed on
more specific proposals.

Marília

*
*

*B.II – MAG*

*Broad agreement on the need to rotate MAG members regularly, keep MAG
meetings transparent *



*Broad agreement on the openness and transparency of MAG meetings*

- The MAG should open its meeting to observers and make its proceedings
available in the form of a live text streaming. This verbatim record is
available on the IGF Web site. This proceeding is recommended for future
meetings in order to enhance the openness and transparency of its work.

- Rotation of the MAG members, with one third rotated every year, should be
preserved, with a three-year limit to each member’s term in order to
provide opportunities to all interested participants and to ensure fair
representation





*Broad agreement that the constitution of the MAG should be done in a
transparent and documented fashion*

*Broad agreement on the transparency of the self-management by each
stakeholder group*

- In light of transparency, stakeholder groups should publicise their
selection process and should identify the process that works best for their
own culture and methods of engagement

- Selection of any stakeholder group may not be confined to be mediated
through any one particular body.

- The selection would be based on proposed candidate lists made by the
three non-governmental stakeholder groups. The stakeholder groups are
encouraged to nominate a sufficiently large slate of candidates to provide
some flexibility in selection of MAG members and are asked to ensure
appropriate gender balance

- One possibility mentioned by the MAG group itself last November:

      - A form of 'triage' that would be used to ensure appropriate
geographical balance among MAG members. This 'triage' could be carried out
by a trusted group of former non-governmental MAG members, perhaps
including some MAG members who are being rotated out. This trusted group
would work in active consultation with the respective stakeholder groups.

The recommendation would then be submitted to the Secretary-General for
approval. One proposal was that the list of all MAG nominees to be
submitted to the Secretary-General should be published on the IGF website.



- Another selection process was mentioned capturing the essence of the
NomCom idea, or we better call it "selection committee" to avoid confusion
with existing systems in other organizations.

       - The selection Committee members, appointed by the IGF Chair,
should be drawn fairly from representatives of stakeholders across the
different regions and constituencies.

Preferably, the Selection Committee would include experts with wide-ranging
knowledge of Internet governance, previous experience of program
preparation and strong links to various stakeholder groups.

This Selection Committee would select candidates for the MAG ensuring
balanced representation of geographical distribution, gender and the wide
range of stakeholders. The final selection of candidates should be
submitted to the UN Secretary-General for final approval.

Open and transparent selection process and working process



*Broad agreement that the MAG needs a clear Terms of Reference. *



Requirements for MAG members:

Potential stakeholder representatives should represent groups’ or
constituencies’ interest and not private interests.

Selected members should present:

- Proven ability to work as a team member

- Active participation in the IGF process

- Extensive linkages within one's own stakeholder group and, if possible,
to other stakeholder groups

- Experience and expertise in Internet governance issues



Responsibilities of MAG members:

- Attend three meetings in Geneva per year; Participate in the yearly
global meeting;

-  Participate in inter-sessional work;

-  Make outreach to wider community, including national and regional IGF
type initiatives and bring other networks into the MAG;

-  Bring in comments from the community;

-  Explain recommendations to the community.

-  Willingness to commit to work and follow through





Responsibilities of the MAG as a whole:

-  guidelines on actual tour of duty (length of service, rotations,
performance criteria such as removal/replacement of MAG members that do not
participate)

- Develop the detailed programme including the identification of issues of
concern;

- Selecting workshops and other meetings;

- Defining how best to plan and organize the meetings;

- Organizing main sessions and where necessary participate in dedicated
thematic working groups;

- Establishing linkages between workshops and main sessions;

- Facilitating the organization of workshops;

- Coordinating panels and supporting panellists, moderators and speakers at
the annual meeting;

- Liaising with their respective communities;

-Publishing reports.

- Additional outreach with other organizations and in conjunction with
secretariat



Miscellaneous:

- Giving idea of MAG selection process, keep it a dynamic committee.

- Consider the role of the MAG in the context of an evolving IGF and in the
context of IGF improvements and the recommendations for IGF improvements.

- Consider relationships between the MAG and secretariat--roles and
responsibilities

- Consider the role of the MAG in context of IGF no longer being just a
single event but rather having evolved into a process.

- Consider mechanisms to enable the MAG to be more efficient.

- Importance of open consultations and role of MAG as facilitator and
listener of what happens in consultations, important input into the process



On Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 9:17 AM, Anriette Esterhuysen <anriette at apc.org>wrote:

