www.isoc.gh

The Multistakeholder Model Histories, Trends, Recent Developments, Lessons for Ghana

Edwin A. Opare

General Secretary, ISOC Ghanawww.isoc.gh

10th July, 2014

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Overview

• Definitions

• Stakeholder

• Multistakeholder Model(MSM)

• Internet Governance

• History & Trends

• WSIS

• Geneva Summit, 2003

• Tunis Summit, 2005 (Tunis Agenda)

• Internet Ecosystem

• Global Ecosystem

• Ghana Ecosystem

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Overview

• Recent Developments• WCIT-12

• Snowdenism

• I* Montevideo Statement

• Panel on Global Internet Corporation & Governance Mechanisms

• /1Net

• NTIA/IANA Stewardship Transition

• NetMundial

• Enhancing ICANN Accountability

• Where to Engage

• Global IGF

• Africa IGF

• West Africa IGF

• Local Internet Activities (Capacity building, Policy Development etc)

• Lessons for Ghana

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Stakeholder

An individual, group, or organization that has a direct or indirect

interest or stake in a particular organization or subject. These

may include government(s), international organisations, civil

society, private sector, technical communities, and academic

organisations.

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Multistakeholder Model (MSM)

Multistakeholder Governance Model is a governance structure

that seeks to bring stakeholders together to participate in the

dialogue, decision making, and implementation of solutions to

common problems or goals.

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Internet Governance

A working definition of Internet governance is the development

and application by governments, the private sector and civil

society, in their respective roles, of shared principles, norms,

rules, decision-making procedures, and programmes that

shape the evolution and use of the Internet.

Source: Tunis Agenda - Paragraph 34

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WSIS

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)

was a pair of United Nations-sponsored conferences

about information, communication and, in broad terms,

the information society that took place in 2003 in

Geneva and in 2005 in Tunis.

One of its chief aims was to bridge the digital divide

separating rich countries from poor countries by

spreading access to the Internet in the developing world.

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WSIS - Geneva Summit, 2003

• Delegates from 175 countries took part in the first phase of WSIS.

• A Declaration of Principles - a road map for achieving an information

society accessible to all and based on shared knowledge was adopted.

• A Plan of Action - sets out a goal of bringing 50 percent of the world's

population online by 2015. It does not spell out any specifics of how this

might be achieved.

• The Geneva summit also left unresolved more controversial issues,

including the question of the future of Internet governance and funding.

• When the 2003 summit failed to agree on the future of Internet

governance, the Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) was

formed to come up with ideas on how to progress.

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WSIS – Tunisia Summit, 2005

• The second phase of WSIS held in Tunis, Tunisia in 2005 resulted in agreement

on the Tunis Commitment and the Tunis Agenda for the Information

Society(TAIS), and the creation of the Internet Governance Forum.

• The summit itself attracted 1,500 participants from International Organizations,

6,200 from NGOs, 4,800 from the private sector, and 980 from the media with

event funding provided by several countries.

• A dispute over control of the Internet threatened to derail the conference.

However, a last-minute decision to leave control in the hands of the United

States-based ICANN for the time being avoided a major blow-up.

• As a compromise there was also an agreement to set up an

international Internet Governance Forum and Enhanced Cooperation, with a

purely consultative role.

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The WSIS Stocktaking Process

• The WSIS Stocktaking Process is a follow-up to WSIS.

• Its purpose is to provide a register of activities carried out by

governments, international organizations, the business sector,

civil society and other entities, in order to highlight the progress

made since the landmark event.

• Following paragraph 120 of the TAIS, ITU has been maintaining

the WSIS Stocktaking database as a publicly accessible system

providing information on ICT-related initiatives and projects with

reference to the Plan of Action developed at the Geneva Summit.

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Tunis Summit - APC Recommendations

• Just on the eve of the November 2005 Tunis event,

the Association for Progressive Communications(APC) came

out with its stand.

• APC proposed specific actions in each of the following five

areas:

• The establishment of an Internet Governance Forum;

• The transformation of ICANN into a global body with full authority over

DNS management, and an appropriate form of accountability to its

stakeholders in government, private sector, and civil society;

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Tunis Summit - APC Recommendations

• The initiation of a multi-stakeholder convention on internet governance and

universal human rights that will codify the basic rights applicable to the internet,

which will be legally binding in international law with particular emphasis on

clauses in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights directly relevant to the

internet, such as the rights to freedom of expression, association, and privacy.

• Ensuring internet access is universal and affordable. APC argued: "The internet is

a global public space that should be open and accessible to all on a non-

discriminatory basis. The internet, therefore, must be seen as a global public

infrastructure. In this regard we recognize the internet to be a global public good

related to the concept of the common heritage of humanity and access to it is in

the public interest, and must be provided as a global public commitment to

equality“.

• Measures to promote capacity building in "developing" countries with regard to

increasing "developing" country participation in global public policy forums on

internet governance.

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Global Internet Ecosystem

There is no

definitive list

of organisations

and there are

a lot of

participants!

Some of the significant entities

include:

• Internet Society (ISOC)

• Internet Engineering Task Force

(IETF)

• Internet Architecture Board (IAB)

• Internet Corporation for Assigned

Names and Numbers (ICANN)

• Internet Assigned Numbers

Authority (IANA)

• Regional Internet Registries (RIRs)

• Regional Network Operators

Groups (*nogs)

• W3C, ITU, and many more!

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Global Internet Ecosystem - RIRs

The RIRs are responsible, within their

assigned regions, for allocating globally

unique IP addresses (IPv4 and IPv6) and

autonomous system numbers (ASNs).

Allocation policies are determined in-

region through open policy development

processes.

