Summary Report: MAG Virtual Meeting on Community Intersessional Activities and NRIs 13 September 2016

IGF Virtual Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) Meeting on Community Intersessional Activities and National and Regional Initiatives (NRIs)

 13 September 2016

Summary Report

1.         An IGF Virtual MAG Meeting focused on Community Intersessional Activities and National and Regional IGF Initiatives (NRIs) was held on 13 September 2016. Ms. Lynn St. Amour moderated the meeting as Chair of the MAG and Mr. Chengetai Masango represented the IGF Secretariat. The meeting agenda focused on the ongoing work of the IGF community activities including the IGF Best Practice Forum(s), Phase II of the IGF Connecting and Enabling the Next Billion(s) initiative, an overall update on NRIs, and the coordination work and main session planning of both the NRIs and IGF Dynamic Coalitions (DCs).  In addition, it was agreed to add a discussion under AOB regarding the proposal circulated on the MAG list to establish a newcomers track at IGF 2016.

2.         The meeting opened with a short briefing from the IGF Secretariat on preparations for the annual meeting. It was reported by the Secretariat that the venue for the meeting had been provisionally changed by the Host Country to be held at the PALCCO Cultural Centre (http://www.palcco.com/#/). The meeting will still take place in the city of Guadalajara on the same dates (6-9 December), and the Secretariat and Host Country organizing team will make available all relevant information to the community as soon as it is ready in regards to the change of venue.

3.          The Secretariat then gave a short briefing on IGF community activities working modalities and timeline(s) for 2016. A briefing on this was also shared with the MAG prior to the meeting and is available on the IGF website[1]. It was emphasized that all IGF community intersessional working groups have the freedom to define their own methodologies, tailored to each group’s specific needs and requirements. Each community intersessional activity/working track should discuss and decide on their respective working modalities in an open and transparent way on mailing lists and during virtual meetings and any decisions on working modalities should have support of the participants of the activities and should also be made in an inclusive and transparent manner.

4.         It was reported that in 2016 it has been agreed that each BPF will produce a draft output or outputs by 1 November, a little more than one month prior to the annual meeting, and that these draft output(s) should be made available for public comments online for this one-month period leading up to the IGF and at the respective dedicated BPF sessions at the annual meeting. (Each BPF is also responsible for organizing its own respective session at the annual meeting). The outputs will then be updated incorporating all comments and suggestions by the community immediately after the annual meeting. A similar timeline is envisioned for CENB-Phase II. In the lead-up to and at the annual IGF meeting and post-annual meeting - MAG facilitators/coordinators (and all MAG members) are encouraged to carry out outreach activities to help disseminate IGF outputs, messages, etc. to other relevant fora, future meetings, etc.

5.         Next, the IGF community activities each gave brief updates to the MAG which included also requests for support from fellow MAG members, particular areas of interest for other activities, and next steps for the respective groups. Many of the groups also had circulated written updates through the MAG mailing list prior to the meeting. All MAG members were encouraged to participate in the ongoing community work if they were not yet involved. Updates were then provided by Phase II of the IGF Policy Options for Connecting and Enabling the Next Billion(s)[2] and the 2016 IGF BPFs on IXPs[3], IPv6[4], Cybersecurity[5] and Gender and Access[6]. All information on how to join and participate in these activities, as well as information on how to join future virtual meetings of the groups, can be found on the IGF website. It was also noted that further work was needed to plan the main session of CENB Phase II and the BPFs at the annual meeting and the Secretariat reported that a planning meeting would be scheduled in the coming days for this.

6.         A comprehensive update and overview of the ongoing work of the NRIs[7], including coordination work between the IGF Secretariat and the respective NRIs as well as joint planning of the NRIs main session and other activities of the NRIs at the annual meeting was then presented. The full presentation can be found here. It was reported that there are now more than 60 initiatives (including Regional, Sub-Regional, National and Youth Initiatives) located in all five UN regions, and spread around the world. There are several new initiatives now forming and working to hold their first annual event in 2016/2017. To support the recommendations of the NRIs, the IGF is hosting regular (bi)monthly virtual meetings where the NRI Coordinators share updates, and collaborate on the NRIs engagement to the 2016 annual IGF meeting, as well as continuously discussing further enhancements to support the NRIs engagement toward the IGF.

7.         An update was then provided on the ongoing work of the IGF Dynamic Coalitions Coordination Group (DCCG)[8], which had recently held their tenth meeting on 31 August [summary here]. The Group is working on the organization of DCs’ three shared activities at IGF 2016: the main session of  1.5 hours; a second session also of 1.5 hour duration, most likely focused on “best practices of DCs”; and a shared IGF Village booth. The MAG was reminded that they were welcome to be a part of the coordination activities by subscribing to the DC mailing list. All news about upcoming meetings and coordination work will be available on the list, including details on how to participate. The DCCG is guided by Terms of Reference, available here.

8.         The discussion then moved to a proposal to the MAG for establishing a newcomers track at IGF 2016 which had been shared for comment on the MAG mailing list. Many MAG members expressed their support to the proposal and MAG members were asked to put their names forward to volunteer to take on specific tasks outlined in the proposal to create such a track for newcomers. It was agreed that the proposal would be revised, incorporating all comments and suggestions received thus far, and further circulated to the MAG in the coming days. There was also agreement that the Secretariat would distribute to the MAG an updated main session information template that MAG main session organizers could use to fill-up and update information on their main sessions to be published on the IGF website. It was said that this information should be submitted to the Secretariat one-month ahead of the annual meeting (first week of November) and that updates to the information in the weeks and days ahead of the meeting should be made by MAG organizers using the Sched tool.

9.         As per the MAG Virtual Meeting schedule, the next MAG Virtual Meeting VII will be held on 27 September at 22:00 UTC. Webex details for joining the meeting as well as an agenda and supporting documentation will be circulated via the MAG mailing list before the meeting.