NRIs Meeting X

NATIONAL AND REGIONAL IGF INITIATIVES

- Virtual Meeting X: 20 July 2017, 13:00 p.m. UTC -

SUMMARY REPORT

About 

1. The tenth virtual meeting of the National and Regional IGF Initiatives (NRIs), took place on 20 July 2017 at 13:00 p.m. UTC.
2. Meeting was hosted by Ms. Anja Gengo from the IGF Secretariat. The agenda is attached to this document as Annex A1 and a list of Meeting Participants as Annex A2.  List of input documents is attached as Annex A3.

Updates from the NRIs

3. On behalf of the Youth LACIGF, it was informed that the meeting agenda will be published on the website shortly after this meeting.
    
4. The coordinator from the Poland IGF informed that at their latest preparatory meeting was decided that their annual meeting will take place on 21 November in Warsaw.  
    
5. From the IGF-USA, it was noted that for the upcoming annual meeting on 24 July, there will be livestreaming and online participation tools. Participants were advised to visit the website for more information, and were cordially invited to join the meeting.
    
6. The Colombia IGF’s coordinator pointed that the Organizing Team of this initiative decided on the main issues that will be discussed during the 2017 annual meeting, which are: digital security infrastructure and fake news. These are also subjects for the Colombia IGF’s potential partnering for the NRIs collaborative sessions.
    
7. For the African IGF, it was announced that the 2017 annual meeting will be hosted in Addis Ababa, while the date is still negotiated.
    
8. On behalf of the Indonesia IGF, it was noted that the 2017 annual meeting is planned to be in October. The initiative is working on developing a publication focused on the children abuse and protection online. Initiative’s representatives will attend the upcoming APrIGF, as well as the IGF annual meeting in December in Geneva. The Indonesia IGF team is working on a publication that will reflect the data protection, and are collaborating with universities to introduce this concept.
    
9. A written report from the NRIs informal gathering at the latest ICANN meeting was promised to be sent to the NRIs mailing list, by the facilitator of this gathering.
    
10. On behalf of the recently held Nigerian IGF, it was said that the photos and videos will be shared shortly after this meeting.
     
11. The 2017 edition of the West African subregional IGF was announced to be on in Benin, Cotonou from 27 to 28 July.
     
12. The Croatian IGF’s coordinator shared an update regarding the initiative’s commitment to implement the multistakeholder model beyond the annual meeting, as the community showed enthusiasm for this work methodology. Related updates will be shared timely.
     
13. On behalf of the Caribbean IGF, it was informed that the 13^th edition of this initiative’s annual meeting will be held from 21 to 23 August at the British Virgin Islands. Outcomes from the national IGFs within the region will feed into the meeting. Participants were invited to attend the meeting onsite or online.
     
14. From the national IGF of Namibia, it was briefed that the organizing team is working on preparing the programme. The draft agenda is in accordance with the IGF’s annual meeting overarching theme. The major areas of interest that will be discussed include: Internet as a medium for achieving inclusive and sustainable growth in Namibia, Role of the Internet in achieving youth empowerment, Woman and girls on the Internet, Growing Namibian digital economy, Cybersecurity in the Namibian context. The initiative is engaging with the Government and the technical community, mainly with the ccTLD and with other stakeholder groups representatives (private sector and civil society). The coordinator noted the importance of having this forum, despite the multitude of challenges they are facing, for discussing the good policies the country needs.
     
15. The UK-IGF co-coordinator informed that the annual meeting’s draft agenda is developed, whose largest part will be focused on the cybersecurity. Issues like social media and fake news, accessibility of online services for the disadvantages, education of young people to be informed and safe as digital citizens, are also included in the programme agenda.
     
16. On behalf of the LACIGF, it was noted that the 2017 annual meeting is in around two weeks. It is the 10^th edition of the annual meeting, that will be 3 days long. Online participation tools will be available.
     
17. From EuroDIG, it was announced that the report for the NRIs Assembly hosted during the recently held annual meeting, is published. The NRIs from Europe have agreed to jointly contribute to this year’s IGF, by bringing regional perspectives.
     
18. A SEEDIG representative announced that the 2017 SEEDIG annual meeting report is planned to be finalized by the end of August.
     
19. For the China IGF, it was pointed that the first annual meeting is planned to be hosted in Macao next year. For now, the initiative is focused on reconstructing and updating the website, and preparing to attend the APrIGF.
     
20. On behalf of the Youth IGF Movement, it was noted that they plan to start with organizing series of meetings in various countries during the August-September period.
     
21. The coordinator of the Lebanon IGF informed that the multistakeholder organizing team of this IGF is working on developing the programme for the first annual meeting that most probably will be hosted in the next year. At the same time, it was announced that the Arab IGF team is working on a new roadmap for mapping the Internet governance issues in this region.
     
22. On behalf of the national IGF of Spain, it was stressed that the preparatory meeting will be organized shortly after this meeting, and updates shared through the NRIs mailing list. The initiative is working on website improvements, for making it easily accessible. The 2016 annual report will be soon finalized.
     
