Internet governance within the system of the United Nations: is IGF on a good path to adapt, innovate and reform? – Pre 06 2022
20 June 2022 | 16:30 - 18:00 CEST | SISSA Main Auditorium | |
Consolidated programme 2022 overview / Day 0
Almost two decades after the initial World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), does Internet governance keep pace with the development of the digital landscape? What’s the role of the United Nations in governing the Internet in 2022? Do existing IGF processes fit the need or more could be done? Will the IGF 2022 be a change we all want to see?
Session description
Much on digital policy and related processes is happening across the United Nations system. The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is actively working on ‘adapting, innovating and reforming’. It recently concluded its second retreat, the Expert Group Meeting, from which a number of action points are subject to implementation and expected to trigger a change. In addition, as a concrete action point from the Roadmap for Digital Cooperation, the IGF has reformed its structure by introducing the Leadership Panel. What to expect from the Panel?
The Secretary-General went steps further on the Roadmap by issuing his Our Common Agenda Report. Can this vision for “reinvigorating multilateralism” trigger re-energization of multistakeholderism? What are the Global Digital Compact and Summit of the Future about and how can all stakeholders be part of them including those gathered around various intersessional processes of the IGF?
Format
This will be an open, interactive, roundtable exchange between those working directly on the above-mentioned UN processes and those contributing or wishing to contribute to it. It will be an opportunity to challenge the status quo and provide creative ideas to strengthen the existing processes. The proposed draft agenda of the session will develop around the following areas:
- WSIS+20 – where do we stand today? How much has the IGF changed? Will the GF 2022 in Addis Ababa be the change we want to see?
- IGF in the context of the implementation of the Secretary-General’s Roadmap for Digital Cooperation – what’s been done so far and where people can contribute?
- Can we hope for better days if the Our Common Agenda is implemented? What is the concrete plan for the Global Digital Compact and a vision for the Summit of the Future? What role the IGF could play?
Throughout the agenda, a special focus is on the value of local levels and concrete ways EuroDIG and other NRIs could contribute to the UN processes and vice-versa.
Further reading
- About WSIS https://www.itu.int/net/wsis/
- About IGF https://www.intgovforum.org/en/about
- Tunis Agenda for the Information Society https://www.itu.int/net/wsis/docs2/tunis/off/6rev1.html
- IGF Expert Group Meeting https://www.intgovforum.org/en/content/igf-expert-group-meeting
- IGF 2022 in Ethiopia https://www.intgovforum.org/en/content/igf-2022
- UN Secretary-General’s Roadmap for Digital Cooperation https://www.un.org/en/content/digital-cooperation-roadmap/
- UN Secretary-General’s Our Common Agenda https://www.un.org/en/un75/common-agenda
People
This session is organized by the United Nations Secretariat for the Internet Governance Forum. It will engage a number of expert speakers:
- Adam Peak, ICANN, MAG member
- Anriette Esterhuysen, former MAG Chair; Association for Progressive Communications (APC)
- Jason Munyan, Office of the United Nations Secretary-General's Envoy on Technology
- Markus Kummer, former MAG Chair, IGF Support Association
- Nigel Hickson, UK Government
- Thomas Schneider, Government of Switzerland
- Velimira Nemiguentcheva-Grau, European Commission