TERMS OF REFERENCE
Consultancy Announcement # IGFP-1966
Implementing Entity:
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs/Division for Public Institutions and Digital Government/Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Secretariat
I. Background
The second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) held in Tunis on 16-18 November 2005, requested the Secretary-General, amongst other, to convene “a new forum for multi-stakeholder policy dialogue – the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). The Internet Governance Forum Secretariat is based in the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG). The mandate of the IGF, set out in Paragraph 72 of the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society is to discuss the main public policy issues related to Internet governance in order to foster the sustainability, robustness, security, stability and development of the Internet.
A report produced by the UN General Assembly Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Working Group on Improvements to the IGF called for the development of more tangible outputs to ‘enhance the impact of the IGF on global Internet governance and policy’. To enrich the potential for IGF outputs, the IGF Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) developed an intersessional programme intended to complement other IGF activities. The outputs from IGF intersessional activities are intended to become robust resources, to serve as inputs into other pertinent forums, and to evolve and grow over time.
The intersessional work streams offer substantive ways for the IGF community to produce more concrete outcomes and inform policy discussions. They take forms of Best Practice Forums (BPFs) and Policy Networks (PNs), among others. While the BPFs focus on gathering good practices of a particular Internet governance issue, the PNs look more in depth into the nature of the issue, status quo, good and not so good practices, and help navigate the ways forward. Both forms of intersessional work produce substantive outputs through an open, inclusive and multistakeholder methodology. These outputs have already been useful in informing policy debates, and they are also viewed as iterative materials that are not only flexible but also ‘living’ in the sense that they can be updated at any time to accommodate the pace of technological change faced by internet policymakers.
II. Work Assignment
Under the supervision of the IGF Programme and Technology Manager of the IGF Secretariat, the Consultant will be responsible for be responsible for facilitating and documenting the work related to convening of the Policy Network on Meaningful Access (PNMA), recommended by the IGF MAG. The facilitation of the work will include, inter alia, carrying out tasks related to hosting and reporting on IGF PN meetings, synthesis and drafting of outputs, presenting and discussing them during dedicated sessions at the 18th Annual Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum.
The assignments will be the following:
1. Work closely with the appointed multistakeholder working group for the Policy Network on Meaningful Access (PNMA) to develop the implementation strategy and workplan, as well as to ensure that the convening work and preparation of outputs are consistent with the work done by the IGF multistakeholder intersessional teams, including the IGF Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) work and PNMA multistakeholder working group.
2. Suggest and advise the PNMA on modalities and concrete actions to effectively respond to:
- The recommendations of the UN Secretary-General (in his statement at IGF 2018/19) to extend from multistakeholder to multidisciplinary; create share language and references; and include and amplify the weak and the missing voices.
- The Secretary-General priorities “to strengthen the Internet Governance Forum to serve as a central gathering point to discuss and propose effective digital policies” (remarks to UN GA 22 January 2020).
- The United Nations Secretary-General’s Roadmap for Digital Cooperation that envisages a strengthened IGF including better integrating programme and intersessional work policy development work in other priority areas of the roadmap (Roadmap, para 93).
- The Secretary-General’s call for the IGF to ‘’adapt, innovate and reform to support effective governance of the digital commons and keep pace with rapid, real-world developments’’ (Our Common Agenda report, para 93).
3. Monitor and manage the discussion mailing lists and carry out meetings using Zoom or other methods setup for the assigned PNMA and document the process by compiling meeting summaries, feeding into the output documents and the related substantive sessions at the 18th IGF.
4. Gather information on the subject of the PNMA, in consultation with the MAG appointed facilitators, the PNMA multistakeholder working group and the IGF Secretariat, in line with the discussed methodologies. It is recommended to use the list of questions defined in the proposal for PNMA.
5. Prepare the substantive output report for the PNMA (minimum 20 pages, maximum of 40 pages, (annexes not included) in 12 points single space, using preferably the font, “Times New Roman”), based on the inputs and the work produced by the PNMA community participants, other identified stakeholder groups, complemented with independent research.
6. Invite and engage the wider community, including members of the IGF Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG), members of the PNMA multistakeholder working group and their affiliated networks, networks of National, Regional and Youth IGFs (NRIs) as well as the network of Dynamic Coalitions (DCs), to comment on the draft output reports and incorporate comments into a revised paper.
7. Prepare summaries, introductions and background materials that can be used to brief the press and experts on subject matter and conduct outreach toward the wider community ahead of the PNMA sessions at the annual IGF meeting, as well as summaries of achievements for subject experts after the meeting. This also includes populating the dedicated PNMA section on the IGF website, advising on social media outreach, and providing input for the online meeting schedule.
