NRIs Informal meeting during the ICANN 57 Meeting

National and Regional IGF Initiatives:

Informal meeting during the ICANN 57 Meeting

- Hyderabad, India, 7 November 2016  -

About

1. The ICANN 57 Meeting was held in Hyderabad, India from 3 to 9 November 2016.
2. As the ICANN meetings have many participants that are members of some of the national, (sub)regional and Youth IGFs (NRIs), informal gatherings have been traditionally happening during these meetings.
3. The main purpose of these gatherings is for the community members to discuss latest issues about NRIs. Additionally, this is an opportunity for the NRIs to meet the global IGF representatives and discuss issues that exist within the initiative or within the IGF - NRIs relation.  It is also a very good opportunity for the NRIs to network and share experiences with each other.  This helps to build and strengthen the NRI efforts.
4. The meeting was held on Monday, 7 November from 12:45 to 13:45 pm. Amongst the participants, there were representatives of existing NRIs, other stakeholders interested in the NRIs work as well as the representatives of the IGF Secretariat, UNDESA and the MAG Chair.
5. An agenda is attached as Annex A1, and a list of attendees is attached as Annex A2. A presentation that was shared during the gathering will be sent to the NRIs list, as a separate attachment, and uploaded on the IGF website, NRIs section.

SUMMARY OF RAISED KEY POINTS

6. On behalf of the UNDESA, Mr. Deniz Susar addressed the participants with stressing that the NRIs are very important to the IGF. It was noted that there is an understanding that the NRIs need more support from the global IGF. In regards to this, participants were briefed that the new IGF project document recognizes the NRIs processes as independent, bottom up and inclusive entities.
7. It was said that there is an understanding within the IGF that the NRIs need more support, where the financial support is subject to available funds.
8. Ms. Marilyn Cade, the MAG member and coordinator of the NRIs main session, spoke using online services. Participants were reminded that during the last year’s annual meeting, the NRIs colleagues made some specific requirements toward the IGF. The most important ones were:

• To create informal network of all NRIs
• To help the NRIs be more visible within the global IGF
• To help interested respective communities and stakeholders to organize their IGFs and engage with the existing ones and with the global IGF
• To have channels to participate in developing the IGF meeting programme agenda

To achieve the above, it was called for the Secretariat to have a dedicated focal point within the IGF Secretariat that will act as a neutral liaison between the IGF and the NRIs. It was stressed that the Secretariat invested a lot of efforts to improve the NRIs status, in its current capacity, at that time.

9. Ms. Cade emphasized that funding is one of the biggest issues of the NRIs and should be addressed more comprehensively by the global IGF multistakeholder community.
10. On behalf of the IGF Secretariat, Ms. Anja Gengo provided the record for the current landscape of the NRIs and referenced briefly to the main aspects of the NRIs involvement in the global IGF programme. Below is the summary of the main key points:

