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+# IGF 2026 WS #123 Context-Sensitive Governance for AI Systems
+
+## Description
+
+As AI governance transitions from high-level principles toward implementation, policymakers face a critical challenge: "AI" is not a monolithic technology. A regulatory approach designed for large language models cannot efficiently govern rule-based systems, predictive analytics, or autonomous agents. Yet policy debates frequently treat these fundamentally different AI technologies and computational systems under one umbrella, creating uncertainty for regulators, organisations, and developers.
+Aligned with the IGF 2026 overarching theme, "Governing the Internet in the Age of Intelligence: Our Shared Responsibility", this workshop will explore how evidence-based policy can translate responsible AI principles into context-sensitive governance. Moving beyond one-size-fits-all regulation, the session introduces a decision-making framework centered on the AI Policy Research Roadmap and the concept of “Question Zero” - evaluating whether a specific AI system is the best solution for the problem at hand (Why do we need it? What specific technology fits best?) before deciding how to deploy or regulate it.
+Participants will explore practicalities and capacity-building strategies needed to assess system-specific risks. Through a brief scenario exercise based on an institutional setting (e.g., higher education), attendees will apply the Question Zero approach to evaluate alternatives like process automation or human-centered solutions, demonstrating how early-stage governance strengthens accountability, transparency, and resource allocation.
+Co-organised by an international consortium spanning the Nordic region and the Global South – and uniting perspectives across academia, civil society, technical community, and the private sector – the workshop will support a broad multistakeholder perspective. By bridging diverse regional experiences and practical governance approaches, participants will co-create actionable insights for proportionate, adaptable, and impact-driven AI policy.
+
+Additional Co-organisers:
+Tatjana Titareva (Umeå University)
+Petter Ericson (Umeå University)
+Eltjo Poort (CGI)
+Maja Fjaestad (Karoliska Institutet)
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+A. How should policymakers distinguish between different types of AI systems when developing proportionate governance approaches?
+
+B. What factors should organisations consider when deciding whether AI is an appropriate response to a societal or organisational problem?
+
+C. What governance mechanisms can support responsible decisions throughout technology selection, procurement, deployment, and oversight?
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+The session will strengthen participants' understanding of how responsible AI principles can be translated into practical, evidence-based governance. Participants will gain a clearer understanding of the diversity of AI technologies and computational systems, why this distinction matters for policymaking, and how a Question Zero approach can support informed decisions before AI regulation and adoption.
+The workshop will produce a set of practical recommendations for AI governance processes, contributing to the further development and dissemination of the AI Policy Research Roadmap (<https://aipolicylab.se/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/roadmap-for-ai-policy…).> Insights from the discussion and interactive case study will inform future research, capacity-building activities, and multistakeholder collaboration on evidence-based AI governance.
+Participants will leave with practical tools and decision frameworks to assess whether AI is appropriate for a given use case, identify the type of technology involved and develop governance approaches that are proportionate to its capabilities, risks, and intended use across different organisational and policy contexts.
+
+## Reference Document
+
+Reference Document
+
+## Format
+
+Roundtable
+**Duration (minutes):** 60
+**Format description:** The workshop format is designed to maximise interaction among policymakers, researchers, industry, civil society, and the technical community. A roundtable setting encourages dialogue across disciplines and stakeholder groups, which is essential for addressing the complexity of AI governance and developing shared understanding of Question Zero.
+The session combines short expert interventions with a facilitated interactive case study, allowing participants to apply the Question Zero approach to a realistic institutional scenario. This participatory approach moves beyond presentations by enabling attendees to debate governance choices, compare perspectives, and jointly explore proportionate governance approaches for different AI technologies and computational systems.
+The 60-minute format provides sufficient time for framing, multistakeholder discussion and collaborative reflection, as well as ensuring that practical recommendations and lessons learned can be shared beyond the session.
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** The session is designed as a fully integrated hybrid workshop, with equal opportunities for onsite and online participants to contribute throughout the discussion. A dedicated online moderator will monitor the virtual platform, facilitate questions, and ensure that online participants are actively included in each discussion segment rather than only during the Q&A.
+The interactive case study will be conducted simultaneously with both onsite and online participants working through the proposed Question Zero approach. Participants will contribute their perspectives through live polling and collaborative digital whiteboards (e.g., Mentimeter, Miro), enabling real-time comparison across stakeholder groups and regions.
+Group discussions will intentionally combine onsite and online inputs. The session will conclude with a synthesis of key recommendations generated collectively by all participants, ensuring that both in-person and remote contributions are reflected equally in the workshop outcomes and subsequent dissemination activities.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** Rachele Carli, Umeå University
+**Organizer 2:** Virginia Dignum, Umeå University
+**Organizer 3:** Viktoriia  Movchan, AI Policy Lab, Umea University
+**Organizer 4:** Hellegren Isadora, Mila
+**Organizer 5:** Brian Masinde, EthicEdge
+**Organizer 6:** Krumina Gunta, AImful Ry
+**Organizer 7:** Alex Moltzau, KI Norge
+**Organizer 8:** Jason Tucker, AI Policy Lab @Umeå University and Institute for Futures Studies
+**Organizer 9:** Kathleen Siminyu, 🔒Mozilla Foundation
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** Virginia Dignum, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+**Speaker 2:** Jason Tucker, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+**Speaker 3:** Brian Masinde, Private Sector, African Group
+**Speaker 4:** Alex Moltzau, Government, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+**Speaker 5:** Viktoriia  Movchan, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+
+## Moderator
+
+Viktoriia  Movchan, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+Hellegren Isadora, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+Krumina Gunta, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+16. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
+17. Partnerships for the Goals
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+# IGF 2026 WS #178  Who Shapes Green AI? An Intergenerational Multistakeholder
+
+## Description
+
+As artificial intelligence continues to reshape economies and societies, its environmental footprint—from energy-intensive data centers to resource-heavy hardware production—demands urgent, collaborative attention. This interactive session brings together voices across generations and sectors to co-create actionable policy recommendations for environmentally sustainable AI development and deployment.
+
+Structured as a time-bound, multistakeholder multistakeholder policy role-play brainstorming exercise, participants will engage in a dynamic roleplay simulation representing key stakeholder groups: governments and regulators, tech industry leaders, civil society and environmental advocates, academia and researchers, and youth representatives based on case study scenario prompting participants to negotiate, debate, and align on proposing the policy recommendation
+The intergenerational format is central to this session's design. By bringing together experienced policymakers, technical experts, industry representatives and young leaders, the dialogue bridges institutional experience with emerging perspectives, ensuring that policy recommendations reflect both present-day realities and the long-term interests of future generations.
+
+Through facilitated rounds of stakeholder negotiation, participants will collaboratively draft a concise set of policy recommendations addressing energy efficiency standards, transparency in AI's carbon footprint, sustainable hardware lifecycle management, and equitable access to green AI innovation. The session concludes with a synthesis of proposals, capturing consensus points and highlighting areas for further multistakeholder engagement.
+
+To guide the discussion, participants will develop policy recommendations using a structured framework that links each recommendation to the assigned case study. Each recommendation will identify the proposed policy action, the responsible stakeholders, implementation or compliance mechanisms, and the expected environmental impact. This approach will encourage practical, focused and outcome-oriented policy solutions rather than broad or generic recommendations.
+
+Participants will leave with practical frameworks, cross-generational insights, and experience in collaboratively developing case-specific policy recommendations through multistakeholder dialogue. The session aims to demonstrate how inclusive and participatory governance approaches can help shape environmentally sustainable AI policies at national, regional, and global levels.
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+1. How can multistakeholder frameworks balance the growing computational demands of AI development with the urgent need to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions?
+2. What regulatory, market-based, or voluntary mechanisms can ensure transparency, accountability, and sustainability across the AI lifecycle, including data centre operations, carbon disclosure, AI hardware management, and emerging sustainability certification frameworks?
+3. How can intergenerational and cross-sectoral dialogue be meaningfully embedded into AI governance processes to ensure that sustainability policies reflect both near-term industry realities and the long-term interests of future generations?
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+This session will produce a consolidated set of case-specific policy recommendations on environmentally sustainable AI, co-created through multistakeholder role-play and negotiation based on policy-focused case studies. Key outputs include a summary report capturing consensus points and divergent views, intended to feed into broader IGF policy discussions and inform follow-up dialogues within relevant working groups or coalitions on AI governance and sustainability.
+
+Participants will gain practical insight into the trade-offs and tensions between AI innovation and environmental responsibility, informed by real-world case studies. The intergenerational format will expose attendees to diverse viewpoints—bridging experienced policymakers' institutional knowledge with youth perspectives on long-term impact. Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of stakeholder incentives and negotiation dynamics in AI environmental governance, together with a practical framework for developing case-specific policy recommendations through multistakeholder collaboration that can be applied in regional, national, and international contexts.
+
+## Format
+
+Classroom
+**Duration (minutes):** 60
+**Format description:** The session will adopt an interactive classroom and policy laboratory format, where participants learn through real-world case studies, multistakeholder collaboration, and role-play. After a brief introduction to environmentally sustainable AI and the policy context, participants will be divided into diverse groups representing governments, the private sector, civil society, the technical community, academia, and youth. Each group will analyse a policy-focused case study, identify competing interests and trade-offs, and negotiate practical policy recommendations.
+Facilitators will guide discussions using structured worksheets and collaborative digital tools to ensure equal participation from both onsite and online attendees. Each group will present its recommendations. The session will conclude with a consolidated set of case-specific policy recommendations and a summary report to support future IGF discussions. Participants will gain practical experience in multistakeholder negotiation while developing a framework for balancing AI innovation with environmental sustainability.
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** Onsite and online participants will be integrated into the same stakeholder roleplay groups, with a dedicated online moderator relaying remote contributions into each group's negotiation in real time. A hybrid co-facilitation model—one onsite, one online moderator—ensures balanced speaking time and visibility for remote voices during plenary synthesis.
