Internet governance: women at IGF

According to the World Summit on the Information Society, Internet Governance seeks the development and application of principles, norms, rules and decision-making procedures and programmes that shape the use and the evolution of the Internet. Therefore, as a way of representing all of the Internet users, a multi-stakeholder approach in the process is pursued. Because of that, governments, the private sector and the civil society participate according to their respective roles in the process of building the internet governance. Although offering access to high level debates on the subject is really important, this contact is still very restricted today. As a matter of fact, most of the participants in the discussion forums of that theme usually know each other.

Discussing internet governance

The Youth@IGF Brasil is a great opportunity for the dissemination of discussions regarding the Internet Governance. It is a program funded by private companies and organized by the Internet Steering Committee in Brazil (CGI.br) through which young people between the ages of 18 and 25 are chosen to discuss topics related to Internet Governance. Divided into groups of novices and veterans, those who demonstrate greater leadership, knowledge and teamwork skills move to the second phase, representing the Brazilian youth at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), an international multi stakeholder forum for discussions on Internet Governance.

As reported by CGI.br, there has been an increase in the number of entries in the 2017 selection process compared to the previous year. Still, as part of the women of the Youth 2017, we believe that the program has the potential to impact even more young people by empowering them to a lively and organic debate about Internet Governance.

Bringing attention to the topics discussed at the Youth@IGF Brasil‘s internet forums and at the 12th Internet Governance Forum (IGF) event in Geneva, by publishing texts that assemble our opinions combined to what our colleagues added to the debates that took place in both stages is one of the main reasons why we gathered and created this project. Our goal is clear: to inspire young people to find their own paths on the concerned matter, bringing different points of view and thus contributing to the debate. In order to make this possible, we partner with IRIS, which kindly provided us with this space for writing and publishing about our experiences during the course of the program, and, for those who were selected, about their own participation at the IGF. We hope that with this project we can motivate other young people to participate in 2018.

#WomenInGovernance

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Institute for Research on Internet and Society.