Communiqué: NETmundial Initiative Inaugural Coordination Council Meeting in Madrid, Spain, 26 February 2016

Communiqué@ITRealms:

The inaugural Coordination Council (Council) of the NETmundial Initiative (NMI) held a meeting on 26 February 2016 in Madrid, Spain. The gathering served as an opportunity to take stock of activities to date, discuss NMI’s future direction following the completion of the inaugural phase on 30 June 2016, and proposed a set of activities for its next phase.
 

As stipulated in the MoU signed between the three organizing partners in January 2015, the financial and in-kind support from the World Economic Forum (WEF), Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), and Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br) ends 30 June 2016.
 

The Council examined future support for the next phase, agreeing upon the need to identify and reach out to new potential organizational partners to provide the necessary support and leadership in carrying forward activities. CGI.br’s position on its role beyond the inaugural period, in particular as the potential new institutional home for NMI, is pending consultations and final decision by its Board.  

The Council reviewed the activities and practices to date, noting how the crowdsourced nature of its endorsed activities, in particular the NETmundial Solutions Map and Collaboration Platform, have the potential to contribute to innovation in bottom-up engagement and information sharing in the Internet governance ecosystem. The Solutions Map also has the potential to enhance the search for knowledge and relationships, while the Collaboration Platform is designed to promote cooperation of Internet governance projects and ideas.  
 

The Council expressed its appreciation of the role played by the three founding partners - CGI.br, ICANN and the WEF in getting the initiative underway.
 

As an overarching direction, NMI’s initial focus during its next phase is to serve as an open capacity development coalition. This will strengthen, in particular, national and regional Internet governance structures, processes and capabilities, based on the NETmundial Multistakeholder Statement.
 

Going forward, two activities were proposed for 2016, sponsorship for which has already been secured:
 

1. Document a set of good practices for national multistakeholder Internet governance structures and mechanisms;
2. Pilot the application of such practices in sub-Saharan Africa, including a conference to share learnings from pilot participants.
   

In addition, the following activities have been proposed:
 

1. Monitor implementation of NETmundial Principles and Roadmap;
2. Consider organizing a NMI+5 conference in 2019.

The group agreed that it is important to conduct these activities in close relationship with other fora, and particularly a desire to work closely with the Internet Governance Forum (IGF).
 

The Council also renewed its commitment to reaching out to promote NMI, its mission, objectives and goals, as a means of enhancing community engagement in NMI activities and its way forward.

The following structural changes were proposed for the next phase, to be carried out by 30 June 2016:
 

• The Council considered and accepted a proposal for CGI.br to provide an institutional home for the ongoing initiative, subject to approval by CGI.br’s Board.  
• The Council discussed the possibility of changing its current structure following a broad community consultation.
• The current open request for nominations to the Coordination Council is withdrawn. Once the public consultation is complete, a new nomination process will begin.
   

NEXT MEETING

Megan Richards, Principal Advisor, European Commission, representing Andrus Ansip, European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Single Market, extended to the Council an invitation to hold a follow-up meeting in Brussels, Belgium, on 8 June 2016. The Council wishes to thank the European Commission for this invitation.

Lastly, the Council would like to express its thanks and appreciation to Telefonica for hosting the meeting in Madrid, and in particular, Christoph Steck, Director Public Policy & Internet, Telefonica.  

MEETING PARTICIPANTS

COUNCIL MEMBERS
 

1. Jean-François Abramatic, Senior Scientist, Inria France
2. Virgílio Almeida, Chair, Brazilian Internet Steering Committee
3. Pablo Bello Arellano, Secretary General, Association of Latin American Telecom Operators
4. João Carlos Caribé, Policy Manager, Movimento Mega - Counselor Civil Society/LAC
5. Fadi Chehadé, President and CEO, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
6. Eileen Donahoe, Director of Global Affairs - Human Rights Watch
7. William Drake, International Fellow and Lecturer in the Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research, University of Zurich
8. Anriette Esterhuysen, Executive Director, Association for Progressive Communications (participated remotely)
9. Marília Maciel, Center for Technology and Society, Rio de Janeiro Law School of the Getulio Vargas Foundation
10. Andile Ngcaba, Chairman and Founder, Convergence Partners
11. Ian Peter, Technology and Policy Strategist; Participating in Personal Capacity
12. Jim Poisant, Secretary General, The World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA)
13. Nii Quaynor, Professor of Computer Science, University of Cape-Coast, Ghana
14. Richard Samans, Head of the Centre for the Global Agenda, Member of the Managing Board, World Economic Forum
15. Christoph Steck, Director Public Policy & Internet, Telefonica
16. Jean-Jacques Subrenat, European Regional At-Large Organization

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