Page History
While the 'Enhancing the Effectiveness of ICANN's Multistakeholder Model' project was being conducted, the Board sought community input on the value of an ongoing evaluation method. Public comments overwhelmingly supported having a mechanism in place that allows for evaluation of impact of the proposed Work Plan to address the identified issues. As a result and critical to furtherance of this program, designing an evaluation methodology became the first major milestone of implementation phase of this project. To that end, ICANN org undertook designing a proposed evaluation methodology, to help the org, Board, and the community evaluate how the multistakeholder model has evolved.
The evaluation will assess design, implementation, or outcome of a project/initiative to help improve its effectiveness and/or inform future decision making by helping us to:
- Facilitate our thinking about what a given project is all about, including its goals and objectives, how the project will meet its goals and how we will know if it has met its goals or not.
- Track and review progress of the actions being implemented.
- Understand, verify, or increase the impact of processes or projects in furthering the important work of ICANN community, Board, and organization.
- Improve delivery mechanisms to be more efficient and less costly.
- Produce data or verify results that can be used by the community for future projects.
ICANN org has selected a number of projects from the list of projects/initiatives identified as those that when implemented could help address the issues hampering the effectiveness of MSM to evaluate and assess their impact on the workings of ICANN's Multistakeholder Model. Note that some of these projects are undergoing further developments. For example, ICANN org, in collaboration with the community, is further enhancing the consensus and process for policy development. In such cases, the latest versions of these documents/process will undergo evaluation.
Projects Selected for Evaluation
Projects that are currently not fully implemented will be evaluated once their implementation has been completed.
Additionally, there are a number of new projects, which started after MSM project list was created, that will also be evaluated to help ICANN org, Board, and community assess the improvements made to MSM over time and on a continuous basis. The list of these new initiatives/projects are as follows:
ATRT3 Recommendation 1 on Public Input | ||
Topic/Area: Prioritization of the work & efficient use of resources; Complexity of (A) the Tools to Access Information and Data and (B) Content | ||
Description | Status | Contribution to the MSM |
The Third Accountability and Transparency Review Team (ATRT3) issued a set of recommendations that serve to amplify existing initiatives to improve public comment proceedings and to improve ways how feedback from the community is collected. | Started | This effort will improve participants in the multistakeholder community’s ability to identify opportunities for how to best contribute to the multistakeholder process. This will also serve to increase understanding of expectations, allowing for an efficient use of resources and time. |
Continuous Improvement Program (ATRT3 Recommendation 3) | ||
Topic/Area: Prioritization of the work & efficient use of resources | ||
Description | Status | Contribution to the MSM |
The Third Accountability and Transparency Review Team (ATRT3) recommended the evolution of the content of Organizational Reviews into continuous improvement programs. The Board directed ICANN org to initiate the development of a project plan to implement a pilot in alignment with the ATRT3 intent, and in parallel with the views of ICANN structures. | Started | This initiative serves to identify opportunities for streamlining efforts and for ensuring resources are used appropriately and effectively. |
Work Stream 2 Community Coordination Group | ||
Topic/Area: Prioritization of the work & efficient use of resources, Precision in scoping the work, Culture, Trust, and Silos, Consensus, representation, and inclusivity | ||
Description | Status | Contribution to the MSM |
A dedicated Work Stream 2 (WS2) Community Coordination Group (CCG) was formed to serve as a forum for coordinating, prioritizing (as applicable), updating and reporting on each individual group’s implementation progress, as well as for coordinating community work on a set of recommendations that warrant a uniform community-wide approach. | Started | Thanks to the forum the community works together to identify opportunities for streamlining, prioritizing, and leveraging work. This alignment work and the associated exchange of best practices serve to ensure an appropriate use of resources and time, allows for better scoping of work and reinforces the culture of partnership in the multistakeholder community. |