+To ensure equitable experience, online participants will receive case study materials and stakeholder briefs in advance, join breakout negotiations via video, and use collaborative digital whiteboards to co-draft recommendations alongside onsite tables. Live polling will surface real-time input from both groups during the synthesis phase.
+We plan to use Zoom breakout rooms (mirroring onsite roundtables), Miro or Mentimeter for collaborative brainstorming and polling, and a shared online document for co-drafting policy recommendations, ensuring all participants—regardless of location—contribute equally to the session's final outputs.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** Phyo Thiri Lwin, Myanmar Youth IGF
+**Organizer 2:** Sana Nisar, 🔒
+**Organizer 3:** Vinayak Bharadwaz, NetMission.Asia Program Development Lead
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** Edmon Chung, Technical Community, Asia-Pacific Group
+**Speaker 2:** Saba Tiku Beyene, Technical Community, African Group
+**Speaker 3:** Jaewon Son, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+**Speaker 4:** Fiona Asonga, Private Sector, African Group
+
+## Moderator
+
+Phyo Thiri Lwin, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+Sana Nisar, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+Vinayak Bharadwaz, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+9.4
+9.5
+17.16
+17.17
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+# IGF 2026 WS #204 Pan-African DPI Perspectives: Third Workshop
+
+## Description
+
+This workshop convenes the pan-African DPI Workshop Series for the third time this year, bringing the Series members’ findings on digital public infrastructure to the global stage, engaging on the critical question of AI in DPI for LMICs in Africa, and producing recommendations for the broader DPI conversation.
+
+The working group, formed by Research ICT Africa, Paradigm Initiative, CIPESA, DIAL, Richard Gevers, and Robert Karanja are running a series of online and in-person workshops to strengthen collaborative research, policy development, and implementation support on DPI across Africa. In the wake of the troubling cancellation of RightsCon, this series set out to convene African researchers and practitioners working on digital human rights and development. IGF is the series' final venue for 2026: a global stage on which to connect the working group's findings to the wider DPI conversation, and to reach stakeholders from government, private sector, philanthropy, development funding, and academia.
+
+This workshop builds on two prior gatherings: an inaugural session that surfaced active DPI projects and shared priorities across the continent, and a second meeting at AfIGF that will have deepened this agenda into a policy brief on sovereignty, open-source, vendor lockin, and private sector and donor engagement. To complement our core group of public, CSO, and donor experts we are including in this workshop Juliet Wangui Maina, the Director of Government Affairs and Policy at Mastercard. This workshop will:
+
+- Engage a global audience on the working group's policy brief
+- Expand the policy brief with a discussion of AI in DPI in LMICs, with a particular focus on:
+- Necessary state capacity at the design and implementation level
+- Challenges of vendor lockin for biometric and automation systems
+- Roles and strategies for the private sector to engage sustainably and equitably as donor models shift
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+In the context of leveraging open source DPI systems for sovereignty in Africa, what are the challenges of integrating AI?
+As funders focus more and more on AI, how can their efforts best support sustainable, sovereign, and equitable DPI systems?
+How can the private sector in Africa engage with funders and governments in building out DPI and AI-integrated DPI to increase sovereignty and equality?
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+This workshop will expand upon the workshop series’ first policy brief by bringing the question of AI integration in African LMICs to the fore and producing a series of recommendations for funders and the private sector engaging on these challenges across Africa. This output will serve as our white paper going into the Global DPI summit in March 2027.
+
+In addition to the global summit, the white paper will also serve as our blueprint for engaging with the private sector and funders in our ongoing workshop series throughout 2027. The white paper will deliver a unique level of collaborative, pan-African, and multi-perspectival insight into the challenges of DPI in Africa, and provide much needed structure and depth for DPI implementers and funders.
+
+## Format
+
+Roundtable
+**Duration (minutes):** 90
+**Format description:** As this is a multistakeholder workshop, where governments, civil society, technical community, and private sector voices have equal footing, a roundtable format removes the barriers that typically separate speakers from audience, encourages spontaneous exchange, follow-up questions, and genuine debate rather than sequential presentations.
+
+To this end we will have a short formal presentation, allowing more time and structure for the session to surface nuance, disagreement, and emerging ideas that a traditional panel would leave unspoken. As such 90 minutes is suitable, allowing maximum time for our workshop participants and the rest of the participants to engage substantively on our findings.
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** While we currently expect all speakers to be present in person, we do want to encourage as broad a participation as possible, particularly for those in the Global South who may not have been able to travel to Nairobi. To this end our presentation and discussion can be streamed, and the discussion moderator will also keep close watch over online participants' questions and chat remarks and will work to integrate them seamlessly into the discussion.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** Thomas Linder, Research ICT Africa
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** Thomas Linder, Civil Society, African Group
+**Speaker 2:** Patricia Ainembabazi , Intergovernmental Organization, African Group
+**Speaker 3:** Melody Musoni, Civil Society, African Group
+**Speaker 4:** Bridgette Ndlovu, Civil Society, African Group
+
+## Moderator
+
+Thomas Linder, Civil Society, African Group
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+Thomas Linder, Civil Society, African Group
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+Thomas Linder, Civil Society, African Group
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+9.1
+9.4
+9.b
+10.2
+16.6
+16.9
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+# IGF 2026 WS #238 Who Controls the Agents? Building Rights-Based Frontier AI
+
+## Description
+
+Agentic AI systems — autonomous technologies that can plan, decide and act — are moving rapidly from labs into deployment. Shaped largely by a Silicon Valley, Global North ethos, they are being rolled out globally without meaningful consultation with marginalized communities and the Global Majority, who disproportionately bear the risks. While agentic AI can have positive impacts and applications, these systems also risk reinforcing structural discrimination by embedding bias into automated decisions, amplifying misinformation, enabling repression, and undermining human autonomy. Multilingual gaps in large language models further compound harm by privileging dominant (colonial) languages, undermining access to justice, inclusion and rights.
+
+This session examines what is needed to align AI agents with human rights and social justice. Speakers and participants will assess the human rights impacts already emerging for marginalized groups and civic space, and how these risks are compounded in contexts of shrinking civic space, rising authoritarianism, and transnational repression. The discussion will probe where the boundaries on AI autonomy should be drawn, on what basis — technical capability, legal accountability, or democratic mandate — and, critically, who gets to decide where that line sits. Participants will weigh which safeguards are practical and effective in real deployment contexts, including human oversight, transparency, red-teaming, impact assessments, multilingual access, community engagement, and grievance mechanisms. The session will also consider what governments should require when procuring agentic AI, and whether open-source and public interest models can redistribute power away from corporate concentration.
+
+Short framing inputs will be followed by interactive discussion in which participants map risks, identify protective measures, and co-create principles for rights-respecting AI. The session aims to launch community-driven recommendations that center marginalized perspectives, address power imbalances, and guide developers, policymakers and civil society toward transparent, accountable and rights-based frontier AI systems.
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+- Where should boundaries on AI autonomy be drawn? How do we navigate tensions between machine agency and human decision-making, and who decides?
+- What human rights impacts are emerging, particularly for marginalized communities and the Global Majority, and how do these risks manifest in contexts of shrinking civic space, rising authoritarianism, and transnational repression?
+- What safeguards (e.g., human oversight, impact assessments, grievance mechanisms, multilingual accessibility) are most practical and effective?
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+Participants will leave with a shared map of emerging human rights risks from agentic AI, a clearer sense of which safeguards (e.g., human oversight, impact assessments, grievance mechanisms, multilingual accessibility) work in real deployment contexts rather than on paper, and diverse perspectives from government, industry and Global Majority civil society on where boundaries on AI autonomy should sit and who gets to decide.
+
+The session will produce community-driven recommendations for rights-respecting agentic AI, alongside an openly published synthesis of the discussion. Insights will feed directly into ongoing work on human rights impact assessments and multilingual auditing frameworks for AI agents developed to support civil society. Participants will be furthermore invited into a continuing community of practice, with follow-up workshops prioritizing Global Majority voices, ensuring the expertise shared here shapes advocacy and practical standards beyond the IGF and builds momentum toward governance models that redistribute power.
+
+## Format
+
+Theater
+**Duration (minutes):** 60
+**Format description:** We have chosen a theater-style layout to accommodate a large audience while fostering interactive dialogue. The open seating arrangement enhances accessibility and encourages diverse participation from civil society, policymakers, technologists and the private sector — essential for a topic where power imbalances between these groups are themselves part of the problem.
+
+A 60-minute session strikes the right balance between depth and engagement, allowing for short framing inputs from speakers, interactive discussion, and audience participation without losing focus. Given the complexity of agentic AI and its implications for civic space and the Global Majority, this format ensures participants gain practical insights while maintaining an inclusive and dynamic space for debate and knowledge exchange, with enough space for people to attend.
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** To ensure seamless interaction, both the onsite and online moderators will be physically present in the room, coordinating engagement between in-person and remote participants. The onsite moderator will lead discussions and manage speaker interventions, while the online moderator will monitor the virtual chat, relay questions, and facilitate real-time interventions. A dedicated online participation queue will ensure remote attendees can contribute equally.
+
+To enhance engagement, almost half of the session will be allocated for audience participation, with Q&A, live polling, and direct interventions from both onsite and online participants. We will use Slido for real-time input and the IGF chat function to integrate remote contributions, ensuring an inclusive and interactive hybrid session.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** Marlena Wisniak, 🔒European Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ECNL)
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** Urvashi Aneja, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
+**Speaker 2:** Jorge Cancio, Government, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+**Speaker 3:** Roya Pakzad, Civil Society, Intergovernmental Organization
+**Speaker 4:** Hoh JY, Private Sector, Asia-Pacific Group
+
+## Moderator
+
+Marlena Wisniak, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+Iwanska Karolina, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+Marlena Wisniak, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+5.b
+9.c
+10.2
+10.3
+16.10
+16.6
+16.7
+16.b
+17.16
+17.17
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+# IGF 2026 WS #252 AI for the Unheard: Governing Language-Inclusive AI
+
+## Description
+
+This hybrid workshop will explore how Internet governance can make AI language technologies more inclusive, accountable, and responsive to the roughly four billion people who speak marginalized languages and remain locked out of digital conversations that concern them. Of 7,000+ languages spoken worldwide, fewer than 100 have enough digital presence to meaningfully shape a large language model and language exclusion is not a technical problem alone, but a redistribution of opportunity, voice, and safety.
