The Pact for the Future, the Global Digital Compact and the forthcoming review of World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) represents a global path forward and an opportunity to shape a sustainable digital future for all. As stressed in the zero draft, this will require the adoption and implementation of shared commitments for an open, free, secure, inclusive, and human-centric digital environment that reflects universal rights and values.

This vision of a sustainable digital future for all also depends upon the protection and strengthening of the multistakeholder model of Internet governance. As a horizontal principle, multistakeholder participation has shaped the Internet as an open, distributed, interconnected, and transnational network, enabling digital transformation. The multistakeholder community, including civil society, academia, the technical community, and the private sector, enable sustainable digital transformation through effective policy dialogues, developing new internet standards, managing the technical infrastructure, and strengthening accountability. 

The Pact for the Future will address a broad range of issues linked to digital transformation, ranging from access and connectivity to digital trust, security and artificial intelligence. This will require a framework for Internet governance that embraces the principles of inclusivity, transparency, collective responsibility, effective decision-making and implementation, and collaboration through distributed and interoperable governance. 

The purpose of this workshop is to gather lessons learned and best practices from the multistakeholder community, and define main priorities for the ongoing Pact for the Future and Global Digital Compact negotiations. It will also consider how the UN system can more effectively embrace the multistakeholder model essential for digital and Internet governance, and reflect on how this can contribute to deepening international partnerships in the UN context.

This event is part of the Global initiative on the future of the internet, a project funded by the European Union under the service contract no. NDICI/2023/447-807