Implementation Operations | ||
Topic/Area: Culture, Trust, and Silos, Prioritization of the work & efficient use of resources | ||
Description | Status | Contribution to the MSM |
Recommendations resulting from Specific Reviews and from the work of cross-community working groups are numerous, often quite complex, and require significant time and resources to implement effectively. To ensure a more formal and structured implementation of ‘non-policy’ recommendations and to ensure appropriate tools and processes are in place to implement improvements, ICANN org’s Implementation Operations department was created. | Started | Implementation of Board-approved, community-issued recommendations are important to ICANN remaining accountable to its community. Creation of this departments helps ensure implementation is carried out thoroughly, effectively, and in a sustainable manner, allowing for appropriate prioritization and use of resources while reinforcing trust that work is being appropriately addressed. |
Transparency of Board Deliberations | ||
Topic/Area: Culture, Trust, and Silos | ||
Description | Status | Contribution to the MSM |
Work Stream 2 of the Enhancing ICANN Accountability (WS2) provided a set of recommendations that serve to enhance transparency of ICANN Board deliberations. | Started | Accountability and transparency are key to multistakeholder community. Implementing WS2 recommendations on transparency of Board deliberations contributes to breaking silos and to reinforcing trust. |
Improvements to Ombuds Office | ||
Topic/Area: Culture, Trust, and Silos, Consensus, representation, and inclusivity | ||
Description | Status | Contribution to the MSM |
Work Stream 2 of the Enhancing ICANN Accountability (WS2) provided a set of recommendations that serve to improve effectiveness of the Ombuds Office. | Started | Implementation of the WS2 Ombud Office related improvements amplifies the culture of trust and strengthens the Ombuds Office as a tool accessible to all. |
Language Services | ||
Topic/Area: Consensus, representation, and inclusivity | ||
Description | Status | Contribution to the MSM |
Language services make information about ICANN and its work accessible to those who speak languages other than English in ways that enhance participation in, and the effectiveness of, the multistakeholder model. | Started | Translation facilitates access to ICANN and participation in its work thereby ensuring inclusivity and diversity of the multistakeholder community. |
Leadership Program and Chairing Skills Program | ||
Topic/Area: Culture, Trust, and Silos, Consensus, representation, and inclusivity | ||
Description | Status | Contribution to the MSM |
The Leadership Program is designed for current and incoming leaders, helping to increase understanding of the complexity of ICANN and to develop or strengthen facilitation skills. The Chairing Skills Program is designed for chairs of working groups or stakeholder groups who would like to develop their chairing skills through coaching and feedback. | Started | The programs ensure leaders are equipped to facilitate multistakeholder discussions contributing to building an environment of trust and to ensuring all voices are heard in the multistakeholder process. |
Community Onboarding Program | ||
Topic/Area: Culture, Trust, and Silos, Consensus, representation, and inclusivity, Roles and Responsibilities of ICANN Board, Org, and Community | ||
Description | Status | Contribution to the MSM |
The Community Onboarding Pilot Program is designed to improve engagement and retention of new participants within ICANN by creating a structured, year-round (not meeting-focused) onboarding process tailored by and for each community group. | Started | The program ensures new community members are equipped to take part in the multistakeholder process and to understand what ICANN does, including its roles and responsibilities. Through structured courses and individualized peer-mentoring, the program contributes to breaking silos and to amplifying a culture of transparency and inclusivitiy. |
Newcomer Program | ||
Topic/Area: Culture, Trust, and Silos, Consensus, representation, and inclusivity, Roles and Responsibilities of ICANN Board, Org, and Community | ||
Description | Status | Contribution to the MSM |
Main goals of the program are to provide a starting point for Newcomers to understand what ICANN and the ICANN Community do, what the structures and processes are and how the system works, so they can engage in their first meeting as effectively as possible. Additionally. the program is used to mentor, guide Newcomers so they leave the ICANN meeting well informed and willing to come back. | Started | This program contributes to breaking silos and to strenghtening a culture of transparency. It allows newcomers to feel welcome, included into the multistakeholder dialogue and ensures they are equipped to take part in the multistakeholder process and to understand what ICANN does, including its roles and responsibilities. |
