Celebrating a success at WSIS+20

An important milestone in the future of the global internet arrived this week. At the United Nations General Assembly in New York, countries came to consensus outcomes in the twenty year review of the World Summit on the Information Society (the WSIS+20 review).

auDA set out the importance of the review back in 2023. We shared our hopes that countries would maintain their support of multi-stakeholder internet governance, and that they would extend the mandate of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) - or even make it permanent.

After a hard-fought negotiation, shaped in part by new coalitions auDA helped mobilise, the WSIS+20 outcome document reaffirmed a global commitment to the multi-stakeholder model.

On the internet governance front:

• The IGF’s mandate has been made permanent, and countries called for sustainable (read: increased) resources to go to make its Secretariat more effective and to support and share its work.
• The multi-stakeholder fabric of the internet governance system was again endorsed by countries, sending a signal alongside that of last year’s Global Digital Compact that there’s a consensus in favour of this way of doing internet governance.

Along the way, some new approaches to drive outcomes and actively engage stakeholder views worked well. The Independent Multistakeholder Sounding Board proved to be a successful experiment to channel diverse stakeholder perspectives into the discussion. This improved engagement with stakeholders, compared to the start of the process. The NETmundial+10 Sao Paulo Multistakeholder Guidelines were also recognised as “strengthening internet governance through inclusive participation, balanced representation and openness”, and helped guide the WSIS+20 review process itself.

These innovations show a spirit of innovation in the internet governance community, which is important when you consider the scale of the challenges it faces.

auDA’s work in inspiring and then organising a Technical Community Coalition for Multistakeholderism (TCCM), a broad coalition of internet infrastructure operators committed to strengthening multi-stakeholder internet governance, boosted the internet’s operational voice in the discussion. The ideas and analysis the TCCM developed materially helped countries across the world to understand the issues and support multi-stakeholder internet governance.

The Australian Government played a leading role in securing these outcomes. Through broad based diplomacy, a willingness to put innovative ideas on the table, and building consensus, Australia made a significant contribution. We offer our thanks and appreciation to the skilled negotiators and policy officials who carried out this work.

auDA also acknowledges the work and skilled approach of the two Ambassadors who facilitated the review process. Their Excellencies Ambassador Lokkale of Kenya and Ambassador Janina of Albania and their teams engaged broadly with diverse communities and achieved a consensus outcome.

Overall, this is a meaningful result. Consensus was found on a set of important issues. The outcome secures the internet governance system from real risks of a more intergovernmental approach, and it sets up the prospect of the IGF and its global community to focus future efforts on making it better, instead of defending its mandate.

As 2025 comes to a close and the WSIS+20 review passes into history, the challenge of improving internet governance moves to its next phase. auDA will continue its work to sustain and support multi-stakeholder internet governance in Australia, in our region and around the world.

We will maintain our support of the IGF and make the case for its ongoing evolution into an ever more effective body. The internet needs an IGF that shapes decisions across the reach of internet governance and digital public policy, and sharpens the outcomes and outputs it produces.

To find out more about auDA’s Internet Governance Roadmap and work, visit the auDA website.