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CEP template 2012

Building ‘multi-stakeholder’ consensus: The case of internet governance Tim Unwin Many international organisations have interests in internet governance and lay claim to primacy in decision-making on associated matters. Moreover, all too often there is little coordination between such organisations, resulting in similar conversations being held in different forums with little real action resulting. One of the most interesting features of this nexus is the way in which most of the bodies involved have in recent years come to use the term multi-stakeholder to refer to their constituencies and thus their legitimacy. Yet, they all define the term in different ways, reflecting their own particular interests, and few reflect a rigorous understanding of the complexities associated with the terminology or the considerable literature that exists on implementing effective multi-stakeholder partnerships in practice. Most of the major international bodies working in the field of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the internet use the term multi-stakeholderism to refer to the involvement of multiple stakeholders, usually including representation from governments, the private sector and civil society. However, the driving force for multi-stakeholderism within each organisation tends to be from the dominant sector that they represent. Broadly speaking, therefore, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) (a private sector, non-profit corporation) has tended to focus primarily on the interests of the private sector; the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), as a multistakeholder policy dialogue (nominally supporting the UN Secretary General), is widely seen as being the main vehicle through which The International Telecommunications Union is among the United Nations agencies looking at issues relating to internet governance. Pictured: The Palace of Nations, Geneva – the UN’s European headquarters Commonwealth Governance 76 Handbook 2014/15 Martin Good / Shutterstock.com


CEP template 2012
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