NextGen Program | ||
Topic/Area: Culture, Trust, and Silos, Consensus, representation, and inclusivity | ||
Description | Status | Contribution to the MSM |
Through the NextGen program, ICANN provides coaching and travel assistance to students from the regions where the ICANN meeting is taking place. | Started | This is to ensure the next generation of individuals who are interested in becoming actively engaged in their regional communities and in shaping the future of global Internet policy have a voice at the multistakeholder table and strengthens inclusivity and diversity. |
Awards (Community Excellence Award, Community Leadership Recognition, Dr Tarek Kamel Award for Capacity Building) | ||
Topic/Area: Culture, Trust, and Silos, Consensus, representation, and inclusivity | ||
Description | Status | Contribution to the MSM |
ICANN's multistakeholder, bottom-up approach to policy development and strategic planning remains rooted in the continued belief that global representation, transparency, and accountability are critical to fulfilling the shared goal of a single, globally interoperable internet supported by stable, secure, and resilient unique identifier systems. Awards recognize those ICANN participants who are deeply invested in the importance of ICANN’s multistakeholder model. | Started | Awards serve to recognize service of participants in the ICANN community, to highlight the importance of ICANN’s multistakeholder model to Internet governance and therefore contribute to fostering the multistakeholder culture. |
Community Regional Outreach Program (CROP) | ||
Topic/Area: Culture, Trust, and Silos, Consensus, representation, and inclusivity, Roles and Responsibilities of ICANN Board, Org, and Community | ||
Description | Status | Contribution to the MSM |
The CROP program serves to build local and regional awareness, recruit new community members, engage community members, and to communicate ICANN’s mission and objectives to new audiences. | Started | The CROP program contributes to breaking silos. Work conducted to raise awareness of ICANN’s work, its mission, bottom-up process, the roles of its community, Board and org, serve to increase ICANN’s visibility and accessibility and to secure diversity and inclusivity of its multistakeholder community. |
ICANN Community Childcare Grants | ||
Topic/Area: Culture, Trust, and Silos, Consensus, representation, and inclusivity | ||
Description | Status | Contribution to the MSM |
The ICANN Community Childcare Grants Pilot Program aims to facilitate the in-person participation of community members with children at ICANN Public Meetings and eligible ICANN events. | Started | This program serves to ensure all feel included into the multistakeholder dialogue and are given appropriate resources to make the most of their participation. |
Holistic Review | ||
Topic/Area: Prioritization of the work & efficient use of resources; Culture, Trust, and Silos; Roles and Responsibilities of ICANN Board, Org, and Community; Precision in scoping the work | ||
Description | Status | Contribution to the MSM |
The Holistic Review is a brand-new review recommended by the ATRT3 Review. Its objective will be to review "the continuous improvement efforts of Supporting Organizations (SO), Advisory Committees (AC) and Nominating Committee (NC) based on good practices; the effectiveness of the various inter-SO/AC/NC collaboration mechanisms; the accountability of SO/ACs or constituent parts to their members and constituencies, as well as to review SO/AC/NC as a whole to determine if they continue to have a purpose in the ICANN structure or if any changes in structures and operations are desirable to improve the overall effectiveness of ICANN as well as ensure optimal representation of community views." | Not started | The Holistic Review should contribute to improve the SO/AC/NC structure, especially by assessing the way they are effective to their community and by proposing recommendations to enhance their effectiveness. |
Operational Design Phase | ||
Topic/Area: Prioritization of the work & efficient use of resources; Precision in scoping the work; Complexity of (A) the Tools to Access Information and Data and (B) Content | ||
Description | Status | Contribution to the MSM |
The Operational Design Phase (ODP) is a process to perform an assessment of recommendations to provide the Board with relevant information for its deliberations on whether to approve said recommendations. | Ongoing | The process adds structure and transparency to the whole recommendation handling. The community feedback plays an important role in the process. Throughout the ODP, ICANN org will provide periodic updates on its progress. |
