GPD’s Head of Programmes selected to join UN’s Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation

GPD’s Head of Programmes Lea Kaspar has been selected to join the UN’s Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation (WGEC) as one of its five civil society representatives. Lea was put forward for this role by the Civil Society Coordination Group (CSCG) out of a shortlist of 25 candidates, and confirmed by the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD).

The WGEC – a multistakeholder group composed of 42 representatives from government, private sector, civil society, the technical community and academia, and international organisations – will be tasked with examining the mandate of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in relation to enhanced cooperation. Read the full list of members here.

Under the Chairmanship of Peter Major, the newly constituted WGEC will build on the efforts made by the previous iteration of the working group in 2013-2014, in the hope of reinvigorating the consensus building process amid the changing political environment of global internet governance.

As part of the Working Group, Lea’s focus will be on developing practical recommendations based on an issue-led understanding of roles and responsibilities, and a vision of enhanced cooperation grounded in principles of openness, transparency, and inclusiveness.

Since 2013, Lea has been closely involved with the WSIS Review process, contributing to a number of initiatives aimed at opening the process and broadening civil society participation. Last year, as a member of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Multistakeholder Advisory Board (MAG), she worked to bring WSIS Review discussions to the IGF community. She also served on the Stakeholder Selection Committee for the WSIS Review High-Level Meeting, and previously contributed to the 2013-2014 WGEC by playing a critical role in developing the mapping output of the Group, which served as the basis for the CSTD mapping report issued in November 2014.