Last modified: October 2020
1.1 About
These GAC Travel Support Rules have been developed in compliance with the ICANN Community Travel Support Guidelines which were revised in October 2018.
Along with the Community Travel Support Guidelines, the GAC Travel Support Rules (see current GAC Travel Assistance Page) present the guidelines for GAC community members who seek to be supported by the ICANN organization to attend ICANN Public Meetings or other authorized ICANN events.
1.2 Scope of the Program
Number of Slots
Provisions have been made under the ICANN organization budget for the support of forty (40) GAC travelers to each ICANN Public Meeting. Those supported travelers slots have previously been allocated by the GAC as follows:
The thirty-five (35) GAC Members slots for each ICANN Public Meeting are generally delegated, in order of preference, to GAC Members from Small Island Developing States (SIDS), Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and the World Bank economic classification of low, lower-middle and upper-middle income economies. The five (5) additional slots are generally made available to pre-approved organizations, currently including the African Union Commission (AUC), the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).
Eligible SIDS, LDCs are drawn from designated lists created by established sources including a list based on the United Nations’ groupings of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), and Least Developed Countries (LDCs), and a list of the World Bank economic classification of low, lower-middle and upper-middle economies.
For public meetings where there are more requests for support than available slots, priority is accorded to GAC applicants from SIDS, LDCs and lower income countries. Otherwise, flexibility in granting travel support to GAC applicants from other economies may be applied if slots are available.
Extent of Support
The travel support offered to GAC Members includes the cost of air travel (economy class), lodging for the duration of the ICANN Meeting (including GAC meetings convened outside the nominated meeting dates) and a per diem amount set for each city (as set by the ICANN organization travel guidelines).
Although these guidelines and the general GAC selection process are established by the committee, all travel arrangements, including travel insurance, if required, are made through the ICANN Travel Support team (ITS). It is the responsibility of the GAC traveler to obtain any necessary visas (destination or transit), prior to the purchase of tickets on their behalf by the ITS; however, the ITS can provide itineraries to assist the traveler with their visa application and visa costs will be reimbursed as specified in section 6.2 and 6.3.
In addition to travel support for GAC Members, ICANN has a Fellowship Program that is open to the GAC.
1.3 Applicant Criteria
Allocation of supported travel slots for members of the GAC community are made based on the following criteria
For priority considerations, see section 4.1.1.
1.4 Applicant Requirements
ICANN Travel support slots are limited and requests often exceed the number of available slots for the meeting. As a result, the attendees who receive support must make a commitment to focused and active participation in the GAC activities at each public meeting. GAC Members who request travel support to an ICANN Meeting are expected to:
2.1 Application process
Below is the necessary application process and general timeline for GAC travel support requests. Application deadline dates and processing are driven by the ICANN org requirement that lists of supported travelers must be provided by each community 120 days prior to the start of each ICANN public meeting.
Application Process |
Timeline |
Actor/Administrator |
GAC Travel Support Request Form Completion |
Deadlines for applications are generally one (1) calendar week from the date sent out. |
GAC Members and Observers |
Applications assessed per the eligibility and selection criteria set forth in the GAC Travel Support Rules (see section IV. Selection Criteria) |
Generally, within two (2) to five (5) business days after travel support form application deadline concludes |
ICANN GAC Support |
Selection Committee review of GAC applications assessment |
Generally, one (1) week to ten (10) days after the application deadline has passed |
GAC Leadership |
Final list sent to ICANN Travel Support team (ITS) |
120 days prior to the next ICANN Meeting |
ICANN GAC Support |
Final GAC Supported travelers’ notifications |
120 days prior to the next ICANN Meeting |
ICANN GAC Support |
Interested GAC Members are alerted to complete the travel support request form within ten (10) business days following the date the email from GAC Support titled “GAC Travel Support Requests For ICANN[XX] - [Location] Meeting - Due [date]” has been sent.
