Youth Initiatives of the IGF are created with a goal of encouraging and involving young people in a substantive discussion on Internet governance. These forms, as well as the national, sub-regional and regional IGFs (NRIs), are expected to follow the main IGF principles of being open, inclusive, non-commercial with multistakeholder participation during the whole preparatory phase and the event itself, all in line with a bottom-up decision-making process.
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The publication outlines the Youth IGF initiatives established on national and/or regional levels; as well as some capacity development initiatives. |
Regarding different forms of Youth engagement in the IGF processes, the IGF Secretariat recognizes the following practices:
- Youth IGF initiatives (that can be independently organized; or integrated into the NRIs). For these, a recognition process is conducted in the basis of the Youth IGFs adhering to the core IGF principles and procedures, just as the NRIs.
- Additional projects to build youth participation in Internet governance
Below table shows the current record of the existing Youth Initiatives.
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Youth IGF Initiatives (23) |
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Name |
About |
Annual Meeting Information |
Annual Meeting Report |
| Youth IGF of Netherlands was established in 2011 year, with the main idea of engaging young people of Netherlands in the discussion on Internet governance and bringing their voices to the global IGF discussion agenda. |
5 October 2018, Netherlands |
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| German Youth IGF was established in 2013 year, with the aim to introduce the idea of Internet governance amongst youth and bring young people from Germany into the relevant discussion on national, regional and global level. |
26 November 2018, Germany |
2016 Report | |
| With a dedication to raise the awareness of youth on Internet governance matters and encourage the young generations to participate in the policy discussion, the Youth IGF of Asia Pacific region was initiated in 2010. |
13 - 16 August 2018, Vanuatu |
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Youth IGF of Latin America and Caribbean was established in 2016 year, in order to increase the participation of young people in Internet Governance related discussion in this respective region. |
8-9 October 2021, hosted online |
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Youth IGF of Hong Kong was establised in 2016 year. This Initiative aims to provide a platform for younger generation in Hong Kong to speak up on Internet Governance issues, build up sense of digital citizenship of students, raise awarenes on Internet givernance issues and to familiarize the community with the yIGF model, all in order to equip participants with skills and knowledge for future participation in actual Internet policy-making discussion |
7 - 8 and 21 July 2018, Hong Kong |
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| Youth IGF of Turkey |
Youth IGF of Turkey is focused on gathering inputs on the Internet governance related matters from young people in Turkey, and on creating a unique forum for the youth to discuss these matters. |
8 November 2018, Istanbul, Turkey | |
| Youth IGF Ukraine |
Youth IGF Initiative of Ukraine was established in 2017. It aims for creating a platform for young people to engage in the Internet governance discussion. |
27 November 2024 |
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| Youth IGF Africa | YIGF Africa is an open platform for younger generation to express and interchange their ideas and thoughts on Internet governance. | N/A 2018 *Status Pending |
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| Youth IGF China |
This Youth IGF initiative was established in 2017. Youth IGF initiative of China aims to engage voices of children and youth in the Internet Governance discourse. |
19 September 2018 Guangzhou, China | 2018 Report |
| Albania Youth IGF |
The Albanian Youth IGF initiative was established in 2018. It aims to create a multistakeholder process through which the Albanian Youth community will have opportunity to engage in Internet Governance discussions on national, regional and international levels. |
N/A 2018 | |
| Argentina Youth IGF |
The Youth IGF of Argentina was established in 2018. It serves as a forum for discussion and exchange space that aims to expand the voices of young people between 18 and 30 who are interested in Internet governance. |
16 October 2021, hosted online |
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| India Youth IGF |
The India Youth IGF was established in 2018. Its vision is to raise awareness of youth on internet governance, encourage young generations to participate in public policy discussion and eventually building a new cadre of Internet leaders who are motivated to learn, engage and act within their region and beyond. |
12 October 2018 New Delhi, India |
2018 Report |
| Indonesia Youth IGF |
The Indonesia Youth IGF was established in 2018. It has the nature of an aggregator platform, and its main purpose is to gather youth movement having interest on internet governance issue. |
Multiple events throughout the year | 2018/19 Report |
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*Status Pending |
The Youth IGF of Nigeria was established in 2019. This initiative serves as a platform to empower young people to be part of public policy Internet discussions which affect the lives of us all. |
23 January 2019 Lagos, Nigeria |
