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Section 4.4(a) of ICANN’s Bylaws require that its structures, including the SSAC, be reviewed on a five-year cycle.  According to the Bylaws, the goal of the review is “to to determine "(i) whether that organization, council or committee has a continuing purpose in the the ICANN structure structure, and (ii) if so, whether any change in structure or operations is desirable to improve its effectiveness .”and (iii) whether that organization, council or committee is accountable to its constituencies, stakeholder groups, organizations and other stakeholders."

This review is part of ICANN’s commitment to continuous improvement, accountability and transparency.  It uses mechanisms and measures to maintain public confidence in the viability, reliability and accountability of ICANN.

The SSAC Review uses a new, improved approach to conducting reviews.  It will inform the work on evolving ICANN’s Review Framework, as part of the broader accountability discussion.

Based on direction from the Board, the current review comprises an examination of SSAC organizational effectiveness in accordance with the ICANN-provided objectives and quantifiable criteria. The Organizational Effectiveness Committee of the Board (OEC) is responsible for the oversight of ICANN’s organizational reviews.

The review will focus on addressing areas such as purpose of the organization; its processes and means of conducting its work; and its outcomes.  The operations of the SSAC Working Groups, the SSAC Council, the Regional SSAC Organizations and the SSAC Structures will also be evaluated.  Review criteria include but are not limited to the following areas, to be applied to SSAC Community components (ALAC, RALOs and ALSes):

scope includes, but is not limited to:

• An assessment of the implementation state of SSAC's prior review;
• An assessment of whether SSAC has a continuing purpose within the ICANN structure;
• An assessment of how effectively SSAC fulfills its purpose and whether any change in structure or operations is needed to improve effectiveness; and
• An assessment of the extent to which SSAC as a whole is accountable to the wider ICANN community.

More information about the scope of the review can be found in the RFP overview document here.

The review and its requirements will be managed in a clear and scheduled process, empowering the SSAC and broader community to be a part of the solution and improvement efforts.The current review also will include an assessment of the effectiveness of structural changes that resulted from the last review, as it relates to the organizational effectiveness of the SSAC. Community surveys survey and interviews will provide the community with an opportunity to express their position on the SSAC structurereview elements.

The Organizational Effectiveness Committee (OEC) of the ICANN Board is responsible for the review and oversight of policies relating to ICANN’s ongoing organizational review process, as mandated by Section 4.4(a) of ICANN’s Bylaws (Periodic Review of ICANN Structure and Operations).  For more information, see the Charter of the OEC.  In addition to providing oversight, the OEC confirms the Independent Examiner, accepts the final report and implementation plan and prepares recommendations for Board action. 

The Organizational Effectiveness Committee (OEC) of the Board has requested that an SSAC Review Working Party be assembled to act as a liaison between the SSAC, the Independent Examiner and the OEC.  The Work Party will also provide input on review criteria and a community survey, coordinate interviews, and objectively supply clarification and responses to the draft findings and recommendations.  Once the final report is issued and the Board takes action on it, the SSAC Review Work Party is expected to coordinate with the SSAC community to prepare an Implementation Plan and champion implementation of improvement activities.

The membership of the SSAC Review Work Party represents the diversity of the SSAC community.  The activities of the SSAC Review Work Party are conducted in an open and fully transparent manner.  Contact mssi-secretariat@icann.org for more information.  See activities of the SSAC Review Work Party on their wiki.

While an Independent Examiner will perform the review, the SSAC community also has an important role: performing a self-assessment, providing direct input to the community survey and participating in interviews, and implementing improvements.

The selection of an Independent Examiner is done in accordance with the process originally outlined in Systematization of Organizational Reviews Processes and ICANN’s procurement policy.  The process has been adjusted to include continuous process improvements and lessons learned.  The selection involves Organizational Review and Procurement staff and the Organizational Effectiveness Committee of the Board (OEC).  A competitive bidding process was launched on 7 July 2017 with an open Request for Proposal for the Independent Review of the SSAC Community.  Submitted proposals were carefully evaluated and the results and scores were presented for consideration and action by the OEC.