GAC Members applying for travel support may be required to provide an official notification from their organization, Ministry or High-Level Authorities, confirming they are authorized to travel and attend the ICANN Meeting for which they are requesting travel support.
A GAC participant may apply for partial support (for instance, air fare only or hotel only). In any case the applicant should indicate specific requirements during the application process.
GAC Support is expected to assess all the applications submitted by the deadline according to the specific criteria set forth in these rules so that the assessment can be reviewed by the Selection Committee. The assessment should be concluded within two (2) to five (5) business days after the travel support request deadline has passed.
The assessment is to be recorded in the form of a report (e.g., spreadsheet) for the review of the Selection Committee. Upon completion of the assessment, GAC Support should produce a list of applicants who qualify for the travel support slots to the Selection Committee for review and approval. In those circumstances where there have been more eligible applicants than travel support slots, GAC Support should also produce a “waiting list” of qualified applicants reflecting the appropriate order of wait list priority according to the eligibility and selection criteria assessment.
The Selection Committee should have sufficient time (7 to 10 business days) to review the request list of supported travelers following the GAC Travel Support Rules selection criteria.
Once the selection has been finalized, GAC Support should promptly provide the list of GAC supported travelers to the ICANN Travel Support team, who will contact each traveler individually to start the travel booking process (see Section “6.1 Once Selected” below, for further follow-up steps expected to be taken by each supported GAC traveler).
Finally, GAC Support should promptly contact all GAC Members and Observers who have requested travel support and inform them of the Selection Committee’s decisions.
3.1 Application Dates and Deadlines
Application deadlines and travel support processing times will be published on the GAC website. See below for most recent examples of application processing deadlines.
ICANN Meeting |
ICANN Region |
Meeting Dates |
Approved travel dates |
Opening of application round |
Closing of application round |
Selected list of applicants sent to ICANN Travel Support |
Announcement of selected travelers (notified directly and individually via email) |
ICANN65 Policy Forum, Marrakech, Morocco |
Africa |
24-27 June 2019 (4 days) |
Arrival 23 June 2019 Departure 28 June 2019 |
4 February 2019 |
11 February 2019 |
25 February 2019 |
27 February 2019 |
ICANN66 Annual General Meeting (AGM), Montreal, Canada |
North America |
2-7 November 2019 (6 days) |
Arrival 1 November 2019 Departure 8 November 2019 |
20 May 2019 |
27 May 2019 |
5 July 2019 |
10 July 2019 |
3.2 Apply to the ICANN Meeting
The travel support application process is initiated by an announcement from GAC Support. That announcement is typically published to the GAC email list to give interested applicants ten (10) business days to submit their applications.
The on-line form used for each public meeting will be published by GAC Support in the announcement email.
Decisions about travel support are based on a two-step process, eligibility and then selection based on specific criteria established by the GAC.
4.1 Eligibility
Eligibility for travel support is limited to officially designated representatives or advisors of GAC Members or Observing organizations. Allocation of supported travel slots for applicants of the GAC community are made based on the following criteria.
Eligibility Criteria |
Approval |
|
1 |
GAC Member country, territory or observing organization? |
YES / NO |
2 |
Is the applicant an officially designated representative or advisors of a GAC Member or Observing organization? |
YES / NO |
3 |
United Nations grouping of Small Islands Developing States (SIDs) |
YES / NO |
4 |
United Nations grouping of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) |
YES / NO |
5 |
Low, lower-middle, upper-middle income (LI, LMI, UMI) economies following the World Bank economic classification |
YES / NO |
6 |
Allocated travel support for the last three consecutive meetings (incl. categories as listed in section 1.3.1) |
YES / NO |
7 |
Multiple travelers for the same GAC Member or Observing organization |
YES / NO |
4.1.1 Priority Consideration
8. Priority consideration can be given to applicants holding an elected GAC position or appointed to lead GAC work on a particular topic.
9. Priority consideration can be given to an applicant based on the location of the GAC meeting in order to enhance participation from a particular region.