> Dear Parminder and all
>
> On 02/02/12 02:31, parminder wrote:
> > Congrats to all the nominees. A very good list.
>
> Yes.. congrats to all.
> >
> > However, independent of the results produced which I welcome and
> > support, I strongly agree with the sentiment of Avri's questions below.
>
> Yes, so do I.
>
> > Representativity is the central issue of democracy, and its processes
> > must be taken very very seriously, even if sometimes just forthe
> > process's sake. I may be wrong, but I seem not to have seen the kind of
> > openness (proactive and not just formal), transparency, out-reach effort
> > etc that is required for the nomination/ election activity. Things like:
> > we need to make repeated calls for nomination, encourage people to
> > nominate themselves and others, pulbicize the process and perhaps the
> > list of nomcom members as well, make active out reach to various CS
> > entities inviting nomination, keeping the list posted of all
> > developments, ......
> >
> > For instance, APC I am sure will forward its own slate of names to the
> > IGF secretariat. They should have been invited to submit their nominees
> > for IGC nomcom's consideration as well (and this has happened in the
> > past).
>
> Parminder, we actually did submit our list of names to the IGC nomcom as
> we think the IGC selection is an important one.  We are not sure that
> the IGC nomcom considered our list as did not receive any acknowledgement.
>
> One person on our list is in the IGC list: Bill Drake, and we are happy
> to see this. Bill has worked very hard with the MAG as a 'non-MAG'
> member from the beginning, and has been a strong advocate for
> development issues and CS interests, so I really hope he does make the MAG.
>
> The other people on our list were (as Bill posted).
>
> Carlos Afonso (Brazil)
> Magaly Pazello (Brazil)
> Shahzad Ahmad (Pakistan)
> Anriette Esterhuysen (South Africa)
> David Souter (United Kingdom /IISD)
>
> We will send these directly to the secretariat as well.
>
> Anriette
>
>
>
> Enriching our catchment of potential candidates and thus the
> > final list in this way greatly enhances IGC's legitimacy. And in the
> > civil society space legitimacy building and losing is a very live and
> > dynamic process. Every single act adds or takes away from it. At times,
> > like for the WG on IGF improvements, IGC has been considered the single
> > point of CS contact and representivity. We need to work hard to live up
> > to such a high responsibility, as mentioned by Avri. And I am really not
> > sure if we did in this case, though I am happy to be corrected.
> >
> > It is important to note that in the WG on IGF improvements we have been
> > seeking higher transparency, focussed and active out reach effort, broad
> > basing the pool of candidates etc for MAG selection, and we need to
> > practise what we preach.
> >
> > Among many other things, I also could not understand the meaning and use
> > of having candidates submit their information in the 'required' format
> > after the list of nominees is published. Isnt the required information
> > supposed to be submitted precisely to aid the evaluation of nominees?
> >
> > There a few other points I will like to make, but a little later...
> > parminder
> >
> >
> >
> > On Wednesday 01 February 2012 09:04 PM, Avri Doria wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> Good names all.
> >>
> >> But,
> >>
> >> What process was used?
> >> Was there a public call for nominations? Did I miss seeing that?
> >> Where are their statements?  Did I miss seeing that?  Are they posted
> on the web site anywhere?
> >> Is there a reason for each of these selections in terms of IGC
> expectations?  Did I miss seeing that? Are they posted somewhere?
> >>
> >> In the past we have gotten a Nomcom chair outlining everything in
> detail.  Did I miss that?
> >>
> >> The IGC's claim to represent Civil Society in Ig is tenuous at best
> >> The lack of any information (or did I miss it?) on this selection risks
> that even further.
> >>
> >>
> >> avri
> >>
> >> On 1 Feb 2012, at 08:06, Salanieta T. Tamanikaiwaimaro wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>> Dear All,
> >>>
> >>> The Names that were submitted to the Coordinators by the NomCom are as
> follows:
> >>>     • Lillian Nalwoga (Ms.) -  Uganda
> >>>     • Izumi AIZU (Mr) -  Japan
> >>>     • Michael Gurstein (Mr)  - Canada
> >>>     • Robert Guerra (Mr) - Canadian & European (Spain)
> >>>     • Bill Drake (Mr) - North American (Lives in Geneva)
> >>>     • Fatima Cambronero (Ms) - Argentina
> >>>     • Fouad Bajwa (Mr) (current MAG member) -  Pakistan
> >>>
> >>> However, these nominees were advised that failure to send their
> information in  via the required template would mean that their names would
> not be sent.
> >>>
> >>> Kind Regards
> >>> On Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 1:22 AM, Salanieta T. Tamanikaiwaimaro <
> salanieta.tamanikaiwaimaro at gmail.com> <mailto:
> salanieta.tamanikaiwaimaro at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>> Dear All,
> >>>
> >>> We thank the NOMCOM for selecting MAG candidates.
> >>>
> >>> In the interest of transparency, NOMCOM wrote to advise that they had
> completed selection of the MAG. We have yet to receive the information in
> the required format and an email was sent out to the potential candidates
> to submit their information in the template shown within the email.
> Potential candidates were advised that failing to have the information
> submitted in required format could mean that their names would not be put
> forward. They have been given 12 hours to respond to enable this
> information to be sent.
> >>>
> >>> Submission of names were to be sent on the 31st January 2012.
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>> Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro aka Sala
> >>>
> >>> Tweeter: @SalanietaT
> >>> Skype:Salanieta.Tamanikaiwaimaro
> >>> Cell: +679 998 2851
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>> Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro aka Sala
> >>>
> >>> Tweeter: @SalanietaT
> >>> Skype:Salanieta.Tamanikaiwaimaro
> >>> Cell: +679 998 2851
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
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>
> --
> ------------------------------------------------------
> 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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-- 
Centro de Tecnologia e Sociedade
FGV Direito Rio

Center for Technology and Society
Getulio Vargas Foundation
Rio de Janeiro - Brazil
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