IGF 2014

There is an current trend among international IG organisations to work toward more globalisation, bringing and including more stakeholders.

As example, ICANN is increasing its efforts toward globalization and removing the perception of being an US-centric organization by establishing new offices and initiating new outreach projects. However, the main issues regarding developing countries’ participation, including all stakeholders, remain open and unresolved. These include, inter alia, incorporating developing countries’ issues into the policy development process, e.g .for the new gTLD program; under-representation of developing country applicants for gTLDs, and relatively few accredited registrars; and representation in policy development bodies like the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO). Stakeholders from developing regions often struggle to voice their opinions or to be effective within ICANN. Moreover, concern about developing countries’ challenges and interests has not always been been widely shared across the private sector community.

Accordingly, this workshop will explore such questions as:
1- How do we assess the extent to which the ICANN multistakeholder model for policy development is working for developing countries, particularly with respect to the new gTLDs?
2- How can developing countries’ concerns be systematically included in policy development processes in ICANN and other IG structures?
3- How can developing country participation in the GNSO process be enhanced?
4- How can ICANN become more fully globalized and responsive to the concerns of developing countries’ governments, civil society, business and technical communities?
5- How does the ICANN experience compare with civil society participation in other Internet Governance spaces.
6- What lessons does the ICANN experience offer for developing country participation in other global governance spaces?
7- What lessons can ICANN learn from different experiences in IG structures?

NCSG is the voice of civil society and nonprofit organizations in ICANN’s domain name policy
body, the GNSO, with more than 400 organizational and individual membership. It is composed of two constituencies, Noncommercial Users Constituency and Non ­Profit Operational Constituencies

Agenda:
1- Setting the scene : explaining context and objectives (10min)
2- Panelists' presentations: going through the questions above (25min)
3- Q/A session with the audience (40min)
4- Wrap-up: recommendations & actions (15min)