Session
Organizer 1: Nadia Tjahja, 🔒United Nations University - CRIS
Organizer 2: Chris Buckridge, Buckridge Consultants
Organizer 3: Jamal Shahin, University of Amsterdam and Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Speaker 1: Jenna Manhau Fung, Technical Community, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 2: Carolina Aguerre, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 3: Nibal Idlebi, Intergovernmental Organization, Intergovernmental Organization
Speaker 4: Markus Kummer, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Chris Buckridge, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Jamal Shahin, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Nadia Tjahja, Intergovernmental Organization, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Classroom
Duration (minutes): 90
Format description: A classroom format allows participants in the room to see the speakers clearly, but also have table space to collaboratively work in the GoogleDoc. We ask for 90 minutes to spend time for each speaker provide insights of the speakers on their respective regions, for the speakers to comment and interact with each others insights and the contributions on the policy questions submitted to the GoogleDpc by on site and online audiences. This will take 60 minutes. We then have 30min for direct questions and comments from the audience for clarifications or further insights.
1) How relevant is the regional concept for understanding the IGF or the multistakeholder world? How is regional actorness evolving? 2) Will regions be building blocks for a new multilateralism or multistakeholderism? 3) For which policy challenges are regional organisations better equipped to tackle than international organisations like the UN?
What will participants gain from attending this session? This session will provide enhanced awareness about regionalism and its impact in shaping Internet Governance, fostering dialogue between regions and providing insights.
Description:
The evolution of what is broadly termed "Internet governance" has historically looked to the distributed nature of the Internet technology itself for inspiration and insight. From relatively early in the Internet's development, technical governance processes, like the Regional Internet Registries, have emphasised a regional approach, allowing local communities to develop policies suited to their specific circumstances and challenges, while maintaining global coordination on essential elements. Following the World Summit on the Information Society and the launch of the Internet Governance Forum, there emerged a vibrant network of national and regional Internet governance initiatives (NRIs) that embody this regional approach to the full spectrum of Internet governance issues. There are now more than 170 NRIs around the world, the majority of them in the Global South, defined by their multistakeholder, bottom-up approach. As explored in the recent 'Net Effects' paper by the DNS Research Federation, these structures provide local communities, whether geographic or linguistic, to discuss issues of priority to them and coordinate to influence governance approaches and decisions (including legislation) at the local, regional, and global level. At the same time, NRIs serve as a vital space to foster and develop new leaders and informed governance participants. As stakeholders have discussed the most recent proposals and developments in Internet governance, including a UN Global Digital Compact and the 20-year review of the WSIS, many have reiterated the importance of regional structures and the need to recognise and support their crucial role in global Internet governance.
This session seeks to engage in data collection and perspective exchange for a book proposal for the United Nations University Series on Regionalism
Hybrid Format: In the first hour of the panel, we will make a GoogleDoc available with the policy questions to the onsite and online participants, and encourage them to submit their own answers and examples to the questions. During the last thirty minutes, in the Q&A, we will open up the floor for comments and questions both on site and online. We will also make short interventions with summaries of the written contributions from the GoogleDoc for the panellists to reflect on.
Report
Regional action in the internet governance space means different things for different regions: some actors use regions to coordinate, other actors use regions to regulate. Regions can work as contiguous geographical units, but a different sort of regionalism also exists: that of states that share common socio-economic conditions
Regions share common challenges within themselves; they also have the benefit of common understandings and awareness of the power dynamics, which enables regions to be useful actors when developing approaches help adopt and implement global initiatives
We should not forget that internet governance requires a global baseline, and that regions can contribute toward this. The internet only works globally due to global coordination, which should not be pushed aside in support of regional approaches.
Think globally in a regional context! Regions are essential actors in the building up of global consensus on internet governance issues. They help build bottom-up approaches that can work, globally.
Think regionally in a global context! Regions are essential actors in implementing and supporting global initiatives (“top-down”).