Engaging Under-Represented Communities in Regional and Global Internet Governance Debates

Policy-making bodies in Internet governance debates see equitable geographic representation as an important barometer for measuring population diversity. But while territorial inclusiveness is essential for the legitimacy of decision-making, there are still communities – particularly outside of urban centres – who desire the opportunity to contribute but whose voices are not being heard. This session explores the idea that Internet governance bodies need to better take into account the economic conditions, demographic distribution, and population density of regions to ensure that the decisions made by the global multi-stakeholder community in formal forums are representative of the world at large. There are now ongoing efforts, especially in Latin America but increasingly in Africa and South Eastern Europe, to build the capacity of small groups of individuals to provide input into initiatives led by global policy-making bodies. This session will introduce case studies to explore how to meaningfully engage new communities in regional and supranational Internet governance debates, and will invite comments from those voices which are not always given a platform to understand how these communities would like to participate in shaping the Internet.