• It was reminded that during the last year’s IGF, at the NRIs substantive session, the total number of the NRIs was 42. At the time of this presentation, that number reached 72 with a reasonable expectation that by the IGF annual meeting, the total number of the NRIs will reach 78, as many of the Initiatives that are currently in-formation, will finalize their organizational work by the annual meeting. A breakdown per IGF initiatives type was graphically illustrated, indicating that currently there are 44 national IGFs, 15 regional and sub-regionals, 7 Youth IGFs and 6 in-formation IGFs.
• A timeline overview of the NRIs annual events was presented, indicating that the biggest majority of the meetings is scheduled during the second half of the year.
• Participants were briefed that the NRIs are organizing a main session for the first time in an annual IGF meeting. With thanks to the MAG for recognizing the importance of the NRIs, an overview of the structure was presented as follows:
  • Format of the 3-hours long session is a round table;
  • The session will have three main segments;
    • Segment I will include the welcoming comments from Host Country Honorary Chair and a presentation of a State of the NRIs Landscape;
    • Segment II will be focused on the 3-minutes long presentations of the two topics that are of common interest and that were defined after a couple of public consultations rounds were conducted. The topics are:
      • Access and Enhancing Opportunity for the Un-Connected and Under-Connected
      • Secure, Resilient and Trusted Internet from the NRI Perspectives
      • After this segment, on-site and online participants will have opportunity to intervene
    • During segment III, presenters will focus on identifying the NRIs challenges and recommendations on following topics (decided after NRIs public consultations and call for inputs):
      •  Reliable and sustainable funding sources for the NRIs events 
      • Challenges in how to create more awareness about Internet Governance and why stakeholders should be actively engaging 
  • After this segment, on-site and online participants will have opportunity to intervene;
  • After this, rapporteurs will present the Messages from the NRIs and Conclusions
• It was explained that the NRIs will host another important session at the IGF. This will be a 90-minutes long session, scheduled to be on 9 December from 10:15 until 11:45 am, where the NRIs will be discussing major issues within their organizational structures, and ways for improvement. It will be a dialogue between the NRIs and the NRIs and the IGF.
• It was noted that the NRIs will have a joint booth at the IGF. The info-material has been developed, that involves the list of NRIs FAQs, NRIs geographical map and a timeline of annual events and one info-pager about each of the initiatives.
• The participants were informed that in parallel while organizing the above mentioned activities, the NRIs are working on developing the Tool Kit and an info Manual. The Tool Kit will be subject to public consultations, after the Working Group reviews the first draft, during the next virtual meeting that will be during next week. So far, two virtual meetings were held, that determined the content structure of the publication. The structure was explained with emphasizing that this publication stands as a set of guidelines and recommendations and not as set of rules.
• An Info Manual will gather the experiences from the NRIs into one publication without influencing the received content in any way from the Secretariat’s side. The work will be done after the IGF meeting.

11. The Mag Chair, Ms. Lynn St. Amour emphasized that the NRIs are very important to the IGF and that there is a strong support and respect within the IGF to their work.
12. The MAG Chair welcomed the participants to the annual IGF meeting to be from 6 to 9 December in Mexico. 
13. It was reminded that this year’s IGF program beat several records comparing to the previous meetings, where more than 260 workshop proposals were received. Also, the number of Open Forums increased. The size of the IGF2016 Village is now doubled compared to last year. Total number of policy maker participation is trending very high as well. It was noted that 16 European Parliamentarians will attend this year’s IGF, plus support staff. Participation of the private sector is also expected to  increase.
14. The MAG Chair reminded that India has been a long-standing and  regular contributor to the IGF, including hosting the 3rd IGF in 2008.
15. Ms. Renata Ribeiro, a MAG member, reminded that the outcome documents of the IGF Best Practice Forums are subject to public consultations and are available on the online review platforms of the IGF, details to be found on the IGF website.
16. It was also noted that there will be a Newcomers Track, that aims at organizing a continuous set of activities for the participants participating at the IGF for the first time, in order to explain the IGF processes.
17. Ms. Mary Uduma, the coordinator of the Nigeria national IGF and member of African and West African IGF, emphasized that they need further support such as for online participation services and live streaming as there are many requests coming from the members of this respective community. A sub-regional IGF of West Africa was announced to be from 17 to 18 November and online participation support for this meeting is needed.  Additionally, it was noted that the biggest challenge of the NRIs is funding, that requires attention of all stakeholder groups within the IGF community. In line with this, it was said that the NRIs need to be more visible within the IGF.
18. As a response to the above, the MAG Chair noted that the IGF is an extra-budgetary project of the UN (which means funds cannot come from Member State contributions and must be separate donations).  The MAG wants to be as supportive as possible toward the NRIs.  More work is needed on how the global community can further support the NRIs, the IGF and the IGF Secretariat, as all are under-resourced.
19. Ms. Izumi Okutani, the MAG member, pointed out that there needs to be optimal balance between the global IGF and the NRIs, but also suggested that the NRIs themselves should think about the ways they can attend the IGF, and how can they support each other. Ms. Izumi raised a question on the number of speakers per initiative at the NRIs main session. It was responded that this depends on the total number of the on-site speakers. Participants were informed that this will be discussed in more details on the next virtual meeting of the NRIs next week.
20. On behalf of the Caribbean IGF, Mr. Nigel Cassimire confirmed that they will participate at the annual IGF and be present during the NRIs main session.
21. Ms. Jennifer Chung, on behalf of the Asia Pacific IGF confirmed the attendance at the global IGF and participation at the NRIs main session. She invited all participants to attend the APrIGF session that they are organizing at the IGF.
22. On behalf of the national IGF of Japan that is in-formation, participants were informed that their team has finalized its preparations for joining the NRIs network as an official national IGF. Relevant details will be sent next week and they will also have a representative at the global IGF in Mexico as well as at the NRIs main session.
23. Coordinator of Portugal IGF, Ms. Ana Neves, noted that the IGFs should be about the Internet governance on particular issues, which is the practice of Portugal national IGF. This is why this year there will be multiple of events, with the final session scheduled to be on 25 November. It was confirmed that this initiative will have a representative speaking at the NRIs main session at the IGF meeting in Mexico.
24. On behalf of Kenya IGF, Mr. Barrack Otieno briefed the participants that the team of this national IGF is working on organizing the Kenya School on Internet governance, that will be during the next week. Details to be shared through the NRIs mailing list.
25. Mr. Ashwin Sasongko Sastrosubroto, on behalf of the national IGF of Indonesia confirmed that this initiative will be present at the IGF in Mexico and will be presenting at the NRIs main session. Participants were invited to attend the national annual meeting of Indonesia scheduled to be on 15 November.
26. Mr. Diego Canabarro from the national IGF of Brazil, informed that this initiative is focused on finalizing the post-meeting tasks, as their meeting was hosted in July this year. It was confirmed that they will be present at the IGF meeting in Mexico. Participants were invited to take participation at the open forum: Fostering dialogue between Internet Observatories & Maps, that they are organizing at the IGF in Mexico, where the Internet observatories will meet. This forum is scheduled to take place during day 3, 8 November. Feedback from the NRIs colleagues are very welcome.

