[NCUC-DISCUSS] Fw: [bestbits] FYI: A letter to IGF Secretariat re: the outcome of the MAG Nominations 2017

Wed Mar 1 17:31:00 CET 2017

While I wasn't particularly happy with the nomination 'process' that the CSCG ran last year, I agree with the general sentiment expressed in this letter that there were civil society vacancies on the MAG which were not filled — and that deserves an explanation. Likewise, to announce the appointments to the MAG just days before the preparatory cycle for IGF 2017 began is extremely poor form.

- Ayden

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [bestbits] FYI: A letter to IGF Secretariat re: the outcome of the MAG Nominations 2017
Local Time: 1 March 2017 4:21 PM
UTC Time: 1 March 2017 16:21
From: sheetal at gp-digital.org
To: bestbits at lists.bestbits.net> < <bestbits at lists.bestbits.net>

Dear all,
I'm writing regarding the outcome of the MAG nomination process this year. As you know, the CSCG ran a nomination process to select candidates to the MAG 2017 nominations and submitted the three names selected (Norbert Bollow, Jeremy Malcolm, Arsene Tungali) by the deadline, 16 December.

The CSCG was informed of the outcome on 27 February. We received the communication that "there will be no new Civil Society MAG member being added".
The IGF 2017 MAG has now been been approved by the Secretary-General's office. The list of members can be found on the following url: [https://www.intgovforum.org/multilingual/content/mag-2017-members.](https://www.intgovforum.org/multilingual/content/mag-2017-members)

In response, we have sent the following letter to the IGF Secretariat, copied in full under the dotted line below. The first Open Consultations and MAG meeting of the IGF 2017 preparatory cycle are taking place now (01-03 March) in Geneva, so we expect for this to be brought up during the course of the discussions there, and to receive a response soon.

Should you have any questions at all,

Best
Sheetal and Poncelet.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 March 2017

Dear Chengetai,

We are writing, as members of the Civil Society Coordination Group (CSCG), to respectfully express our concern at the notice received via the Internet Governance Forum’s (IGF) Secretariat, that there will be no new civil society member added to the Internet Governance Forum's Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) this year (2017). The reason provided to the CSCG was that there is no civil society MAG member being rotated out.

The Civil Society Coordination Group (CSCG) exists solely to ensure a coordinated civil society response and conduit when it comes to making civil society appointments to outside bodies. Please see the website for more information on the mechanism:[ ](http://internetgov-cs.org/#about)http://internetgov-cs.org/#about.

According to the [FAQ provided](https://www.intgovforum.org/multilingual/content/mag-renewal-2016), there is not a fixed number of civil society representatives. We understood that one of the current members ([Ms. Amelia Andersdotter](https://www.intgovforum.org/multilingual/content/Ms-Amelia-Andersdotter)) has served three terms and would be be rotated out. On the [IGF website](https://www.intgovforum.org/multilingual/content/mag-members-0), her affiliation is listed as Civil Society, we therefore do not fully understand the explanation provided about her past and current affiliation in your email (dated 27 February) 2017 to us. We understand that, apart from Amelia Andersdotter's retirement, another civil society vacancy has been created by John Dada stepping down over the last year. This vacancy we understand was never filled.

Once again, it was our understanding from the beginning that at least one, perhaps two, vacant position(s) was available and to be filled by a Civil Society representative. The CSCG conducted an open, transparent and democratic selection process, following which three candidates were selected. These three names [were submitted](http://www.internetgov-cs.org/2016-12-15) before the deadline to UNDESA for consideration.

However, the decision to not elect a civil society representative to replace the outgoing member comes as both a surprise and disappointment to the CSCG. The selection process conducted via CSCG paid respect to the factors outlined by UNDESA, “notably: priorities for regional diversity, with an emphasis on representation from developing and least developed countries; gender balance; and diversity of institutions and organizations with which members are affiliated”.

We strongly regret that, following an open, transparent and democratic selection process, we will not be able to provide a satisfactory explanation for this situation to the members of the various constituencies which we represent. Moreover we are concerned about the possibility that this situation may deter, or at least reduce willingness of, civil society members to engage in the process going forward considering the time lost and unaccounted for on this occasion.

While we would like to thank the UNDESA for its leadership we hereby respectfully request that UNDEA reconsider its decision and agree to appoint at least one additional representative from civil society on the basis of our proposal, or, at a minimum, that UNDESA provide further explanation as to the decision not to nominate a replacement for the outgoing civil society MAG member.

Thank you for your time and consideration of this matter.

With best wishes,

The CSCG.

--

Sheetal Kumar

Programme Lead | GLOBAL PARTNERS DIGITAL

Second Home, 68-80 Hanbury Street, London, E1 5JL
T: +44 (0)20 3 818 3258 0337| M: +44 (0)7739569514 |
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ncuc.org/pipermail/ncuc-discuss/attachments/20170301/308488d2/attachment.html>