[governance] CIRP+

[Jeremy Malcolm]

On 13/05/2012, at 4:59 PM, Kleinwächter, Wolfgang wrote:

> That is the problem with CIRP. CIRP does no follow the "WGIG model" it follows the "WSIS Bureau model" where the non-governmental stakeholders were put into isolated baskets (CS & PS bureaus) on a lower layer with the option to give "advise" to the "master layer", the intergovernmental bureau. In the reality of the WSIS case, the advise from the CS bureau was sidelined.

I was glad to see the CIRP proposal put forward because it was the first (and still the only) concrete proposal for an enhanced cooperation model from any government, and it was neither surprising nor particularly alarming that it maintained a silo approach.  This is a tried and tested model, and there is merit in beginning that way.  Even within purely intergovernmental fora, the diplomats make all their decisions within their country blocs.  Only in the formal stages of decision making do they come back together, and that stage is basically just theatre.

So in my own proposal for a consociational bureau for the IGF, I had designed something similar.  The stakeholder groups would come together at the beginning and end, and they would deliberate together to a point, but ultimately they would have to agree on any proposal by negotiating separately in private, by whatever means they are accustomed to and comfortable with.  This would deliver the best of both worlds: the groups would come together on an equal footing during the opinion formation stage, but the formal decision-taking phase would be in the silos.  At that level, oil and water do not mix.

> The compromise was to have two final documents in the end: A governmental declaration and the civil society declaration. It makes sense (and I recommend this not only to you but to everybody) to read again - in the light of the experiences of the last ten years - the civil society WSIS declaration. (http://www.itu.int/wsis/docs/geneva/civil-society-declaration.pdf). 


This happens elsewhere too.  I was at UNCTAD XIII last month, and the civil society declaration was the only place where we could be sure our concerns would be reflected, but at least it is a formal output of the conference, on the public record and translated into all the UN languages.  I agree it is far from ideal, but again, one had to start somewhere.  One would hope we could innovate further in 2012. The CIRP model is, at least, a progression from that.

-- 
Dr Jeremy Malcolm
Senior Policy Officer
Consumers International
Kuala Lumpur Office for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East
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