Stakeholders, countries and regions often have different priorities when addressing issues related to the use and evolution of the Internet. They also have different capacities for discussing such issues and engaging in national, regional and international Internet governance processes. This is why it is critically important to support and strengthen local processes established within a bottom-up, multistakeholder, open, transparent and inclusive framework. These values are the core operating principles of the IGF, as well as of the national and regional IGF initiatives (NRIs), that in an organic manner, have enshrined and implemented them into their own local communities.
Recognizing the long-standing valuable work of NRIs and committing to develop capacity as mandated, the IGF Secretariat, supported by generous contributions from donors, supports the NRIs processes in developing countries with financial grants. The goal of this is to:
- Enhance global understanding of Internet governance issues, by strengthening bottom-up and multistakeholder NRI processes. Of particular interest are local communities in less developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing states;
- Strengthen the global Internet governance framework, by raising awareness on the importance of more active and consistent engagement of local and regional communities in the IGF intersessional collaborative work.
As part of the IGF 2022 capacity development plan., a limited number if eligible NRIs will be supported this year, as well, through the grants programme. The national IGFs could apply for up to 5,000 USD, sub-regional for up to 6,000 USD and regional IGFs for up to 12,000 USD through the IGF 2022 Call for NRIs Grants open until 20 March 2022