Independent Review Panel (IRP) | ||
Topic/Area: Roles and Responsibilities of ICANN Board, Org, and Community | ||
Description | Status | Contribution to the MSM |
The IRP is an accountability mechanism provided by the ICANN Bylaws that allows for third-party review of actions (or inactions) by the ICANN Board or staff that are allegedly in violation of the Bylaws or Articles of Incorporation. The IRP was updated through the work of the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability, to make the IRP more transparent, efficient, and accessible, and designed to produce consistent and coherent results that will serve as a guide for future actions. One feature of the updated IRP is the establishment of a standing panel from which panelists shall be selected to preside over each IRP dispute as initiated. | Ongoing | The IRP and the IRP panel are an extra tool for the community to review ICANN’s actions and therefore, express their considerations of ICANN’s work. |
Pilot prioritization | ||
Topic/Area: Prioritization of the work & efficient use of resources; Precision in scoping the work | ||
Description | Status | Contribution to the MSM |
A key goal of the Planning operating initiatives included in ICANN's operating plan since FY21 is to improve ICANN organization's (org) ability to prioritize during the annual planning process. As part of this initiative, the ICANN org Planning team led the creation of a Draft Planning Prioritization Framework to help the ICANN ecosystem prioritize its work within the planning cycle in a manner that is transparent, inclusive, and efficient. | Ongoing | The Pilot Prioritization Group is made of community members who are providing their views on the priority to be assigned to the various Specific Review recommendations. Prioritization of work is one of the main issues identified as those hampering the effectiveness of MSM, and as such, this project, is directly addressing the need for ICANN, as a whole, to work on projects systemically, and in a way to prevent/reduce volunteer burnout while not losing sight of critical projects. |
Strategic Trend Process https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/strategic-engagement-2013-10-10-en | ||
Topic/Area: Prioritization of the work & efficient use of resources. | ||
Description | Status | Contribution to the MSM |
The process is part of the ICANN Strategic Planning. It enables the community, Board, and ICANN organization to participate in trend identification sessions to engage in a discussion on emerging trends that could affect ICANN. The trend identification process repeats annually to help inform ICANN's strategy in an ever-changing environment. | Ongoing | The consultation process helps ensure that all stakeholders have an opportunity to provide their input to identify the trends that they see affecting ICANN's mission and work. |
Empowered Community | ||
Topic/Area: Roles and Responsibilities of ICANN Board, Org, and Community | ||
Description | Status | Contribution to the MSM |
The Empowered Community is the mechanism through which ICANN's Supporting Organizations (SOs) and Advisory Committees (ACs) can organize under California law to legally enforce community powers. The community powers and rules that govern the Empowered Community are defined in the ICANN Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws. | Ongoing | Within the Empowered community framework, the community has nine powers to ensure that ICANN’s Org and Board are accountable. |
Customer Standing Committee (CSC) | ||
Topic/Area: Roles and Responsibilities of ICANN Board, Org, and Community | ||
Description | Status | Contribution to the MSM |
The CSC ensures the satisfactory performance of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) naming function. The CSC is responsible for monitoring Public Technical Identifier’s (PTI) performance of the IANAnaming function against the service level expectations in the IANA Naming Function Contract. The CSC is authorized to undertake remedial action to address poor performance of the IANA naming function, and if performance issues are not remedied, may escalate the issues to the ccNSO and GNSO. | Ongoing | The Customer Standing Committee (CSC) is comprised of representatives with direct experience and knowledge of IANA naming functions. Their selection process follows specific rules. The CSC reports on PTI performance contribute to enhance the overall PTI/IANA accountability. |
Universal Acceptance Initiative (UAI) | ||
Topic/Area: Consensus, representation, and inclusivity | ||
Description | Status | Contribution to the MSM |
