Dear MEAC community, For your ease of access to the ME Draft statement I'm copying and pasting it in this email hoping to hear some feedback from you. Middle East Space ICANN 66 in Montreal, Canada Draft Statement About the Next Steps to Improve the Effectiveness of ICANN’s MSM We, the Middle East (ME) community members participating in the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ICANN 66 Public Meetings <https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.com/url?q%3Dhttps://meetings...> in Montreal, Canada, and attending the Middle East Space session on November 2019, commented on the document put forward by ICANN in relation to “ The Next Steps to improve the effectiveness of ICANN’s Multi-Stakeholder Model (MSM)” to develop a work plan for evolving ICANN’s MSM. The ME community and in consultation with the wider ME community supports the work undertaken by the MSM evolvement team to develop a work plan to tackle the issues previously identified by the ICANN community as hindering the effective functionality of the model and we take this opportunity to contribute to these efforts with the comments found herein. In developing our comments we considered the identified issues, the stakeholder groups that could be responsible for solving the issue and whenever possible the timing and resources required to address the issue. Issue 1 – Prioritization of Work ICANN’s planning process addresses the prioritization of work in terms of “go/no go” based on the needs of the five year strategic plan and the associated goals that ICANN is looking forward to achieve. A more detailed prioritization, that breaks down the initial priorities and deals with the tasks and activities carried out by the community to achieve the identified goals is required. Prioritizing ICANN's community activities, as an example whether they go in parallel or subsequently and elaborating on the benefits of each will allow for a better allocation of resources and budgeting and could help address the issue of volunteers burnout. A committee representing all stakeholder groups with balanced regional and sub regional representation could be seen responsible for this task, as one group may point out a necessity and priority not seen by others, in addition ICANN org contribution to this could be of benefit and we see it as part of the MSM work plan. Issue 2 – Precision in Scoping Work In relation to ICANN’s precision in scoping work, input from regional community strategy working groups like the MEAC SWG is essential and we note that the strategy working groups align their work with ICANN’s five-year strategic plan. Having a process that ensures that the needs of the community are taken into consideration is essential. However, we see this carried by ICANN global stakeholder engagement team and therefore not necessary part of the MSM work plan. In relation to the precision in scoping the work of the different working groups a guideline to all stakeholders encouraging them to be as specific as possible when writing the scope of their work and putting guidance in relation to change requests could be helpful specifically in avoiding scope creep. Issue 3 – Efficient Use of Resources and Costs While we regard this item as being potentially addressed by the mentioned solutions we note that proper prioritization of the work is a crucial element to the efficient use of the resources, especially in relation to the volunteers. The number of volunteers from the ME is currently limited and therefore we note as well the importance of the financial resources allocated to the region, which is necessary to capacity building and raising awareness required for more active and capable participants from the region. Issue 4 – Roles and Responsibilities and a Holistic view of ICANN There is a need to review how the three basic elements of ICANN’s MSM, the board, the organization and the community work together within their defined roles and responsibilities to achieve ICANN goals effectively and efficiently. We do not see this element currently addressed through the proposed solutions and therefore we regard it as an essential element of the MSM work plan. Issue 5 – Representation, Inclusivity, Recruitment and Demographics The existing solutions address the issue. However, due to the importance of the issue as it addresses one of the main three elements of the MSM which is the community we would suggest that after the proposed work is complete, an evaluation is done that measures the aggregate effect of all the ongoing efforts in this regard. Issue 6 – Culture + Trust + Silos The ME community recognizes trust as an issue that could hinder cooperation and working together culture. Trust-building is a dynamic process and the proposed existing solutions like global stakeholder engagement, ICANN fellowship, ICANN fellowship mentor, next gen and next gen ambassadors all contribute in this regard. However, Individual experiences and actions can at any point serve as a turning point in developing trust affecting one of ICANN’s MSM core elements. We therefore see that developing-trust should be on the MSM work plan. Issue 7 – Complexity Addressing the issue of complexity is crucial to the development of work within the ICANN community, ensuring diversity and inclusivity. Though existing activities like MEAC-SIG and ME GNSO training contribute to the solution more planned workshops and capacity building is essential for wide informed participation. To that end we believe the issue of complexity should be part of the MSM work plan in order to be addressed at the strategic level. Issue 8 – Consensus The work developed by GNSO PDP 3.0 implementation plan could successfully tackle this issue. However, we cannot comment on a final solution we haven’t seen yet. We note that activities like the ME DNS forums provide a good platform for the community to interact, exchange information and agree on many of the discussed issues.

On Mon, Sep 30, 2019, 03:18 Nadira Alaraj <nadira.araj@gmail.com> wrote:

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Dear All,

First of all, we would like to commend the diligent effort of Hadia El Miniawi, the pen-holder of the ICANN 66 ME Space statement “*About the Next Steps to Improve the Effectiveness of ICANN’s MSM*". Together with the other members of the drafting team that comprise from Chokri Ben Romdhane, Hanan Khatib and Zakir Syed.

The following Google Document link to the first draft is for your review and comments.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/166dt6mzneVwT2yB2P7XN-_Ol3uMo-o3kYaaE4t6F...

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Following the planned schedule below, the comment period will be open from today September 30th until October 10th, followed by the integration of the comments received to get the final version ready by October 21st.

Looking forward to more feedback and insights from the ME community.

Best wishes,

MEAC Space Leading Team

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The timeline for the ME Space in Montreal is:

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*Date* *Days* *Action* August 19 - 30 12 Call for topics September 2 Announcement of the selected Topic September 2 - 13 11 Call for volunteers for the drafting team September 16 Announcement of the drafting team composition September 16 - 30 14 Drafting of the statement (1st draft) September 30 Publishing of the 1st draft for comments Sept. 30 to October 10 10 Comment period for the 1st draft of the statement October 11 - 18 8 Drafting of the final version October 21 Final draft published

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