+
+The session pairs implementation evidence with structured multistakeholder exchange. UNICEF will share practical lessons from Laaha, its Virtual Safe Space for women and girls, including pilots of open-source text-to-speech and translation models in Swahili, Bengali, Turkish, Lingala, and Marshallese. In humanitarian contexts, where information may relate to gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health, or access to services, inaccurate translation or culturally inappropriate synthetic speech can create serious risks. CLEAR Global and GSMA will present joint findings on language exclusion in mobile-delivered humanitarian platforms and the gender digital divide: women in low- and middle-income countries are 14% less likely than men to use mobile internet, and 885 million women remain unconnected. An African AI developer building large language models for African languages will speak to what community-led model development reveals about data ownership, consent, dialect, and sustainability.
+
+The session is organized around three anchor questions: what is broken, what is working and at what cost, and what should be built together with participants as co-contributors rather than an audience. It will conclude by identifying practical governance principles and priorities for inclusive language AI, feeding an open repository of lessons, workflows, and ethical guidance.
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+• How can communities meaningfully participate in the development, ownership, and governance of AI tools for low-resource languages including consent over voice and language data?
+• How should governments, mobile operators, technology providers, donors, and civil society balance openness, safety, cultural accuracy, and long-term sustainability in language AI?
+• What standards and accountability mechanisms are needed to reduce harm from AI translation, content moderation, and synthetic speech in sensitive and humanitarian contexts?
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+Participants will gain a clearer understanding of language exclusion as an Internet governance issue spanning access, mobile infrastructure, data governance, AI development, and human rights.
+
+The workshop will produce:
+• Practical governance principles for developing and deploying AI for low-resource languages.
+• Recommendations for meaningful community participation, consent, and responsible stewardship of language and voice data — including the question "who owns a voice once it has been modeled?"
+• A framework for balancing openness, cultural accuracy, safety, affordability, and sustainability.
+• Concrete collaboration pathways among humanitarian organizations, the mobile sector, language specialists , and African LLM developers.
+
+Findings will feed an open repository of implementation lessons, workflows, models, and ethical guidance and inform future language technology pilots and public-interest initiatives in underserved languages.
+
+## Format
+
+Roundtable
+**Duration (minutes):** 60
+**Format description:** A 60-minute roundtable workshop is best suited because the session is designed for focused multi-stakeholder exchange, not a sequence of presentations. The roundtable layout reduces hierarchy and enables direct discussion among humanitarian practitioners, language specialists, technology companies, policymakers, civil society, and affected-language communities.
+
+The session will follow three stages:
+- 0–10 minutes: Brief evidence-based framing from UNICEF, CLEAR Global, and GSMA on language exclusion, access, and implementation challenges.
+- 10–45 minutes: Facilitated discussion across the three policy questions, examining community participation, data governance, openness, cultural accuracy, sustainability, and tensions between AI-generated and human voice.
+- 45–60 minutes: Participants prioritize safeguards, responsibilities, and opportunities for collaboration.
+
+Short visual prompts will introduce each discussion block. Online participants will contribute through moderated speaking queues, live polls, and a shared board. A rapporteur will capture recommendations visibly, creating the foundation for the session’s open repository and follow-up work..
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** The onsite and online moderators will operate as one facilitation team, alternating between room and remote contributions so online participants are not treated as an afterthought.
+
+A shared digital board will collect examples, risks, and proposed safeguards before and during the workshop. After brief opening interventions, participants will work through structured questions in mixed onsite-online discussion rounds. The online moderator will surface chat contributions, conduct quick polls, and invite remote participants at designated intervals. The onsite moderator will use visible timekeeping and reserve at least half the session for participant discussion.
+
+Contributions may be submitted anonymously through Slido or Mentimeter, while a Miro or Padlet board will capture model examples, governance gaps, and recommendations. Materials and prompts will be shared in advance in accessible formats. The rapporteur will consolidate contributions from both participation channels into one outcome document.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** Caroline Masboungi, UNICEF
+**Organizer 2:** Eugenie Humeau, GSMA
+**Organizer 3:** Wakesho kililo, CLEAR Global
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** Eugenie Humeau, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+**Speaker 2:** Wakesho kililo, Civil Society, African Group
+**Speaker 3:** STEPHEN  OBONYO, Technical Community, African Group
+
+## Moderator
+
+Caroline Masboungi, Intergovernmental Organization, Intergovernmental Organization
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+Abeera Akhtar, Intergovernmental Organization, Asia-Pacific Group
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+Abeera Akhtar, Intergovernmental Organization, Asia-Pacific Group
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+3.7
+4.5
+4.6
+5.2
+5.6
+5.b
+9.c
+10.2
+10.3
+16.10
+16.7
+17.16
+17.17
+17.6
+17.9
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+# IGF 2026 WS #279 The Creatives Palaver
+
+## Description
+
+Content shapes how people think, learn, understand themselves and the world around them. For children, whose identities and worldviews are still forming, this influence is particularly significant. Yet, many of the creators producing this content have little understanding of the laws, platform policies, and digital governance frameworks that exist to protect children's rights, safety, and wellbeing online. This gap is significant in Africa. With more than 600 million children, African children remain underrepresented in digital design, while language, representation, and infrastructure gaps continue to limit meaningful digital inclusion. Additionally, Africa's creative economy is valued at approximately US$60 billion and could grow to US$200 billion by 2030 with the right investments and policies. As Africa's digital creators increasingly shape childhood, the ability to translate governance principles into child centred digital experiences has become a critical capability.
+
+The Creative Palaver is a 90-minute hybrid, highly interactive workshop that brings together designers, technologists, policymakers, researchers, educators, artists, young people and child rights advocates to collectively imagine what an African digital childhood could look like. Inspired by the African tradition of the palaver, a gathering where communities come together to listen, deliberate and build consensus, the session uses Afro-reflective methods and collaborative design activities rather than presentations or panels to bridge the worlds of content creation, digital governance, and child-centred design.
+Together, participants will co-create practical recommendations for designing digital products, services, and policies that are safe, culturally relevant, and rooted in African values. Rather than ending with dialogue alone, the session will generate actionable insights to inform future digital governance, Safety by Design, and child-centred innovation across Africa.
+
+This is an invitation to imagine and begin building digital futures where African children are not merely users of technology, but are recognised, respected and reflected in the systems designed for them.
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+1.	How can digital governance better integrate creatives, technologists, policymakers, educators, researchers, child rights practitioners and young people  as partners in shaping digital experiences for African children?
+2.	What African values, cultures, and knowledge systems should guide the design of digital experiences for African children?
+3.	How can Africa build an enabling ecosystem that supports the creation of child-centered digital experiences rooted in African realities?
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+The Creative Palaver will convene diverse voices to explore what shape digital childhood should take from African perspectives. Through interactive dialogue, participants will co-create a set of principles and recommendations for designing and governing digital experiences that reflect the realities, cultures and aspirations of African children.
+
+The workshop will strengthen collaboration between creatives, technologists, policymakers, educators, researchers, child rights practitioners and young people, fostering new partnerships beyond the IGF. A summary of the key insights and recommendations will be shared to inform future digital governance, innovation and child-centred design initiatives across Africa.
+
+Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of how African contexts, values and lived experiences can shape digital policy and technology design, and practical ideas for creating digital environments where African children can safely learn, play, create and thrive.
+
+## Reference Document
+
+Reference Document
+
+## Format
+
+Classroom
+**Duration (minutes):** 90
+**Format description:** The session brings together diverse voices to explore what should define an African digital childhood and how digital governance can better integrate the creative industries alongside other key stakeholders. Using the WATOTO Child-Centred Digital Framework as foundation, participants will collectively explore how African values, cultures and lived experiences shape the design and governance of digital experiences for children.
+
+The workshop strengthens collaboration across multiple and diverse stakeholders fostering new partnerships and shared approaches to advancing child-centred digital innovation beyond the IGF. A summary of the collective insights and recommendations will be shared to inform future digital governance, Safety by Design, and child-centred digital design initiatives across Africa.
+
+Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of how African knowledge systems and lived experiences can inform digital governance and digital design, along with practical ideas for creating digital environments where African children can safely learn, play, create, and thrive.
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** The Creative Palaver is designed as a fully hybrid workshop where online and onsite participants contribute equally to the discussion and outcomes. A dedicated online moderator will ensure remote participants are actively engaged, bringing their questions and insights into the room in real time, while facilitators alternate between online and onsite voices throughout the session.
+
+Participants will be divided into ten facilitated Palavers, each focused on one of the ten WATOTO Child-Centred Digital Framework standards. Each group, comprising diverse stakeholders, will explore a key challenge and develop practical recommendations. Online participants will join virtual breakout Palavers, mirroring onsite discussions.
