Call for Travel Support to attend the 16th 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, underlining 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, a limited number of eligible candidates from developing countries will be supported to participate at the 16h annual meeting of the IGF from 6-10 December 2021 in Katowice, Poland.
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
The Call will consider supporting individual stakeholders that:
- Represent any stakeholder group.
- Are from a Least Developed Country, Landlocked Developing Country, Small Island Developing State or a Transitional Economy.
- Are engaged in the IGF 2021 process as active contributors to intersessional and NRIs work, session co-organizers, session speakers, moderators and rapporteurs.
- Demonstrate interest in Internet governance-related activities.
- Show a demonstrated commitment to contributing to its community after participating at the IGF 2021.
- Are recommended by a respected community member.
Preference may be given to underrepresented groups, such as: women, indigenous people, persons with disabilities, elderly population, youth.
Those requesting partial funding may have preference over others, should all criteria be met.
Those that did not receive travel support in past may be given preference, should all criteria be met.
SELECTION PROCEDURE
The IGF Secretariat will evaluate received applications as per the listed eligible criteria. Applications will be given further consideration if three first formal criteria are met.
The number of selected candidates would be dependent on the funds available.
The final compositions of participants will be stakeholder, regionally, gender and age -balanced.
The IGF Secretariat can approach underrepresented stakeholders that can enrich the diversity of the meeting and comply with the eligibility criteria, with an offer to support their participation at the IGF 2021.
TIMELINE and APPLICATION FORM
Eligible candidates can submit the travel request through the Travel Support Application e-form by 31 August 2021, 23:59 UTC.
The onus is on the applicant to meet the travel requirements. This relates to having all the necessary travel documents and respecting applicable procedures. Applicants are advised to regularly check the Host Country website https://www.gov.pl/web/igf2021-en and the website of the Republic of Poland’s travel coronavirus information and recommendations: https://www.gov.pl/web/coronavirus/travel.