4.1.2 Travel Support Allocation
10. GAC applicants may apply for partial support (for instance, airfare only, hotel only or hotel and per diem only). For more information, see travel by the numbers of the ICANN Travel Support Guidelines at: https://community.icann.org/display/trvlconstit/Travel+Support+Guidelines#TravelSupportGuidelines-TravelbytheNumberTravelbytheNumbers.
11. GAC Members should cancel their travel support for the ICANN Meeting within the forty-five (45) business days before the start of the event (see https://community.icann.org/display/trvlconstit/Travel+Support+Guidelines#TravelSupportGuidelines-TripCancellations).
Important note: If cancellations are sent after the forty-five (45) business days request, this action will count as an allocated travel support slot for the next round of applications.
4.1.3 Travel Support Due Diligence
GAC Members who request travel support to an ICANN Meeting are expected to:
4.2 Selection Criteria Scoring
For most ICANN public meetings more GAC applicants seek travel support then there are slots available. Thus, the GAC Travel Support Rules provide the following objective criteria to help assess the relative priority of various requests. Applied to all applicants determined to be eligible for support under Section 4.1 of these rules, the scoring system is designed to objectively measure certain criteria for each support request to allow the administrative staff to score and rank each applicant. The 35 highest scoring applications will be ranked to determine the selections for travel support at each public meeting.
Selection Criteria |
Scoring (points assigned) |
|
1. GAC Participation |
25 |
|
United Nations Small Islands Developing State (SID) |
25 |
|
United Nations Least Developed Country (LDC) |
25 |
|
World Bank Classification of low or lower-middle and upper-middle income economy |
25 |
|
Pre-approved organization |
25 |
|
2. Experience and Leadership position in the GAC |
25 |
|
Vice-Chairs position |
25 |
|
Working Group Chair/ Co-Chair position |
25 |
|
GAC Membership contributions |
25 |
|
GAC point of contact to an ICANN group |
25 |
|
3. ICANN Engagement |
20 |
|
GAC Lead participant in ICANN working group or cross-community working groups |
20 |
|
Completion of ICANN Learn mandatory courses (if required) |
20 |
|
4. ICANN Meetings attendance (incl. booking cancellations) |
15 |
|
Never attended an ICANN Meeting |
15 |
|
Attended 1 meeting over the last 3 consecutive meetings |
15 |
|
Attended 2 meetings over the last 3 consecutive meetings |
15 |
|
Attended 3 meetings over the last 3 consecutive meetings |
0 |
|
Canceled allocated travel support past the 45-day deadline during one of the last three consecutive meetings. |
0 |
|
Support cancelled during one of the last three consecutive ICANN meetings for failure to provide required information to ICANN Travel Support in a timely manner |
0 |
|
5. Regional Balance |
15 |
|
Applicant resides in the represented GAC Member country, territory, or region |
15 |
|
Location of the Applicant requesting travel support is not in the country, territory or region of the ICANN Meeting |
0 |
4.3 Selection Process
Final approval of all selections is made by the Selection Committee, composed of the GAC Chair and Vice-Chairs.
After applying the criteria set forth in these rules, the GAC Support sends the ranked list of applications to the Selection Committee for review.
The Selection Committee will review the ranked list. After confirming that the application assessment process has been followed, and potentially considering any special circumstances presented, the Selection Committee can then confirm the list and direct GAC Support to notify all applicants individually of the decisions made.
4.4 Waiting List
GAC Applicants who have not been selected will be added to a ranked waiting list. In the event an allocated supported GAC Member or Observer cancels more than forty-five (45) business days before the start of a meeting, the next ranked applicant from the waiting list will be informed and given an opportunity to move into that slot. This will enable the designation of a replacement for the originally supported traveler.
