Internet Governance Forum (IGF)

The Internet Governance Forum is a multi-stakeholder policy dialogue space convened by the United Nations Secretary General in 2006 to “foster the sustainability, robustness, security, stability and development of the internet”.

APC has found that the IGF is an experimental and influential policy forum for achieving our mission of ensuring open, universal and afforable access to the internet for all people. At the IGF, we advocate for policies and regulatory approaches that ensure equitable and affordable access, freedom of information and expression, access to knowledge, public participation, human rights, capacity-building and a development agenda for internet governance. And we express our concern about the erosion and diminishing visibility of a rights-based approach to how the internet is governed.

At the first IGF in 2006, “access” (to the internet) emerged as an issue of common concern and priority to all stakeholders. At the second IGF business, civil society and the technical communities, active in the IGF, worked together to prepare a more coherent approach to the access in the IGF, the outcome of which was a convergence in views as to what should be done to increase access to the internet across the world. “Reaching the next billion” is a priority theme for the third IGF – with stakeholders working together to move from debate and discussion to a manifesto for action.