+
+Insights will be captured in a shared Miro workspace and presented in plenary, where facilitators will synthesise recommendations. Slido will support live polling and Q&A, enabling inclusive participation. The session will conclude with a collective reflection that produces shared recommendations for advancing African-centred digital governance and child-centred digital design.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** Makumbe Caroline, Kutunga Design Academy & Innovation Lab
+**Organizer 2:** Eunice Wambere Nyagah, Kutunga Design Academy
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** Makumbe Caroline, Private Sector, African Group
+**Speaker 2:** Maina Korir, Technical Community, African Group
+**Speaker 3:** Belinda Matore, Private Sector, African Group
+**Speaker 4:** George Gachui, Private Sector, African Group
+
+## Moderator
+
+Eunice Wambere Nyagah, Private Sector, African Group
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+Eunice Maingi, Technical Community, African Group
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+Kelvin Dabengwa, Private Sector, African Group
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+4. Quality Education
+9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
+10. Reduced Inequalities
+16. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
+17. Partnerships for the Goals
@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+# IGF 2026 WS #288 Advancing sustainable data center infrastructures in BRICS
+
+## Description
+
+The workshop proposes a multistakeholder dialogue focused on advancing sustainable data center governance across the BRICS countries through cooperation, shared experiences, and the exchange of best practices. The dialogue aims to explore common challenges related to the expansion of data centers infrastructures in the Global South, including those related to measuring their scale, distribution, and resource use, as well as the role of evidence, indicators, and other governance instruments in identifying and addressing socio-environmental impacts. The BRICS countries are increasingly becoming hosts to data center infrastructure, leveraging their natural and technical resources in the emerging data economy. This growth presents increasingly complex challenges related to natural resources consumption, environmental impacts, and the well-being of local communities, especially in the context of climate change, and in line with the SDGs.
+Understanding the impacts of these infrastructures requires cooperation across countries to strengthen policy frameworks and governance approaches that can balance digital infrastructure development with environmental sustainability. Sharing good practices can support mutual learning and help countries address common governance challenges while adapting solutions to their different contexts and development needs. Sharing experiences and evidence can  contribute to more informed and coordinated approaches to sustainable data center governance.
+The session will be structured around three complementary stages. First, participants will examine the challenges  related to expansion of data center infrastructure across the BRICS and the Global South, drawing on experiences from different national contexts to explore pathways toward more sustainable governance. Second, participants will consider how evidence and impact assessment instruments can support a better understanding of these infrastructures, informing policy-making. Finally, participants will discuss how sustainable data center governance can become part of the broader digital cooperation agenda among the BRICS countries, identifying opportunities to strengthen mutual learning, policy dialogue, and common approaches while respecting different national contexts and development priorities.
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+A. What are the main governance and sustainability challenges associated with the expansion of data center infrastructure in the BRICS and the Global South, and how can multistakeholder dialogue contribute to a better understanding of these challenges?
+B. Which evidences, metrics, and impact assessment methodologies should are essential for measuring the technical, environmental, social, and territorial dimensions of data center infrastructure to support evidence-based policymaking?
+C. How can BRICS countries promote cooperation, mutual learning, and common approaches to sustainable data center governance while respecting different national contexts and development priorities?
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+The session is expected to generate meaningful insights on how BRICS countries and other emerging economies can strengthen the governance of data centers while advancing sustainable development, climate objectives, and digital sovereignty. It should contribute to a shared understanding of common governance challenges and identify opportunities for multistakeholder cooperation, and the exchange of methodologies, evidence, and policy experiences. It is also expected to identify areas where greater convergence on data collection practices, assessment frameworks, and governance approaches could strengthen international cooperation while respecting different national contexts and development priorities. The outcomes of the session may inform future IGF and BRICS-related dialogues, contributing to a broader agenda for the sustainable governance of digital infrastructure.
+
+## Reference Document
+
+Reference Document
+
+## Format
+
+Roundtable
+**Duration (minutes):** 90
+**Format description:** The roundtable format, combined with a 90-minute duration, is well suited to the session’s multistakeholder and international approach. The format will foster an open and interactive dialogue among the BRICS countries and stakeholder groups, enabling the exchange of perspectives, experiences, and lessons learned. The 90-minute format will allow the session to move beyond individual presentations and dedicate substantial time to an interactive discussion on common challenges, indicators, and approaches to sustainable data center governance. The roundtable setup also helps reduce the traditional distinction between speakers and audience, encouraging equitable participation from both onsite and online participants. With support from both on-site and online moderators, this interactive format will facilitate the integration of diverse perspectives and experiences, helping to identify common challenges, areas for cooperation, and potential recommendations to inform future policy discussions and international processes.
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** The session will feature a virtual moderator who will monitor the remote participation tools provided by the IGF organizers and will be responsible for bringing up the virtual comments and questions relevant to the discussion. Accordingly, following the presentations of the invited speakers, the session will include a dedicated timeslot for participation and input from both the in-person and online audiences.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** Hartmut Richard Glaser, CGI.br
+**Organizer 2:** Alexandre Barbosa, 🔒
+**Organizer 3:** Rodolfo Avelino, Insper
+**Organizer 4:** Mariana Soares, NIC.br
+**Organizer 5:** Jean Carlos Ferreira dos Santos, 🔒
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** Jeff Xiong, Technical Community, Asia-Pacific Group
+**Speaker 2:** Graziela Castello, Technical Community, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
+**Speaker 3:** Eugenio Garcia, Government, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
+**Speaker 4:** Kola Ijasan , Civil Society, African Group
+**Speaker 5:** Miguel Pinto Maria, Private Sector, African Group
+**Speaker 6:** Rodolfo Avelino, Technical Community, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
+
+## Moderator
+
+Rodolfo Avelino, Technical Community, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+Mariana Soares, Technical Community, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+Jean Carlos Ferreira dos Santos, Technical Community, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+6. Clean Water and Sanitation
+7. Affordable and Clean Energy
+9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
+13. Climate Action
@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
+# IGF 2026 WS #292 Data work, precarity and the human infrastructure of AI
+
+## Description
+
+The hype  surrounding the development and adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) systems often masks the significant human and labour rights’ costs embedded in their production. Machine learning, the technology underpinning most AI technologies, depends on the labour of thousands of workers around the world, known as data workers, who perform fragmented and repetitive tasks that are essential for generating, annotating, and evaluating the datasets used to train AI models. Despite being indispensable to the AI supply chain, data work remains largely invisible within digital governance spaces. This session will present findings from the proposer organization's recent research on data work in Latin America, highlighting workers lived experiences alongside public policy recommendations to advance compliance with international labour standards in data work. These findings underscore the need to place labour rights at the center of digital technology governance frameworks. Bringing together speakers from civil society organizations, workers' organizations, academia and the technical sector, the session will explore how the rapid expansion of AI and the growing attention to its governance must be accompanied by greater recognition of the workers who make these technologies possible. It will also examine how technology companies can be held accountable for the labour rights impacts and human costs embedded in the development and deployment of AI systems.
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+What regulatory and policy mechanisms are needed to ensure that the development and deployment of AI systems comply with international labour standards and human rights  throughout the AI supply chain?
+What transparency and accountability measures across the AI supply chain  are needed to ensure compliance with data worker’s rights?
+How can AI governance processes ensure the meaningful participation of data workers, including through freedom of association and collective bargaining?
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+By the end of the session, participants will have a deeper understanding of the often-overlooked role of data workers in the AI supply chain and the labour and human rights implications associated with AI development. The discussion will contribute to broadening current AI governance debates by placing the human labour  at the center of policy conversations. The session will foster dialogue arround concrete pathways to strengthen the protection of data workers' rights. In particular, participants will identify policy and regulatory priorities to improve transparency, corporate accountability, and labour protections across AI supply chain, while exploring how existing digital governance frameworks can better incorporate decent work principles. The session will inform a blog post to be published on the proposer organization's website, synthesizing the discussion and highlighting public policy recommendations for advancing compliance with labour rights for data workers.
+
+## Reference Document
+
+Reference Document
+
+## Format
+
+Roundtable
+**Duration (minutes):** 60
+**Format description:** The roundtable format is well suited to this session as it brings together representatives from civil society, workers' organizations, academia, and the technical community in a dynamic exchange of perspectives. The 60-minute discussion will be structured around two rounds of guiding questions, encouraging speakers to share their expertise, reflect on the proposer organization's research findings, and engage with one another's perspectives. Through this interactive dialogue, participants will collectively explore policy, regulatory, and corporate accountability mechanisms to ensure that the development and deployment of AI systems uphold labour standards and respect human rights throughout the AI supply chain.
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** The session will actively integrate both in-person and online participants through two complementary strategies. First, the session will begin with an interactive activity using a real-time engagement tool, such as Mentimeter, to pose a broad question that introduces participants to the session's central theme. The tool will remain active throughout the discussion, enabling online participants to contribute simultaneously by sharing their reactions and reflections. These contributions will serve as a common input that can be revisited during or at the end of the session. Second, a dedicated space within the videoconferencing platform will remain open throughout the session to receive questions and comments from online participants. The online moderator will collect and prioritize these interventions, ensuring they are incorporated into the discussion and addressed on an equal basis with contributions from participants attending in person.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** Laura Mantilla-León, Derechos Digitales NGO
+**Organizer 2:** Paloma Lara-Castro, Derechos Digitales
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** Alexandrine Pirlot de Corbion, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+**Speaker 2:** Posada Julian, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
+**Speaker 3:** Jamila Venturini, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
+**Speaker 4:** Fasica Gebrekidan, Technical Community, African Group
+
+## Moderator
+
+Jamila Venturini, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+Laura Mantilla-León, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+Ximena Cuzcano, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+8. Decent Work and Economic Growth
+8.7
+8.8
+10. Reduced Inequalities
+10.2
+10.3
+10.6
+12. Responsible Production and Consumption
@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+# IGF 2026 WS #305 Beyond AI Principles: Operationalising AI Governance
+
+## Description
+
+Governments, international organisations and the private sector in AI principles, ethical frameworks and national AI strategies have made significant progress. It is no longer in doubt what responsible AI should look like, but how do we implement it effectively? The OECD observes that the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) governance frameworks is on the rise, but this has not yet translated into their effective implementation across organisations.
+As countries implement the Global Digital Compact, the UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI, and national AI strategies, institutions are increasingly confronted with practical governance questions. How should responsibilities be shared across government agencies? What accountability mechanisms are needed? How can governments, industry, civil society, academia and the technical community work together to translate AI commitments into practice?
+This workshop will focus on the practical challenge of operationalising AI governance. Through a structured multistakeholder dialogue, participants will examine implementation experiences from different regions, identify common institutional challenges and exchange practical approaches for strengthening coordination, accountability and multistakeholder collaboration. Rather than debating new AI principles, the discussion will explore how existing commitments can be translated into effective governance arrangements.
