The IGF was founded in 2005 by the second WSIS summit in Tunis. The Forum is organised by the UNO, but it is not a body of the UN, neither is it financed from the UN budget. It shall provide a platform for governemental and non-governmental stakeholders for discussing on an equal footing. It is not the IGF’s mandate to negotiate any issues, but it rather has the function of a clearing house.
In 2010 the IGF mandate was extended by five and in 2015 by another 10 years. The latter renewal was preceded by a thorough evaluation in 2012/2013 by a “UNCSTD Working Group on IGF Improvement”, which recommended to find new innovative ways for the IGF to produce more hands-on results.
The IGF is chaired by a Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG), which is composed of about 60 renowned representatives from all stakeholder groups and all continents. The MAG chair is appointed by the UN Secretary-General. The present chair is Lyn St. Armour, former president of ISOC. In the meantime, more than 70 national and regional IGFs (NRI) have been established below the IGF. They are all independent, but report voluntarily to the IGF Secretariat.
The first regional IGF was EURODIG, which was initiated in 2007 by an informal multistakeholder group in a bottom-up process. Its mandate and structure are similar to those of the global IGF. However, different from the global IGF, EURODIG produces an outcome document in the form of "messages" to the global IGF. EURODIG is managed by a secretariat. The Secretary General of EURODIG is Sandra Hoferichter.
Today, there are regional IGFs for Asia, Africa, Latin America and North America. In some regions there are also sub-regional IGFs, such as for West and East Africa or the Caribbean. In addition, there are 12 so-called IGF Dynamic Coalitions (IGF-DC). An IGF-DC is a kind of "coalition of the willing" in which interested stakeholders cooperate and make recommendations on a specific topic.
Meanwhile there are 13 IGF-DCs recognised by the IGF Secretariat:
Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility and Disability (DCAD)
Dynamic Coalition on Blockchain Technologies (DC-Blockchain)
Dynamic Coalition on Child Online Safety (DCCOS)
Dynamic Coalition on Community Connectivity (DC3)
Dynamic Coalition on Core Internet Values (DC-CIV)
Dynamic Coalition on Gender and Internet Governance (DC-Gender)
Dynamic Coalition on Innovative Approaches to Connecting the Unconnected (DC-Connecting the Unconnected)
Dynamic Coalition on Internet Rights and Principles (IRPC)
Dynamic Coalition on Network Neutrality (DCNN)
Dynamic Coalition on Platform Responsibility (DCPR)
Dynamic Coalition on Public Access in LIbraries (DC-PAL)
Dynamic Coalition on Publicness (DC-PUB)
Dynamic Coalition on Schools of Internet Governance (DC-SIG)
Dynamic Coalition on Small Island Developing States in the Internet Economy (DC-SIDS)
Dynamic Coalition on the Internet of Things (DC-IoT) Dynamic Coalition on Trade (DC-Trade)
Youth Coalition on Internet Governance (YCIG)
Read more at https://www.intgovforum.org
Conference Reports on: IGF