Session
Subtheme
Organizer 1: Government, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Organizer 2: Technical Community, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Organizer 2: Technical Community, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 1: Allison O'Beirne, Government, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 2: Byron Holland, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 3: Marko Paloski, Civil Society, Eastern European Group
Speaker 4: Saba Tiku Beyene, Technical Community, African Group
Speaker 2: Byron Holland, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 3: Marko Paloski, Civil Society, Eastern European Group
Speaker 4: Saba Tiku Beyene, Technical Community, African Group
Format
Classroom
Duration (minutes): 60
Format description: A sixty-minute session provides sufficient time for both a panel discussion and an interactive brainstorming activity. For the first half of the session, speakers will provide their regional and stakeholder perspectives on their ideas and best multistakeholder engagement practices that can be used to strengthen the IGF. The workshop will then become interactive in the second half of the session, as speakers and audience members will have the opportunity to engage in a creative brainstorming session to develop action-oriented solutions to strengthen the IGF and support GDC and WSIS+20 output implementation.
Duration (minutes): 60
Format description: A sixty-minute session provides sufficient time for both a panel discussion and an interactive brainstorming activity. For the first half of the session, speakers will provide their regional and stakeholder perspectives on their ideas and best multistakeholder engagement practices that can be used to strengthen the IGF. The workshop will then become interactive in the second half of the session, as speakers and audience members will have the opportunity to engage in a creative brainstorming session to develop action-oriented solutions to strengthen the IGF and support GDC and WSIS+20 output implementation.
Policy Question(s)
1. What are existing initiatives and recommendations to strengthen multistakeholder Internet governance and dialogue?
2. How might we improve upon and strengthen the IGF? How can the IGF support GDC and WSIS +20 outputs implementation?
3. What actions can different stakeholders and local initiatives take to be part of these solutions?
What will participants gain from attending this session? Participants will gain a clear understanding of the strengths, contributions, and limitations of the global IGF. Participants will also be able to share best practices and learnings from local and regional multistakeholder initiatives that can be applied to the global IGF. Facilitated through an interactive workshop with brainstorming activities, participants will have the opportunity to think critically and creatively about how to strengthen the IGF, while exchanging ideas and perspectives with other stakeholders in attendance. Ultimately, participants will leave the session with action-oriented ideas for how we, as the Internet governance community, can improve the global IGF.
Description:
The IGF is a valuable multistakeholder forum; however improvements are needed to strengthen the IGF and make it fit-for-purpose for 2025 and beyond. Through an intergenerational dialogue, this session will explore existing local initiatives to strengthen multistakeholder dialogues in order to identify lessons learned and potential action-oriented solutions for improvements to the global IGF. Further, in the heightened context of the WSIS+20 review, this session aims to facilitate interactive discussions between different stakeholder groups to explore how the IGF can be leveraged in GDC implementation and co-create a clear list of actions that we can all take to improve and strengthen the global IGF. The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) will share insights from its experience as a technical operator and the Canadian Internet Governance Forum Secretariat. The Government of Canada will discuss its lessons learned from previous IGFs as well as its multistakeholder engagement efforts, including their WSIS+20 multistakeholder informal working group, which comprises representatives from diverse stakeholder groups from across Canada. Based on her experiences as the coordinator of the Ethiopian Youth IGF and as a previous member of the IGF MAG, Saba Tiku will share her recommendations to strengthen the IGF and identify actions different stakeholders can take to build multistakeholder solutions to Internet governance issues. Similarly, as a member of the Steering Committee for Eastern Europe in the Youth Coalition on Internet Governance, Marko Paloski will highlight his experience as a young leader in the technical community and explore mechanisms to strengthen multistakeholder Internet governance, particularly through meaningful youth engagement in this space. All speakers will participate in an interactive brainstorming session during the workshop in order to engage with audience members, exchange ideas and best practices, and co-design action-oriented ideas for how all stakeholders can contribute to improving the global IGF.
The IGF is a valuable multistakeholder forum; however improvements are needed to strengthen the IGF and make it fit-for-purpose for 2025 and beyond. Through an intergenerational dialogue, this session will explore existing local initiatives to strengthen multistakeholder dialogues in order to identify lessons learned and potential action-oriented solutions for improvements to the global IGF. Further, in the heightened context of the WSIS+20 review, this session aims to facilitate interactive discussions between different stakeholder groups to explore how the IGF can be leveraged in GDC implementation and co-create a clear list of actions that we can all take to improve and strengthen the global IGF. The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) will share insights from its experience as a technical operator and the Canadian Internet Governance Forum Secretariat. The Government of Canada will discuss its lessons learned from previous IGFs as well as its multistakeholder engagement efforts, including their WSIS+20 multistakeholder informal working group, which comprises representatives from diverse stakeholder groups from across Canada. Based on her experiences as the coordinator of the Ethiopian Youth IGF and as a previous member of the IGF MAG, Saba Tiku will share her recommendations to strengthen the IGF and identify actions different stakeholders can take to build multistakeholder solutions to Internet governance issues. Similarly, as a member of the Steering Committee for Eastern Europe in the Youth Coalition on Internet Governance, Marko Paloski will highlight his experience as a young leader in the technical community and explore mechanisms to strengthen multistakeholder Internet governance, particularly through meaningful youth engagement in this space. All speakers will participate in an interactive brainstorming session during the workshop in order to engage with audience members, exchange ideas and best practices, and co-design action-oriented ideas for how all stakeholders can contribute to improving the global IGF.
Expected Outcomes
As a result of this workshop titled “Action-Oriented Solutions to Strengthen the IGF,” we expect the following outcomes:
• Identification of clear, multistakeholder solutions to build on existing practices and strengthen the IGF
• Exploration of how the IGF can be leveraged towards the implementation of the GDC
• Reflection on a fit-for-future vision of the IGF, particularly in the context of the WSIS+20 Review
Hybrid Format: To ensure the best possible experience for online and onsite participants, we will propose interactive activities through different mechanisms. For our panel discussions, the online moderator will share any reactions and questions from virtual participants while the onsite moderator will monitor questions from the room. For our brainstorming session, in-person participants will engage in a sticky note brainstorming session with physical sticky notes and pieces of chart paper posted around the room. Through Mural, an online whiteboard platform, virtual participants will have the opportunity to add their thoughts through virtual sticky notes in the platform. The onsite moderator will summarize the in-person sticky notes while the online moderator will summarize the virtual sticky notes. The panelists will discuss the key ideas from both the onsite and online sticky notes.