+The session will produce an AI Governance Implementation report which can also be used as a toolkit, capturing practical recommendations, implementation approaches and institutional considerations that governments, international organisations and other stakeholders can adapt to strengthen AI governance in different national and regional contexts. By focusing on implementation rather than principle setting, the workshop aims to support more effective, inclusive and accountable AI governance across the Internet governance ecosystem.
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+What institutional arrangements and governance mechanisms are needed to translate AI principles and national AI strategies into effective implementation?
+How can governments, the private sector, civil society, academia and the technical community strengthen coordination and accountability for AI governance across different national and regional contexts?
+What practical approaches can help organisations operationalise AI governance while remaining inclusive, transparent and adaptable to emerging technological and policy developments?
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+The session will produce an AI Governance Implementation Guide, capturing practical recommendations and good practices for translating AI principles into effective governance. The guide will identify common implementation challenges, highlight institutional approaches discussed during the session, and outline practical considerations for strengthening coordination, accountability and multistakeholder collaboration. WIG will publish and share the guide with the wider Internet governance community to encourage continued dialogue and adaptation.
+Participants will gain a better understanding of the practical barriers to implementing AI governance across different contexts, learn from experiences shared by governments, industry, civil society, academia and the technical community, and identify approaches that can support more effective implementation of existing AI governance commitments. The session will also strengthen collaboration among stakeholders by encouraging the exchange of practical experiences and implementation lessons that can inform future AI governance initiatives.
+
+## Format
+
+Roundtable
+**Duration (minutes):** 90
+**Format description:** A roundtable layout is best suited to this workshop because it promotes active dialogue, equal participation and collaborative problem-solving among stakeholders. Since the session focuses on operationalising AI governance rather than debating principles, participants will work together to analyse governance challenges and identify practical implementation approaches. The roundtable setting encourages interaction between governments, the private sector, civil society, academia and the technical community, ensuring that diverse perspectives shape the discussion and proposed solutions.
+A 90-minute format provides sufficient time for brief framing remarks, focused expert insights, small-group discussions using the AI Governance Canvas, followed by a moderated discussion that identifies common themes and practical recommendations. This balance between expert contributions and participant engagement supports meaningful multistakeholder dialogue while ensuring the session produces practical outputs. The format aligns with the workshop's objective of generating actionable recommendations that will inform the AI Governance Implementation Guide.
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** The session will be designed to ensure that onsite and online participants contribute equally throughout the discussion. A dedicated online moderator will monitor the virtual platform, facilitate interventions, and ensure that questions and comments from remote participants are integrated into every stage of the session. During the Governance Design Challenge, online participants will be assigned to mixed discussion groups alongside onsite participants using a shared collaborative document to contribute to the AI Governance Canvas in real time. Each group will nominate a rapporteur to present its recommendations, regardless of whether they are participating online or onsite. Interactive polling will be used to identify priority implementation challenges and build consensus on key recommendations. Key recommendations from each discussion group will be captured live and displayed throughout the session, enabling all participants to review, refine and prioritise the final implementation recommendations.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** Gloria Frimpomaah Amofah-Adjekum , Women in Internet Governance/ Makatob IT IT
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** Ines Hfaiedh, Civil Society, African Group
+**Speaker 2:** Houda  CHIHI, Government, African Group
+**Speaker 3:** Betty Fausta, Technical Community, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
+**Speaker 4:** Jacob Odame-Baiden, Civil Society, African Group
+**Speaker 5:** Raymond Amumpaire, Civil Society, African Group
+
+## Moderator
+
+Prerna Chhetri, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+Nwakanma Nnenna, Civil Society, African Group
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+Sarata Omane, Civil Society, African Group
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
+9.5
+9.c
+10. Reduced Inequalities
+10.2
+10.3
+16. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
+16.10
+16.6
+16.7
+17. Partnerships for the Goals
+17.16
+17.17
+17.18
@@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
+# IGF 2026 WS #336 AI in Schools: elevating learning or embedding exploitation?
+
+## Description
+
+Since the COVID-19 pandemic, educational technologies (EdTech) has become a permanent fixture in children’s education across the world. AI promises to democratize learning, respond to individual children’s needs, and reduce teachers’ burdens. Yet, untested, unregulated, and unaccountable systems are too often designed and deployed to prioritize commercial objectives over children’s best interests.
+
+As a consequence, global evidence shows that the rapid rollout of AI in education is exposing children to a range of serious and growing risks, including pervasive commercial surveillance and profiling, the entrenchment of discriminatory assumptions, and exploitative data practices.
+
+The growing use of AI in education also raises important questions about its long-term effects on learning, critical thinking, social development, and educational outcomes. The deployment of AI in schools should be guided by evidence of educational benefit, not unproven assumptions about technological progress.
+
+While children remain largely absent from national AI strategies and governance frameworks, the OECD found that 78% of those it analyzed prioritized regulation in the education sector. This highlights the global consensus that – particularly in the classroom – innovation should not depend on the commercial exploitation of children and the erosion of their privacy, agency, or critical thinking.
+
+This panel will explore how implementing well-established human rights obligations can ensure AI is designed and deployed in education with children's rights and developmental needs at its core.
+
+Panelists will share evidence-based assessments of the impact of AI in education on learning outcomes across different contexts and communities. Building on UNCRC General comment No. 25 and international best practices, they will explore how to ensure AI in EdTech respects children's rights to quality education, privacy, safety, and freedom from exploitation as enshrined in the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history: the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+A. How can we ensure AI in education prioritizes pedagogical value and children's best interests over engagement metrics and commercial interests?
+B. How can governments and regulators fulfil their obligation to protect children’s rights in the context of AI in education across different educational contexts and jurisdictions?
+C. How should children’s rights be embedded in AI governance before a product reaches the classroom, and which stakeholders bear responsibility?
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+Participants will develop a greater understanding of the often-overlooked issues surrounding AI in education, including relevant risks relating to children’s privacy and safety and the lack of evidence for EdTech's claimed benefits. They will also gain appreciation for how the impacts of AI in education vary across different socioeconomic environments, with particular attention to digital divides across different contexts.
+
+The session will also equip participants with knowledge of emerging best practices for embedding children's rights to privacy, protection, and quality education in EdTech design, procurement, and classroom implementation.
+
+Finally, the session will also provide attendees an opportunity to contribute to the development of shared frameworks and tools such as a standardized taxonomy and assessment framework to facilitate consistent analysis and solution-focused discussions across sectors and jurisdictions.
+
+## Reference Document
+
+Reference Document
+
+## Format
+
+Theater
+**Duration (minutes):** 60
+**Format description:** As EdTech remains a frequently overlooked area in internet governance discussions, this session will primarily aim to raise awareness as to the risks children can be exposed to in educational settings, and what practical solutions exist to ensure respect for their distinct rights.
+
+Leading experts from diverse contexts and stakeholder groups will contribute to the conversation by reflecting on children’s lived realities and emerging best practices to protect children’s rights in the rollout of AI in education.
+
+The diverse impacts of AI and EdTech on children – in light of their contexts, communities, and lived experiences – will be highlighted through meaningful youth participation, and children will share their demands for global governance efforts.
+
+Several polls and collaborative displays will be used at different points during the session to capture participants’ perspectives and sentiments and invite them to contribute to the conversation.
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** As our session showcases global perspectives, it is vital to us that it is accessible to all interested participants – which requires inclusive online and onsite engagement strategies.
+
+We seek to include online and onsite participants equally, including by alternating between speakers and providing equal opportunities for participants to intervene.
+
+We will establish efficient internal communications to ensure the online and onsite moderators can coordinate and give due representation to the voices in the room and online.
+
+We also intend to use online tools such as Mentimeter to foster onsite and online participation through live polls and surveys.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** Marie-Eve Nadeau, 5Rights Foundation
+**Organizer 2:** Sami Jaber, 5Rights Foundation
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** O'Flaherty Michael, Intergovernmental Organization, Intergovernmental Organization
+**Speaker 2:** Philip Colligan, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+**Speaker 3:** Tivayanond Mongkhonvanit Prapaporn, Government, Asia-Pacific Group
+**Speaker 4:** Sonia Livingstone, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+**Speaker 5:** Jennifer Kaberi Kaberi, Civil Society, African Group
+**Speaker 6:** Marie-Eve Nadeau, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+
+## Moderator
+
+Marie-Eve Nadeau, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+Sami Jaber, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+Sami Jaber, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+10.3
+12.6
+12.7
+16.2
+17.6
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+# IGF 2026 WS #338 When AI Becomes a Friend: Governing Emotional AI
+
+## Description
+
+Humans are inherently social beings, and meaningful relationships are fundamental to healthy development, wellbeing and participation in society. However, the ways people form and maintain relationships are changing. OECD (2025) reports declining social connectedness, with many young people experiencing increasing loneliness and fewer face to face interactions. As these trends unfold, AI companions and emotionally responsive chatbots are becoming part of young people's social lives.
+Rather than simply answering questions, these systems are designed to sustain conversations, build trust and provide emotional support. Many young people now turn to them as companions, confidants and sources of advice. While emotionally engaging AI may offer important benefits, emerging research raises concerns about emotional attachment, dependency, transparency, user autonomy and the protection of young people (Hwang et al., 2025; Kostka & Zhou, 2026). UNICEF's Policy Guidance on AI for Children (2021) further emphasises that AI systems affecting children should uphold their rights, safety and wellbeing.
+Current AI governance discussions have largely focused on safety, fairness, transparency and accountability. Much less attention has been given to AI systems intentionally designed to cultivate emotional relationships with users. As these technologies become more widespread, Internet governance stakeholders must consider whether existing governance frameworks adequately protect young people while enabling responsible innovation.
+This workshop will bring together policymakers, industry, civil society, academia and the technical community to examine four questions:
+What duty of care should govern emotionally engaging AI?
+Should young people receive additional protections?
