Session
Global Digital Governance & Cooperation
Multistakeholderism
Organizer 1: Melanie Garson, 🔒Tony Blair Insittute for Global Change
Organizer 2: Konstantinos Komaitis, 🔒The Atlantic Council
Organizer 3: Emma Ruiters, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change
Organizer 4: Kenddrick Chan, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change
Speaker 1: Konstantinos Komaitis, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 2: Jean-Jacques Sahel, Private Sector, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 3: Anriette Esterhuysen, Civil Society, African Group
Speaker 4: Anriette Esterhuysen, Civil Society, African Group
Melanie Garson, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Kenddrick Chan, Civil Society, African Group
Emma Ruiters, Government, African Group
Round Table - 90 Min
- Key risks for the multistakeholder model of internet governance?
- How to reinvigorate the multistakeholder model?
- How to evidence the potential damage of the loss of the multi-stakeholder model to the open internet?
- Are there viable alternatives to the multi-stakeholder model?
- How to ensure the correct balance of actors in the multi-stakeholder model?
- Are there viable alternatives to the multi-stakeholder model?
What will participants gain from attending this session? The workshop will be designed to collaboratively generate new solutions to the traditional responses to the mutlistakeholder model of internet governance. Through a combination of interactive questions, participants will have the chance to have their ideas and solutions heard as well as to work with a broad array of interested parties from across the internet ecosystem to find consensus on creative and practical ways forward in remodelling the multistakeholder model. Participants will be able to have an active role to shaping ideas for possible futures of the multistakeholder model.
Description:
The effects of geopolitical fragmentation from chips wars to the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is being felt across every forum of international governance. Simultaneously, the future of the free, open, secure and interoperable internet is bowing under the weight of threats to its core infrastructure to the increased weight of access to compute power, the consolidation of private ownership through the internet stack and the politicisation of internet access. Traditional avenues of collaboration are at best strained and oftentimes increasingly closed.
Multi-stakeholder fora have provided an alternative. By providing a holistic and cross-cutting view of the needs of the internet and pathways for collaboration, they often help neutralise geopolitical rivalries that threaten the integrity of the internet. However, the decline of trust in the future leadership of internet governance organisations and new initiatives like the Declaration for the Future of the Internet and the Global Digital Compact, whilst providing a nod to multi-stakeholder partners, appear vague and not necessarily staying true to the spirit of multistakeholder collaboration.
This workshop seeks to bring together key actors from government, the private sector, academia and civil society for an open conversation to consider whether the multistakeholder model of internet governance can survive the lack of collaboration amidst the increasing geopolitical tension? It will also seek to generate creative yet pragmatic solutions that can break the current barriers and visualise the pathway for their practical implementation.
The ideas generated in the workshop will form the basis of a TBI sponsored publication that will summarise the workshop and the key recommendations.
Hybrid Format: In order to maximise participation from the online audience and to ensure inclusion of diverse viewpoints, we would include a series of mentimeter/slido questions that would both be a trigger for the conversation and give the online audience the opportunity to participate. We would also include a link to an online form that will include all the questions under discussion so that those who are online can contribute there too.