Closing of the day 20 June 2023
20 June 2023 | 17:45 - 18:15 EEST | Main auditorium | 
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Consolidated programme 2023 overview / Closing of the day
Outlook to the IGF in Kyoto
- Anja Gengo, IGF Secretariat
Video record
https://youtu.be/ObB8PQFgxVg?t=28448
Transcript
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>> NADIA TJAHJA: While I kindly request the speakers to leave the stage, and I request Anga Gengo to come towards the stage, I would like to start wrapping up this main topic, now that we have gone through the risks, resilience, hope, the conversations haven’t ended here, you have heard invitations to come and continue the discussions elsewhere but also don’t forget that tomorrow we will have the EuroDIG messages.
The Geneva Internet platform is with us to bring together these discussions and tomorrow she will be presenting the EuroDIG messages, I hope you’ll be joining us to reflect the on what we have discussed today.
So with this, I would like to invite Anga Gengo from the IGF Secretariat for the closing session which looks at the Outlook to the IGF.
Thank you.
>> ANJA GENGO: Thank you very much.
This applause goes to all of you.
I can’t believe that we’re only in the second day, I have issues remembering from before. That speaks to the fact that we have had over the two days excellent discussions, so engaging, so many new faces which are so good for the sustainability of the processes, and amidst all of the serious conversations, a lot of friendly, nice chats and I’m very, very grateful for that. I know it is too early to congratulate, because we still have a very important day tomorrow, and you things can happen. Based on the two days of the discussion, especially the discussions that were happening bilaterally in the corridors, at the reception, I think it is safe to say that we can definitely congratulate all the people, stakeholders who are involved at EuroDIG for arranging this important framework for all of us to discuss. Not easy topics at all, but in a very democratic, civil way, and definitely providing some good recommendations, good advice for ways forward.
I also want to use the opportunity to sincerely congratulate the national IGF of Finland for also very good discussions, excellent stakeholders, I had the pleasure to meet new colleagues that in eight years I have been in the IGF Secretariat I haven’t had the opportunity to meet. It is a wonderful energy and really speaks positively about the determination of the large group to make the Internet better place and to keep it like that.
I’m very grateful to EuroDIG on behalf of the IGF Secretariat for giving us the space, a couple of minutes to announce the updates about the upcoming 18th annual meeting of the Internet Governance Forum, and certainly if you have any question, comments about the IGF, and if I can respond, I will be more than happy to respond.
A quick reminder for all of you, would I believe that you are aware, that the 18th annual IGF meeting is hosted by the Government of Japan in Kyoto in October, from 8 to 12.
So it is coming very soon. Keeping the Secretariat, the members of the multistakeholder Advisory Group, the leadership panel, the community very, very busy already.
The Internet we want, empowering all people, it is the overarching theme of the IGF, and thanks to the inputs of the community, thanks to the hard work of the MAG, we have 8 themes on which many of the community members already submitted their session proposals, which are evaluated now by the MAG. If you look at what’s been submitted, it is very interesting to see that cybersecurity, cybercrime, safety online, as well as governance of artificial intelligence and the emerging tech are the topics that are dominating the submitted session proposals, and other topics as well are very close to those, such as for example data governance, sump as digital governance, avoiding Internet fragmentation or topics related to sustainability and environment.
All of this promises a very diverse, rich programme in Kyoto.
I have to admit, speaking internally with the structure, the MAG doesn’t have at all an easy task, this year received a record number of session proposals, on average usually the IGF receives around 3, 400 session proposals, and then it can accommodate around 300, you don’t have to say no to a lot of proposals, and the quality of those proposals is very good and usually high. This year we have to say no to around half of the proposals just because more than 800 proposals have been received and after initial cleaning, that number is a bit less than 800, more than 400 workshops are being evaluated by the MAG and it is exciting to see very soon which sessions will be featuring the programme of the IGF in Kyoto. On that point, in July from 10th to 12th of jewel, in the United Nations office in Geneva, the MAG will meet in person, there will be the open consultations day, which means an opportunity for all of us working for the IGF, being a part of the community, contributing to it, to contribute to finalization of the programme. If you would like to see some changes, in the IGF programme, that will be the best opportunity to speak out and to have your voice heard and certainly to help all of us working on the programme to make sure it meets your needs.
