APC at the 2022 Asia Pacific Regional IGF: Promoting a community-led internet

By Leila Nachawati Rego

Published on 26 August 2022
Page last updated on 1 September 2023

“People at the Centre: Envisioning a community-led internet that is inclusive, sustainable and trusted” is the motto for this year’s Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum (APrIGF). The forum, which will take place between 11 and 14 September 2022, is a key platform to advance internet governance development in the Asia Pacific region. APC will be joining with a focus on empowering new voices, responding to a changing digital rights environment and promoting community networks as an access solution.

We will bring together members of our Southeast Asia Digital Rights Collaborative, an 18-month capacity and movement building programme for new entrants to digital rights, to surface some of the challenges faced by those new to internet governance spaces. We will also focus on challenges faced by our members and partners in advocating for digital rights in the context of the pandemic, and highlight their work as part of this year’s edition of the Global Information Society Watch.

APrIGF is a process that APC has been invested in for many years. We seek to contribute a feminist and rights-based perspective to internet governance, ensuring that our voices reflect the values of our network in relation to the development, exercise and regulation of digital tools and spaces. This participation has resulted in a stronger and more diverse presence of civil society voices and perspectives at the forums, as panellists, speakers, organisers of sessions and active members of APrIGF organisational spaces.

At APrIGF 2022, APC staff are part of the Multi-Stakeholder Steering Group, the Programme Committee and the Drafting Committee. We will be actively contributing to the synthesis document that captures the discussions at APrIGF. We have also been observing the execution of hybrid programmes in regional IGFs as a learning opportunity for designing and hosting hybrid events, particularly to ensure inclusiveness and mechanisms of balanced participation of stakeholders in the process.