IGF 2024 Open Forum #66 Next Steps in Internet Governance: Models for the Future

The Tunis Agenda for the Information Society birthed the Internet Governance Forum at the World Summit on the Information Society in November 2005. Since then, the IGF has been the primary multi-stakeholder platform to discuss internet governance issues in a structured and inclusive manner. Also, in other Internet Governance fora, the multi-stakeholder approach is well established. Despite these successes, we have seen that the multi-stakeholder approach is met with reservations from certain quarters. Indeed, in an ever-changing world, the multi-stakeholder approach must also continue to evolve. Digital policies are becoming increasingly technical and differentiated. A robust multi-stakeholder governance requires sufficient resources and transparent procedures. In this session, we investigate how the multi-stakeholder approach for digital and internet governance can be further developed to address these challenges. We will look at different regions and multi-stakeholder governance models to identify best practices. What formats have been tested and trialed to increase inclusiveness and accountability? How can these formats be further strengthened? How can forums and processes learn from these successful models? Examples of multi-stakeholder formats that serve as a basis for discussion include: • Netmundial+10 – a commemorative event marking the ten-year anniversary of the Netmundial conference. The focus is on assessing progress in implementing internet governance principles and on discussing emerging issues. It is organised by the multi-stakeholder Brazilian Internet Steering Committee cgi.br. • International Digital Dialogues – an instrument of the German government for bilateral digital policy exchange that heavily relies on participation and contributions from stakeholders in business, academia and civil society in Germany and its partner countries. • Kenya Internet Governance Forum – a particularly strong national-level forum contributing to the IGF overall that exemplifies how its multi-stakeholder process remains of key importance at a national and international level. • Indonesia’s Digital Transformation Multi-Stakeholders Partnership – a multi-stakeholder initiative aiming to support Indonesia’s digital transformation to bolster the Sustainable Development Goals. It is conceived by ten UN agencies, the Nationwide University Network of Indonesia (NUNI) and the Indonesian Digital Leaders Association (APDI).

The session will be moderated on site. The moderator will engage both the on-site and online speakers by asking questions and inviting on-site and online attendees to contribute to the discussion by making statements. An additional online moderator will monitor and moderate the chat and will be in direct contact with the on-site moderator to guarantee that the Q&A involves both on-site and online attendees.  Online interaction in this session will be facilitated by incorporating the thoughts and questions of the audience expressed in the chat in real time. The online moderator will encourage the online audience to use the Q&A function of the platform provided for the session.Audiences online and on site will be asked a series of questions to survey their perspectives and involvement in multilateral and multi-stakeholder processes. For this, we plan to utilise Particify or Mentimeter. Responses will be collected at the beginning of the session and can be referred to throughout the discussion.