We’re drawing to the end of the two-day IGF formation conference. Chairman Nitin Desai will shortly give a summary of what he thinks has been decided.
Mr Desai will then write a report to UN secretary general Kofi Annan, who will make some decisions based on the report. And then there will be a second meeting maybe in April, where the remaining matters will be decided.
The big, big problem here is one word: money.
In his summing up before lunch, Desai stressed very strongly the issue of money. He made it quite clear that if everyone wants the forum to be multi-stakeholder then those multi-stakeholders have to expect to cough up.
So far, none a soul has offered a cent. The Swiss government has offered to cover the cost of the secretriat and the cost of developing countries turning up – so long as it is based in Geneva. That is going to happen and Markus Kummer was effectively crowned king of it last night at the evening cocktail bash.
Likewise, Greece will meet the cost of the Forum under a normal UN host-nation contact.
But then there is the central issue of providing funding for getting a steering committee, programme committee, bureau, call it what you will – up and running. And the cost of running an online participation process. Plus whatever other costs there are.
No one is offering the money. The Berkman Institute has offered to set up a website for the Forum. But business has notably not mentioned money. The British CBI made it clear it will not offer money. Governments haven’t mentioned money. And the academic community hasn’t either – despite making most of the running.
This is not a good sign. If people thought the Forum was going to be a winner, they would be jumping in with money because it would provide some level of control over the process. But they’re not.
The governments are also working on something. The US government has said nothing of any import the whole meeting. It has been the Australians and the Brazilians.
The governments have successfully pushed the creation of a second meeting before the Athens first forum. Why? Time, certainly. But also governments are working on a way to seize de facto control over the Forum. That could be by preparing the troops for the next meeting, or by out-manoeuvering everyone else on the programme committee.
Most worryingly, the Australian government just kibboshed a growing consensus over the use of online tools. “We do not see online processes being mandated from above as an integral part of the IGF,” said its representative.
That is governments trying to kill off the growing strength of civil society in the process.
There is also no coherence this afternoon – just people wittering on making statements. We do not have:
* What to discuss
* How to discuss it
* Where the money will come from
* What the end results will be
That is not good.
