TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK

DOHA ICTQATAR Secretary- General Dr Hessa al Jaber is leading Qatar’s delegation at the 6th Internet Governance Forum (IGF) taking place at the United Nations Office in Nairobi, Kenya.

With over 2,000 delegates from more than 100 countries, representing governments, the private sector, civil society, international organisations and the media, the four-day forum will examine the latest cross-border Internet governance challenges.

This year’s IGF theme is ‘The Internet as a Catalyst for Change: Access, Development, Freedom and Innovation’.

The participants will discuss means to accelerate the availability and affordability of the Internet in the developing world in addition to finding ways to strengthen the engagement of stakeholders in existing and future Internet governance mechanisms.

Dr al Jaber attended the opening ceremony, which featured a keynote speech by Thomas Steltzer, assistant secretary-general of the United Nations Department of Economics and Social Affairs (UNDESA).

“We hope the Forum will further define the emerging issues in Internet governance and set the path for the way forward,” said Steltzer. “Internet is a positive medium of change and human development and there is a great expectation that the next four days will provide stimulated debate across all key Internet governance challenges and opportunities thanks to IGF’s multi-stakeholder approach,” he said.

Prior to the opening, al Jaber participated in the high level ministerial session organised by the Kenyan government and the International Telecommunications Union. Statements from ministers from around the world were delivered during the session, setting the tone for the dialogues and interactive sessions to follow.

Qatar’s delegation is participating in a variety of working sessions with the goal of advancing the country’s digital agenda.

In addition to al Jaber, the delegation includes Fadhel Alanzi, chair of Qatar’s chapter of Internet Society, Howaida Nadim, executive director of strategic planning at ictQatar, Fatma al Noaimi, cyber safety section manager at ictQatar, Ammar Mohammed, social media manager at Al Jazeera, Sami Mubarak, web developer at Mada, Mohammed el Bashir, section manager for numbering, interconnection & Internet domains at ictQatar, and Salwa Fakhroo, institutional relations manager at ictQatar.

ictQatar will also be hosting a workshop on Internet Domain Names at the forum titled, ‘IDNs: Implementations, Challenges and Opportunities’. The Qatar Domains Registry will be highlighted at the workshop.

The forum will focus on six key areas: critical Internet resources, including internationalised Internet domains, Internet of things and Internet protocols; Internet governance for development; emerging issues, such as copyrights, mobile and cloud services, cloud governance and Green ICTs; security, openness and privacy; access and diversity; and taking stock and the way forward, which centres around proposed improvements to the IGF.