[Gnso-sc-budget] New backdoor into fellowship

Tue Feb 6 18:56:40 UTC 2018

It is not a conspiracy to bring people to the fellowship. It  came through
the regional strategies that are independent. They use the fellowship to
give onboarding to their selected individuals. That's the explanation, now,
let's critic the initiative it self for using more money or criteria on the
selection. It has nothing tondo with the fellowship program.

Cheers,
Martin

On 6 Feb 2018 08:39, "Ayden Férdeline" <icann at ferdeline.com> wrote:

Thanks for your comments, Martín.

I don't see how this could be seen as anything but a backdoor into the
fellowship. In the original email
<https://lists.ncuc.org/pipermail/ncuc-discuss/2018-February/043610.html>
from GSE they write, "Selected candidates will be part of the Fellowship
program and will be granted equivalent travel and accommodation support, as
well as attend capacity building sessions during the meeting."

However, this programme is not being funded through the fellowship
programme's budget. It is funded through GSE's budget and we have confirmed
with the programme administrator that the selected participants will not be
fellows-in-name, but 'honourary' fellows. The selected participants will be
chosen by ICANN staff and not subject to the community-led selection panel
who select the fellowship programme's fellows. There is no published
selection criteria for this new programme, it has only been advertised on
our (NCSG) mailing list and not publicly, and the application deadline is
very tight. I do not think this is a responsible way to administer a
programme.

It is true that this is funded through this fiscal year's budget, not FY19,
and so perhaps it was approved before there was a need for spending to
tighten. Hopefully it will not continue next year. But I find many of GSE's
activities to be opaque and I am worried that this 'backdoor' might become
a way for a bloated fellowship programme - or for travel slots to be
awarded to community members who are not participating in policy work - to
continue.

This is really not a conspiracy theory. I think this is something we need
to confront in our comment.

Ayden

-------- Original Message --------
On 6 February 2018 5:05 PM, Martin Pablo Silva Valent <
mpsilvavalent at gmail.com> wrote:

It is not a backdoor to the fellowship program, it was set in  motion from
another strategic plan, another budget and unrelated to fellowship in any
way (and before the budget cut proposals)  Let's don't go into conspiracy,
we can easily critic this new gse initiative, if we want to, with its own
merits. Not everything revolves on fellowship!

Cheers,
Martin

On 6 Feb 2018 03:01, "Ayden Férdeline" <icann at ferdeline.com> wrote:

The Council has previously expressed concerns regarding ICANN's spend on
global engagement activities, and I share these concerns. While I think
there is some value in this work, I do not think I/we have the metrics
available to assess their effectiveness relative to the amount that is
being expended. If I am reading the table on page 12 of document #2
correctly, expenditure on GSE activities is projected to be $30m in FY19.

Comprehensive as the budget documents are, they do not make it easy to
understand what GSE actually does. Even if I was generous in my appraisal
of their activities based on my personal interactions with GSE staff at
non-ICANN events like the IGF, WSIS, and EuroDIG, it is probably fair to
say that they do than I realise. (Which is a good thing, because if all
they are doing is attending events and buying stakeholders drinks, it's
probably not the best use of resources.)

So I am trying to understand what it is that the GSE does. And as it
happens, an email was sent to one of the NCSG's mailing lists
<https://lists.ncuc.org/pipermail/ncuc-discuss/2018-February/043610.html>
last week by GSE, offering to bring four of our newcomers to the Panama
City meeting. This has led to some discussion within our member
constituencies over the selection process, as the fellowship programme
itself - imperfect as it may be - has community involvement in the
selection of fellows. This olive branch from GSE, however, will see ICANN
staff choose the newcomers that are brought to ICANN 62.

I do not want to bore you with our internal discussions. What I do want to
note is that the GSE seems to be using resources now to bring community
members to ICANN meetings. We have confirmed off-list that the community
members funded through this programme will be funded from the GSE budget
and not from the fellowship programme. My concern, therefore, is that this
is a new backdoor into the fellowship programme.

In the FY19 budget I was pleased to learn that the number of fellowship
slots had been cut to 30 (which is still more fellows than I think the
community has the capacity to onboard). However, with the GSE now funding
the travel of newcomers from their budget, I am concerned that there may
not be a reduction at all in the number of supported travellers
participating in ICANN-funded capacity building programmes.

I just want to flag this. I am not sure if you will agree that this is
something the Council should comment on (though it is my view that it
should), but I think it is something we should monitor. When we are told in
the budget that there will be 30 fellows, I think it is reasonable to
expect that there will be just 30 fellows - not 30 fellows funded through
the fellowship programme, and more funded through alternative line items.
This is a sensitive issue in some stakeholder groups/constituencies,
particularly ones where many fellows gravitate after the fellowship
programme (as returning fellows are required to indicate on their
application form if they have joined an ICANN community, though they are
not required to show any level of engagement), and not one which I think
everyone would be able to comment on at the stakeholder group/constituency
level.

Food for thought,

 Ayden

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