+How can governance ensure AI complements rather than replaces meaningful human relationships?
+What responsibilities should governments, industry, educators and civil society share in protecting young people's digital wellbeing?
+The session will identify governance priorities for emotional AI that protect human agency, strengthen digital wellbeing and support responsible innovation.
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+1.   	What governance and regulatory approaches are needed to ensure AI companions and emotionally engaging AI systems protect young people's rights, wellbeing and human agency while fostering innovation?
+
+2.   	What duty of care should AI developers, platform providers, governments, educators and other stakeholders have when designing, deploying and overseeing AI systems that encourage emotional attachment?
+
+3.   	How can multistakeholder Internet governance frameworks address the social and ethical implications of emotional AI while preserving meaningful human relationships, transparency and accountability?
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+The session will produce an "Emotional AI Governance Agenda" that maps the key governance questions requiring multistakeholder action as emotionally engaging AI systems become more prevalent. The agenda will identify priorities for policy development, including duty of care, transparency, protection of young people, human agency and accountability, while highlighting areas where further evidence, collaboration and governance innovation are needed. Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of how emotional AI is reshaping relationships and digital wellbeing, the governance gaps that remain, and practical insights from various stakeholder perspectives on how Internet governance can respond to this emerging challenge.
+
+## Format
+
+Roundtable
+**Duration (minutes):** 60
+**Format description:** This session examines an emerging Internet governance issue where there is no single policy solution. A roundtable format is best suited because it encourages equal participation and dialogue among governments, industry, civil society, academia, the technical community and youth representatives. The discussion will begin with a realistic scenario illustrating how a young person develops a close relationship with an AI companion, providing a common starting point for participants to examine governance challenges from different stakeholders perspectives. Rather than debating whether emotional AI is inherently beneficial or harmful, participants will explore governance questions related to duty of care, transparency, accountability and the protection of young people. Sixty minutes provides sufficient time to introduce the issue, facilitate interactive discussion between onsite and online participants, and synthesise areas of agreement, differing viewpoints and emerging priorities that can inform future Internet governance and AI policy discussions.
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** The session will be designed to ensure equal participation for onsite and online attendees. An online moderator from WIG  will facilitate virtual participation, monitor questions and ensure that online contributions are integrated throughout the discussion rather than reserved for the end. The workshop will begin with a short scenario illustrating a young person's relationship with an AI companion, providing a common point of reference for all participants. Guided by the moderator, onsite and online participants will respond to the same governance questions from their respective stakeholder perspectives. Live polling will be used to identify areas of consensus and divergence on issues such as duty of care, transparency and protections for young people, with results displayed in real time to stimulate discussion. A shared collaborative document will capture key governance insights and emerging priorities from both onsite and online participants, ensuring an inclusive and interactive hybrid experience.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** Gloria Frimpomaah Amofah-Adjekum , Women in Internet Governance/ Makatob IT IT
+**Organizer 2:** Betty Fausta, 🔒YONN
+**Organizer 3:** Phenny Awuor Apollo, Ghana School of Internet Governance
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** Tinuade Oguntuyi, Civil Society, African Group
+**Speaker 2:** Ines Hfaiedh, Civil Society, African Group
+**Speaker 3:** Godsway Kubi, Civil Society, African Group
+**Speaker 4:** Mary Rose Ofianga, Private Sector, Asia-Pacific Group
+**Speaker 5:** Emilia Dohrmann, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+**Speaker 6:** Andrew Findell-Aghnatios, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
+
+## Moderator
+
+Gloria Frimpomaah Amofah-Adjekum , Civil Society, African Group
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+Betty Fausta, Technical Community, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+Phenny Awuor Apollo, Technical Community, African Group
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+3. Good Health and Well-Being
+3.4
+4. Quality Education
+4.7
+9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
+9.5
+9.c
+16. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
+16.6
+16.7
+17. Partnerships for the Goals
+17.16
+17.17
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+# IGF 2026 WS #385 Market Power in the AI Age: Bespoke Competition Rules for AI
+
+## Description
+
+AI markets are concentrating in ways not previously seen, and of deep concern. A small set of firms controls the inputs that decide who can build frontier AI: advanced chips, hyperscale cloud, training data, capital, and talent. The same firms extend that control downstream through partnerships, minority investments, exclusive compute deals, and talent raids that sit outside classic merger review. In July 2024, the competition authorities of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union jointly warned of concentrated control of key inputs, of incumbents entrenching their power in AI markets, and of arrangements among key players that could steer market outcomes. Enforcement since then has confirmed the diagnosis and exposed the limits of the toolkit: authorities reviewed the large cloud-and-model partnerships, yet most fell outside merger control.
+This session asks whether competition law built for pipelines and platforms fits AI markets, or whether AI needs bespoke rules: ex-ante obligations, dedicated digital market regimes, and access remedies for compute and data. And who writes those rules? No African firm to date trains frontier models. African economies, like most, consume AI that is built, priced, and governed elsewhere, and most African competition authorities must police global firms with national tools. Kenya is moving first: the Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2026 would create a dedicated digital markets regime, reaching abuse of superior bargaining position without proof of dominance. At regional level, the COMESA Competition and Consumer Commission runs cross-border merger control and conduct enforcement across 21 Member States, and its 2025 Regulations respond directly to digital markets. The design decisions now facing African legislators, between importing aspects of rules drafted abroad and building homegrown regimes suited to their own markets, will shape the extent to which African economies capture value from AI or merely pay rents on it.
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+Where does durable market power sit in the AI value chain (chips, compute, data, models, distribution), and how does concentration form without triggering extant merger controls
+When does ex-post antitrust enforcement suffice against AI partnerships, quasi-mergers, and self-preferencing, when do markets need bespoke ex-ante rules: mandated access to compute, data-sharing duties, interoperability, transparency of partnership terms, and merger thresholds that capture quasi-mergers
+How should small and developing economies legislate: transplant, adapt, or invent? What can regional enforcement (COMESA, the AfCFTA Competition Protocol) deliver what national authorities cannot, how do states move from norm-takers to norm-makers in AI competition policy
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+Participants will leave with a shared map of where market power sits in the AI value chain (chips, compute, data, models, distribution) from an African vantage point, connecting global enforcement evidence to African market conditions. The session will produce design options for bespoke AI competition rules suited to small and developing economies: thresholds, obligations, remedies, and institutional models, including regional enforcement. It will generate concrete input into the Kenyan legislative process on the Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2026 and into digital markets work under the AfCFTA Competition Protocol, and pathways for African and Global South authorities to shape international competition norms for AI as norm-makers rather than norm-takers. A public session report will consolidate these outputs and feed into the IGF 2026 record.
+
+## Format
+
+Theater
+**Duration (minutes):** 90
+**Format description:** The session moves from a regional enforcer's keynote through two structured panel rounds to an open floor exchange, and it integrates speakers joining online from Europe. Ninety minutes is the minimum needed to move from diagnosis (does AI break the antitrust toolkit?) to design (what should bespoke rules for small and developing economies look like?) while protecting a full open exchange with in-person and online participants. A theater layout suits a moderated panel before a large audience at UNON. The moderator will run timed interventions, direct panelists to respond to one another rather than deliver serial statements, and alternate between the room and the virtual queue during the floor exchange.
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** A dedicated online co-moderator will run the virtual room alongside the onsite moderator, merge the in-room and online question queues into a single order, and hold a guaranteed slot for online interventions in the floor exchange. Online panelists will take part in the same panel rounds as onsite panelists, on equal airtime, not in a separate segment.
+How will you design the session to ensure the best possible experience for online and onsite participants?
+No slide decks. Panelists respond to targeted questions in timed interventions of three to four minutes, circulated in advance and matched to each speaker's enforcement, scholarly, or practice vantage point. The agenda reserves the floor exchange for open discussion, and the moderator will alternate between the room and the online queue throughout it.
+Complementary online tools/platforms
+The official IGF virtual platform and its chat, managed by the online moderator.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** Linda Bonyo, 🔒UNECA
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** Waweru Alexia , Intergovernmental Organization, African Group
+**Speaker 2:** Macmillan Rory, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+**Speaker 3:** Linda Bonyo, Civil Society, African Group
+**Speaker 4:** Helena Malikova, Government, Intergovernmental Organization
+
+## Moderator
+
+Linda Bonyo, Intergovernmental Organization, African Group
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+Linda Bonyo, Intergovernmental Organization, African Group
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+Linda Bonyo, Intergovernmental Organization, African Group
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+8. Decent Work and Economic Growth
+16. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
+17. Partnerships for the Goals
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+# IGF 2026 WS #392 Judgment in the Age of Intelligence: Governing Judicial AI
+
+## Description
+
+UNESCO's 2024 global survey of over 500 judicial operators across 96 countries found widespread, largely unguided use of generative AI, and a clear majority requesting regulation and training. Judges draft with chatbots, lawyers file AI-written submissions, litigants arrive with AI-generated evidence, and algorithms inform bail, sentencing, and parole decisions. The costs of the governance gap are on the record: courts in the United Kingdom, Kenya, and elsewhere have caught submissions built on fabricated case law, with fines, wasted costs, and warnings from the bench. In Malawi, judges report individual use of commercial chatbots for judicial tasks with no institutional framework. In Kenya, the Judiciary has counted seven hallucinated-citation incidents and is responding with a Judiciary AI Adoption Policy Framework.
+The promise is as real as the risk. Courts across the Global South face crushing backlogs, and AI-assisted drafting, transcription, translation, and case management can shorten the distance between citizens and justice: Argentina's Prometea assistant nearly tripled case-processing productivity, and automated transcription is speeding Egyptian courts. UNESCO's Guidelines for the Use of AI Systems in Courts and Tribunals, the first global framework in this field, insist AI must remain assistive, never substitutive, under meaningful human oversight. The task now is translation: turning global principles into court rules, practice directions, procurement standards, training, and evidence doctrine that work in real judiciaries. This session convenes sitting judges from three African courts, the architects of the global guidance, court technologists, bar leaders, and scholars of AI evidence to do exactly that, and presents the judiciary findings of the Africa AI Governance Index covering all 54 African states.