The Selection Committee is composed of the members of the GAC Leadership team - the GAC Chair and five (5) Vice Chairs. Any GAC leader who has applied for travel support will recuse themselves from the selection process. Since the GAC Chair’s travel is supported by virtue of the Chairs membership on the ICANN Board of Directors, there will always be at least one leader available to review and confirm the assessment of the applications and the subsequent rankings.
5.1 Responsibilities and Composition Deferment
The Selection Committee has the responsibility to confirm that the travel support allocation criteria set forth in these rules are properly applied by GAC Support. In rare circumstances, the Selection Committee will be asked to make final determinations in cases of unique or special circumstances.
In the event of a Vice-Chair also seeking travel support, he/she shall not participate in the selection process. If all Vice-Chairs, or all but one Vice-Chair, are seeking travel support, then at least the GAC Chair is available to confirm that the assessment process has been followed and the various criteria have been correctly applied.
5.2 ICANN GAC Support
GAC Support on behalf of the Selection Committee is responsible for advising successful and unsuccessful applicants, and ICANN’s Travel Support team (travelsupport@icann.org), of those applicants who have been confirmed by the Selection Committee.
In addition to its announcement, GAC Support will individually advise the GAC applicants who have been selected for support as well as those whose applicants who were not selected. GAC Support will also provide ICANN’sTravel Support team with the names of the GAC applicants selected for support and their contact details.
ICANN’s Travel Support team and the travel service provider FCM, will be responsible for liaising with the selected GAC applicants and facilitating the necessary travel arrangements and bookings.
VI. Post Selection Process and Mandatory Compliance
6.1 Once Selected
GAC supported travelers are expected to be responsive to ICANN’s Travel Support team and FCM so that flights can be booked as soon as possible. The ICANN Travel Support team endeavors to have all flights booked ninety (90) days before the start of the public meeting or an event.
According to their internal guidelines, the ICANN Travel Support team attempts to reach a supported traveler four times before deeming the supported traveler unresponsive:
If there is no response within three (3) days after the fourth attempt to reach the supported traveler, the community group may be asked to provide the name of a substitute traveler.
Please note that if a supported traveler fails to connect with the ICANN Travel Support and a substitute must be selected, the circumstances may impact eligibility or priority of future travel requests for a GAC travel support applicant.
Additionally, if a supported traveler decides, for any reason, not to attend the meeting or event after they have been selected for support, that may also impact their eligibility or priority for future travel requests for an applicant GAC Member or Observer (see Sections 4.1.2 and 4.1.3 above).
6.2 National Laws and Legislation
6.3 Required Travel Documents
Each GAC traveler must be in possession of the following documentation prior to ICANN booking any travel (airfare and hotel):
6.3.1 Transportation
6.3.2 Allowances
6.4 Personal Health and Safety
6.5 Deferment
6.6 Failure to Comply with Terms
The following terms and conditions reflect the current rules developed in accordance with the Community Travel Support Guidelines, to address the accountability and transparency and audit trail requirements of ICANN. These terms and conditions apply for GAC Travel Support.
The Travel Summary for each meeting provides all basic necessary information to supported travelers - https://community.icann.org/display/trvlconstit/Travel+Summary.
If a GAC traveler fails to comply with any one of the above-mentioned terms and conditions of the ICANN GAC travel support program and upon the suggestion or agreement of the GAC Travel Support Selection Committee, ICANN upon suggestion by the GAC Chair reserves the right to determine the appropriate course of action including, but not limited to:
(i) terminating the financial support prior to the end of a meeting;
(ii) causing the GAC traveler’s early departure from the program and ICANN meeting;
(iii) and/or asking the GAC traveler to cover costs for expenditures.
6.7 Privacy Policy
ICANN respects the protection and privacy of personal information. See ICANN's privacy policy here. Supported GAC travelers are identified to the GAC leadership and ICANN org has typically produced a public list of all ICANN supported travelers to each ICANN public meeting (see:https://community.icann.org/display/trvlconstit/Travel+Report).
The links below correspond to the central information relative to GAC and Community travel support.
GAC Important Links
ICANN Important Links