All the meetings, as well as the IGF are hybrid as you know, if you can’t meet us in Geneva, please meet us online.
Likewis, for Kyoto, it would be wonderful if all of you could join us for the annual meeting in Kyoto but we do understand that time can be a constraint, financial conditions can be a constraint, and if you are coming from what we call the Global South countries, so if you’re coming from the developing country, the transitional economy, you may be eligible to apply for the travel support, the call for spar support is open until the 12th of July, and the best is to visit the IGF website and to apply as soon as possible. And good luck to all of you that apply. Certainly the Japanese host especially is working hard with all of us to ensure that there are good structures in place for meaningful online participation. I do understand that for this part of the world, maybe the time zone may be challenging, but I think that it goes with the job, I think we’re all very much challenged because we’re participating in all of the different regional practices that are feeding into one big global Internet Governance process, including the IGF.
Finally, to mention some important work underway, the past two days we have been talking a lot about the Internet fragmentation and indeed it is a topic that’s of global concern, first of all, and the good thing is that we have set up all of these frameworks through which we can react and hopefully prevent harm to take place.
The Policy Network on Internet fragmentation is one of the work streams, it has been mentioned a couple of times by various speakers here at EuroDIG. The process is open to everyone to join at any point in time, the good start is to subscribe to the mailing list that is available on the IGF website. Likewise, there is also a Policy Network on meaningful access, also a Policy Network on artificial intelligence which are running their work again in an open framework and also the Best Practice Forum on cybersecurity so you are most welcome and actually needed in all of the processes for us to make sure that we develop a comprehensive output document which may be a roadmap for solving some issues and making certain the Internet better for all of us.
There is more than 25 now active Dynamic Coalitions, some of them I think hosted sessions at EuroDIG such as the DNS one, and it certainly is a good place for all of you who are maybe not connected to the Dynamic Coalitions to connect with people, stakeholders coming from different parts of the world, sharing the same passion as probably you are or the same issues, within a same set of values.
I do invite to you visit the IGF website and explore those.
Then finally, I will conclude on the point that is probably the closest to me. I think to all of you, the fact that you are here, the concept of the NRIs, the network is growing and becoming a very powerful, I would say even unique mechanism globally, regionally, locally speaking.
In so many countries, you can speak about only a national IGF as a true entry point of an organized, organic multistakeholder open, bottom-up inclusive process. Right as I speak now, here at EuroDIG, we have Cape Verde happening as well and also the Grenadines, we’re covering all of the same issue, all discussing about the Internet Governance Forums. I hope you’ll be able to join us in Kyoto. A lot has been done already and we’re continuing to do so to engage youth through the IGF 2023 youth track and there will be a dedicated Youth Summit at Day 0 of the IGF.
In the meantime, we are working with the regional IGFs just as we did yesterday with EuroDIG to engage with young people as much as that’s possible.
At the longest, we will be present at the Asia-Pacific regional IGF in Australia, I hope many of you will be able to join on site or online and participate there.
Likewise, the African IGF, which is hosted from 19th to I believe 21st of September, in Nigeria, the youth Latin America IGF for example is hosting in Colombia also end of August, and so plenty of opportunities to have your say, plenty of opportunities to learn, and I hope that you will indeed help us to create a stronger ecosystem.
With that, I will conclude.
If you have question, comments, more than happy to respond here now or maybe you would prefer that I respond at the reception which is coming right after we conclude this session.
Thank you.
So Anga Gengo has offered for taking any questions. Are there any questions in the room about the IGF? Firstly, I would like to start, she started with a kind invitation for us all to go to Kyoto in Japan. How many of you are actually going? Who has already bought their tickets? Hands up? Also for the people online, if you are going, do raise your hands. So I see – look around you, look around. There is quite a lot of us that are going is a great way to seeing who is going to come.
Please lower your hands.
