Nepal igf guidelines.

1. Nepal IGF - Program Committee Guidelines
1. Purpose
The purpose of this this document is to provide a clear guideline for the operations of the
Program Committee (PC). The guidelines are to be followed by all committee members, the
volunteers that take the responsibility of co-chairing it.
2. General Guidelines
a) The role and responsibility of the PC is mandated by the MSG.
b) A PC member is a commitment of time, availability and contribution, one must
communicate and contribute, if any PC member does not communicate or appear for
more than 3 PC meeting, the PC member is automatically barred from the proposal
evaluation process.
c) Conflict of interest needs to be clearly declared before any PC process and evaluation
by the concerned parties themselves.
d) A PC member may require confidentiality in terms of various information shared and
need to maintain confidentiality where deemed necessary.
e) The PC can request for special condition and criteria with the MSG regarding operation
and management of the Nepal IGF event.
3. Decision-making
a) The PC should make its decisions following rough consensus, providing enough time
for Committee members to participate and reply, based on the guidelines provided,
agreed criteria, and MSG principles. When it is not possible to make a decision, the
issue will go for anonymous voting and the PC chair will communicate the decision to
the MSG.
b) The decision made by the PC has to be communicated to all the PC members and
discontentment of the PC member should be addressed prior communicating with the
MSG
4. Expected outcomes:
The PC is given the mandate by the MSG of the Nepal IGF for conducting various process
and activities to call, evaluate, recommend session for Nepal IGF. These processes have to
be done in the most effective and efficient way maintaining a standard practice.
a) Call for Proposal
b) Type of Session
c) Criteria and selection process
d) Application process
e) List of selected proposals

2. f) Mechanism for mergers
g) List of proposal identified for mergers with conditional approval
h) Complete program schedule
i) Plenary topics and speakers
j) Report of PC process
5. Process & tasks
The PC is involved in strategic process of planning and operation which requires defined
guidelines and mechanism. The below mentioned guidelines are not restriction but minimum
standard of process to be followed while performance. The PC must facilitate the overall
process with secretariat performing the role of liaising.
1. Preparation phase
a) Previous committee reports can be used as a reference including recommendations
for future improvements.
b) Feedback captured should be reviewed against this guideline, the MSG principles and
any other documentation available.
c) The PC can recommend changes in the event in context of reference available for the
event to be more inclusive, gender friendly, open and collaborative.
d) The PC elects chair and two vice chairs. PC members should express their interest
and commitment to take such responsibility and adhere to the guidelines.
e) The PC will create a calendar of the meeting and notify secretariat and the host.
f) The PC can invite/welcome new members as observers for discussion.
g) The PC can use or develop any form of communication including email or any other
communication channel as per their decision and standard practice.
h) After PC meeting, the chair in coordination of the vice chairs has to circulate the report
amongst the PC committee themselves and MSG should be updated regularly. The
reporting can be either during the MSG meeting or through a simple written report
circulated to the MSG list before the MSG meeting. In absence of Chairs, the PC chair
can appoint a PC member to update the MSG.
2. Application phase
a) Finalization of open call for the application process as per the mandate of the
MSG.
b) Preparation and definition of sessions to be considered for inclusion on the
application form including but not limited to: panel, breakout discussion, lighting
talk, fishbowl, tutorial, plenary session, side event, day 0 (capacity building
session), newcomers session, etc.
c) Review and confirm flow of selection process and platform to be used.
3. Selection phase
a) Evaluation criteria and guidelines to be confirmed for assessment of proposals.
b) Review and confirm scoring or assessment mechanism to be used.