23. From the Chad IGF it was informed that the preparations for the 2017 annual meeting are underway. The group of the NRIs, including the Chad IGF coordinator, is working on translating the NRIs Toolkit on French.

CENB III Updates

24. The co-facilitators of the 3^rd phase of the IGF’s intersessional work project called ‘’Connecting and Enabling the Next Billion(s)’’ (CENB III) briefed the participants about the timeline and final goal of this year’s work.
     
25. It was underlined that during the first two phases, the NRIs were among the biggest contributors to the CENB overall work. This year, it was noted that the work will be developed in accordance with the IGF’s standard methodology of gathering contributions from various stakeholders, individuals and organizations, with focusing on looking at what are the concrete, subject related developments in various communities. The NRIs were invited to submit their contributions by the end of July.
     
26. The co-facilitators pointed that the received contributions will build a series of case studies and success stories in which the Internet is playing a key role in advancing the selected SDGs: SDG 4 (Ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning), SDG 5 (Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls) and the SDG 9 (Build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation).
     
27. It was explained that after the deadline, the first draft compilation will be shared with the community, and will ask for feedback and additional inputs. The NRIs were advised to send their contribution in any language and format they prefer. The final publication should be developed by November 2017.

NRIs Main Session: Rights in the digital/online world

29. The Host explained that there are six (6) proposals for the main sessions to be organized during the IGF 2017 meeting, (18-21) December, Geneva. These are the following:

    1) Gender inclusion and the future of the Internet 
    2) Creating an Inclusive Workforce in the Digital Economy
    3) Empowering Global Cooperation on Cybersecurity for Sustainable Development & Peace
    4) Local Interventions, Global Impacts: How Can International, Multistakeholder Cooperation Address Internet Shutdowns, Encryption and Data Flows
    5) Dynamic Colations Session
    6) National, Regional and Youth IGFs: Rights in the digital/online world
     

30. Given the proposed duration for each session, and the fact that it is the UN's regulation that the interpretation services can not go beyond the fixed 3-hours long time slot, the session organizers were asked to compromise on the duration of their session in order to accommodate mention interpretation regulation.
     
31. The 'Gender inclusion and the future of the Internet' session organizers compromised and reduced the duration of this session from 3 to 2 hours. The session that will be organized by the Dynamic Collations proactively proposed the session duration to be 90 minutes long, as a way of compromising from their side.
     
32. As per the current proposals, the Host explained that one session will need to be reduced for 30 minutes, in order to the above mentioned UN regulations on interpretation, be accommodated.
     
33. The NRIs, as the session organizers, were asked to comment and share their views on the proposal where the session will be reduced for 30 minutes, and therefore its total duration will be of 2.5 hours long, with a split in between the first 90 minutes and last 60 minutes. The split will be made during the lunch break, and it will last 2 hours. A table view, illustrating this proposal fit in the overall main session schedule, was presented (Annex A3).
     
34. In line with underlying that this is a proposal, and that all the session organizers are asked to share their views, the NRIs present representatives were asked to comment on this potential proposal, in their roles of session organizers.
     
35. The IGF-USA co-coordinator expressed disagreement with this proposal, as it will severally affect the quality of the participant's engagement in the session. It was noted that splitting the session is not meaningful, and that it will cause low attendance. However, the co-coordinator emphasized that if there is no alternative to this proposal, thsn the NRIs should think about focusing on the 90-minutes first segment, and have the last 60 minutes to be organized by the Youth initiatives. It was noted that this proposal will need to be looked carefully, as the main objective is for all the NRIs to have an opportunity to speak. In addition, it was said that the NRIs could think about using the lunch break for some informal, small-groups round table discussions as a continuation of the first segment, and have it finalized during the last given hour.
     
36. From the Nigeria and West Africa IGF, it was said that splitting the session will not be beneficial, and will cause losing discussion momentum. It was suggested to look at other potential alternatives.
     
37. The coordinator from EuroDIG noted that this could be seen as an opportunity, rather as a disadvantage. The NRIs could look at this as an opportunity to maximize the NRIs impact by being given additional lunch break as a connector of the two formal segments. It was noted that the network could think about the proposal of giving the second segment to the Youth IGF initiatives, or maybe think about splitting two segments between the national and regional IGF initiatives, as suggested during the call by the Lebanon IGF coordinator. It was proposed to think about a game-quiz approach to the lunch break split, where the audience will be given small tasks to fulfil during the break. This will serve to motivate the audience to come back to the session after the break.
     
38. In its individual capacity, a community member of SEEDIG noted that the NRIs should try compromising, given the fact that the MAG compromised by allocating the NRIs with several slots for collaborative sessions. This new proposal is not an ideal scenario, but with a creative approach, it can serve its purpose for having an excellent session.
     
39. The coordinator of the Caribbean IGF advised to look at the specifics of the session, and see if it really requires the initially proposed duration.
     
40. In individual capacity, but noting that it carries the roles of the MAG member and a LACIGF organizing team member, one participant noted that it should be taken into account that other session organizers compromised. For example, the proposers of the Gender session did, despite the fact that gender was among top proposed workshop tags; some other sessions merged with others or shortened the time. A proposal for llocating the second session segment to Youth was supported.
     
