The 8th edition of LACIGF has started with a good energy and a full room! This is the beginning of a series of events taking place this week in Mexico that are mobilising key leaders in Latin America and the Caribbean that will shape the regional agenda for the information society.
8th LACIGF, 3-4 August
LACIGF stands for the Regional Preparatory Meeting for the Internet Governance Forum from the Latin America and the Caribbean. For the past 8 years, the event has been consistently contributing to leverage the understanding of Internet Governance issues, to give the opportunity for regional stakeholders to come together and share information on the work that is being done on various topics at national and regional level. The main tangible results of previous events has been to draft a Regional Internet Governance Agenda, which has been submitted to the global IGFs sessions.
There is a multistakeholder Program Committee responsible for the overall coordination, comprised with representatives of the various actors and aimed at managing the process in representation of the Latin American and Caribbean community. LACNIC serves as the secretariat for LACIGF. The Internet Society (ISOC) is currently one of the representatives of technical community in this committee, as well as a long-stand supporting organization.
The agenda has been shaped through an open consultative process for a call of topics that are relevant within the region, that culminate in the following topics to be discussed: Human Rights, Surveillance and Privacy; Right to be Forgotten; Intellectual Property and Freedom of Expression, Net Neutrality; Digital Economy; Internet of Things; and Policy Options for Connecting the Next Billion (in reply to MAG`s IGF call to further this theme within all regional and national IGFs). Moreover, the event will tackle the Roadmap for the regional Internet Governance agenda, the national IGFs efforts and the future of the LACIGF structure.
ISOC will be present with a strong delegation: our CEO & President Kathy Brown will deliver the closing remarks, Raul Echeberria will speak at the regional IG discussions, Sebastian Bellagamba is allocated at the Net Neutrality panel, Shernon Osepa will present our Global Internet Report at the Digital Economy session and Raquel Gatto will disseminate the Local IG Events toolkit and the LAC Youth@IGF program.
You can watch online through the live video streaming and participate in the twitter discussions using the hashtag #lacigf8
This year, the LACIGF has been located side-by-side with the high-level meeting on Information Society held by ECLAC, aiming to create more synergies within the regional events tackling the evolution and future of the Internet.
5th Ministerial Conference on the Information Society in Latin America and the Caribbean 5-7 August
The conference aims to evaluate the achievements of the eLAC, a mechanism for regional policy dialogue created in 2005 to meet the UN MDGs and is also based on the WSIS-Geneva results [the Geneva Declaration of Principles and the Plan of Action]. It is being held in Mexico City because the host country will assume the coordination for the eLAC2018.
The main outcome expected for the meeting is the LAC Digital Agenda for 2018, including the definition of the working groups for 2015-2018.
Initially set as an intergovernmental mechanism in the region, it has been continuously opening for the non-governmental actors. The technical community has a seat as observer, which is currently being represented by LACNIC. The conference in Mexico is starting tomorrow and will be open for anyone interested in participate.
Our CEO Kathy Brown will deliver opening remarks about digital technologies, economy and society, and Sebastian Bellagamba, LAC Bureau Director will moderate the panel 6 about “Implications of the Internet Governance for the regional context”, reinforcing the move to engage multiple actors in the eLAC processes.
Keep tuned as we share news on the event and follow us on twitter @ISOC_LAC. Hashtags for both meetings are #LACIGF8 and #eLAC2018, respectively.