Exclusive peep into IGF-MAG ‘14

As the plans for this year unveil with the next IGF already scheduled to take place in Istanbul, Turkey between September 2 and 5, 2014, the MAG is expected to hit the ground running, as reported by DigitalSENSE Business News.
The current MAG constitutes a total of 55 members, 18 among them new, whereas 37 were incumbents. The Advisory Group members were from various stakeholder groups and all regions of the world, representing governments, the private sector, civil society and technical community.
Also, DigitalSENSE Business News gathered that all members of the Advisory Group serve in their individual capacities, but are expected to have extensive linkages with their respective stakeholder groups. However, the main task of the Advisory Group is to provide advice on the preparations for the forthcoming meeting of the Internet Governance Forum, which has been confirmed to be held in Istanbul, Turkey, from 2 to 5 September, this year.
Equally, the representatives of previous host countries and relevant intergovernmental, international and regional organizations are usually invited to attend Advisory Group meetings to offer support and advice invariably from the experiences they garnered from hosting the event.
The Internet Governance Forum is an outcome of the Tunis phase of the World Summit on the Information Society, which took place in 2005.
DigitalSENSE Business News recalls that the Internet Governance Forum has been an outcome of the Tunis phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), which took place in 2005. In the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society, governments asked the Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) to convene a “new forum for policy dialogue” to discuss issues related to key elements of Internet governance and set out the Forum’s mandate.
The Forum’s past eight meetings took place in Athens, Greece, in 2006; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2007; Hyderabad, India, in 2008; Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in 2009; Vilnius, Lithuania, in 2010; Nairobi, Kenya in 2011; Baku, Azerbaijan in 2012; and Bali, Indonesia in 2013.
However, as MAG members wear their IGF shoes, request for public input has been made, inviting all stakeholders to submit suggestions or ideas for issues to be discussed at the 2014 IGF to IGF2014si@intgovforum.org.
“We kindly request that proposals are kept short and succinct. These proposals will be put into a synthesis paper that will act as an input into the discussions,” officials appealed.
Equally, the general reflections on IGF 2013 and recommendations for the IGF 2014 meeting are also encouraged with the deadline for submission set for 10 February, 2014.

STAKEHOLDERS were more or less excited when recently the United Nations office for the global Internet Governance Forum, otherwise known as IGF secretariat announced the composition of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) for 2014.


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