Closing Plenary

Panel discussion

60 minutes

Anju Mangal (Business Analyst and ECM Adviser, Digital Transformation, SPC - Intergovernmental Organisation/and Vice-Chair of the Pacific Islands Chapter of the Internet Society)

• Chengetai Masango - Program Manager, IGF Secretariat, will talk from the global IGF perspective
  
  
• Edmon Chung, DotAsia. Will talk from the perspective of the APrIGF & IGFSA
  
  
• Tereza Horejsova, Diplo Foundation, will talk from the perspective of training and capacity building on IG globally and her views from the AP engagement and share examples of organizations that co-fund and support such efforts - REMOTE PARTICIPATION
  
  
• Paul Wilson, DG APNIC, will focus on the complementary support to NRIs, NOGs, and technical capacity building and examples from organizations that co-fund and support such efforts
  
  
• Smita Vanniyar (Point of View), will focus on civil society efforts in the region to bring social issues to the IG agenda

Regional, Intergovernmental and International organisations in the Asia-Pacific region play a critical role in supporting Digital Transformation, enhancing Internet Access and thus the Digital Revolution. For years, and particularly since the beginning of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), regional and international organisations have been engaged in helping Asia-Pacific countries and territories to bridge the digital divide and the digital gap.

Regional and International organisations spearhead initiatives that lead to region-wide strategies and supported the development of country-specific initiatives. As these approaches may get adopted by other stakeholders in other jurisdictions, there have been substantive efforts to better understand the potential for Digital Transformation in the region. The motivation for mainstreaming various interventions is driven by a need to minimise efficiencies, encourage a whole-of-government approach, multistakeholder engagement and to avoid duplication of efforts. The community interested in these processes, invests considerable time and expertise to join face-to-face meetings, conference calls, mailing lists, etc looking at ways to coordinate and collaborate in a more efficient way to produce concrete outcomes. This requires additional resourcing and funding. 

There is an increasing number of organizations, groups and initiatives that are actively promoting the multistakeholder principles of openness and participation on an equal footing, working to influence policy development at the local, national and global level. Many of these initiatives come from civil society groups that are playing a major role in ensuring the end users are aware of the Internet governance issues and how they may affect their lives. But the key question remains – are their voices heard and their input considered- when the decision-making processes take place at the government level? Do these organizations and groups have the ability to change situations through strategic alliances with key players in the Asia-Pacific region?

The panel discussions will analyse the role of global and regional Internet Governance processes (the Internet Governance Forum Secretariat, APrIGF); the role of supporting organizations like the Internet Governance Forum Support Association (IGFSA) as well as organizations that play a role in capacity building such as APNIC, Diplo Foundation and the Internet Society. The panel will also discuss coordination mechanisms available to support IG discussions across the region as well as financing and advocacy. The panel will also look at the challenges faced by national IGFs as well as the Regional IGFs like the APrIGF and the Pacific IGF. As a result of these discussions, we hope to find more opportunities to engage the wider Asia-Pacific region in the global Internet governance process. 

• The moderator/facilitator will highlight the key topic. A general question from Moderator - How can we improve the multistakeholder process at the regional and national level to ensure that it’s aligned to the Global process?
  
  
• Invite the key panellists to introduce themselves and deliver a statement based on the following
  
  
  • What are the mechanisms for stakeholder participation and engagement at the IGF process (global, regional and local level). What are the main challenges these processes have to overcome? Is the Multistakeholder process working at the Global level (state examples)
    
    
  • How has the Multistakeholder process influence policy development at the Regional level or National level (state examples). How are these efforts resourced and funded? What are the main challenges they face?
    
    
  • Risks and Opportunities: What is at stake? why is the multistakeholder process relevant for the Asia Pacific region given the current political and economic climate?
    
    
  • Lessons learnt, successes and failure
    
    
  • Are we exploring any new opportunities to engage other key players from the regional and international organisations to support the Asia-Pacific region ?
    
    
• Q&A
  
  
• Facilitator/Moderator will summarise