The following is IISD’s submission to the Internet Governance Forum for public consultations taking place in Geneva Feb 9-10, 2010

Proposals from the International Institute for Sustainable Development 

The IGF has been concerned throughout its first term with both the internal governance of the Internet and the interface between the Internet and aspects of culture and society, economy and policy.

During the last four years, the Internet has grown enormously in scale and scope, having an increasing impact on culture and society, economy and policy worldwide. Its impact on these will continue to increase as the Internet’s reach extends to more people, businesses and organizations; as an ever increasing number of Internet services become more and more widely available, predominant or ubiquitous; and as the Internet plays an increasing part in all aspects of society, from entertainment to politics, commerce to criminality. Many of those who are involved in the IGF believe that it will have a fundamental, transformative effect on the way in which society works, both nationally and globally.

One result of society’s increasing dependence on the Internet is that Internet policy and governance, nationally and internationally, is of increasing importance – not just for Internet specialists and for the range of organizations and other entities that are directly concerned with it, but for other governance bodies, national and international, and for those whose lives are governed, in different ways, by them.

Even technical governance issues such as standards and Internet coordination are important outside the Internet community in terms of their impact on society – for example, on access, on the availability of (online and offline) services, on competition, or on the environment. But developments on the Internet that interface extensively with other aspects of culture and society, economy and policy are even more important to the wider world.

IISD believes that the IGF needs to develop its role in order to respond to the Internet’s growing importance. If the IGF is to contribute meaningfully to debate and policy development in areas such as economic development, global governance and the environment, with which the Internet now intersects, it cannot do so in isolation. It can only contribute meaningfully through dialogue with communities, organizations and fora that are primarily concerned with those other aspects of culture and society, economy and policy. Dialogue in this context is as much about learning from other domains as it is about promoting the values and potentials of the Internet.

To achieve dialogue of this kind requires some evolution in the way the IGF works and engages with the world community. IISD has two proposals to put forward.

The first concerns the further development of multistakeholder participation in the IGF. The IGF has established an innovative and, in many ways, successful, model of multistakeholder engagement. It has achieved positive and collaborative participation from those in governments, the private sector and civil society who are strongly interested in the Internet and its governance.

This is an important platform on which to build, however, rather than a complete achievement. Even among those who are strongly interested in the Internet and its governance, the extent of participation varies. IISD shares the desire of many to make participation of those who are interested in the Internet and its governance more inclusive, particularly by gender and geography.

However, IISD believes the IGF must go much further than this if it is to fulfill its potential contribution to the Internet and to the world at large. It needs to be more than a meeting place for those who are interested specifically in Internet governance. It needs to be a meeting place between those concerned with Internet governance and those who are concerned with the impact of the Internet on other aspects of culture and society, economy and policy.

Although the IGF has succeeded in bringing together participants from government, business and civil society, there are major gaps in its participation. Not enough governments take part. Most business participation comes from ICT-related firms, not from major users of the Internet such as the financial service industry. Participating civil society is largely made up of individuals. There are few civil society organizations involved, including few of the major international NGOs that play such an important part in civil society in other policy domains. Stakeholders such as these need to be involved in the IGF as well if it is to truly fulfill its multistakholder objectives.

IISD believes therefore that the IGF should actively seek to bring into the debate about the future of the Internet actors, from across the stakeholder communities, whose primary interests and responsibilities lie elsewhere, particularly in domains – from development to the environment, from crime and policing to financial services – which are being fundamentally affected by the Internet. It needs to reach out to these stakeholders and engage them in its work, and it needs to listen to what they have to say about their priorities, their challenges and their concerns.

Dialogue of this kind would help the Internet community to understand better the complexities, challenges and priorities of those dealing with issues such as economic recovery, social development, health and education, environmental protection and disaster management, which the Internet is affecting or where it has a role to play. Equally, it would help those concerned with these other domains – from whatever stakeholder group they come – to understand better the complexities, potentialities and challenges posed by the Internet.

IISD’s second concern is with the relationship between the IGF and other international fora.

In IISD’s experience, one of the major shortcomings of WSIS was its failure to engage with other international fora, particularly with the Millennium Review Summit in 2005. Similarly, there was little or no interaction between the IGF and last year’s UN Conference of the Parties on climate change. If the Internet is fundamentally important to every aspect of our planet’s future, discussion of the Internet should not be absent from these debates. There should be some potential within the UN system for interaction between the IGF and other international fora.

IISD is not recommending specific steps for action here, because we believe that the way to move forward on these issues needs to emerge from discussions between stakeholders within and beyond the IGF community. IISD does, however, believe that these issues are fundamentally important for the future of the IGF, and urges the Secretariat and all stakeholder communities to consider them in the run-up to this year’s meeting in Lithuania so that they can be brought forward during the coming year.

In its first five years, the IGF has been able to develop a valuable forum about the Internet for the Internet community. If it is to fulfill its potential in the next five years, assuming that its mandate is renewed, it should seek to build on that initial platform a forum about the Internet that is as valuable for the world community as a whole.

Respectfully submitted by

Heather Creech, Director, Global Connectivity, IISD, with

David Souter, IISD Associate

Ben Akoh, Project Manager, IISD

And the Global Connectivity team at IISD