Video Message
Geneva
Distinguished Members of the IGF Multistakeholder Advisory Group and Participants,
It is my pleasure to address the Second Open Consultations and MAG Meeting for IGF 2026.
Let me start by thanking the MAG, the Government of Kenya, and the wider IGF community for your vital work since our first MAG meeting in Nairobi.
We are now at a critical moment in our preparations.
This year¡¯s theme, ¡°Governing the Internet in the Age of Intelligence: Our Shared Responsibility¡± reflects our rapidly evolving reality.
While artificial intelligence is fundamentally reshaping Internet governance ¡ªfrom data use, digital infrastructure to online safety, security, and accountability ¡ª the IGF agenda must remain broader than AI alone.
Longstanding priorities, including universal access, trust and an open Internet, are more essential than ever.
Over the next three days, you will hear from the open consultations and review the progress. You will structure the IGF 2026 agenda and integrate contributions of intersessional activities and more than 170 National, Regional, Subregional and Youth IGF Initiatives.
These practical tasks serve a larger purpose: to build a programme that responds to the world¡¯s most urgent digital challenges.
As you shape this agenda, I urge you to prioritize three key objectives:
First, be inclusive. The programme should reflect diverse regions and development levels. We must elevate the voices too often missing from global digital policy, particularly those of developing countries, women, youth, persons with disabilities, and other underrepresented communities.
Second, be focused. The programme should bridge the gaps between artificial intelligence and the broader digital governance agenda. Issues like digital inclusion, infrastructure, data governance, cybersecurity, online safety, human rights, innovation, and sustainable development are inextricably linked; our discussions must reflect this intersectionality.
Third, aim for impact. The IGF must move beyond identifying challenges to highlighting actionable solutions. With the WSIS+20 review calling for Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ entities to leverage IGF outcomes, we have a clear mandate and responsibility to produce practical, accessible, and usable outputs.
Last year, Member States established the IGF as a permanent United Nations forum. Your work today is crucial as the IGF begins its new chapter. Permanence is not just institutional continuity; it is a mandate to strengthen the IGF¡¯s impact and its integration with other Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ processes.
The IGF should continue to build bridges across the United Nations and wider digital governance systems, contributing directly to the implementation of WSIS and the Global Digital Compact. The IGF is uniquely positioned to provide multistakeholder insights into global platforms like the 2027 Science, Technology and Innovation Forum and the next Global Dialogue on AI Governance. Through its National, Regional, Subregional and Youth IGF Initiatives, the IGF can bring critical local and regional perspectives into these global processes.
The success of our annual meeting rests on the decisions you make this week, I encourage you to listen closely, bridge differences, and keep the needs of people at the centre of your work.
Finally, to all stakeholders participating in the open consultations: thank you for your continued engagement. The IGF is built with you and for you. Your expertise and commitment remain our greatest strengths.
I wish you every success in your deliberations.
Thank you.