[governance] Update from today's MAG call

[parminder]

Kudos to Markus for making a such clear affirmative statement on the 
isuue of commercialisation of IGF...... And for also having strongly 
disapproved of the Indonesian fund raising document/ strategy in 
February itself, and for asking the local organising team to discontinue 
it and take the document off their website. To make things clear in such 
strong words is really good " the only thing that can be sold on the 
premises of the UN meeting is food, and that has to be at a reasonable 
price".

Can one now expect that this is also made a basic condition for regional 
and national IGFs, among some basic conditions that are listed for such 
initiatives, and these conditions are enforced. Safeguarding policy 
spaces from commercial/ corporatist influences is as important at 
regional and national levels as at the global level.

As mentioned earlier, I remain rather concerned that the Chair of Asia 
Pacific IGF called the provisions in the controversial Indonesian IGF 
fund raising document as, and I quote

".....providing some traditional "value" back to contributors. The deal 
is nothing new - it seems to be a rather standard sponsorship arrangement."

If indeed it was a rather standard sponsorship document, why did then 
the MAG Chair disapprove of it and ask for its withdrawal?

I am not sure therefore how they do it at the AP IGF, but I do see 
enough reason to be concerned about it.  If any clarification in this 
regard is to be forthcoming, I would welcome it.

There seems to be a consdierable lack of clarity about what the IGFs - 
as a somewhat formal (and therefore, and to that extent, monopolistic) 
'policy dialogue space' and a new insitutionalised form of 
'participation in governance' and a new experiment in participative 
democracy - mean and how they must be organised, and strongly insulated 
from private interests. And for this sake, one need to be almost 
paranoidly pro-active rather than being slack and accommodative. 
Insitutions of democracy are built with such extreme care and caution, 
and being stickler to basic norms.

parminder


On Wednesday 31 July 2013 06:32 PM, Norbert Bollow wrote:
> Here's a quick update from today's MAG call (I listened in as an
> observer.)
>
> Almost all of the discussion was around how to proceed in regard to
> 2013 IGF meeting. Markus said that cancellation is not an option. There
> are two serious expressions of interest from potential host countries
> to step in on short notice if Bali doesn't work out. Failing that,
> there's the option of having the meeting at the relevant UN HQ, which
> for the IGF would mean Geneva, but since it might be difficult to get
> so many rooms, that might mean that only a scaled down meeting could be
> held. Also hotel rooms can be problematic in Geneva. Google/Vint Cerf is
> willing to do a fundraising effort to try and save the Bali IGF. Some
> preliminary news, on the basis of which the MAG might be able to
> recommend something, is hoped for by the end of next week.
>
> The current recommendation is not to cancel flights to Bali that have
> already been booked, but also not to book a flight to Bali if you have
> not booked yet.
>
> The commercialization problem was only touched on briefly. Markus said
> that the basic rules are fairly simple: UN meetings cannot be
> commercialized, there can be no sponsor's logos on the premises of the
> UN meeting (and this rule has been enforced, he gave an example where a
> compromise had been made in which sponsor's banners were put up outside
> the premises of the UN meeting but in a place where they were visible
> from the meeting's cafeteria), the only thing that can be sold on the
> premises of the UN meeting is food and that has to be at a reasonable
> price.
>
> So it seems clear that the IGF is not in direct danger of getting
> commercialized - that objectionable Indonesian fundraising strategy has
> simply been declared dead.
>
> Greetings,
> Norbert
>

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