FAQs - About IGF

The IGF covers a broad range of digital governance issues, from Cybersecurity and Meaningful Access to Data Privacy and Artificial Intelligence. Focus issues change yearly based on submissions received during the IGF’s public call for thematic inputs, ensuring that the emphasis remains on what stakeholders, including governments and their constituencies, wish to discuss.

For the IGF 2026 thematic orientation, please consult this page.  

2006 – “Internet Governance for Development”
2007 – “Internet Governance for Development – IGF the First Two Years”
2008 – “Internet for All”
2009 – “Internet Governance – Creating Opportunities for All”
2010 – “IGF 2010 – Developing the Future Together”
2011 – “Internet as a catalyst for change: access, development, freedoms and innovation”
2012 – “Internet Governance for Sustainable Human, Economic and Social Development”
2013 – “Building Bridges – Enhancing Multistakeholder Cooperation for Growth and Sustainable Development”
2014 – “Connecting Continents for Enhanced Multistakeholder Internet Governance"
2015 – “Evolution of Internet Governance: Empowering Sustainable Development”
2016 – “Enabling Inclusive and Sustainable Growth”
2017 – “Shape Your Digital Future!”
2018 – “Internet of Trust”
2019 – “One World. One Net. One Vision”
2020 – “Internet for human resilience and solidarity”
2021 – “Internet United”
2022 – “Resilient Internet for a Shared Sustainable and Common Future”
2023 – “The Internet We Want – Empowering All People”
2024 – ''Building our Multistakeholder Digital Future''
2025 – ''Building Digital Governance Together''

The IGF’s multistakeholder format attracts strong participation from governments, the private sector, civil society, including academic experts, and the technical community. Dedicated tracks at the annual IGF meeting and related preparatory activities facilitate the engagement of government ministers (‘High-Level Track’, for government and senior-most officials from other stakeholder groups, such as industry executives); international legislators (‘Parliamentary Track’); and young people (‘Youth Track’).

Current and former heads of state or government have participated in the IGF’s ceremonial segments or as panellists.

Several UN agencies – ITU, OHCHR, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNFCCC, and WIPO, amongst them – and other intergovernmental organizations, such as the OECD and Council of Europe, are active in both the work between and during IGF annual meetings.

On average, annual IGF meetings attract over 9,000 onsite and online participants from all stakeholder and regional groups, from over 165 countries. For participation statistics in all IGF annual meetings, please consult the IGF annual reports available here.

Globally, the IGF facilitates understanding and agreement on digital public policy, governance mechanisms and new technologies; enhances cooperation among key organisations and stakeholders dealing with different digital domains; fosters maximal inclusion of stakeholders in the broader policy discourse, especially those from under-represented countries and groups; strengthens capacities for participation in digital policymaking at all levels of expertise and backgrounds; contributes to the continued sustainability, security and development of the Internet, including critical efforts at multilingualism and multistakeholderism.

Annual IGF Messages, as well as outputs from IGF-guided intersessional workstreams, such as Policy Networks and Best Practice Forums, and those from independent Dynamic Coalitions, are for global audiences and widely distributed.

The IGF has been and continues to be an active contributor to various international and intergovernmental processes, such as the WSIS process, the G7, and the Global Digital Compact, amongst others.

More than 175 countries and regions have established their own IGF National, Regional and Youth initiatives (NRIs) after the global IGF model – for processes that are multistakeholder, open, inclusive and bottom-up. The exponential growth of NRIs over the past decade testifies to the success and influence of the IGF approach. As digital technologies have taken on increasing importance in societies across the world, so has the need to discuss their impacts in people-centred, transparent fora. By supporting the development of the NRIs network, through organizational coordination and guidance from the IGF Secretariat, the global IGF has benefitted from vital local, national and regional-level perspectives on digital policy and the effects of digital transformation.

The IGF Secretariat, based in Geneva, is sustained financially through the extra-budgetary Trust Fund Account managed by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA). The nature of the IGF Trust Fund is such that it is voluntary and multi-donor driven, with varying contributions from governments and non-governmental organisations from the technical community, the private sector and civil society. The IGF Trust Fund covers the administrative and operational costs of the IGF Secretariat including personnel, fellowships, and meeting costs (venues, interpretation, logistical costs, etc.); and funds the travel costs of members of the IGF Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) from developing countries. More details about the list of donors and funds received are available online. Each year, the organizational and conference costs of the IGF annual meeting are borne by the government of the host country. The UN General Assembly, in the WSIS+20 Resolution, called for ''appropriate staffing and resources, in accordance with United Nations budgetary procedures'' (A/RES/80/173, para 99). Internal arrangements to give effect to this provision are currently under consideration.

The IGF is convened by the UN Secretary-General.

The programme and intersessional work of annual IGFs is guided by the Secretary-General-appointed, 40-member Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG). In 2022, the IGF Leadership Panel, whose multistakeholder members are also appointed by the Secretary-General, was formed to provide high-level strategic advice to the IGF, address related urgent issues, and “promote greater impact and dissemination of IGF discussions”. The Panel is led by Google Vice-President and “Father of the Internet” Vint Cerf, and the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Maria Ressa.

The MAG develops the IGF programme with support from the IGF Secretariat, and on the basis of regular public consultations and selection processes to determine timely themes and formats.

Countries approach the IGF Secretariat with their interest in hosting for given years. Strong interest may be formalized in writing as an offer letter and submitted to the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), the Secretariat’s parent department. The Secretariat evaluates all formal offers received and makes a decision based on the suitability of facilities and conditions for hosting, as well as on the need to rotate among regions and between developing and developed countries. More information about the expression of interest and the related assessment is available here.

The host countries of the past 20 IGFs have been:

• 2006: Athens, Greece
• 2007: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• 2008: Hyderabad, India
• 2009: Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt
• 2010: Vilnius, Lithuania
• 2011: Nairobi, Kenya
• 2012: Baku, Azerbaijan
• 2013: Bali, Indonesia
• 2014: Istanbul, Turkey
• 2015: João Pessoa, Brazil
• 2016: Jalisco, Mexico
• 2017: Geneva, Switzerland
• 2018: Paris, France
• 2019: Berlin, Germany
• 2020: hosted virtually by the UN
• 2021: Katowice, Poland
• 2022: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
• 2023: Kyoto, Japan
• 2024: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
• 2025: Lillestrøm, Norway