[governance] CCIA Intervention at CSTD Enhanced Cooperation debate

[Nick Ashton-Hart]

Dear list members,

In case it is of interest, CCIA's intervention is pasted below.

---

Intervention of CCIA at the Special Session of the Commission for Science and Technology for Development on Enhanced Cooperation on public policy issues pertaining to the Internet, 18th May 2012

Mr. Chairman,

CCIA thanks you for your leadership today, and the Secretariat for its excellent preparatory work on this important meeting. 

For those that are not familiar with us, the Computer & Communications Industry Association’s members represent a broad cross-section of the ICT sector’s most innovative companies.  We would like to associate ourselves with the comments of ICC BASIS and provide a few additional comments.

Mr. Chairman, ‘enhanced cooperation’ means many different things to different stakeholders. Like so many other speakers today, we believe the most valuable kind of cooperation is that which has a positive, practical impact for real people. 

Our members know that they thrive only where they offer real value to real people. This is why we approach the proposal for a new CSTD working group on enhanced cooperation by asking ourselves if this is likely to lead to practical benefits for real people, and if it will provide significant added-value in development terms, particularly important given the mandate of the CSTD. From what we have heard, it does not look like this working group would pass these tests. In contrast, the working group on the improvement of the IGF was clearly focussed on developing practical improvements that do add value, which is why we supported it and why we welcome its report. 

Mr. Chairman, Multi Stakeholderism, with a capital M, is what works, and that means processes where all parties have an equal chance to be heard and to affect outcomes. It is absolutely fundamental, absolutely essential, to the development of the Internet as the marvellous tool for economic and social development that that it is and which it can become.  Previous speakers, including the distinguished delegates of the United Kingdom and Canada, have outlined so many excellent examples of success made possible by this model that it is redundant to add more.  

The United Nations system overall has steadily increased the access of and collaboration with the non-governmental/private sector world since its foundation - though the ITU’s political processes, including the WCIT preparatory process, have fallen far behind the rest of the UN system in this respect. The Economic and Social Council to which the CSTD reports has often led the way by repeatedly choosing to embed non-state actors in formal processes. The Report of the Panel of Eminent Persons on United Nations–Civil Society Relations from 2004 has many excellent conclusions such as: 

“The most powerful case for reaching out beyond its constituency of central Governments and enhancing dialogue and cooperation with civil society is that doing so will make the United Nations more  effective.”

The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said in 2009 that: 

"Our times demand a new definition of leadership - global leadership. They demand a new constellation of international cooperation - governments, civil society and the private sector, working together for a collective global good."

He’s right.

Thank you Mr. Chairman.

-- 
Regards,
 
Nick Ashton-Hart
Geneva Representative
Computer & Communcations Industry Association (CCIA)
Tel: +41 (22) 362 02 38
Fax: : +41 (22) 594-85-44
Mobile: +41 79 595 5468
USA Tel: +1 (202) 640-5430
email: nashton at ccianet.org
Skype: nashtonhart
http://www.ccianet.org

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20120518/9677716d/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.igcaucus.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing

For all other list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/

Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t