[governance] Civil Society participants statement on Funding support

michael gurstein gurstein at gmail.com
Wed Jan 11 11:11:56 EST 2012 

A couple of points about Izumi's statement...

One very minor... There is I believe, a typo at the beginning of the third
paragraph... "We believe that his lack of support" should presumably be "We
believe that THIS lack of support", the former changing the sense and
personalizing the comment in an unfortunate and I'm assuming unintentional
way.

The second is rather more fundamental.  In certain recent statements (I'm
forgetting which ones) CS has not accepted the common UN etc. position of
funding "Developing Country" reps in favour of funding for civil society
representatives overall...  

Many/most will realize that in these days of sometimes quite severe
financial cut-backs and a vast array of unsympathetic governments, CS folks
from developing countries may have equal difficulty in finding/allocating
funding for travel to these kinds of events and thus the process of
"exclusion" extends now to those from poorer DC's and from poorer
organizations/representatives overall within DC's.

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: governance at lists.cpsr.org [mailto:governance at lists.cpsr.org] On Behalf
Of Izumi AIZU
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2012 7:23 AM
To: Governance List
Subject: [governance] Civil Society participants statement on Funding
support


Dear all,

Here follows and attached is the statement I read this morning on the lack
of travel support for CSTD WG participation.

We will discuss this issue further when we reach the issue of IGF funding,
tomorrow.

iz

----

Statement from civil society participants in the CSTD working group on IGF
improvements - Submitted to the 4th meeting of the working group, 11 January
2012

On behalf of the civil society participants in this process we want to draw
your attention to a concern which we believe could have an impact on whether
this group succeeds or fails in achieving the goals mandated to it by
ECOSOC.

On December 21 2011 civil society participants in the working group were
informed that the CSTD would not be able to provide financial support
towards the participation of civil society representatives from developing
countries in the working group's fourth meeting. After seeking clarification
from the Secretariat we were informed by Mr. Mongi Hamdi that the CSTD fund
for civil society participation can only be utilised by participants from
Least Developed Countries. Currently developing country participants in the
working group are from Brazil, India and South Africa and therefore none of
them qualify for support. Mr. Hamdi did clarify that this restriction is
imposed by the donor and not by the CSTD itself.

We believe that his lack of support will have a negative impact on the
participation of civil society during this crucial last leg of the process.
Moreover, we want to emphasise that our concern extends beyond just the
participation of civil society; it raises fundamental questions about the
CSTD's commitment to and capacity to sustain multistakeholder participation
in all its processes.

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. As has
been stated in several submissions to the working group, 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.

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 believe this is
contrary to what we have all been trying to achieve through the IGF since
the Tunis Summit in 2005.

Thus far the work of this CSTD working group could be well-synthesized by
the words “diversity” and “openness”. In our discussion we have always
relied on a plurality of views to achieve synergy and to push us forward. We
want to commend all working group members, participants, and chairpersons,
for their commitment to this inclusive and open style of work. We also want
to to acknowledge and express our appreciation for the support from donors
who have made multistakeholder participation in the working group possible
up to this point. But at the same time we want to call attention to the fact
that such donations tend to be unpredictable. Civil society participation in
the IGF process (and indeed the participation of all other stakeholders from
developing countries who lack the necessary resources) cannot remain
dependent on unpredictable funding. We urge this group to discuss the
funding of the IGF in depth, including the financial support needed for
diverse and inclusive participation.

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.

----


-- 
                        >> Izumi Aizu <<
          Institute for InfoSocionomics, Tama University, Tokyo
           Institute for HyperNetwork Society, Oita,
                                  Japan
                                 * * * * *
                              www.anr.org
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