Annual Report 2017-2018

Internet Governance Forum Support Association (IGFSA)

 Annual Report 2017-2018

• Full Annual Report PDF
• 2018 IGFSA Finances (January to October)
• Verbatim transcript of 2018 fifth General Assembly proceedings

This report covers the Association’s activities between its fourth General Assembly, held in Geneva, Switzerland, on 19 December 2017 and its fifth General Assembly, to be held in Paris, France, on 12 November 2018:

1.         Structures of the Association

a)         The General Assembly

The IGFSA held its fourth General Assembly during the 13th IGF in Geneva, Switzerland, on 19 December 2018.  More than 50 IGFSA Members attended the meeting in person.

The General Assembly approved the 2018 Budget Allocation.

Two members of the IGFSA Executive Committee, Tarek Kamel and Jimson Olufuye, were up for renewal. One incoming IGFSA member, Manu Bhardwaj, sought election to the open seat of the IGFSA Executive Committee.

The following three candidates were elected or re-elected to the IGFSA Executive Committee:

• Mr. Tarek Kamel, incumbent Executive Committee Member;
• Mr. Jimson Olufuye, incumbent IGFSA Executive Committee Member;
• Mr. Manu Bhardwaj, new Executive Committee Member.

b)         The Executive Committee

The full 2017-2018 IGFSA Executive Committee was constituted as follows:

• Markus Kummer, (Chair)
• Mr. Manu Bhardwaj, Mastercard
• Marilyn Cade, mCADE LLC
• Karen McCabe, IEEE
• Edmon Chung, DotAsia Organisation
• Tarek Kamel, ICANN
• Jimson Olufuye, AfiCTA
• Eduardo Santoyo, .co

Karen McCabe, in January asked to be relieved of her duties, due to conflicting professional commitments. The Executive Committee thanked her for her services.

In July, the Executive Committee was saddened to hear about the unexpected and premature passing of Manu Bhardwaj. Manu cared deeply about equality, dignity and justice for all and believed in the promises the Internet holds for solving issues of inequality and exclusion. The Executive Committee asks all IGFSA members to honor Manu’s memory.

The Executive Committee held five meetings over the course of the year. Some meetings were held in person, or in conjunction with an ICANN meeting. All physical meetings had remote participation available via a communication application.

In carrying out its tasks, the Executive Committee is supported by Jennifer Chung as the Association’s Secretary. The DotAsia organisation took over from the Internet Society running the website and performing other administrative tasks, as the arrangement with the Internet Society came to an end of 2017.

c)         Membership

The Executive Committee informs the General Assembly that the following new members were admitted in 2017:

This brings the total of registered IGFSA Members up to 190.

2. Activities of the Association

a)         Fundraising

In 2018 the Association received a total of USD 117,500 in contributions. Below is a breakdown of the contributions received as of 1 November 2018:

Since its inception at the 2014 IGF in Istanbul, IGFSA has raised USD 752.910.80  

b)         Budget and allocation of Funds

(i) Overview

A detailed table on the IGFSA revenues and expenditure is provided attached at annex to this report.

The 2017 General Assembly agreed to adapt the allocation of funds to the growing demand and the increased number of NRIs and therefore to prioritize the NRIs. The allocation of funds was adjusted accordingly.

The General Assembly also agreed to provide a fellowship to the IGF Secretariat’s NRI coordinator, Anja Gengo, as an in-kind contribution.

The Executive Committee revised the allocation of funds at its meeting on 22 February 2018. In particular, it looked at the budget line reserved for contingency funds. The 8% reserved for this purpose had led to an accumulated contingency fund of USD 42,000.00. The Executive Committee concluded that there was no need to keep such a large amount for contingency and therefore decided to lower this amount and, going forward, to reserve USD 10,000.00 for contingency and free the reserves to support the IGF and the NRIs. As the dynamics of the NRIs growth went beyond expectations, the Executive Committee decided to apply the budget allocation formula in a flexible manner and to give priority to the NRIs: This decision was communicated to the membership and received the support of IGFSA members.

 (ii)       Regional/National IGF Initiatives (NRIs)

The Executive Committee attached a high priority to strengthen, seek and promote exchange and collaboration with National and Regional IGF Initiatives (NRIs), with a focus on NRIs from developing countries and economies in transition. This is one of the purposes of the IGFSA, according to Article 3 of the Articles of Association. A pre-condition for being considered as a recipient of IGFSA funding is to be recognized by the IGFSA Secretariat and listed on the IGF website.

As part of this priority, in 2018, IGFSA contributed a total of USD 91,500 to the NRIs.

USD 31,500 were allocated to 9 Regional and Sub-Regional IGF and USD 60,000 to 29 National Initiatives.

9 Regional and Sub-Regional IGF received 3500 USD funding:

1. African IGF (for 2017 and 2018)
2. APrIGF
3. Central Asia IGF
4. EuroDIG
5. LAC IGF
6. Pacific IGF
7. SEEDIG
8. West Africa IGF

31 National IGFs were approved to receive 2000 USD funding:

1. Afghanistan IGF
2. Albania IGF
3. Argentina Internet Dialogues
4. Armenia IGF
5. Barbados IGF
6. Belarus IGF
7. Benin IGF
8. Bosnia and Herzegovina IGF
9. Colombia IGF
10. Costa Rica IGF
11. DR Congo IGF
12. Ecuador IGF 
13. Georgia IGF
14. Guatemala IGF
15. Haiti IGF
16. Indonesia IGF
17. Kenya IGF
18. Macedonia IGF
19. Mauritius IGF
20. Namibia IGF
21. Nepal IGF
22. Nigeria IGF
23. Paraguay IGF
24. San Salvador IGF
25. Senegal IGF
26. St Vincent & Grenadines IGF
27. Trinidad & Tobago IGF
28. Tanzania IGF
29. The Gambia IGF
30. Ukraine IGF
31. Venezuela IGF

(iii)       Contribution to the UN-IGF Trust Fund 

The Executive Committee at its meeting on 23 October 2018 decided to make a contribution of USD 10,000 to the UN-IGF Trust Fund, bringing up the total of its contributions to the UN to USD 270,000.

 (iv)      Outreach/Communications/Miscellaneous

The IGFSA Executive Committee and the Secretariat made use of various events to promote the Association, raise awareness and recruit new members, such as NRI and MAG meetings, and ICANN meetings.

IGFSA held an informational luncheon/outreach session during ICANN 63 in Barcelona on 23 October 2018.