Universal Acceptance (UA) is a fundamental requirement for a truly multilingual and digitally inclusive Internet. ICANN UAI aims to inform and educate all stakeholders of the importance that all domain names, including long new TLDs and IDNs, and email addresses are treated equally and can be used by all Internet-enabled applications, devices, and systems. | Ongoing | This initiative supports a truly multilingual and digitally inclusive Internet. By facilitating the use of Internationalized Domain Names, the initiative contributes to expand the ICANN MSM to communities that will be able to also join ICANN’s future work. |
Document Information Disclosure Policy https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/governance/transparency-en | ||
Topic/Area: Complexity of (A) the Tools to Access Information and Data and (B) Content | ||
Description | Status | Contribution to the MSM |
ICANN’s Documentary Information Disclosure Policy (DIDP) is intended to ensure that information contained in documents concerning ICANN's operational activities, and within ICANN's possession, custody, or control, is made available to the public unless there is a compelling reason for confidentiality. | Ongoing | The public and documented policy to request access to information and to provide a response timeframe ensure transparency and accountability of ICANN governance. |
Regional Reports and Monthly Regional Newsletter https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/regional-reports-2021-2021-08-24-en | ||
Topic/Area: Complexity of (A) the Tools to Access Information and Data and (B) Content | ||
Description | Status | Contribution to the MSM |
Regional reports and monthly regional newsletters are published on a regular basis in several languages. | Ongoing | Reports and newsletters contribute to inform the community and provide engagement opportunities by highlighting local and global matters. |
Engagement Calendar | ||
Topic/Area: Complexity of (A) the Tools to Access Information and Data and (B) Content | ||
Description | Status | Contribution to the MSM |
The calendar provides an overview of ICANN organized or supported initiatives/events around the world. | Ongoing | Thanks to the calendar the community can be informed of and participate in ICANN initiatives/events. |
Emergency Back-end Registry Operator (EBERO) | ||
Topic/Area: “Other efforts” | ||
Description | Status | Contribution to the MSM |
The establishment of Emergency Back-end Registry Operators, or EBEROs, are an important innovation of the New gTLD Program. An EBERO provider is temporarily activated if a generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) operator is at risk of failing to sustain any of the five critical registry functions. | Ongoing | The EBERO framework serves to protect a specific category of ICANN’s MSM representatives, the registrants/domain name holders as well as provides an additional layer of protection to the Domain Name System (DNS), and industry ecosystem. |
Domain Abuse Activity Reporting (DAAR) | ||
Topic/Area: “Other efforts” | ||
Description | Status | Contribution to the MSM |
The Domain Abuse Activity Reporting (DAAR) project is a system for studying and reporting on domain name registration and security threats (domain abuse1) across top-level domain (TLD) registries. | Ongoing | The DAAR project and the DAAR reports support the ICANN’s MSM by enabling participating registries to get further insights of possible abuses within their TLD ecosystem and by analyzing security threat activity, which the ICANN community may use to make informed policy decisions. |
Domain Name Security Threat Information Collection & Reporting (DNSTICR) | ||
Topic/Area: “Other efforts” | ||
Description | Status | Contribution to the MSM |
This project looks at registrations related to the COVID-19 pandemic to find evidence of any activity related to malware or phishing. Where sufficient evidence of malicious activity is found, the ICANN organization sends a report to the responsible registry or registrar so that they can determine the appropriate action. | Ongoing | Projects such as DNSTICR not only allow for the mitigation of these issues, but also provide ICANN with evidence-based insights into the actualities of how and at what level these threats are taking place. ICANN believes that evidence-based data and study are critical to the policy development processes and to the reduction of harm caused by DNS Security Threats. |
Information and Transparency Initiative (ITI) | ||
Topic/Area: Complexity of (A) the Tools to Access Information and Data and (B) Content | ||
Description | Status | Contribution to the MSM |
It is an operational activity to improve ICANN's content governance and infrastructure. | Ongoing | The community has been deeply involved in the process of reorganizing the content on the ICANN main site. The roll-out of the reviewed website pages aims to support WS3 standards and enable a multilingual user experience (in the UN languages). |