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+**individual use to institutional policy:** judges are already using commercial chatbots on personal accounts, feeding case information into systems with no controls. What rules must a judiciary put in place, secure tools, procurement, and training, before informal use hardens into invisible practice
+**global principles to local rules:** the UNESCO Guidelines set the floor, and Kenya, US state courts, and others are building national and court-level frameworks. What does faithful translation look like in judiciaries with thin budgets, low connectivity, multilingual courtrooms
+AI-generated evidence, deepfakes, black-box forensic tools, and AI-drafted pleadings test doctrines of admissibility, disclosure, proprietary and professional responsibility
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+A public presentation of the judiciary findings of the Africa AI Governance Index and the Lawyers Hub report on judicial use of AI in Africa, giving the session a continental evidence base. An African bench-and-bar checklist for judicial AI governance, mapping the UNESCO Guidelines to court rules, practice directions, procurement standards, and training. A comparative matrix of judicial AI frameworks in progress, spanning the UNESCO Guidelines, Kenya's Judiciary AI Adoption Policy Framework, and US state court rules, for adaptation by other judiciaries. A training pathway connecting UNESCO's judicial curriculum to African judicial training institutes through the Africa AI Policy Lab. A record of judicial perspectives feeding into the IGF 2026 outputs and into national judiciary consultations in Kenya, Malawi, and Ghana.
+
+## Format
+
+Theater
+**Duration (minutes):** 90
+**Format description:** The session moves from a scene-setting UNESCO keynote and a ten-minute research presentation of new continental evidence through two panel rounds, the bench speaking first, to an open floor exchange that includes judicial officers attending IGF 2026. Ninety minutes is the minimum needed to hear three sitting judges, the evidence and policy specialists, and the bar, while protecting a full open exchange with in-person and online participants. A theater layout suits a moderated panel before a large audience at UNON. The moderator will run timed interventions, direct panelists to respond to one another rather than deliver serial statements, and alternate between the room and the virtual queue during the floor exchange.
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** A dedicated online co-moderator will run the virtual room alongside the onsite moderator, merge the in-room and online question queues into a single order, and hold a guaranteed slot for online interventions in the floor exchange. Online panelists will take part in the same panel rounds as onsite panelists, on equal airtime, not in a separate segment.
+How will you facilitate interaction between onsite and online speakers and attendees?
+A dedicated online co-moderator will run the virtual room alongside the onsite moderator, merge the in-room and online question queues into a single order, and hold a guaranteed slot for online interventions in the floor exchange. Online panelists will take part in the same panel rounds as onsite panelists, on equal airtime, not in a separate segment.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** Linda Bonyo, Lawyers Hub Africa
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** Linda Bonyo, Civil Society, African Group
+**Speaker 2:** Prateek Sibal, Intergovernmental Organization, Intergovernmental Organization
+**Speaker 3:** Ablorh Sylvester, Government, African Group
+
+## Moderator
+
+Linda Bonyo, Civil Society, African Group
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+Linda Bonyo, Civil Society, African Group
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+Linda Bonyo, Civil Society, African Group
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+1. No Poverty
+16. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+# IGF 2026 WS #438 The Algorithmic Generation: Networks Shaping Human Networks
+
+## Description
+
+Governing design in the age of intelligence begins with how deeply social media now runs through our daily lives. Algorithms that rank and recommend content influence how we interact and make decisions, shaping how we learn, socialise and behave, and every interaction feeds back into the system that adjusts itself in return, which has turned digital platforms into a public issue carrying long-term intergenerational implications. Institutional responses worldwide still concentrate almost entirely on the age at which an account may be opened, keeping the architecture of those environments, and the opportunity for young people to take part in shaping it, out of the conversation.
+
+This phenomenon extends well beyond ‘access’, as design decisions sit upstream and the capacity to influence them varies enormously between nations. Thus, understanding this new era calls for an intergenerational and interdisciplinary approach, drawn from everyone who shapes, governs, studies and experiences social media. The comparative analysis is anchored by ISOC Youth Ambassadors from Latin America, East Africa and South Asia, and read against the governance that shapes platforms in practice and the rethinking underway in education, from the AI competency frameworks to the offline spaces where judgement grows.
+
+Throughout the session, interactive segments invite onsite and remote participants to engage with different scenarios and compare what currently exists in their respective contexts. What remains afterwards is a common framework to determine whether a measure merely restricts access (banning who enters), or successfully reaches the design layer, and how far it enhances capacity, a question already on the table in most of their countries.
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+How can governance audit the algorithmic and generative AI systems shaping youth experiences beyond access limits, and who must bear the burden of proof?
+What mechanisms can integrate young people’s lived experiences into the co-creation of "safety by design" standards, particularly in contexts where state regulatory capacity to mandate them is limited?
+Technical literacy delivers basic awareness, but true resilience requires critical digital literacy. What must this critical curriculum include, and how can states and communities sustain it beyond the classroom?
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+The session opens by taking a real headline that restricts young people's access and applying it, live, to the adults in the room, so they meet the question from the seat usually reserved for the young and the hierarchy between who decides and who is decided about dissolves before the discussion starts. Participants leave able to test different measures against a shared framework, whether it merely restricts access or reaches the design layer, and how far it builds capacity, rehearsed at the close through anonymous profile cases. Live polling becomes a mirror the room reads together, surfacing how its assumptions shift as each case is revealed, so what remains is shared understanding rather than a record of anyone's answers. The lasting output is that framework, a portable reading others can reuse, and a short public synthesis making visible the governance work youth already lead and keeping the conversation going.
+
+## Reference Document
+
+Reference Document
+
+## Format
+
+Roundtable
+**Duration (minutes):** 90
+**Format description:** The roundtable’s format enables the process to unfold in a series of steps over 90 minutes. By doing so, the room first builds a shared language across regions and disciplines, then applies it to real cases, and only then does the framework answer for itself and travel home with participants. A 30 or 60 minute slot would stop at that first stage and leave people restating what they believed, with no room for the deconstruction that rebuilds the argument. The format also challenges the hierarchy that shapes these debates, since young people are absent from the tables where digital rules are written, and that absence is why the rules reach for the door and miss the design behind it. Placing Youth Ambassadors alongside those who write and study these rules connects perspectives siloed elsewhere, creating a space where participants move beyond fixed roles toward a shared sense of responsibility.
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** The hybrid component is designed as one interconnected space where onsite and online participants build a single dialogue together, so the two audiences integrate their knowledge. Blind votes go through Mentimeter as one anonymous stream, which keeps a participant's position in the room from ranking whose reading counts. A shared collaborative board then holds the framework as it takes shape, written into the same workspace from both sides, so understanding accumulates where everyone can see and edit it. The online moderator keeps a live queue of remote cases and hands each first response to a remote voice before the room replies, while a chat-to-floor relay brings a typed question to the table within the minute. Each tool carries one function, and participants leave having practised integrating different forms of knowledge through the tools themselves.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** Fernanda Rokha Sanchez-Umaña, Internet Society
+**Organizer 2:** Doreen Nandutu Nabuzale, Uganda DNS Forum
+**Organizer 3:** Ankita Rathi, Internet Society
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** Doreen Nandutu Nabuzale, Civil Society, African Group
+**Speaker 2:** Fernanda Rokha Sanchez-Umaña, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
+**Speaker 3:** Maarten Botterman, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+**Speaker 4:** Roberto Zambrana, Technical Community, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
+
+## Moderator
+
+Fernanda Rokha Sanchez-Umaña, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+Doreen Nandutu Nabuzale, Civil Society, African Group
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+Ankita Rathi, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+3. Good Health and Well-Being
+3.4
+4. Quality Education
+4.4
+4.7
+16. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
+16.10
+16.7
+16.a
+17. Partnerships for the Goals
+17.16
+17.17
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+# IGF 2026 WS #439 Beyond Compute: Sustaining the Commons that Power AI
+
+## Description
+
+AI is fracturing the collaborative foundation of the internet. For decades, freely licensed content, data, and code - the knowledge commons - have been a shared resource that people and institutions could freely draw on to advance scientific research, education, innovation, and public services. Attribution, participation, and financial support flowed back into the commons, attracting contributors, strengthening communities, and sustaining the infrastructure on which everyone relied. AI development has benefitted from this relationship, particularly from the work of open communities. As AI grows as an industry, however, this reciprocal cycle has begun to break. Content is systematically scraped from the commons and served back to users via AI-powered applications, imposing significant costs on commons infrastructures while disintermediating users from contributor communities. This weakens the reciprocal dynamics which have historically supported the knowledge commons: attribution, participation, and support. Despite their importance to AI development and governance, little attention has been paid to sustaining the human knowledge infrastructure on which these systems depend.
+
+This session convenes researchers, policymakers, and stewards of the knowledge commons to ask: What collective responsibility do governments, industry, researchers, and civil society share for sustaining the knowledge commons? Should these resources be understood as critical digital infrastructure? Research will demonstrate how the AI boom is accelerating extraction from the commons, complemented by case studies from commons stewards already deploying strategies to counter this extraction. Regional examples will underscore how knowledge commons are currently used to support essential public service initiatives, as well as the feasibility of various policy approaches, governance models, and historical precedents that can help sustain the commons. The commons have always been a collective endeavour; this session invites participants to evaluate the effectiveness of current counter-strategies adopted by commons stewards and define a practical policy agenda to sustain knowledge commons as critical digital infrastructure.
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+1. How should governments and international bodies define and resource the knowledge commons as critical digital infrastructure in National AI Strategies and Digital Public Infrastructure frameworks?
+2. What shared responsibilities—financial, technical, or legal—should AI developers and commercial platforms hold to prevent the depletion of public knowledge ecosystems?
+3. How can emerging AI governance frameworks balance the goal of innovation with the need to safeguard the long-term human infrastructure that powers it?
