[governance] Recommendation to the UN General Assembly for an Open Ended Mandate of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF)

[Avri Doria]

On 04-Sep-14 23:11, parminder wrote:
> is the promotion in it of the IGF support association - an unknown and
> as non transparent imitative as any . Its civil society representation
> especially I do not understand and appriciate... Where did the group
> come from, who formed it, why... And why in the cover of something like
> the preservation of the IGF which issue would rightly get  great support,


This group was initiated to collect money for the IGF, especially for
the IGF secretariat.  Since the only way to donate money to the IGF is
by establishing a contract with the IGF Trust that the UN runs, another
method for smaller donors was needed. The IGFSA, will establish such a
contract with the UN Trust and will funnel the money collected into the
trust. Those who volunteer for the IGFSA will not receive any
remuneration. The effort was put forward by Markus Kummer on behalf of
the Internet Society, and the Internet Society is donating secretariat
service to the group for its first year.  The group is being registered
as a Swiss not for profit (articles of incorporation attached) and this
is based upon the approval it received in the open meeting at the
IGF2014 pre-event where a rather full room gave it strong support.
Membership in the association is open to all, though a donation of $25
is required for individuals.  There was a booth in the IGF villages
where information on the effort was available to all participants at the
meeting.  There have also been numerous public announcements.

There are already other donation collection methods.  One established by
Google was objected to because of the character of the organization
picked to process those donations.  But that is one mechanism that
exists.  There is no reason other competing fundraising initiatives
could not also be created.

As one of the people on the board of the IGF Support Association, I do
not see my participation in any way as a civil society representative,
though I see myself as doing my best to support civil society goals and
interests.  I see myself as a friend of the secretariat who was once a
member of the secretariat, who wants to see it properly funded. I am
participating as an individual who actively supports the IGF and has
done so since before it was created, from the first recommendations the
WGIG made for a forum, an idea which was included in the Tunis Agenda
and has now been instantiated 9 times in global open multistakeholder
events.

In addition to having an open meeting to create the group at the IGF,
there is every intention of making this a transparent effort.  Not only
will the fundraising activities be open, we intend to ask for as much
transparency as we can get from the UN on how money donated through the
trust fund is spent.  I.e. to understand what percentage of funds
donated go to the secretariat, support of fellows, meeting participants,
overhead expenses and the like.

Governments have not stepped up to support it as would have been
optimal, though a few have.  They have not made it a funded mandate and
probably won't. Not so much because they are against it, as far as I can
tell, but because new funded mandates are few and far between. To insist
that a UN funded mandate is the only mandate we will accept would be
tantamount to recommending the IGF cease operations.

For me, this is my first effort ever, in a fundraising role.  While I am
not in any way a representative of civil society, I do plan to ask for
civil society advice as we move along.

In terms of mentioning it in the letter, the idea is to assure the UN,
in its consideration of renewal, that there are efforts dedicated to
making sure that this unfunded mandate is indeed properly funded.  Of
course, the effort has yet to prove it can actually deliver, but by next
year at this time, we will have a better idea.  Beyond that, if the
fundraising effort is successful, there is the intent to also give
support to regional IGF efforts and to participant support.

I will note that my involvement with the effort began during the IGF
itself when I was nominated to the boot-up board.  Before that I knew of
it from many announcements and Internet Society bulletins, but had never
considered any involvement beyond joining and donating. When asked
whether I would accept the nomination, I first said that I knew little
about fund raising except  for what I do for my attendance at these
global meetings, but on consideration, decided, as a personal matter,
that it was a commitment I was willing to make.

While I understand that no effort can get universal acceptance by civil
society, I do hope that most are able to see this as a well meaning
effort to support a forum that most of us value greatly.  I will do what
I can to keep this group, as well as others I am involved with, informed
and will be sure to make sure that our efforts are as transparent as
possible.  Our email list, which still has not seen much traffic has an
open archive <http://elists.isoc.org/pipermail/igfsa/>.  I think we will
have web sites and all the other accouterments once the association is
formally incorporated.

Hope this helps,

avri

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