For those people who are thinking about it, I don’t have funding yet, I want to go, but I still need to ask permission from my boss whether or not I can get the time off, things like that, who is thinking I want to go, if I get the opportunity to, I would like to go. Funders in the room, look at these people, funders in the room, look at these people, these are the people who are happy to see your support. What’s happening online. One hand raised, there is one person somewhere in the world that wants to go to IGF. Whatever happens, we should meet together at the EuroDIG stand, we can always connect there with each other, we can see you, what sessions EuroDIGs are organizing, how many of you are thinking – how many of you submitted a session.
A good European representation of submitting sessions. Great job, EuroDIG community.
I know there are a lot of newcomers here.
What do you think? Do you think that you want to submit an issue after everything that you have gone through in the past day and over the latest experiences? Maybe you were challenged by something? Do you think that maybe in the future you would like to submit something to the IGF.
Nobody wants to submit newcomers thinking of submitting things to the IGF. You have seen the people that raised their hands, who submitted sessions and we saw a couple of people who said I’m thinking about it in the future. Reach out to those that have already submitted it. If they have submitted it, they know what the key is to success.
Let’s help each other to make sure that we actually are going to be able to go together and have excellent sessions that reflect what we are doing here in Europe.
I see that there is Sandra at the microphone.
>> SANDRA HOFERICHTER: Yes. Nadia, thank you.
Since you mentioned so many sessions now, submitting sessions, that was a topic of the last session about the GDC, that the national, regional IGFs should cooperate with each other, I would like to let everyone know that the Asia-Pacific IGF, Jennifer Chung in person and myself, we have made a joint proposal, to the IGF, our idea behind was first of all to help reducing the number of sessions, so instead of doing separate sessions for our initiatives, we are going to do one together and secondly, we also think that cross regional collaboration like we tried to enforce it with the parliamentarians, yesterday is something that is possibly a concept for the future and we haven’t yet decided on the topic because the Asia-Pacific IGF has yet to happen and EuroDIG is also waiting for the messages that come out of this meeting.
So on a rather short notice, the two foras will discuss which topic could be on the agenda based on our messages where we have some overlaps possibly, where both communities discussed about it.
In case our proposal goes through, I would like to invite everyone from the community, because it is not a session about me and Jennifer, it is a session that we’re organizing for our communities basically to get involved, we will of course announce it via our channels so for EuroDIG, it is the newsletter or social media and then get involved in the session if you are in Kyoto in person or if you are joining online.
>> NADIA TJAHJA: Thank you very much.
I see that Adam would like to take the microphone, please go ahead.
>> Adam: I’m going to pretend to be Japanese for a little while, I lived there for a very long time. Don’t be frightened of the cost, it is cheaper to eat in restaurants in Japan than it is here. Most of Europe. Don’t be too worried about that. It is an expensive flight, food is less expensive, beer, if you like beer, is less expensive, hotels are less expensive than any major European city although the rooms will be small, they will beneath, they will be functional, they will be clean, but don’t expect space.
Don’t worry about the cost too much, if you can get there once you’re there you will have a good time and it will not be as expensive as any major European city.
Thank you.
>> NADIA TJAHJA: Well thank you very much. A very good insight that when we balance the budgets that we have to look at the overall cost, and maybe you will be pleasantly surprised, it may even be cheaper than an event you would have had here in Europe.
Are there in the meantime any questions that are for Anga Gengo? She did offer that you could speak with her at the reception which is nice to have that opportunity to do so.
So if there are no questions, I would like to say that I would be happy to see you again in Japan. So do consider going. You saw from the show of hands, there is a lot of us going, please let’s connect together and see what we can do.
I think it is a great opportunity for those who say oh, we’re interested in going to kind of connect, see with people, how are they going wrinkles did they get the funding from, why should I go, if you still have doubts, this is the place where people can tell you more about what was the experience, what they learned about it, many of the people in the community got new jobs, new experiences, projects, so this is a way to find out like how does that work.
So really use it as an opportunity perhaps even this evening to connect with other people and to ask about their IGF experiences – are you okay? Hopefully we’ll be able to then provide an opportunity for those people to then connect and also to reconnect in Japan.