WGIG

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AfTLD 2nd African ccTLD Event, 2008 South
Africa The Internet Governance Forum (IGF)
update
Presented by Chengetai MASANGO Programme and
Technology Manager Secretariat of the Internet
Governance Forum (IGF) http//www.intgovforum.org
Pierre OUEDRAOGO Institut de la Francophonie
Numérique (IFN) Organisation internationale de la
Francophonie (OIF) http//www.francophonie.org
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Convening a new Forum

• - WSIS invited the UN Secretary-General to
  convene a new forum for multi-stakeholder policy
  dialogue the IGF.
• - A space for a dialogue to bring all
  interested parties together
• Governments and Intergovernmental Organizations
• Internet institutions
• Private Sector
• Civil Society
• Academic and Technical Communities.

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One cross-cutting priority Development

• Internet governance to be placed in WSIS and MDG
  context (digital divide).
• Two aspects
• - Effective and meaningful participation in
  Internet governance arrangements
• Building of capacity to address Internet
  governance issues.

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Regional Cooperation

• WSIS recognized the importance of
  multi-stakeholder cooperation at all levels
• International
• Regional
• National
• Reason International coordination does not work
  without coordination at the national level!
• Importance of meetings such as AFTLD.

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IGF Themes

• Overall theme
• Internet Governance for Development
• Five broad themes
• - Openness
• Security
• Diversity
• Access
• Critical Internet Resources
• Capacity building as crosscutting priority.

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The essence of the IGF

• Not a decision making forum, but
• Has the power of recognition
• - The IGF can
• - identify issues of concern
• - draw attention to an issue
• - put an issue on the agenda of international
  cooperation.
• Soft governance approach.

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The IGF Meetings

• First and foremost a place for unfettered
  dialogue between stakeholders
• Sharing of best practices
• Workshops
• Open Forums
• Organizations can present their activities
  (ICANN, CoE, OECD, ITU)
• Multistakeholder approach

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Benefits of the IGF

• The IGF can
• - Shape public opinion and decision- making
  processes in other institutions
• - Encourage policy coherence at all levels
• - provide a platform for reaching out to all
  stakeholders
• bring in different stakeholder perspectives
  into public policy debate
• exchange of best practices between countries
  and between stakeholders
• 109 countries represented in the meetings

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IGF at the Intersection
IPR
Freedom of expression
Access to knowledge
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Rio Meeting

• Child Protection Online
• Open Discussion Forum for Child Protection
  Organisations
• Regulatory Frameworks for Improving Access (WS)
• 'Privacy in Internet Identity Management
  Emerging Issues and New Approaches'

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Rio Meeting

• Internet Governance - What Strategy for Africa?
• Kenya at the Best Practice Forum
• Regulatory Frameworks for Improving Access (WS)
• Access The Local Challenge
• Linguistic diversity

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IGF 2008 Hyderabad, India3 - 6 December
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Ways to participate

• Open consultations
• 13 May as part of WSIS cluster of events
• Early September 2008
• Online
• Submit Issue papers
• Workshop Best Practice Forum proposals
• Online Forum
• Virtual Participation

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Dynamic Coalitions

• Dynamic Coalitions emerging from the workshops
• - Stop Spam Alliance (ITU, OECD,APEC)
• - Open Standards (Brazil, W3C, Sun..)
• - Privacy (France, World Bank, AI)
• - Internet Bill of Rights (Brazil, ISOC Italy, IP
  Justice)
• - A2K_at_IGF (Google, CoE, FSFE, EFF).
• FOEonline (Freedom of Expression and the Media)
• Access and Connectivity for Remote, Rural and
  Dispersed Communities
• Dynamic Coalition on Child Online Safety

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Strengthen Africa participation

• - Prepare african views and concerns thru the
  regional meetings so the few participants can be
  the ambassadors
• - Use the remote participation network that will
  be set up by India and the fellowships (Canada
  thru ITU for example)
• - Participate in the international mailing list
  and bring back the debate in the African mailing
  lists for input
• Call for national IGF as Senegal
• Disseminate the best practices in concerned
  sectors
• Ensure african presence in dynamic coalitions
  (online and face-to-face)

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Strengthen Africa participation

• African members of the IGF MAG (Multistakeholder
  Advisory Group)
• Christina Arida (NTRA, Egypt)
• Nii Quaynor (NCS, Ghana)
• Michael Katundu (CCK, Kenya)
• Maimouna Diop (Ministry of ICT, Senegal)
• Adiel Akplogan (AFRINIC, Mauritius)
• Ken Lohento (PANOS Institute, Senegal)
• Issa Yahaya (Min. of Communications, Ghana)

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After Hyderabad...
IGF 2009 is hosted by the Government of
Egypt Governments of Lithuania and Azerbaijan
have made a bid for the 2010 meeting.
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Thank You
http//www.ingovforum.org igf_at_unog.ch
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