3. c) To review and evaluate the proposal as per the evaluation criteria finalized by the
PC and meet the timeline prepared by the PC and Secretariat.
d) Applicants need to provide references of their resources and shall provide
plagiarism.
e) To review and confirm criteria for mergers, to provide guidelines about how to
identify mergers candidates and what the proposers are expected to do including
that although a request to merge is a suggestion, a failure to merge may result in
any or all the proposed for merge workshops failing to be finally included in the
program.
4. Scheduling and implementation phase
a) The PC may form subcommittee and appoint volunteers to engage with session
organizers that were requested to merge and support the process, so merger
process/guidelines are followed.
b) Support the local host with the design of the Opening Plenary session (ceremony +
panel discussion).
c) Support the MSG with the design of the Closing Plenary session (ceremony, reporting
+ panel discussion) including but not limited to: topic, moderator(s), format, speakers,
methodology etc on a running sheet.
d) Identify any possible problems/issues with the program design and delivery, to flag
them ahead of time for the attention of the host, secretariat and MSG to recommend
possible solutions.
e) In case of short fall of resource persons in any approved session, the PC will coordinate
with the host, the Secretariat and the MSG to address the need for alternative
resource.
5. Wrap up phase
a) The PC prepares and presents a report to the MSG, including recommendations
for future improvements.
6. Amendment
This Guideline may be amended by the PC as per need. Any amendment to this
Guideline shall be made by simple majority.
Compiled by Shreedeep Rayamajhi
Contributors: Eswari Sharma, Hempal Shrestha, Pramod Parajuli, Vivek Rana,
Baburam Aryal, Amrita Khakurel, Chiranjivi Adhikari, Santosh Sigdel, Prabesh
Subedi, Ramkrishna Pariyar, Dikshya Raut

4. Nepal IGF proposal Evaluation Guidelines
Basic Guidelines:
1. Workshop proposal should reach the PC within the prescribed time.
2. Nepal IGF is a community platform and its values diversity of stakeholders, gender
equality and social inclusion. Thus, the PC should consider such values while
evaluating the proposals.
3. Considering the limited availability of time slots, any individual or organization can
propose a maximum of two sessions
4. Conflict of interest in context of proposer of the session or being a speaker and any
sort of conflict of interest should be disclosed prior the evaluation process. Any
conflict of interest would disqualify the session.
5. Applicants are expected to cite their referred sources. Any plagiarism found in the
application deemed unacceptable.
6. Priority shall be given to new applicants. Members of the program committee (PC)
are discouraged, though not barred, from proposing a workshop but such member
should disclose this before the evaluation of proposal and should abstain from
evaluating own proposals. PC members included as moderator, panelists should also
abstain from the evaluation process.
7. The PC can provide suggestions and recommendations to the workshop proposers
to improve their proposal.
8. PC shall give priority to new workshop proposers, diversity of stakeholders and
innovative ideas.
Evaluation Criteria and Instruction:
1. Relevance
The proposal received should clearly correlated to the designated subtheme and
relevant to the overarching theme of the Nepal IGF 2019.
2. Detailedness & Clarity
The proposal received need to have all the detailed information requested
specifically: fully expounded issues, intended discussion outcomes, viable approach
to discussion, and the formation of panelists. The status of confirmation and
relevance of panelists to the issues discussed will also be taken into consideration.
3. Inclusion and Diversity
The proposed session should represent viewpoints from multiple stakeholders and
provide diverse geographical, economic, gender and cultural perspectives. There
needs to be at least two different stakeholder groups on the panel. The listed
panelists must be qualified to represent various distinct stakeholder groups and
should contribute to the overall diversity of the Nepal IGF in terms of the internet
community.
4. Engagement

5. The session organizer should provide details of how the session will be run to
promote discussion and engagement. The selected format, the number of speakers
and the length of the session proposed can be further recommended to change as
per the logistic and available resources. The session organizer must give enough
information about how they plan to incorporate remote participation and contributions
into the discussion.
Each proposal will be evaluated on each criteria, with a score between 1 to 5 as
follows:
5= exceptional
4 = criteria is fully satisfied
3 = acceptable
2 = needs improvement
1 = absent or least acceptable
(Giving each proposal a total score between 5 and 25. For averaging purposes, a rating of 0
will not be counted)
Important Note:
1. Please rate 0 for the entire workshop only when you are involved as a workshop
organizer or moderator or panelist resulting in conflict of interests.
2. Please leave any comments or suggested mergers at the remark’s column.
Compiled by Shreedeep Rayamajhi
Contributors: Hempal Shrestha, Santosh Sigdel, Pramod Parajuli, Eswari Sharma,
Amrita Khakurel, Chiranjivi Adhikari, Jyotsana Maskey, Prabesh Subedi,
Ramkrishna Pariyar