Supporting participation at the IGF 2019 annual meeting

Call for Travel Support to attend the 14th annual meeting of the IGF

The mandate of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) calls for strengthening and enhancing of the stakeholder engagement from developing ‎countries. It also calls for the Forum to contribute to building capacity for Internet governance in ‎developing countries, drawing fully on local sources of knowledge and expertise‎. 

During the 13th IGF, the United Nations Secretary-General has called for action to increase inclusiveness in the IGF processes. The Secretary-General underlined that the IGF must increase its efforts to draw upon the “weak and missing voices” into the IGFs work. It was also called for a broader multidisciplinary approach, to involve experts not traditionally involved in the IGF processes. The community also echoed for more inclusion and diversity in the IGF's participation spectrum. 

For these reasons, the IGF 2019 Host Country, Government of Germany, will support eligible candidates from developing countries to participate at the 14th annual meeting of the IGF from 25 - 29 November in Berlin, Germany. It will also support the participation of the MAG members at the MAG meetings and the IGF annual meeting.

The Call for applications will be open from 9 April to 30 June 2019. 

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

The Call will support individual stakeholders that: ‎

• represent any stakeholder group.
• are from a Least Developed Country, Landlocked Developing Country, Small Island ‎Developing State or a Transitional Economy.‎
• demonstrate interest in Internet governance-related activities.
• show a demonstrated commitment to contribute to its community after participating at the IGF 2019.

Preference will be given to candidates from underrepresented groups, such as: ‎women, indigenous people, persons with disabilities, older persons, youth.

Those requesting partial funding will have preference over others, should all ‎criteria be met.‎

Candidates engaged in programme sessions (e.g. co-organisers, speakers, moderators) will be evaluated on a priority and case-by-case basis. 

SELECTION PROCESS

The IGF Secretariat will also collaborate with the national and regional IGF initiatives for conducting a bottom-up process to identify eligible candidates that could contribute to their local communities and the IGF 2019 process with their expertise.

• The Call for Travel Support will be announced on the IGF website.
• The network of national, regional and youth IGF initiatives (NRIs) will distribute the Call to their respective communities. The multistakeholder organizing committees of the NRIs will invite the applicant to submit their expression of interests through submitting an online form within the deadline. 
• The NRIs multistakeholder organizing committees will evaluate received applications in accordance with above-referenced criteria. 
• The NRIs Organizing Committees will develop a list of all evaluated candidates in order of a priority with appropriate justifications and submit to the IGF Secretariat for further evaluation. 
• Candidates coming from Governmental stakeholder group will be evaluated only by the IGF Secretariat/UNDESA.
• The IGF Secretariat/UNDESA will review received list from the NRIs and make the final decision on granting support, respecting agreed principles. The IGF Secretariat may consult the NRIs Organizing Committee for advice and will communicate final selection.
• Before the list is published, it will be communicated to the Host Country for a review.
• The number of selected candidates would be dependent on the funds available.
• The final compositions of participants will be stakeholder, regionally and gender balanced.
• The IGF Secretariat can approach underrepresented stakeholders that can enrich diversity of the meeting, with an offer to support their participation at the IGF 2019.

PROCESS TIMELINE 

• Open Call for Applications: 9 April 2019
• Close Call for Applications: 30 June 2019
• Evaluation: 15 July 2019
• Announcement of successful applicants: 31 July 2019 To be announced on a later date

APPLICATION FORM

All interested candidates are invited to express their interest through a FORM on the IGF website from 9 April to 30 June 2019.