The original objective of the fellowship program was to permit to now participants from developing and least developed countries who wouldn’t be able to make it without the financial support of the fellowship program. So, the program excluded former active participants and people from developed countries. This seems to be changed since the fellows for Panama meeting included a former vice chair of the GAC, and the fellows for Barcelona meeting include 2 fellows from US, one from Russia and one from China. This means that ICANN is spending money to bring very experienced people, and people from the most developed countries. Is this the objective of the fellowship program. I noticed that the proposed fellowship approach didn’t include any word on the objective of the program. I believe that this is a missing part of the proposal that must be added. According to the above, I propose to change the fellows selection criteria in this way: Revise Selection Criteria 1. Review and revamp criteria for selection of applicants within the below framework points; individuals with desired skills that meet all other criteria to be given special consideration 2. Ensure that the applicant comes from an underserved region (UN list of developing and least developed countries) 3. Prioritize diversity of applicant pool 4. Limit the fellowship for each eligible applicant to a maximum of three-time 5. Ensure that the applicant is a newcomer (within the limit of 3 times as a fellow) 6. Work with relevant community groups to verify active engagement of returning fellows 7. Publish information on application numbers and selection criteria 8. Rank candidates according to point-based selection criteria 9. Host an information session at one ICANN meeting per year on selection committee criteria; revise criteria as needed ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tijani BEN JEMAA Executive Director Mediterranean Federation of Internet Associations (FMAI) Phone: +216 98 330 114 +216 52 385 114 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------