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How to Follow ICANN’s Government Engagement IGO Observations

19 August 2020
By
Mandy Carver

Mandy Carver

SVP, Government and Intergovernmental Organization Engagement

Mandy (Kathryn A.) Carver is the Senior Vice President for Government and Intergovernmental Organization (IGO) Engagement. She leads the team to identify the opportunities and risks governments and IGOs pose to ICANN’s mission, and designs and implements efforts to promote robust government relations.

Mandy joined ICANN as the Deputy General Manager for Global Partnerships in November 2006, the first instance of an international engagement team at ICANN. She has served in several capacities at ICANN as Global Partnerships became Global Stakeholder Engagement (GSE) and subsequently Government Engagement as the organization evolved. She was promoted to Vice President Government Engagement - Global Coordination in 2013.

Her specialties are multistakeholder decision-making and conflict resolution. A health and human rights lawyer, Mandy Carver was formerly the Executive Director of The Concord Project, an international research and action project whose mission is to develop bridging social capital to strengthen cross-community organizations for communities in deep conflict. Prior to joining The Concord Project, she was a Senior Consultant at John Snow, Inc, a public health research, management, and consulting firm where she ran the Ryan White Care Act Technical Assistance program fielding a roster of 300 consultants working in a multistakeholder model with eligible communities to design and implement services for people living with HIV/AIDS. Earlier she was the Director of the Office of Patient Advocacy of the National Marrow Donor Program with responsibility for patient advocacy programs at 77 transplant centers and 104 donor centers to increase access to critical medical care.

Mandy Carver received her AB from Princeton University. She received her advanced degrees from the University of Minnesota, a JD winning the William O. Douglas Award for Constitutional Scholarship and an MPH in Epidemiology where she held an Adolescent Health Program post-doctoral fellowship. She clerked at the Minnesota Court of Appeals for Judge Harriet Lansing and Judge Edward Parker, and was in private practice for several years.

The Government Engagement (GE) function at ICANN org is responsible for the development and implementation of a global strategy to engage with governments and intergovernmental organizations (IGOs). The GE team, comprised of political issue-based subject-matter experts, also monitors and analyzes government and IGO activities to ensure that ICANN has the necessary information and tools to address geopolitical issues impacting ICANN’s mission.

In February, we launched a Government Engagement Publications page, where we will periodically share information and analysis with the community at large. These publications will explore the different political structures and processes in place, covering everything from the ongoing cyber discussions taking place in the various United Nations (UN) and IGOs’ structures, to discussions of the European political agenda.

Increasingly, governments and intergovernmental forums are considering or developing policies, legislation, and regulations that impact the Internet. The results of some of these discussions may impact ICANN's ability to develop policies, run its operations, and fulfill its mission. As governments attempt to regulate the global nature of the Internet and its content, it is becoming increasingly important for ICANN to expand our engagement surrounding potential legislative and regulatory efforts to help governments and IGOs better understand the technical underpinnings of the Internet. It is for this reason that we are tracking the various discussions and potential resolutions taking shape within these IGOs. And at the national and regional level, in addition to legislatures, we want to work with the other various functions, such as the Data Protection Agencies (DPAs), regulators, and other aspects of governments to avoid unintended consequences resulting from their regulatory or legislative activities.

ICANN has an important role to serve as a trusted source of neutral technical information. These papers help us transfer our knowledge of the discussions taking place within these organizations, that could possibly impact ICANN’s mission and its remit, to the community.

Our GE team aims to continue to support this role and our technical subject matter experts by continuously providing the necessary knowledge to help IGOs understand the actual operation of the technical underpinnings of the Internet.

List of Publications to Date:

Name

Date

United Nations Update: Cyber-Related Discussions

30 July 2020

European Union Update: The Digital Services Act

15 July 2020

The General Data Protection Regulation 2020 Review

7 May 2020

European Union (EU) Policy Update

3 April 2020

Brief Overview of UN Deliberations on Cybersecurity and Cybercrime

28 February 2020

Authors

Mandy Carver

Mandy Carver

SVP, Government and Intergovernmental Organization Engagement
Mandy Carver

Mandy Carver

SVP, Government and Intergovernmental Organization Engagement

Mandy (Kathryn A.) Carver is the Senior Vice President for Government and Intergovernmental Organization (IGO) Engagement. She leads the team to identify the opportunities and risks governments and IGOs pose to ICANN’s mission, and designs and implements efforts to promote robust government relations.

Mandy joined ICANN as the Deputy General Manager for Global Partnerships in November 2006, the first instance of an international engagement team at ICANN. She has served in several capacities at ICANN as Global Partnerships became Global Stakeholder Engagement (GSE) and subsequently Government Engagement as the organization evolved. She was promoted to Vice President Government Engagement - Global Coordination in 2013.

Her specialties are multistakeholder decision-making and conflict resolution. A health and human rights lawyer, Mandy Carver was formerly the Executive Director of The Concord Project, an international research and action project whose mission is to develop bridging social capital to strengthen cross-community organizations for communities in deep conflict. Prior to joining The Concord Project, she was a Senior Consultant at John Snow, Inc, a public health research, management, and consulting firm where she ran the Ryan White Care Act Technical Assistance program fielding a roster of 300 consultants working in a multistakeholder model with eligible communities to design and implement services for people living with HIV/AIDS. Earlier she was the Director of the Office of Patient Advocacy of the National Marrow Donor Program with responsibility for patient advocacy programs at 77 transplant centers and 104 donor centers to increase access to critical medical care.

Mandy Carver received her AB from Princeton University. She received her advanced degrees from the University of Minnesota, a JD winning the William O. Douglas Award for Constitutional Scholarship and an MPH in Epidemiology where she held an Adolescent Health Program post-doctoral fellowship. She clerked at the Minnesota Court of Appeals for Judge Harriet Lansing and Judge Edward Parker, and was in private practice for several years.

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