Internet Governance Forum in 2023: process, issues, and actors

The mandate of the Forum is established in paragraph 72 of the Agenda:

72. We ask the UN Secretary-General, in an open and inclusive process, to convene, by the second quarter of 2006, a meeting of the new forum for multi-stakeholder policy dialogue - called the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). The mandate of the Forum is to:

• Discuss public policy issues related to key elements of Internet governance in order to foster the sustainability, robustness, security, stability and development of the Internet;
• Facilitate discourse between bodies dealing with different cross-cutting international public policies regarding the Internet and discuss issues that do not fall within the scope of any existing body;
• Interface with appropriate inter-governmental organizations and other institutions on matters under their purview;
• Facilitate the exchange of information and best practices, and in this regard make full use of the expertise of the academic, scientific and technical communities;
• Advise all stakeholders in proposing ways and means to accelerate the availability and affordability of the Internet in the developing world;
• Strengthen and enhance the engagement of stakeholders in existing and/or future Internet governance mechanisms, particularly those from developing countries;
• Identify emerging issues, bring them to the attention of the relevant bodies and the general public, and, where appropriate, make recommendations;
• Contribute to capacity building for Internet governance in developing countries, drawing fully on local sources of knowledge and expertise;
• Promote and assess, on an ongoing basis, the embodiment of WSIS principles in Internet governance processes;
• Discuss, inter alia, issues relating to critical Internet resources;
• Help to find solutions to the issues arising from the use and misuse of the Internet, of particular concern to everyday users;
• Publish its proceedings

The mandate of the IGF, intially set for five years, and then extended with further five years, was further extended in December 2016 with another 10 years. For more information, see the WSIS+10 outcome document [A/70/L.33, para 63] adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 16 December 2015.

The concept of Dynamic Coalitions was established as a result of the first IGF meeting in Athens. These coalitions are informal, issue-specific groups comprising members of various stakeholder groups. 

Active Dynamic Coalitions: Accessibility and Disability | Blockchain Technologies | Child Online Safety | Community Connectivity | Core Internet Values | Data and Trust | Data Driven Health Technologies | DNS Issues | Gender and Internet Governance | Innovative Approaches to Connecting the Unconnected | Internet and Jobs | The Internet of Things | Internet Rights and Principles | Standards, Security and Safety | Universality Indicators | Network Neutrality | Platform Responsibility | Public Access in Libraries | Publicness | Schools of Internet Governance | Small Island Developing States in the Internet Economy | Sustainability of Journalism and News Media | Youth Coalition on Internet Governance

The 18th annual IGF meeting will be hosted by the Government of Japan in Kyoto, between 8 and 12 October 2023. The event is envisaged to take place in a hybrid format – with participants taking part in the event with as equal experience as possible, no matter if they are joining on site or online.

A call for thematic input is open until 31 January 2023. Interested stakeholders are invited to submit suggestions that could help the IGF Secretariat and the MAG plan the thematic focus of the IGF 2023 process.