8. Act as rapporteur and summarize all inputs provided to the PNMA work over the course of the contract, update and adjust the draft outcome document, and compile the final draft that will be presented at the annual meeting, as per the requirements referenced above.
9. Support the PNMA facilitators in coordinating the organization of the PNMA sessions at the 18th annual IGF meeting and for each session, summarize discussions, taking into account the proceedings, and adjust the outputs if necessary.
10. Together with the full IGF Secretariat team, under the guidance of the supervisor, taking into account the reports from the session organizers, contribute to drafting of the IGF 2023 Messages (minimum 4 pages in 12-point font single-spaced).
11. For publication of the outputs on the IGF website and their distribution, produce publishable summaries of PNMA, including executive summaries, that could be used as stand-alone documents or compiled with the executive summaries of the other intersessional work-streams in one document and annexed to the final IGF 2023 report. On these, coordinate with the Secretariat on layout and structure of the final document (minimum 3 pages each in 12 points single space, using preferably the font, “Times New Roman”).
12. Over the course of contract, contribute to the IGF Secretariat’s capacity development activities, by contributing inputs from the PNMA into the capacity development workshops.
III. Duration of Contract
The proposed contract will be for a period of sixty-six (66) working days within the period of 1 May – 31 October 2023.
IV. Duty Station
There is no specific duty station for this post. The consultant is not required to work on UN premises but must be available for supervisory and review meetings/teleconferences.
V. Travel
The Consultant may be required to travel to attend:
- The second face-to-face Open Consultations and MAG meeting (June 2023 - TBC)
- The 18th Annual Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (8 - 12 October 2023)
- Other Internet governance related events, as a representative of the PNMA’s work. In this case, air travel and daily subsistence allowance, at the rates established by UN rules and regulations, shall be provided to the consultant.
VI. Activities, Expected Outputs, and Delivery Dates:
Assignment 1: six days - Due date: ongoing
Assignment 2: four days – Due date: ongoing.
Assignment 3: 10 days - Due date: ongoing.
Assignment 4: seven days - Due date: 1 June 2023.
Assignment 5: 10 days - Due date: 10 September 2023.
Assignment 6. four days - Due date: 20 September 2023.
Assignment 7: six days - Due date: ongoing.
Assignment 8: five days - Due date: 4 October 2023.
Assignment 9: four days - Due date: 8 October 2023.
Assignment 10: two days - Due date: 12 October 2023.
Assignment 11: four days - Due date: 19 October 2023.
Assignment 12: four days - Due date: ongoing.
VII. Qualifications, Experience and Skills
- Master’s degree in information communication technologies, social sciences, development studies, management or other relevant disciplines or equivalent fields, or 8 years of relevant work experience.
- A minimum of 5 years of professional experience including analytical work related to ICT, Internet governance, public policy-making, development management, participatory governance, capacity building, etc. Considerable related experience drafting high-level reports, meeting summaries, and synthesizing complex information and inputs. Evidence of high-level level knowledge, particularly in the discourse of access and connectivity, cybersecurity, digital inclusion, gender policy, participatory policy development or other related area is required.
- Excellent written and oral English language skills are required.
VIII. Performance Indicators
The performance of the consultant will be measured by:
- Level of cooperation with the MAG issue coordinator(s) and other PNMA participants;
- Timely submission of outputs;
- Quality of synthesis and summarizing of the community discussions, outputs demonstrating high-level knowledge of the subject matter;
- Readability of the outputs;
- Positive feedback from experts.
IX. Terms of Payment
The Consultant’s fee will be commensurate with experience.
Payments will be initiated upon successful completion or documented progress made on tasks as mentioned in the above Terms of Reference.
The Consultant will be paid in two parts upon certification from the Supervisor that the tasks have been satisfactorily carried out as follows:
- The first payment of 40%, due on 30 June 2023, of the total fee will be paid upon submission of progress report showing satisfactory results against implementation strategy and work plan of items 1-4 of TOR in section VI.
- The second and final payment of the remaining 60% of the total fee will be paid upon satisfactory completion of items 4-12 of the TOR in section VI, and the finalisation of all other ongoing items in 1-4.
Interested candidates can apply through the Job Opening in Inspira.
Annex 1
IGF Policy Network on Meaningful Access Focus
Rapporteurs of Policy Networks will produce outputs of the intersessional discussions using the below template as a guide, also following the advice of those participating in the preparatory work thematic discussions. The reporting structure/outputs may differ depending on if the theme has already been worked on previously by the IGF or if it is a new topic.
- Context of the issue
- Status quo: global overview and local specificities
- Existing policy measures
- What works well and what works not so well - identifying practices
- What is missing? Needed policies and forms of cooperation
- Multistakeholder expert view on ways forward to bring solutions to the subject matter issue
- Proposed next steps