Enhanced Cooperation

1. Enhanced Cooperation Grace Githaiga Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) @ggithaiga

2. Mandate • The call for enhanced cooperation in the area of Internet governance has its origins in the outcome of the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), held in Tunis in 2005. • The Tunis Agenda for the Information Society was a consensus statement of the WSIS adopted on November 18, 2005 in Tunis, Tunisia. • It established guidelines for policy-oriented discussion of Internet governance, and identified two mechanisms required for the development of Internet governance – the Internet Governance Forum; and enhanced cooperation on international public policy issues pertaining to the Internet.

3. Mandate…Cont. • Article 69 of the Tunis Agenda recognized “the need for enhanced cooperation in the future, to enable governments, on an equal footing, to carry out their roles and responsibilities, in international public policy issues pertaining to the Internet,BUT NOT in the day-to-day technical and operational matters, that do not impact on international public policy issues.” • It also recognized the need for development of such policy by Governments in consultation with all stakeholders. • In article 71, the United Nations Secretary-General is requested to initiate a continuous process of enhanced cooperation by engaging the relevant stakeholders, including Governments, the private sector, civil society, academia and practitioners.

4. Process • 2006, there were informal consultations and no agreement was reached. • 2008, UNSG invited Ten organizations to report on EC. The organizations are: ICANN, ITU, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Council of Europe, ISOC, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), UNESCO, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and Number Resource Organization (NRO). The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) submitted a contribution of its own accord. • 2010 – UN USG convened a multi-stakeholder consultation.

5. Process…Cont. • May 2012, the UNCSTD Chair convened a multistakeholder consultation with a view to identify a shared understanding about enhanced cooperation on public policy issues pertaining to the Internet, in accordance with paragraphs 34 (definition of IG) and 35 (roles of various stakeholders in IG) of the Tunis Agenda. • Some governments and participants felt that the Tunis Agenda established these as two distinct processes requiring different implementation mechanisms. • Other governments and participants felt that the Tunis Agenda envisaged closer integration between them, and that the IGF itself could be one appropriate vehicle for enhanced cooperation.

6. Process…Cont. • One government emphasized that the principal challenge facing the CSTD was to identify the next step required for achieving progress towards enhanced cooperation, building on those areas of common understanding which had been identified during the meeting. • A number of delegates suggested the establishment of a multistakeholder working group which could give further consideration to the best ways of achieving enhanced cooperation. • They noted that gaps remained in addressing international public policy issues pertaining to the Internet, and emphasized the need to address issues such as the digital divide, accessibility, affordability, inclusiveness, dominance and control of the Internet, cyber-security and privacy.

7. Interpretation of EC • EC as a process to facilitate and contribute to multi-stakeholder dialogue, through formal or informal cooperative arrangements. • The forms of cooperation that have emerged range from information and experience-sharing, consensus-building and fund-raising to the transfer of technical knowledge and capacity-building.

8. CSTD WG on Enhanced Cooperation Mandate: UNGA Resolution 67/195 (2012) • “invites the Chair of CSTD to establish a working group on enhanced cooperation to examine the mandate of WSIS regarding EC , through seeking, compiling and reviewing inputs from all Member States and all other stakeholders, and to make recommendations on how to fully implement this mandate;” • Report to CSTD in 2014 • Structure of the CSTD WGEC (Multistakeholder) 22 Member States, 5 Civil Society, 5 Business, 5 Academia/Technical Community, 5 International Organizations

9. Methodology for WGEC • On May 18th2013, there was a discussion on the WGEC list of potential topics based on the CSTD open consultation on enhanced cooperation on public policy issues related to the Internet. • The final outcome of the discussions was a questionnaire. • It was proposed that a questionnaire be used as the primary means to collect stakeholder views on various aspects of enhanced cooperation, but also emphasize those outcomes of the Group should become more tangible and concrete. • The questionnaire has now been distributed/circulated. Responses will be collected by August 15. • The next meeting to look into the responses will be held in November 6-8, 2013. • It is anticipated that there will be audio streaming and real time captioning, as well as remote participation.

10. Questionnaire (Seeks input from member states and stakeholders) 1. Which stakeholder category do you belong to? (A) Government (B) Intergovernmental and international organizations (C) Non-Government (D) If non-government, please indicate: a) Business community b) Civil society c) Technical and academic community 2. What do you think is the significance, purpose and scope of enhanced cooperation as per the Tunis Agenda? 3. To what extent has or has not enhanced cooperation been implemented? 4. What are the relevant international public policy issues pertaining to the Internet? 5. What are the roles and responsibilities of the different stakeholders, including governments, in implementation of the various aspects of enhanced cooperation? 6. How should enhanced cooperation be implemented to enable governments, on an equal footing, to carry out their roles and responsibilities in international public policy issues pertaining to the Internet?

11. Questionnaire…cont. • 7. How can enhanced cooperation enable other stakeholders to carry out their roles and responsibilities? • 8. What are the most appropriate mechanisms to fully implement enhanced cooperation as recognized in the Tunis Agenda, including on international public policy issues pertaining to the Internet and public policy issues associated with coordination and management of critical Internet resources? • 9. What is the possible relationship between enhanced cooperation and the IGF? • 10. How can the role of developing countries be made more effective in global Internet governance? • 11. What barriers remain for all stakeholders to fully participate in their respective roles in global Internet governance? How can these barriers best be overcome? • 12. What actions are needed to promote effective participation of all marginalized people in the global information society?

12. Questionnaire…Cont. • 13. How can enhanced cooperation address key issues toward global, social and economic development? • 14. What is the role of various stakeholders in promoting the development of local language content? • 15. What are the international internet-related public policy issues that are of special relevance to developing countries? • 16. What are the key issues to be addressed to promote the affordability of the Internet, in particular in developing countries and least developed countries. • 17. What are the national capacities to be developed and modalities to be considered for national governments to develop Internet-related public policy with participation of all stakeholders? • 18. Are there other comments, or areas of concern, on enhanced cooperation you would like to submit?

13. Challenge • In article 71, the United Nations Secretary-General is requested to initiate a continuous process of enhanced cooperation by engaging the relevant stakeholders, including Governments, the private sector, civil society, academia and practitioners. • One challenge to the effective monitoring of progress towards implementation of paragraph 71 is the absence of practical guidance on what constitutes an enhanced level of cooperation.