The 17th Internet Governance Forum was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 28 November 2022 – 2 December 2022. Convening in Africa for the first time in 11 years, the Forum addressed the theme “Resilient Internet for a Shared Sustainable and Common Future”. The hybrid event hosted at least 5,120 registered participants from 170 countries, attending over 300 sessions.
As a youth-led organization, we made a commitment to participate in the event and bring the voices of underrepresented youth to the forefront of conversations. Despite the increased emphasis on youth participation in recent years, youth organizations remain underrepresented at the IGF. This is the reason Digital Grassroots was formed during the 2017 IGF in Geneva. We are proud that at least 20 of the Digital Grassroots community attended the global IGF in Ethiopia, which was an outcome of our work to increase the digital citizenship of underrepresented youth in person. Digital Grassroots also organized and facilitated three hybrid sessions, hosted an onsite booth, and celebrated our 5 year anniversary. Our hybrid sessions included a networking session on ‘Technology and Innovation Challenge for Gender Equality,’ a launch event for our short film ‘On this Side of the Web,’ and an insight session on the ‘Digital Rights Learning Exchange program.’
Digital Grassroots Sessions at the 2022 Global IGF in Ethiopia
As youth leaders in the UN Women’s Generation Equality Forum Action Coalition on Technology and Innovation, DIGRA hosted this networking session to present and discuss the coalition’s guide to solving gender issues through innovation which aimed at promoting gender equality through technology and innovation. The guide was designed to support innovators to create a positive innovation culture and help people inside and outside of organizations break barriers, come together, generate new ideas, and iterate for gender transformative change.
The session adopted the use of a google doc for collaborative session note-taking from both the onsite and online participants. Participants appreciated the opportunity to connect and network with themselves during the networking session. Most of the participants were experts in the gender and technology field, therefore, the session provided a space for them to interact and network with peers working in the same field.
Day 2: Short film – On this Side of the Web
‘On this Side of The Web’ is a short film created by Digital Grassroots that portrays key barriers to digital inclusion for young people and marginalized groups. This community-led short film was presented at the IGF so that we could receive feedback on how to improve the film, and garner support to bridging the digital divide in underrepresented communities. It included perspectives across underrepresented communities across the globe and includes language diversity. This short film championed the inclusion of women in technology and innovation, calls for youth involvement in internet governance, and on giving underrepresented communities the power to shape their internet future.
‘On this Side of the Web’ short film shared a simple message to viewers: The Internet is for Everyone. The core Internet Invariants need to be put into practice. The film called for support for grassroots organisations through capacity building, institutional funding, and recognition of their work and their voices. It also advocated for improvements in language diversity on the internet to avoid digital colonialism and encourage more youth participation in the online space.
Watch the short film here.
The Digital Rights Learning Exchange session aimed at discussing challenges faced by digital rights advocates and spotlighting the DRLX program that Digital Grassroots held in cooperation with the Open Internet for Democracy Initiative. During the opening of the session, the onsite moderator and Digital Grassroots co-founder, Uffa Modey, introduced the objectives of the program, highlighting the importance of providing capacity-building for digital rights advocates coming from underrepresented communities. Also, the Digital Grassroots founder, Esther Mwema, presented program core components and highlights from participants’ feedback, mentioning that the majority of program alumni found it specifically beneficial to work with other advocates from different regions on developing a campaign and learning from each other over the course.
Also on the panel, Sarah Moulton, the Deputy Director at the National Democratic Institute, emphasized the lack of foundational programs that can help budding digital advocates start and lead their advocacy projects and the need to support activists at the entry level. Another feature of the program spotlighted by the program leads was participants’ interest in particular thematic areas, such as access and affordability, freedom of expression, and internet shutdowns. The panelists also covered the issue of program sustainability, stressing the significance of building networks between the participants and hosting organizations and offering alumni different pathways to engage after the program, i.e. as project mentors and guest speakers.
All Day Onsite: Digital Grassroots IGF Village Booth
In addition to the hybrid sessions,Digital Grassroots had a booth at the IGF Village. The booth was co-organized by members of the Digital Grassroots community, and served as a networking and candy station. We displayed several items at the booth including our annual report, five year anniversary balloon and stickers, brochures, and branded tot-bags, all adorned with fairy lights. The booth wall displayed reports of our recent programs that highlight the work of many young people in remote communities. We also showed our short film ‘On this Side of the Web’ to emphasize digital citizenship in the digital age. Part of our booths goal was also to connect participants with our work as youth co-leaders in the the UN Women Generation Equality Forum Action Coalition Leader for Technology and Innovation for Gender Equality.
DIGRA 5-year Anniversary and Community at the IGF
We connected with our Digital Grassroots community who attended the IGF in person by hosting our 5 year anniversary dinner celebration. The dinner was attended by over 20 of our community members, all of them from the global majority who were introduced to internet governance and digital rights issues through Digital Grassroots programs or had served as mentors or trainers with us.
The dinner was also such an exciting time for the DIGRA community members to meet fellow colleagues who have emerged to different tech communities over the years and this leveraged sharing the gradual growth of Digital Grassroots which is why the theme of the anniversary dinner “DIGRA @5” was typically aimed to reflect the diversity of positive impact the organisation has extended to youth globally.
Our Engagements with other Stakeholders
The 17th Internet Governance Forum accorded Digital Grassroots the opportunity to engage with various internet stakeholder organisations including the Open Internet for Democracy Initiative, Access Now, ICANN, NED, IGF Secretariat, Diplo Foundation Alumni Network, Mozilla, and D4D Hub:
- Attended and contributed to the Open Internet for Democracy Initiative round table consultation on the UN Secretary General’s Digital Compact.
- We met the Access Now team in the halls of the IGF and had an on-the-spot bilateral discussion about youth participation at RightsCon.
- Connect with the Diplo Foundation Alumni network.
- We met with ICANN representatives and discussed how to continue encouraging and supporting Digital Grassroots community members to participate in ICANN policy development processes and fellowship programs.
- Participated in D4D Hub discussions about making Digital Grassroots internet literacy online learning content openly available as part of IDEA D4D HUB PROJECT.
- Spoke with NED about funding options for grassroots organizations.
- Visited the IGF Japan booth to input comments on the process to accommodate visas for African participation in 2023 IGF.
The 2022 IGF allowed us to reaffirm the importance of youth participation in the internet governance ecosystem. Digital Grassroots invites our community to contribute to our cause through mentorship, institutional funding, and promoting our programs. Read more about our work in the 2022 Annual Report.