ESCWA and the League of Arab States are organizing two preparatory meetings for the Fifth Arab Internet Governance Forum (Arab IGF), was held from 16 to 19 July 2018 at the UN-House, Beirut, Lebanon, as follows:
 
16 July 2018:  Open Consultations, remotely by WebEx
18-19 July 2018:  Arab Multi-stakeholder Advisory Group (AMAG) Meeting

The AMAG meeting was preceded by a joint coordination meeting for the Forum's Executive Bureau for Joint Coordination (EBJC), on 17 July 2018. 

These meetings focused on preparing the programme of the Fifth Arab IGF and were considered the start of a new phase of the Arab IGF process.  The meetings came after a two-year review phase (2016-2017) that featured the implementation of the ESCWA-LAS AIGF2020 initiative, which aimed at reviewing the Arab IGF process and has concluded by a Forum Charter and a new issue of the Arab Roadmap for Internet Governance.

Participation in the Open Consultations (16 July) was through WebEx and was open to the public, including all stakeholders in the Arab Internet governance community and experts who have contributed to the Arab IGF activities since its establishment in 2012. 
 
The AMAG meeting (18-19 July) involved the participation of members of the 2015 AMAG and of the Working Groups that contributed to the two-year review phase of the Arab IGF process; and the preceding EBJC joint coordination meeting (17 July) involved the participation of the representatives ESCWA and League of Arab States, and the Heads of the AMAG, Technical Secretariat, and Technical Cooperation and Roadmap Working Groups.

These meetings were supported by financial contributions from the main partners who contributed to the Third Arab IGF in 2014, namely:  OGERO Telecom- Lebanon; the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN); the Réseaux IP Europeans Network Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC); and the Kuwait Information Technology Society (KITS). 
 
For additional information, please check the information note; and kindly send the correspondences and inquiries to the email:  ESCWA-ArabIGF@un.org