In connection with the open competitive bidding process used to select the independent examiner, the proposals were reviewed and evaluated for all data responsive to the RFP, not just the low bid.  Prices was one of many considerations.  Once all bids were evaluated, the Independent Examiner was selected as the most qualified consultant relative to, but not limited to, the following high-level selection criteria:

• Understanding of the assignment
• Knowledge and expertise
  • Demonstrated experience in conducting broadly similar examinations
  • Not-for-profit experience
  • Basic knowledge of ICANN
  • Geographic and cultural diversity, multilingualism, gender balance
  • Suitability of proposed CVs
• Proposed methodology
  • Work organization, project management approach, and timelines
  • Suitability of tools and methods or work
  • Clarity of deliverables
• Flexibility, including but not limited to meeting the timeline
• Reference checks
• Financial value
• Conflict of Interest

Analysis Group was selected as the independent examiner on 22 February 2018.  Further information on the independent examiner can be found here.

The methodology used for the SSAC Review will follow best practices and professional standards for independence, proficiency and due professional care.  Information will be collected through a variety of means: an online community survey with quantitative and qualitative aspects, one-on-one interviews, desk review of documents, and in-person observations during ICANN meetings.  Additionally, it is expected that the Independent Examiner will participate in a majority of the SSAC Review Work Party calls and public sessions to be held at ICANN meetings and will consider any feedback provided by the SSAC Review Work Party as well as by others through the formal public comment process and other feedback mechanisms.

A new component within the organizational review, the community survey is designed to gather data for the Independent Examiner to use in the SSAC Review process and may inform SSAC self-improvement efforts.  This online tool will collect feedback from the SSAC community, other ICANN structures and community members, the Board and staff. The community survey questions will be developed based on criteria used for the overall SSAC Review.

It is anticipated that the community survey will be launched in April 2018 by a public announcement inviting all interested individuals to participate.

The community survey will be formulated and implemented by the Independent Examiner.  The SSAC Review Work Party will provide extensive feedback on the design and the questions.  However, the actual community survey will be conducted by the Independent Examiner with support from staff.  The Independent Examiner will use the feedback provided by the SSAC Review Work Party and other community members to formulate the community survey, ensuring that this tool collects adequate information from a broad group of people to meet the needs of data gathering for their review work.  The data collected via the community survey will be summarized and analyzed by the Independent Examiner, and used as input into their review work and output.

The Independent Examiner will develop and manage the community survey as an important component of the full review.  The Independent Examiner will collate, analyze and summarize all responses, and will supplement the assessment survey with other methods of data collection including a review of documents and one-on-one interviews.

Individual responses will not be made available publicly.  Input will remain confidential to the Independent Examiner.  Additional information about privacy will be provided in the instructions accompanying the community survey.

The Independent Examiner may use the following methods to gather information:

• Examination of available documentation, records, and reports;
• Outcomes from the community survey, an online mechanism to collect and summarize feedback from members of the SSAC structure, interested members from the ICANN community and other structures, members of the Board and staff;
• Limited interviews, as needed.

The review methodology will involve collection of both quantitative and qualitative data to provide the Independent Examiner with a sufficient basis for formulating findings and recommendations.  It is anticipated that the online community survey will have places for free-form feedback in addition to collecting structured responses.  The Independent Examiner will conduct one-on-one interviews to supplement information gathered through the community survey and review of documents as necessary.

One-on-one interviews will be used to supplement other means of gathering information.  Candidates for the interviews will be selected based on input and recommendations from the SSAC Review Work Party.  Additional interviewees may be selected from individuals responding to the community survey.

Once the Independent Examiner collects sufficient information and formulates its analysis and preliminary findings, it will engage with the SSAC Work Party to validate the accuracy and completeness of findings and the usefulness and feasibility of draft recommendations.  The Draft Report, reflecting clarification and responses from the SSAC, will be published for public comment.  The report will be updated to reflect public comments and subsequently published in its final form.  The Final Report, along with public comments, will be considered by the Board.  After the Board takes action and accepts the report, the implementation phase will begin.