The preliminary program and stakeholder consultation survey for NETmundial+10 have been released. The NETmundial+10 conference will be held on 29 – 30 April 2024 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in São Paulo, Brazil.
The first NETmundial meeting, also held in Brazil in 2014, developed an outcome statement following multistakeholder discussions which identified a set of common principles and important values that contribute to an inclusive, multistakeholder, effective, legitimate, and evolving Internet governance framework and proposed roadmap for the future evolution of Internet governance while ensuring the full involvement of all stakeholders in their respective roles and responsibilities.
NETmundial+10 builds on the first meeting by providing a platform for the multistakeholder community to meet, discuss, and reach a consensus on a new roadmap that can tackle the pressing challenges of our time. It will also collectively build a common, structured agenda of priority issues for the global community and further multistakeholderism in all relevant global governance and decisional arenas.
Specifically, it intends to among others:
- Reconfirm all stakeholders’ commitment to the NETmundial Internet Governance Process Principles from 2014 and discuss their implementation in light of the changing landscape over the past decade;
- Further, the evolution and implementation of the multistakeholder approach as the basis for the inclusive governance of the digital world, improving governance processes to cope with issues arising from the accelerating pace of digitalisation and disruptive technologies, as well as structural asymmetries, power imbalances, and gaps;
- Strengthen discussions on mechanisms and structures, to further and improve multistakeholder approaches and protocols to shape better decisions in the field, reaching consensus among diverse communities, in multiple distinct national and international decision-making arenas, and setting the ways forward with effective tangible outputs.
The NETmundial+10 online consultation is structured in the form of an online survey covering three main categories:
- Principles for Digital Governance Processes;
- Guidelines for the Implementation of Multistakeholder Mechanisms; and,
- Contributions to Ongoing Processes.
These contributions will inform the recommendations in the outcome document on the future of the digital governance ecosystem. In particular, the outcome document is expected to focus on:
- Improved process principles for the governance of the digital world;
- A framework of shared guidelines for multistakeholder consensus-building and decision-making that could be applied in any relevant decisional fora, at all levels; and,
- A commonly agreed set of areas for improvement in the digital world’s multistakeholder governance for the international community’s future attention.
The deadline for submitting contributions is 7 April 2024 at 23:59 UTC. Stakeholders wishing to participate in the event virtually can express their interest by registering here, as in-person participation is now closed.
NETmundial+10 is organised by the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee, which is responsible for establishing strategic guidelines related to the use and development of the Internet in Brazil, coordinating and integrating all Internet service initiatives in the country, and promoting technical quality, innovation, and dissemination of the services on offer.
KICTANet is represented in the NETmundial+10 High-Level Executive Committee (HLEC) by its CEO and Convenor, Dr. Grace Githaiga. The HLEC is responsible for overseeing the event’s organisation, shaping details such as the program, modes of participation, and the expected outcomes.
See also NetMundial: Reflections From Brazil, India, And Kenya, co-authored by Dr. Githaiga. The publication explores the positions of three global South governments—Brazil, India, and Kenya—towards the conference. In particular, it responds to questions such as: What motivated the Brazilians to organise the meeting? What lay behind India’s conflicted position? Why did the Kenyan government stay largely silent?
