IGF Secretariat Releases Draft Schedule for 16th Internet Governance Forum in Poland

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The Secretariat of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) has released a draft schedule for the 16th edition of the Forum, tagged “IGF 2021”, which will take place in Katowice, Poland, from December 6 to 10, 2021.

According to the Secretariat, IGF 2021 process will include a preparatory and engagement phase, which will be implemented in a lead-up to the 16th annual IGF, to be hosted by the Government of Poland.

The IGF 2021 programme content will be based on two baskets, namely a main focus area basket with two focus areas, and an emerging and cross cutting issue basket with four issue areas. 

This, the Secretariat said, is intended to enable a more focused IGF, through the main focus areas, while at the same time keeping the IGF open for new and emerging issues and giving participants a choice, through the emerging and cross-cutting issues. 

The main focus areas are “Economic and social inclusion and human rights” and Universal access and meaningful connectivity” while the emerging and cross-cutting issue areas are “Emerging regulation: market structure, content, data and consumer/users rights regulation”, Environmental sustainability and climate change”, Inclusive Internet governance ecosystems and digital cooperation” and Trust, security, stability”. 

According to the Secretariat, organisers of the High-level Leaders and Parliamentary Tracks will be invited to connect with these baskets while National and regional IGF initiatives (NRIs), Best Practice Forums (BPFs), Dynamic Coalitions (DCs) and Policy Networks (PNs) will also be invited to consider addressing the issues within these baskets.

The draft schedule is available at: https://www.intgovforum.org/multilingual/content/igf-2021-schedule.

The Secretariat said all participants are required to register, regardless of whether they will participate online or onsite.