41. From Kenya IGF, it was suggested to look at other ways of maximizing the session, not just by expanding time duration. For example, using social media to promote the session outcomes could be one way.
     
42. The co-coordinator from the UK-IGF noted that it is important to have a creative and effective approach to the session format and content, in case there will be split. The main aim is to motivate the audience to come back to the meeting room after the break. Having the second slot dedicated to the Youth is seen as one idea, but it was advised to look for other options as well.
     
43. The NRIs Focal Point shared an opinion that the Youth IGFs were always considered as an integral part of the NRIs network, and that dedicating the last hour to them may lead to segregation. In addition, it was said that it is worth of considering the approach where the core discussion on the matter will take place during the first segment, an informal networking discussion during lunch and conclusion part during the second segment. Additionally, it was suggested that unlike all other sessions with traditional, limited number of speakers, the NRIs session is of a different nature as it gathers countries and regions in one place, and by this is more flexible for different format settings. Finally, the Focal Point noted that the NRIs were given 6-9 slots for organizing the collaborative sessions, which the MAG may take into account when deciding on a final main sessions schedule.
     
44. The coordinator for the Colombia IGF noted that this indeed could be seen as an opportunity, where in practice, there are two main sessions under one name, within the regular programme. This could be an advantage for the NRIs, and is worth of thinking about.
     
45. The coordinators from the Chad IGF and the African IGF noted that it is important to have a session be 3-hours long, as initially proposed.
     
46. The meeting participants agreed to summarize all views, and share with the NRIs through the NRIs network, for further discussion.

NRIs Collaborative Session

47. It was agreed that the NRIs will continue building on the inputs received so far (Annex A3). Many noted that among the received inputs, there is not enough representation of the topics related to access. It was underlined that partnered NRIs will develop written session proposals, in accordance with the NRIs session guidelines.
     
48. The NRIs will proceed internally, among their teams, with the consultations on delegating one or more NRIs representatives for these sessions, and developing related criteria and procedures. This should not be subject to collective work of the NRIs network.

Next Steps

44. The Secretariat will send the summary report to the NRIs mailing list, and will call all NRIs to submit feedback to the duration of the NRIs main session, as per the arguments raised on this Meeting.
23. Next meeting: The Secretariat will distribute the Doodle poll for the members of the NRIs to cast the votes for the best time slots for the next virtual meeting. In the meantime, a doodle poll for the NRIs to indicate if they will attend the IGF 2017 meeting will be sent and remained open until the IGF annual meeting itself.
24. For any suggestions or questions regarding the Report, kindly contact the IGF Secretariat, NRIs Focal Point at: [email protected].

ANNEX A1: 

AGENDA: National and Regional IGF Initiatives (NRIs)

IGF NRIs: Virtual Meeting X, 20 July 2017, 13:00 p.m. UTC

- Welcome and introductions with updates from the NRIs (10 min) 
- Updates from the IGF Secretariat + CENB III update (5 min) 
- NRIs Collaborative Sessions planning (20 min) 
- NRIs Main Session planning (15 min) 
- NRIs at the IGF website: improvements (5 min) 
- AoB (5 min) 

ANNEX A2:  

MEETING PARTICIPANTS (in alphabetical order):

1. Abdeldjalil Bachar Bong, Chad IGF
2. Adam Peak, ICANN
3. Anja Gengo, IGF Secretariat
4. Barrack Otieno, Kenya IGF
5. Bruna Santos, Youth LACIGF
6. Constance Bommelaer, CENB III co-facilitator
7. Élisson Diones Cazumbá, Youth LACIGF Observatory
8. Fotjon Kosta, IGF Albania   
9. Joanna Malczewska, Poland IGF
10. Jolie MacFie, ISOC
11. Judith Hellerstein, IGF-USA
12. Julian Casasbuenas, Colombia IGF
13. Makane Faye, African IGF
14. Mardiana M. Nasir, Indonesia IGF
15. Marilyn Cade, IGF-USA
16. Mary Uduma, Nigeria IGF, West Africa IGF
17. Maud Barret, APC
18. Michel Tchonang Linze, Central Africa IGF
19. Natasa Glavor, Croatia IGF
20. Nigel Cassimire, Caribbean IGF
21. Paul Rowney, Namibia IGF
22. Raquel Gatto, CENB III Co-facilitator and LACIGF
23. Richard Plater, UK-IGF
24. Sandra Hoferichter, EuroDIG
25. Sorina Teleanu, SEEDIG
26. Tian Luo, China IGF
27. Zeina Bou Harb, Lebanon IGF
28. Zoraida Frias, Spain IGF

ANNEX A3:  

List of shared input documents:

• NRIs collaborative sessions. List of so far received inputs: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wf9eWqCyLoKw_oSjtzC57LiKIpniMFbiyyBj8FUGNgw/edit#gid=0

• IGF 2017 Main Sessions proposed scenario: