IGF 2020‎ Call for Voluntary Commitments 

IGF 2020‎
Call for Voluntary Commitments 

Background

Following the examples of some UN processes, such as the call for voluntary commitments at the Ocean ‎Conference, The Sendai Framework Voluntary Commitments online platform (VC platform), the SDG ‎Acceleration Actions, and  the World Humanitarian Summit, among others, and taking into consideration the ‎United Nations Secretary-General’s call to action on his Digital Cooperation Roadmap  and the call for ‎champions for the eight action areas https://www.un.org/en/content/digital-cooperation-roadmap/, the 2020 ‎virtual IGF, supported by UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), will initiate a call for ‎voluntary commitments - a call for voluntary actions or pledges to forward the goals of the Internet Governance Forum ‎and the Digital Cooperation Roadmap. ‎
Any stakeholders, be it Governments, the Private Sector, the Technical Community, IGOs or Civil Society ‎organizations or individual actors, can make a voluntary commitment of an action to be carried out during the  ‎‎2021 cycle (until IGF 2021) or beyond that are supportive of  achieving or implementing IGF objectives or action ‎areas related to the Secretary-General’s Roadmap.‎

Implementation

Throughout Phase 1 (2-6 Nov) and Phase 2 (9-17 Nov) of IGF2020, all moderators are requested, at the end of ‎their sessions, to ask their panelists to express at least one voluntary commitment that they will undertake ‎during the next year (IGF 2021 cycle), either at the individual capacity or on behalf of their organization, to ‎foster the aims and goals of the IGF (as expressed in paragraph 72 of the Tunis Agenda).  ‎

Participants at the 2020 virtual IGF are likewise invited to announce voluntary commitments during the Phase I ‎and Phase 2 of the discussions and forward such commitments to the IGF Secretariat. Voluntary commitments ‎could be linked to one or more of the IGF2020 sub themes, i.e. data, environment, inclusion and trust. ‎
To facilitate this process, on the IGF Website there is a webform ‎ where stakeholders can also record ‎voluntary actions or commitments. These will be displayed on the IGF website.  If the stakeholders choose to ‎do so, they may link their actions to one or more of the SDGs and related targets, which at a future date may ‎be incorporated as a voluntary commitment in the SDG Acceleration Actions Database: ‎https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgactions

Follow up

Self-reporting and self-evaluation of these voluntary commitments will be made possible through the IGF ‎Secretariat website and will be reviewed at the first Open Consultations.
Comments on how to improve the ‎voluntary commitment process are most welcome and can be submitted to the IGF Secretariat.‎