AoB

27.  On behalf of the IGF Dynamic Coalition on innovative approaches to the unconnected and the University of Pennsylvania project ‘1-World Connected’ Ms. Sharada Srinivasan briefly invited everyone to join the work of this project and contribute by submitting stories that will be used as case studies for research purposes on connectivity. Ms. Sharada shared some information material and reference to their website for more information about this project.

Annex A1: Agenda

1. Introductions
2. NRIs work activities at the IGF2016 [Main Session status update, 90-minutes NRIs Session,  NRIs Joint Booth, NRIs Tool Kit Status]
3. IGF 2016 Annual Meeting Status Update and the IGF - NRIs relationship and ways for improvements
4. Comments and questions
5. AoB

Annex A2: List of participants[1]

1. Anja Gengo, IGF Secretariat
2. Mark Carvell, UK IGF and Commonwealth IGF
3. Juuso Moisander, IGF  Finland
4. Judith Hellerstein, IGF USA
5. Jennifer Chung, Asia Pacific IGF
6. Yannis Li, Asia Pacific IGF
7. David NG, Asia Pacific Youth IGF, Hong Kong Youth IGF
8. Sandra Hoferiehter, EuroDIG
9. Diego R. Canabarro, cgi.br and IGF Brazil
10. Vinicius W.O. Santos, cgi.br, IGF Brazil
11. Ana Neves, IGF Portugal
12. Raphael Koffi, West Africa IGF
13. Toshiaki Tateishi, Japan IGF
14. Yuri Takamatsu, Japan IGF
15. Hiro Hotta, Japan IGF
16. Izumi Okutani, Japan IGF, MAG member
17. Fotjon Kosta, Albania IGF
18. Renata Aquino Ribeiro, Brazil IGF
19. Nigel Cassimire, CTU, Caribbean IGF
20. Ashwin Sasongko Sastrosubroto, Indonesia IGF
21. Sharada Srinivasan, DCIAC, University of Pennsylvania
22. Deniz Susar, UNDESA
23. Lynn St. Amour, IGF MAG Chair
24. Marilyn Cade, MAG member (online)
25. Barack Otieno, Kenya IGF
26. Mr. Elh Manan Uadinou , West Africa IGF