Executive Committee Summary Records Summary Record of 70th meeting of the Executive Committee – 20 April 2023

Jun 26, 2023 | Meeting Summary Records, Reports and Meeting Minutes

Internet Governance Forum Support Association (IGFSA)

70th meeting of the Executive Committee

20 April, 2023

 

  1. The Executive Committee held its 70th meeting on 20 April 2023. The meeting took place in a virtual setting with the following participants: Amrita Choudhury (chair), Markus Kummer (chair emeritus), Nigel Hickson (Treasurer), Flavio Wagner, Amado Espinosa, Fiona Asonga, Anriette Esterhuysen; Jennifer Chung (Secretariat). Apologies were received from Chris Mondini. A quorum was established for the meeting, with six of the nine Executive Committee members taking part. The IGF Secretariat was invited to join the call, with Chengetai Masango and Anja Gengo in attendance.

 

  1. The Agenda was adopted as circulated, and the summary record of the 69th meeting was approved to be posted on the IGFSA website.

 

  1. The IGF Secretariat was invited to join the IGFSA EC call to foster closer coordination on NRI support and other related matters. The IGF Secretariat gave an update on the grants available to the NRIs. It was mentioned that the funding levels at maximum were as follows: National $5,000 USD, Subregional $6,000 USD, Regional $12,000 USD (youth initiatives also eligible at the requisite levels). The received applications are going through assessment and due diligence processes and will go to the UN Grants Committee before there is a final decision.

 

  1. It was discussed that IGFSA will continue to coordinate with the IGF Secretariat to ensure that the widest possible number of NRIs can be supported with the funds, thus NRIs who are successful with one grant request will not be considered for the other grant. The IGFSA Secretariat noted that the funding levels from the IGF Secretariat grant is higher than the current levels from the IGFSA and thus NRIs may choose to prioritize one over the others. It was noted that there will be communication with the applicant focal points regarding this.

 

  1. There was a brief discussion on the role of the NRIs on WSIS +20 and the role IGFSA can play with supporting any funding efforts needed. It was also mentioned that the IGF Secretariat can also communicate to IGFSA any donors that may have wanted to donate to the IGF Trust Fund but for other purposes/requirements could not.

 

  1. The IGF Secretariat gave an update on the preparations for IGF 2023 and noted that the progress is smooth and will intensify after the G7 meeting as the host country team is also handling this meeting. It was noted that IGFSA should let the IGF Secretariat know in advance if the IGFSA GA will also be held during day zero of IGF 2023.

 

  1. The IGFSA Secretariat gave an update on the current status of funding requests. It was noted that Liberia IGF and Youth IGF Benin is on the approved pending status. Moldova IGF, Youth Bangladesh IGF are eligible. Youth IGF Nepal is pending eligbility. PAC IGF requires more information on the request. It was agreed that there will be further coordination with the IGF Secretariat with their pending and shortlisted grant recipients to ensure there is not doubling up of funding.

 

  1. There was an update from the Treasurer regarding the status of IGFSA finances. It was noted that there is approximately 970 Swiss Francs in the Swiss account, 193k in the USD in the USD account. There will be disbursement to the IGFSA accountant for his services and some pending requests that are still on-going.

 

  1. There was a discussion about donors that make up a large percentage of IGFSA available funding. It was noted that Google funding is a large percentage of the IGFSA available resources and more needs to be done to see how IGFSA can retain or outreach to previous donors to return.

 

Communications and outreach

  1. It was noted that EC members can promote IGFSA at the NRI meetings that they will be attending, the IGFSA Secretariat took an action to look at the calendar of NRI activities were IGFSA EC members will be attending and map out the messaging.

 

  1. AOB
    1. The Secretariat noted that there can be a demo of the crowdfunding options at the next EC call or at a dedicated call on fund-raising.