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| West African Youth IGF |
The Youth IGF Initiative for West African community was established in 2019. It aims at channeling youth voices on Internet governance to the wider multistakeholder community. |
24 July 2019, Banjul, Gambia |
2019 Report |
| Armenia Youth IGF |
The Armenian Youth IGF initiative was established in 2019. The forum provides an open platform for Armenian Youth to take part in Internet governance discussions, to get acquainted with Internet-related issues concerning Armenia. |
11 October 2019, Yerevan, Armenia |
2019 Report |
| Italian Youth IGF Initiative | The Italian Youth IGF initiative was established in early 2019. It aims to promote an open, transparent, inclusive and multistakeholder debate on Internet governance matters. | 29 October 2019, Turin, Italy |
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| Malaysia Youth IGF | The Youth-IGF of Malaysia was established in 2019, with the main idea of engaging young people of Malaysia in the discussion on Internet Governance matters, as well as to raise awareness on Internet Governance and promote the youth participation in Internet policy discussion. | 15 - 16 November 2019, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | 2019 Report |
| Nicaragua Youth IGF (*website under development) | The Nicaragua Youth IGF was established in 2019. It aims at creating a multistakeholder platform for channelling the inputs from young people in Nicaragua on Internet governance matters of priority to the wider Internet governance ecosystem in the country, region and world. | TBC 2020 | |
| Afghanistan Youth IGF | The Youth IGF Afghanistan (YIGFA) is a youth-led and youth-focused initiative aiming to engage Afghan youth in Internet Governance debates and discussions. | 21 December 2019, Kabul, Afghanistan | |
| Russian Youth IGF | The Russian Youth IGF was established in 2019. Its core objective is to establish a multistakeholder platform for discussion the Internet governance-related priorities for youth. | 6 April 2021, Moscow, Russia |
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| Chad Youth IGF | The Youth IGF of Chad was recognised in 2020. Its main goal is to engage young people in the multistakeholder discussion on Internet governance and to develop capacity. | September 2020. N'Djamena, Chad |
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| Polish Youth IGF | The Polish Youth IGF was recognised in 2021. It serves as a platform for the Polish youth engagement in Internet governance. | TBC 2021 | |
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Youth IGF Initiatives integrated into the national, subregional and regional IGF inititives (NRIs) |
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Name |
About |
Annual Meeting Information |
Annual Meeting Report |
| Azerbaijan Youth IGF | The Azerbaijan Youth IGF initiative is established in 2019 with a main objective to provide an open platform to the youth community to discuss Internet Governance issues. | 4 March 2020, Baku, Azerbaijan |
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| Ghana Youth IGF | Ghana Youth IGF is an integrated Youth-led initiative of the national Ghana IGF. It aims at engaging young people in Internet governance discussions. | 10 July 2020, Accra, Ghana |
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| Since 2019, the multistakeholder organizing committee of the Belarus national IGF stated to facilitate a set of focused programme activities on youth engagement at the national IGF processes. |
18 November 2019, Minsk, Belarus |
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| YOUthDIG | Youth Dialogue on Internet Governance (YOUthDIG) – is a two days track to prepare for EuroDIG. Participants have the opportunity of peer-learning and networking with youths residing in Europe; discussing and exchanging with experienced net politics practitioners andworking out youth messages to be presented at EuroDIG and the IGF. | 6 June 2019, The Hague, Netherlands |
2017 Messages |
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Additional projects to build youth participation |
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Name |
About |
Annual Meeting Information |
Annual Meeting Report |
| Youth IGF Movement aims to give the opportunity of equal multistakeholder participation in the building process of the Information Society to teenagers and young people from different countries of the world. It was created in 2011. |
Multiple meetings. Details here. |
Youth IGF Movement Annual 2016 Report | |
| Youth Coalition on Internet Governance (YCIG) | The YCIG is one of the IGF Dynamic Coalitions focused on supporting youth participation in local, regional and international Internet governance discussion and processes. | The group hosts substantive sessions at larger Internet governance events. | All reports and resources are available at YCIG webpage. |
| Youth Observatory | The Youth Observatory aims to connect youth from various countries and regions in Latin America. It is focused on knowledge-sharing and enhancing youth engagement in Internet governance-related processes. |
Multiple meetings hosted throughout the year. | |
| The IGF Secretariat recognized the good work of some of the schools on Internet governance, as well as several other programmes supporting youth engagement in the Internet governance sphere. These are referenced in the Youth Engagement at the IGF publication. | |||
Note: The above information is being published as received.
In case you would like to organize a Youth IGF Initiative or to engage in any of the existing ones, please contact the IGF Secretariat.