[governance] CALL FOR NOMINATIONS - WSIS FORUM HIGHLEVELTRACK FACILITATORS

Sat Mar 26 03:42:02 EDT 2016

This is a timely discussion, because what is evident is that the number of organisations wanting CSCG to assist in selecting civil society representatives for various bodies is increasing – as indeed is the extent to which our nominations are being accepted; even if there is a long way to go to completely establish the principle that we select our own representatives.

CSCG is now conducting its 4th Nomcom since December, and I think the strain is starting to show on representatives who have to devote a lot of time on top of their already considerable contributions to civil society organisations to assessing candidates; and indeed, both Ginger and I as Co-chairs are finding the work burden pretty heavy – particularly when quite a lot of correspondence and positioning is added to the nomcom processes. This is something CSCG has to have a serious discussion about as soon as we get a chance; perhaps rotation of members in nomcoms might be necessary, perhaps some structural changes; all of that needs discussing.

But the issues raised here as regards funding our representatives add additional context to this –and I agree that a pool of funding, linked to selection processes,would be really helpful for civil society representation  .

CSCG has no organisational structure capable of receiving funds; for that to happen, an institutional home would have to be found and agreed to. I think this would be a good step forward.  Some sort of institutional home might also allow CSCG to formalise its presence, reduce the administrative burden, fix its website, etc.

That is not a trivial undertaking. But for now, if anyone who has some time and skills they would be able to devote to helping CSCG with its workload, or a potential institutional home, it would be great to hear from you. I think we are reaching a point where some effort in consolidating civil society’s presence in the internet governance sphere is becoming very necessary and would be very useful .

Ian Peter (speaking for myself only, not in any official capacity with CSCG). 

From: parminder 
Sent: Saturday, March 26, 2016 4:27 PM
To: governance at lists.igcaucus.org 
Subject: Re: [governance] CALL FOR NOMINATIONS - WSIS FORUM HIGHLEVELTRACK FACILITATORS

On Saturday 26 March 2016 09:52 AM, Nick Ashton-Hart wrote:

  Dear all, FWIW, this is as we all know a long-standing problem. 

  My thought is that a solution might be to ask if those of you with access to funders could put together a proposal for a pool to be available every year for a handful of key meetings that would allow those without travel support to have a chance to attend these meetings.

Funders can make a pool but they should not decide who gets funded... From self organised nominee selection process, we should also move to self organised CS nominee selection process, and that can/ should use a pool to which funders can contribute..... CSCG should write out a proposal and approach those who typicall fund travel to IG related meetings and ask for a pool to 'neutrally' fund CS participation....parminder 

  Perhaps ISOC would be a contributor to it, or coordinate with it to try and leverage this new mechanism to bring more people to the events where ISOC provides travel funding for some.

  That said, FWIW, the WSIS Forum is not really politically impactful in my experience - most Geneva based delegates don’t attend if they can help it, for example.

    On 26 Mar 2016, at 05:14, Michael Gurstein <gurstein at gmail.com> wrote:

    I must say that I find this process from the UN (again) completely ridiculous however, I think that this one may be material in allowing for some possibly useful inputs from participants as "facilitators"

    I might for example, be interested in volunteering as a "facilitator" but would be immediately (self) excluded because of the requirement that participants need to be self-funded. There is no way I could find funding for this participation including because the time available is way too short to do any useful fundraising and of course NAm folks are automatically excluded from any of the more general funding envelopes.

    What this type of "invitation" does is to more or less automatically exclude everyone from CS who isn't a trustfundarian, a resident of Geneva or the environs, or a staff member of a major NGO with sufficient discretionary funding.  This of course is highly highly discriminatory/exclusionary as we all know and has the effect of drastically skewing results of such processes and thus presumably of their outcomes as well.

    In most cases it doesn't matter as the "opportunity" is of little consequence.  In this instance it looks like it may be of more consequence and thus does matter.

    Could I suggest that the CSCG lodge an appropriate protest in this regard.

    M

    From: governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org[mailto:governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org] On Behalf Of Ian Peter
    Sent: March 24, 2016 1:08 PM
    To: Analia Aspis <analia.aspis at gmail.com>; governance at lists.igcaucus.org
    Subject: Re: [governance] CALL FOR NOMINATIONS - WSIS FORUM HIGHLEVELTRACK FACILITATORS

    attached the document Analia is referring to below.

    From: Analia Aspis
    Sent: Friday, March 25, 2016 1:13 AM
    To: mailto:governance at lists.igcaucus.org
    Subject: [governance] CALL FOR NOMINATIONS - WSIS FORUM HIGHLEVELTRACK FACILITATORS

    Dear members,

    The WSIS Forum will take place in Geneva from May 2-6 this year. The Civil Society Co-ordination Group (CSCG) has been asked to forward four names of civil society representatives to be High Level Track Facilitators (joining facilitators from other stakeholder groups).

    The attached document gives details of what is required. Please note:

     High Level Track Facilitators are expected to cover their own fares and accommodation expenses:

     The main task of each facilitator is to moderate a high level policy session and provide a written executive summary based on interventions and discussion during the session, while capturing the vision, identifying emerging trends, opportunities and challenges shared by the high level speakers.

     Successful candidates must be able to demonstrate previous experience in this area, combined with a good general knowledge of WSIS issues. 

     Nominations or self-nominations should be sent DIRECTLY to nomcom07 at internetgov-cs.org no later than midnight UTC on Wednesday, April 6. 

    The nominations should include basic biographical information, plus a brief statement outlining relevant experience in similar moderation/ facilitation exercises.

    Best,
    Analía
    IGC co-coordinator

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