Dear All, Warm Greetings! Following the MAG meeting at the United Nations Headquarters in New York where we convened to grade workshop proposals for the IGF that will be held in Guadalajara, Mexico between 4th-6th December, 2016, I went to the Retreat where 35 people deliberated on process of continual improvement of the IGF. Below is a brief report and should you have any questions, please feel free to email me offline. A two-day working retreat was facilitated by the United Nations Secretariat for 14-16 July 2016 in Glen Cove, New York on Advancing the 10-Year Mandate of the IGF, as part of the process of continual improvement of the IGF. I am attaching the Summary of Proceedings and a picture of Retreat Participants. It was a privilege to be part of the Retreat and for those of you who made substantive input prior to the Retreat, thank you. There is an open call for input and comments on proceedings to allow you to add your creative energy and thought processes on how to better improve the IGF process. The retreat is part of a larger ongoing process aimed at improving the IGF. The retreat facilitated a strategic dialogue to be held among experts, policymakers and practitioners in enriching IGF as the global forum for facilitating multistakeholder policy discussion and exchange on public policy issues related to key elements of Internet governance, in order to foster the sustainability, robustness, security, stability and development of the Internet, as mandated the *Tunis Agenda para 72.* As part of the discussion, the retreat welcomed inputs on how IGF can contribute to the implementation of the *2030 Agenda for **Sustainable Development.* To recall, in the outcome document of the General Assembly on the overall review of the outcomes of WSIS (A/RES/70/125 of 16 December 2015), the existing mandate of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) was extended for another 10 years, with a call to show “progress on working modalities and the participation of relevant stakeholders from developing countries” and “accelerated implementation of recommendations in the report of the Working Group on Improvements to the Internet Governance Forum of the Commission on Science and Technology for Development” The document summarising the proceedings of the IGF Retreat is now online on the IGF website : To download PDF of the proceedings: http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/documents/igf-meeting/igf-2016/812-igf-retrea... To comment on the proceedings (blog style) : http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/2016-06-23-15-15-52/igf-retreat-proceedings *Public Consultation:* Additionally, we are preparing for a public consultation. A compilation (organized by topic) of the ideas and suggestions that emerged from the retreat will be made available in a format that permits paragraph by paragraph commenting. This public consultation will be open until *26 September, 2016*. Please share your comments and additional suggestions for review by the community, and as input to the 2016 Internet Governance Forum (IGF): ‘Enabling Inclusive and Sustainable Growth’, scheduled to take place from 6-9 December 2016 in Guadalajara, Mexico. *Additional Information about Processes surrounding the Retreat* Finally, for those who may be interested, the process followed during the retreat was the following: - retreat agenda agreed after public comment period and review by retreat participants - each session was facilitated by 2 retreat participants, and supported by 1 session rapporteur (also a retreat participant) - most sessions used break-out groups (except for introductory and summing up sessions) - a rapporteur was chosen for each break-out group (a retreat participant chosen by the group) - each break-out group rapporteur reported back to the full group and the session rapporteur captured the comments - additionally, all the DESA/IGF secretariat personnel took notes and these were synthesized into the facilitator's session reports, which all participants were asked to review Kind Regards, -- *Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro aka Sala T* *P. O. Box 17862* *Suva* *Republic of Fiji* *Cell: +679 7656770; * *Home: +679 3362003* *Twitter: @SalanietaT* *"You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honour." Aristotle*