Number Resource Organisation (NRO) is

comprised of the five RIRs and

coordinates global allocation policies.

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Global Internet Ecosystem - *NOGs

• *NOGs focus on information exchange between ISPs and network operators within a region.

• They work to deliver key information and experiences to those who need it – the network operator.

• The act as a human networking opportunity so people can meet and interact with their peers and other companies. Critical for when things go bad on the network!

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Ghana Internet Ecosystem

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Ghana Internet Ecosystem Cont.

• Policies: reforms since '96, ICT4AD...

• Laws: NCA,NITA, ETA,DP Acts

• Regulators: NCA, NITA, Data Protection

Commissioner,...

• Providers: GISPA,

• Civil Society: Telecom chambe, ISOC, ITAG,

GASSCOM, GhNOG, Consumer Protection Agency,

GhIGF..,GhNIC

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WCIT-12

• ITU convened the World Conference on International

Telecommunications (WCIT) in Dubai, United Arab

Emirates, from 3-14 December 2012.

• This conference reviewed the current International

Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs), which

serve as the binding global treaty designed to

facilitate international interconnection and

interoperability of information and communication

services, as well as ensuring their efficiency and

widespread public usefulness and availability.

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Snowdenism

• Revelations about NSA, GCHQ Massive Online

Pervasive Surveillance Activities

• Xkeyscore

• Tempora

• Prism

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I* Montevideo Statement

• The leaders of organizations responsible for

coordination of the Internet technical infrastructure

globally met in Montevideo, Uruguay, to consider

current issues affecting the future of the Internet

following revelations by Edward Snowden.

• The I* (ISOC,ICANN, IETF/IAB, IANA and 5 RIRs)

organizations in their statement stressed the need to

maintain an open, resilient, stable, secure,

unfragmented(single) Internet.

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Panel on Global Internet Corporation &

Governance Mechanisms

• Chaired by President Toomas Ilves of Estonia, and vice chaired by Vint Cerf,

the Panel met during a series of in-person and virtual meetings from

November 2013 to May 2014.

• By end of May, the Panel released its final report: “Towards a Collaborative,

Decentralized Internet Governance Ecosystem”

• The purpose and specific mandate of this Panel was to advance discussion

on Internet governance issues, identify the framework, principles and

processes to evolve the IG ecosystem, and present a roadmap for the

evolution of global Internet cooperation.

• The Panel’s Report presents recommended next steps towards a developed,

collaborative, decentralized Internet governance ecosystem (by 2017)

reflecting the velocity and transnational nature of the Internet.

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Panel Topline Recommendations

• Coalesce and support broad multistakeholder alliances;

• Develop new and strengthen existing IG mechanisms;

• Evolve collaborative decision-making;

• Establish urgently needed sustainable funding and resource models to

enable IG evolution and to strengthen and operationalize the collaborative

IG ecosystem;

• Support ICANN accountability and IANA globalization;

• Explore additional questions to be answered for moving forward.

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/1Net

• The purpose of 1net is to provide an inclusive and

open venue supporting discussion of Internet

governance matters for all those interested

(individuals, governments, civil societies, technicians,

etc.) and to deliver the results of those discussions to

the agendas of established and developing Internet

governance institutions.

• Discussions on /1net happens on the /1net mailing list

and periodic publications on the /1net website.

• Visit www.1net.org to get engaged

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NTIA/IANA Stewardship Transition

• The NTIA under the US Commerce Department in

March 2014 announced its intention to transition its

oversight responsibility of the IANA Functions to the

Global Internet Community after its contract with

ICANN expires in 2015

• Visit www.icann.org/stewardship to get engaged

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NETMundial

• The Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance dubbed

NETMundial took place in Sao Paolo, Brazil from April 23-24, 2014.

• NEMundial Executive Secretariat consolidated 188 content contributions made by

stakeholders into a draft Outcome document. Draft outcome document was made

available for public comments between April 15th and 21st.

• A total of 1,370 comments were received, consolidated into one single report by

NEMundial Executive Secretariat

• The meeting congregated 1,480 stakeholders with active voices (including remote

participation), from a diversity of 97 nations.

• The meeting followed an initiative proposed by CGI.br and /1net.

• Visit http://netmundial.br/ for more information on NetMundial and to download the

final version NetMundial Outcome document

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Enhancing ICANN Accountability

• How should ICANN’s broader accountability

mechanisms be strengthened to address the absence

of its historical contractual relationship to the U.S.

Government?

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Where to Engage

• Global IGF

• Africa IGF

• West Africa IGF

• Local Internet Activities (Capacity building, Policy

Development etc)

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Where to Engage

Standards

Development

• IETF

• W3C

Network

Organisations

• *nogs

• ISOC

Policy and

Regulation

• ISOC

• ICANN

• RIRs

• ITU

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Lessons for Ghana

The world will not wait for us while we take forever to

decide when and how we engage in Global Internet

Governance discussions! The time to get involved is now,

Ghana!!!

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References

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multistakeholder_governance_model

2. http://www.itu.int/wsis/docs2/tunis/off/6rev1.html

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Summit_on_the_Information_Society

4. http://www.itu.int/en/wcit-12/Pages/default.aspx

5. https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/effect-2012-02-25-en

6. http://www.internetsociety.org/news/montevideo-statement-future-internet-

cooperation

7. https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2013-12-13-en

8. http://internetgovernancepanel.org/sites/default/files/ipdf/XPL_ICAN1403_I

nternet%20Governance%20iPDF_06.pdf

9. http://1net.org/about

10. https://www.icann.org/stewardship

11. http://netmundial.br/

12. https://www.icann.org/public-comments/enhancing-accountability-2014-05-

06-en

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The End