Retreat on advancing the 10-year mandate of the Internet Governance Forum

The United Nations Secretariat is organising a two-day working retreat on advancing the 10-year mandate of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), as part of the process of continual improvement of the IGF. The retreat will take place on 14-16 July, in Glen Cove, New York.

In the context of the renewal of the IGF mandate for another 10 years (as decided by the UN General Assembly in December 2015), the aim of the retreat is to foster a strategic dialogue among experts, policymakers and practitioners in enriching the IGF as the global forum for facilitating multistakeholder policy discussion and exchange on public policy issues related to key elements of Internet governance.

As outlined by the UN, expected outcomes of the retreat include recommendations on (but are not limited to):

• ways to improve the overall preparatory process of the IGF, the structure and nomination process for the Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG), and ways to strengthen the IGF Secretariat;
• measures to engage those stakeholders who are currently unengaged, with a view to expand and diversify physical and virtual participation;
• ways to better capture the outputs of the IGF and increasing their visibility and impact;
• ideas to support the work of national and regional IGF initiatives, and leverage the synergies between them as well as synergies with the IGF; and
• modalities to ensure sustained funding to support the IGF and the IGF Secretariat.

Such recommendations are expected to be shared with the IGF community, for further comments/consultations.

Forty-one participants were selected to attend the retreat. In addition, the broader IGF community has been invited to submit written inputs in advance of the retreat.

The agenda of the retreat and further details can be found on the IGF website.