Session
Room
Salle XI
Report
Dynamic Coalition Coordination Group –Meeting XXXII (Face-to-Face)
Summary Report
14 November 2018
- The thirty-second meeting of the DC Coordination Group (DCCG) took place on 14 November 2018, during the 13th Annual IGF in Paris, France. The meeting was facilitated by Jutta Croll and Markus Kummer, with Eleonora Mazzucchi representing the IGF Secretariat. Live captioning was available during the meeting, with the transcript available here: https://www.intgovforum.org/content/igf-2018-day-3-salle-xi-dynamic-coalition-dc-coordination-session
- A face-to-face coordination meeting among DCs has been convened at IGFs since 2015, when coalitions co-organized their first main session. This coordination meeting, held at the end of the last day of the 2018 IGF, took stock of the preceding days, in terms of both DCs’ main session and their individual sessions in the programme.
- DCs had a positive impression overall of the holding of their main session. Co-organized with the MAG and focused on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this year marked the first time coalitions had agreed to structure the session around a common theme. An SDGs focus had been decided on in DC coordination meetings leading up to the IGF, as a proposed topic under ‘Development, Innovation & Economic Issues’, one of the eight major themes of the 2018 programme. It was noted that the session this year was very well attended, particularly in comparison to last year’s session, which was lively, but with sparser participation. It was assumed that both the common theme and the invited speakers had led to more interest in participation. Also there was agreement that the tandem of two moderators had performed very well, particularly as regarded structuring the session around the SDG papers. Using a common theme, it was also noted, worked really well, as had the joint organizational effort with business community members of the MAG. In fact, the interaction with the panel of non-DC speakers, who had been selected together with the MAG co-organizers, had been constructive and interesting. It had also been noted, however, that given the limited time – at 80 minutes – there may ultimately have been too many individual speakers. Some coalitions felt this took away from the content of the session, but also may have given DCs less of a platform than in prior years. The general feeling was that in future it would be preferable to have a main session organized by the DCs, maybe enriched by having one or more non-DC ‘keynote’ speakers to set the scene. In order to reduce the number of speakers, it was suggested to have DCs pool resources and let one panellist speak on behalf of two or three DCs.
- A few miscellaneous questions were raised regarding remote participation, general DC participation in the IGF programme, and on session durations. It was observed that remote participation seemed to have been low in DCs’ main session. The Secretariat explained that levels of remote participation in other sessions had not been overwhelmingly strong; the sessions which did feature one or two online interventions were usually pre-arranged by speakers who had not been able to attend in person. Technical issues with the IGF’s remote participation platform earlier in the meeting may have contributed to the lower engagement.
- Due to the shorter schedule – three days versus the usual four – it had been very difficult to secure individual DC session times longer than 60 minutes for this year’s programme. However, acknowledging some coalitions’ need for more time to discuss their work and output documents, which can be quite substantial, DC coordination focal points said they would re-propose to the MAG 90-minute slots for DCs.
- In response to the comment from some coalition representatives that the time allotted them to speak in the main session was quite short, the Secretariat emphasised that for the next IGF it could coordinate speaking roles for DC members, as experts and researchers in their respective Internet governance fields, in other programme sessions, including main ones. Reflecting on the substantive importance of discussions in workshops and similar sessions, a suggestion had been made by one DC representative that for the next cycle, the MAG consider shortening main sessions and prolonging other sessions in the programme, although this was not supported by other DCs.
- Building on the one-page SDG papers produced by DCs ahead of the meeting, and drawing inspiration from their own process to produce written outputs, one coalition proposed DCs work together in 2019 on a common outcome document. This idea found favour with other DCs, who have agreed that work on a single theme had been successful this year. It was noted that with the earlier appointment of the new MAG, which had been announced during the IGF itself, the planning period before IGF 2019 would be longer. This would allow DCs the time – through earlier coordination meetings and with input from MAG deliberations – to discuss and agree on a common issue or set of issues for a potential outcome document. All agreed that such a project would bring positive visibility to, and highlight the value of, DCs.
- The next DC coordination meeting will take place virtually, in approximately one month’s time. The Secretariat will share the call details with coalition members via the DCs mailing list.
Participants List
Markus Kummer (Co-Facilitator)
Jutta Croll (Co-Facilitator/DCCOS)
Eleonora Mazzucchi (IGF Secretariat)
Nico Echaniz (DC3)
Gerry Ellis (DCAD)
Marianne Franklin (IRPC)
Nigel Hickson (DC-IoT)
Peter Kimpian (DC-IoT)
Wolfgang Kleinwachter (DC-SIG)
Esmeralda Moscatelli (DC-PAL)
Sivasubramanian Muthusamy (DC-CIV)
Carla Reyes (DC-Blockchain)
Nadia Tjahja (YCIG)
Nicolo Zingales (DCPR)
Session Time