Third Annual Meeting of the Arab Internet Governance Forum
Arab Perspective for Shaping the Future of the Internet
The Third Annual Meeting of the Arab Internet Governance Forum (AIGF-III) is planned to be hosted by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) with the strategic partnership of the Lebanese Ministry of Telecommunications and Ogero Telecom, at the Mövenpick Hotel in Beirut, during 26-27 November 2014, and under the joint patronage of H.E. the Lebanese Minister of Telecommunications Sheikh Boutros Harb and H.E. Executive Secretary of ESCWA Dr. Rima Khalaf.
The organization of the event will be under the joint umbrella organizations of the Arab IGF process, ESCWA and the League of Arab States (LAS), and with the close cooperation of the Egyptian National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (NTRA) – the host of the Arab IGF Secretariat – and in consultation with the Arab Multistakeholder Advisory Group (AMAG).
The AIGFIII event will be preceded by a pre-event day on 25 November 2014 for capacity building on Internet governance, and will include two days, on 26-27 November 2014, of thematic workshops and plenary sessions under the main theme "Arab Perspective for Shaping the Future of the Internet," and addressing the following sub-themes:
(a) Internet Infrastructure and Access;
(b) Internet Global Public Policies, and National Policy-Making;
(c) Openness: Rights and Responsibilities; and
(d) Privacy and Rebuilding Trust.
The Arab IGF was established in 2012 within the partnership framework between ESCWA and LAS similar to the global IGF, launched by the United Nations Secretary-General in 2006, following the 2005 World Summit on the Information Society. As the global IGF, the Arab IGF provides a platform that brings together all stakeholders to engage in open dialogue on internet-related public policy issues and priorities of the Arab region.
Since its establishment, the Arab IGF process has held two annual meeting, in 2012 in Kuwait and in 2013 in Algeria, attracting some 300 and 800 participants from governments, private sector, academia and civil society. The First Annual Arab IGF was hosted by the Kuwait Information Technology Society - KITS, under the theme "Better Internet for a Better Arab World", and the Second Annual Meeting was hosted by the Algerian Ministry of Post, Information and Telecommunications Technologies, under the theme "Partners for development".
Participation in the 2014 AIGFIII event is open to all stakeholders, from governments, business sector, civil society, technical community and academia, and intergovernmental organizations; and the event organizers welcome and encourage the participation of policy and decision makers and experts in the area of Internet governance from within and outside the Arab region.
Online registration is mandatory for all participants to enable access to the event premises and facilitate the management of participation in the event. All participants are invited to complete the registration form, provide their photo for the ID card, and indicate in the last section of the form whether they wish to participate in the aforementioned pre-event on 25 November 2014 (capacity building day on Internet Governance) and whether they intend to use the remote participation services that will be provided during the event.