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+Participants will leave with a shared understanding of how artificial intelligence is reshaping the relationships that have sustained the knowledge commons, and why this presents a new governance challenge. The discussion will inform ongoing policy work by participating organizations on AI governance, digital public infrastructure, and the knowledge commons, while fostering new cross-sector collaborations. Recommendations from the session will be documented in a publicly available summary and taken forward by stewards of the project into discussions with the OECD, Digital Public Goods Alliance annual meeting, and Global Partnership on AI via the VIADUCT project.
+
+## Format
+
+Roundtable
+**Duration (minutes):** 90
+**Format description:** Seating participants around a common table will encourage active exchange between researchers, governments, intergovernmental organizations, civil society, and stewards of the knowledge commons, allowing participants to test ideas, challenge assumptions, and identify shared priorities. The 90-minute format provides sufficient time to establish a common understanding of the issue before moving into an interactive discussion on practical policy approaches. By prioritizing dialogue over prepared statements, the session will leverage the diversity of the IGF community to explore how collective responsibility for sustaining the knowledge commons can be translated into concrete governance action.
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** The session will be facilitated as a fully integrated hybrid roundtable, with onsite and online participants treated as equal contributors throughout the discussion. A moderator will guide the conversation while a dedicated online moderator will monitor the virtual platform, surface questions, and ensure remote participants are regularly invited into the discussion. The dedicated time for this session, as well as the roundtable format, enable questions and comments to be woven throughout the session from both online and onsite participants.  This is an important feature to encourage genuine dialogue across stakeholder groups. The entire second half of the session will be dedicated to inviting participants to contribute policy ideas and examples through an interactive guided discussion. The discussion will allow insights from both audiences to shape the discussion and be reflected in the session summary.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** Rachel Judhistari, Wikimedia Foundation
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** Philip Thigo Thigo, Government, African Group
+**Speaker 2:** Rachel Judhistari, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
+**Speaker 3:** Amrita Choudhury, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
+
+## Moderator
+
+Rachel Judhistari, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+Amrita Choudhury, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+Rachel Judhistari, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+4. Quality Education
+9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
+10. Reduced Inequalities
+16. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+# IGF 2026 WS #450 future of interconnection disputes - mobile, satellite, DNA
+
+## Description
+
+After several years of procrastination and debates, European Commission settled on mandatory mediation of interconnection disputes under Digital Netowkr Act ("DNA") as a way to upgrade the "network fee" discourse without revising the existing rules of Open Internet Regulation and its core network neutrality norms. Questions still abound on whether "network fee" packaged in paid peering still violates network neutrality, under what standards mediators will propose settlement terms, whether new pushes against (GSMA Intelligence's new reports) network neutrality and the likes are to be taken into account in shaping the forthcoming negotiations supervised under the DNA mediations. Previous disputes and regulatory/legislative actions in the US, Korea, Germany, Colombia, etc., will shed light on how those disputes will be handled, the lessons on how to navigate them, and the probable impact of future of internet governance.
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+A. Is net neutrality still a viable norm in internet governance in the increasingly mobile and satellite heavy interconnection? B. What are the lessons from the previous interconnection disputes that may impact future mediation decisions? C. What will be the dynamics of future national legislations and DNA's international mediations, and what are the implications for the jurisdictions outside EU?
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+Under DNA, national authorities will be given a chance to provide "options" under which "network fees" may be introduced, and civil society and technical community are worried that these interventions may open the doors for big content providers and big telcos to form vertical cartels whereby SME ISPs, local and SME content providers are excluded from the benefits of net neutrality. Previous dispute resolution experience from the US, Korea, and EU will be discussed to navigate and avoid such risk in the future negotiations and preserve net neutrality. Also, the impact of mobile networks and satellite networks will be discussed thoroughly in relation to the meaning of net neutrality and "network fees'.
+
+## Reference Document
+
+Reference Document
+
+## Format
+
+Roundtable
+
+**Duration (minutes):** 90
+
+**Format description:** The roundtable format, paired with a 90-minute duration, was chosen to ensure that all participants, regardless of their viewpoints on network fees and net neutrality, could contribute equally. This setup is crucial in guaranteeing a diversity of perspectives, as it encourages open and active participation from everyone around the table, including those with opposing stances. Given the regional diversity of the tentative panelists, it is important to adopt a format that is comprehensive of their experiences with the topic.
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** We will ensures equal participation for both onsite and online attendees. Instead of passive listening, virtual attendees will actively shape discussions. The session will alternate between onsite and online participants, facilitated by dedicated moderators for each group, integrating remote contributions in real time. Speakers will limit their initial talks to 10 minutes, leading to a dynamic roundtable where attendees interact with specific prompts related to policy questions. We will allow all participants to record insights and recommendations during the session so that others can comment on them. This method ensures that contributions are directly used in shaping policy recommendations for policymakers and regulators.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** Kyung Sin Park, Open Net
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** Kyung Sin Park, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
+
+**Speaker 2:** Thomas Lohninger, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+
+**Speaker 3:** Claudia Ximena Bustamante, Government, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
+
+**Speaker 4:** Maarit Palovirta, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+
+## Moderator
+
+Kyung Sin Park, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+Thomas Lohninger, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+Kyung Sin Park, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+# IGF 2026 WS #77 Keeping data flows in motion through privacy and trust
+
+## Description
+
+Cross-border data flows underpin the modern digital economy, enabling international trade, innovation, cybersecurity, financial services, research collaboration, and the delivery of digital products and services. At the same time, growing concerns around privacy and security are contributing to increasingly fragmented approaches to data governance and restrictions on data transfers across borders. Such fragmentation risks limiting innovation, reducing economic opportunities, increasing compliance burdens, and weakening the benefits that trusted data flows provide to businesses, governments, and individuals.
+As governments seek to safeguard legitimate public policy objectives, including privacy protection, national security, and law enforcement needs, there is an increasing need to identify approaches that strengthen trust while preserving the open and interconnected nature of the digital economy. Building confidence in cross-border data flows requires transparent governance frameworks, interoperable rules, effective safeguards for personal data, and practical tools that enable organizations to meet these objectives in practice. Among these, PETs are emerging as an important means of minimizing privacy risks and supporting compliance with diverse regulatory frameworks. Realizing their potential, however, requires policy environments that encourage their adoption alongside interoperable governance approaches and risk-based regulatory frameworks.
+This workshop will explore how policy and technology can work together to enable trusted cross-border data flows while protecting privacy, supporting security objectives, and fostering innovation and economic growth. Drawing on international experiences and emerging best practices, participants will discuss how governments, businesses, and other stakeholders can advance interoperable approaches to data governance create enabling conditions for the adoption of PETs and other trusted data-sharing mechanisms, and strengthen confidence in cross-border data sharing without creating unnecessary barriers to innovation or international cooperation. The discussion will examine how governance frameworks, technical safeguards can reinforce one-another to build trust in digital ecosystems while avoiding the fragmentation that undermines the benefits of the global digital economy.
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+1.	How can policymakers enable trusted cross-border data flows while safeguarding privacy and security?
+2.	How can governance frameworks, technical safeguards, and accountability mechanisms work together to strengthen trust in cross-border data sharing and improve interoperability across jurisdictions?
+3.	What policy approaches can encourage the responsible adoption of PETs alongside internationally interoperable data governance frameworks to support innovation, economic growth, and digital trust?
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+The session will identify practical approaches for enabling trusted cross-border data flows while maintaining high standards of privacy, security, and accountability. Participants will exchange perspectives on emerging regulatory frameworks, international cooperation mechanisms, and governance models that support trusted and interoperable digital environments. The discussion will contribute to ongoing international efforts on data governance, privacy, and trusted government access to data by highlighting opportunities for greater policy interoperability and multistakeholder collaboration. Participants will leave with a stronger understanding of the relationship between cross-border data flows, privacy protection, economic growth, and digital trust, as well as practical approaches for balancing these objectives in an increasingly interconnected digital economy.
+
+## Reference Document
+
+Reference Document
+
+## Format
+
+Roundtable
+**Duration (minutes):** 60
+**Format description:** A Round Table format is best-placed for the type of cross-sector, collaborative session that we envisage. It will be optimal for establishing an atmosphere that ensures both participants and panellists can engage in fruitful discussion, and that they can do so on equal footing through a seating arrangement conducive to multi-person dialogue. To allow time for in-depth discussion and also accommodate a constructive Q&A section to address the questions, feedback and thoughts of the audience, 60 minutes is the most suitable timeframe for the session.
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** o	Prior to the session: to ensure speakers and attendees get the most out of the session, organizers will make use of the session’s page on the IGF website and social media channels to share preparatory material and kick-start a dialogue. A preparation call will be organised for all speakers, moderators and co-organisers so that everyone has the chance to meet and prepare for the session.
+o	During the session: the moderators are experienced in animating multistakeholder discussions and will complement each other in merging onsite and online speakers and attendees to the optimum. Onsite participants will be encouraged to connect to the online platform to stay informed and engage with discussions in the chat.
+o	Following the session: moderators will encourage participants to make use of the IGF website and social media channels to share further comments and contribute to the session’s report.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** Lorrayne Porciuncula, The Datasphere Initiative
+**Organizer 2:** Suto Timea, International Chamber of Commerce
+**Organizer 3:** Chelsea ONYANGO, International Chamber of Commerce
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** Kushal Prakash, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+**Speaker 2:** Lorrayne Porciuncula, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
+**Speaker 3:** Meguro Maiko, Intergovernmental Organization, Asia-Pacific Group
+**Speaker 4:** Manal Ismail, Government, African Group
+**Speaker 5:** Robyn Greene, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+**Speaker 6:** Suto Timea, Private Sector, Eastern European Group
+
+## Moderator
+
+Timea Suto, Private Sector, Eastern European Group
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+Chelsea ONYANGO, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+Maria Clara Franca, Private Sector, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+8. Decent Work and Economic Growth
+9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
+17. Partnerships for the Goals