Líderes – Promoting Internet Governance in the Region

30/07/2018

LACNIC’s Líderes program announced it will offer support to organizations in Costa Rica and Haiti, as well as to the Youth LACIGF, to strengthen national, regional, sub-regional and youth Internet governance initiatives (NRIs) in the region, while involving the coordinators of these initiatives in the discussions that will take place during the eleventh edition of LACIGF.

The Líderes initiative was created to institutionalize the support provided over the years to NRIs based on the multistakeholder model.

The NRIs selected to receive support in 2018 meet the “Líderes criteria” and “represent different parts of the region and, while some initiatives are quite recent as in the case of Haiti, for others such as Costa Rica and the Youth LACIGF this will be their second or third edition,” observed Kevon Swift, Head of Strategic Relations and Integration at LACNIC.

“Although it is important to establish NRIs in the region, over time our goal is the integration of these initiatives in their national environments when formulating digital policies through a multistakeholder approach,” added Swift.

Líderes also decided to support the participation of Enzel Sanchez of Venezuela as youth leader at the LACIGF, as well as the National Academy of Sciences of Costa Rica. Both will participate in the Regional Internet Governance Forum to be held in Argentina from July 31^st to August 3^rd.

“We are supporting these young people so they can present their initiatives, share their experiences, and contribute to the debates that will take place at the LACIGF,” said Paula Oteguy, Strategic Relations Officer at LACNIC.

That event will include a special session titled NRIs where the recent MIGLAC publication by the University of San Andres and Nic.br (with funding from the University of Pennsylvania’s Internet Policy Observatory) will be presented. This publication contains a map of the varying levels of maturity and approaches adopted by the Internet Governance forums of the countries of the LAC region, as well as the annual report prepared by the Global Information Society Watch. “These studies will serve as inputs for the meeting. After the presentation, we will encourage dialogue on different topics such as funding for the various initiatives, multisector spaces, and local impact. Our goal is to promote this type of dialogue, to discuss and analyze the trends uncovered through the research by engaging in dynamic debates,” noted Swift.

Precisely with this session on Latin American and Caribbean NRIs in mind, Líderes organized a webinar/preliminary session along with ISOC and LACTLD to raise awareness of the opportunities and challenges faced by NRIs. Click here to watch a recording of the webinar.