IGF 2020 to be held in Poland

Fri Jun 7 15:59:32 EEST 2019

It is hardly a secret, and anyone who goes through and reads the documents can establish the facts for himself/herself. I appreciate that, as you are a former consultant to the IGF Secretariat, you may have a particular interest in this topic, but whether this fact is well-known or not to IGF Secretariat staff/consultants is an entirely different matter. I do not think it is my responsibility to crawl through the online archives and to provide the evidence here. It's not like I went actively and extensively searching for this information. Anyone would be able to find the same information with a little research and by reading through the email archives.

Ayden Férdeline

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
On Friday, 7 June 2019 22:49, James Gannon <james at CYBERINVASION.NET> wrote:

> I would suggest that if you want to make a claim on a public list that you at least have a factual basis to back it up no?
>
> As the person making the claim (Which is unknown to anyone I have spoken to in the IGF sphere today) the onus is on you to back it up.
>
> From: Ayden Férdeline <icann at ferdeline.com>
> Reply-To: Ayden Férdeline <icann at ferdeline.com>
> Date: Friday, 7 June 2019 at 22:48
> To: James Gannon <james at cyberinvasion.net>
> Cc: "NCSG-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU" <NCSG-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU>
> Subject: Re: IGF 2020 to be held in Poland
>
> I am not your researcher - please read the list and the documents yourself. None of this is breaking news, and frankly, finding citations in support of this is not something I have time to do. I have read these documents before, so I know they exist if you go looking for them.
>
> Ayden
>
> ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
>
> On Friday, 7 June 2019 22:44, James Gannon <james at CYBERINVASION.NET> wrote:
>
>> Can you point to the source of your claim that the host country pays the MAG Chair?
>>
>> From: Ayden Férdeline <icann at ferdeline.com>
>> Reply-To: Ayden Férdeline <icann at ferdeline.com>
>> Date: Friday, 7 June 2019 at 22:43
>> To: James Gannon <james at cyberinvasion.net>
>> Cc: "NCSG-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU" <NCSG-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU>
>> Subject: Re: IGF 2020 to be held in Poland
>>
>> The IGF mailing list is public and does have some interesting material in there; I encourage people to read the archives then.
>>
>> Ayden
>>
>> ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
>>
>> On Friday, 7 June 2019 22:41, James Gannon <james at cyberinvasion.net> wrote:
>>
>>> The former UNDESA payment I was aware of, I have never heard of (Before today) the host country paying it since the discontinuation of the UNDESA payment.
>>>
>>> From: Ayden Férdeline <icann at ferdeline.com>
>>> Reply-To: Ayden Férdeline <icann at ferdeline.com>
>>> Date: Friday, 7 June 2019 at 22:31
>>> To: James Gannon <james at cyberinvasion.net>
>>> Cc: "NCSG-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU" <NCSG-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU>
>>> Subject: Re: IGF 2020 to be held in Poland
>>>
>>> I thought it was reasonably well-known that the MAG Chair was paid.
>>>
>>> Though previously paid by UNDESA, I understand it is now the host country which funds this.
>>>
>>> The rationale, as noted in Samantha Dickinson's [blog](https://linguasynaptica.com/category/un/igf/page/2/), is as follows: "In an effort to improve IGF more long-term, this year, UN DESA took the extraordinary step of paying the MAG Chair to oversee work to address the ongoing funding shortfall for the IGF as well as “set up the 2nd decade to meet the potential of the IGF”.[3]
>>>
>>> [3] The decision to pay the MAG Chair raises an important issue for the multistakeholder IGF: while governments and the large businesses can afford to fund the activities of their staff performing the role of MAG Chair, civil society, least developed country governments and SMEs generally do not have such resources. Paying or reimbursing MAG Chairs might be the only way to diversify representation at that level, but also risks creating the sort of Internet governance gravy train already seen in some ICANN constituencies."
>>>
>>> Note that she is paid substantially less than the former Executive Coordinator was (though their roles are different, the MAG Chair has absorbed many of these responsibilities).
>>>
>>> Ayden Férdeline
>>>
>>> ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
>>>
>>> On Friday, 7 June 2019 22:16, James Gannon <james at CYBERINVASION.NET> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Not mentioned in the IGF Financial Docs at all.
>>>>
>>>> Could you give a pointer to the data?
>>>>
>>>> From: NCSG-Discuss <NCSG-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU> on behalf of Ayden Férdeline <icann at FERDELINE.COM>
>>>> Reply-To: Ayden Férdeline <icann at FERDELINE.COM>
>>>> Date: Friday, 7 June 2019 at 21:52
>>>> To: "NCSG-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU" <NCSG-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU>
>>>> Subject: Re: IGF 2020 to be held in Poland
>>>>
>>>> It is not an allegation. It is a fact. If members of the MAG are unaware, I suggest that they read the historical documents on the IGF website.
>>>>
>>>> Best wishes,
>>>>
>>>> Ayden
>>>>
>>>> Sent from ProtonMail Mobile
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, Jun 7, 2019 at 15:26, Arsène Tungali <arsenebaguma at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Ayden, do you have a way to prouve these “allegations” about the stipend paid to the MAG Chair?
>>>>>
>>>>> This is unknown from most of us on the MAG and it is known that this is volunteer work!
>>>>>
>>>>> I would appreciate to hear more on this!
>>>>>
>>>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>>>
>>>>>> On 07 Jun 2019, at 14:53, Ayden Férdeline <icann at ferdeline.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> That sounds plausible to me. I believe the meeting in Guadalajara cost $6 million, but keep in mind the Mexican government chose to re-paint the conference venue as it had been open for over a year and had only hosted one other conference in that time...
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> And I believe the host pays the stipend for the MAG Chair, which is in excess of $125,000 for the four days of the IGF meeting, along with her substantial business class travel costs representing the IGF at external fora such as the WEF throughout the year. Anecdotally I am told her annual travel costs far more than her stipend.
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> And there are other costs involved that we do not see, in terms of paying for transcription, translation for high-level sessions, catering for high-level participants, the invitation-only gala for governments and friends of the MAG chair, bringing in security from New York, travel for MAG members, etc.
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> Ayden Férdeline
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
>>>>>
>>>>>> On Thursday, 6 June 2019 22:47, Arsène Tungali <arsenebaguma at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Arsène do you have a source for your numbers? Not that I doubt them, but I'd be curious to have a more granular understanding of the expenses related to an IGF meeting.
>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>> Chengetai said something like this: Host countries do not have to share the budget with us (read, the IGF Secretariat). But the cost is generally between $2-3M, less than that if it is at UN facilities.
>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>> You can check when the recording of the MAG meeting will be out.
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>
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