IGF 2020
Call for Voluntary Commitments
Background
Following the examples of some UN processes, such as the call for voluntary commitments at the Ocean Conference, The Sendai Framework Voluntary Commitments online platform (VC platform), the SDG Acceleration Actions, and the World Humanitarian Summit, among others, and taking into consideration the United Nations Secretary-General’s call to action on his Digital Cooperation Roadmap and the call for champions for the eight action areas https://www.un.org/en/content/digital-cooperation-roadmap/, the 2020 virtual IGF, supported by UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), will initiate a call for voluntary commitments - a call for voluntary actions or pledges to forward the goals of the Internet Governance Forum and the Digital Cooperation Roadmap.
Any stakeholders, be it Governments, the Private Sector, the Technical Community, IGOs or Civil Society organizations or individual actors, can make a voluntary commitment of an action to be carried out during the 2021 cycle (until IGF 2021) or beyond that are supportive of achieving or implementing IGF objectives or action areas related to the Secretary-General’s Roadmap.
Implementation
Throughout Phase 1 (2-6 Nov) and Phase 2 (9-17 Nov) of IGF2020, all moderators are requested, at the end of their sessions, to ask their panelists to express at least one voluntary commitment that they will undertake during the next year (IGF 2021 cycle), either at the individual capacity or on behalf of their organization, to foster the aims and goals of the IGF (as expressed in paragraph 72 of the Tunis Agenda).
Participants at the 2020 virtual IGF are likewise invited to announce voluntary commitments during the Phase I and Phase 2 of the discussions and forward such commitments to the IGF Secretariat. Voluntary commitments could be linked to one or more of the IGF2020 sub themes, i.e. data, environment, inclusion and trust.
To facilitate this process, on the IGF Website there is a webform where stakeholders can also record voluntary actions or commitments. These will be displayed on the IGF website. If the stakeholders choose to do so, they may link their actions to one or more of the SDGs and related targets, which at a future date may be incorporated as a voluntary commitment in the SDG Acceleration Actions Database: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgactions
Follow up
Self-reporting and self-evaluation of these voluntary commitments will be made possible through the IGF Secretariat website and will be reviewed at the first Open Consultations.
Comments on how to improve the voluntary commitment process are most welcome and can be submitted to the IGF Secretariat.