MULTISTAKEHOLDER ADVISORY GROUP RENEWED AND MAG CHAIR APPOINTED TO PREPARE THE XXI INTERNET GOVERNANCE FORUM MEETING IN 2026

The membership of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group of the 2026 Internet Governance Forum (IGF) has been renewed.

A total of 40 members, 18 of whom are new, have been appointed. The Advisory Group members are drawn from all stakeholder groups and all regions, representing governments, civil society, the private sector and the technical community.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has also appointed Ms. Jennifer Chung from the People’s Republic of China, representing the technical community, as the new Chair of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group.

The Secretary-General expresses his deep appreciation to Ms. Carol Roach, outgoing Chair of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group, as well as to the outgoing members of the Group, for their valuable service and contributions.

All Advisory Group members serve in their personal capacity. The main task of the Advisory Group is to provide advice on the preparations for the twenty-first meeting of the Internet Governance Forum in 2026.

Representatives of previous host countries and representatives of relevant intergovernmental organizations are also invited to attend Advisory Group meetings.

The Internet Governance Forum is an outcome of the Tunis phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) that took place in 2005. In the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society, governments asked the Secretary-General to convene a “new forum for policy dialogue” to discuss issues related to key elements of Internet governance. In December 2025, the General Assembly made the IGF a permanent forum of the United Nations during its high-level meeting on the overall review of the implementation of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).

The Forum’s past meetings took place in: Athens, Greece, in November 2006; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in November 2007; Hyderabad, India, in December 2008; Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in November 2009; Vilnius, Lithuania, in November 2010; Nairobi, Kenya, in September 2011; Baku, Azerbaijan, in November 2012; Bali, Indonesia, in October 2013; Istanbul, Turkey, in September 2014; João Pessoa, Brazil, in November 2015; Guadalajara, Mexico, in December 2016; Geneva, Switzerland, in December 2017; Paris, France, in November 2018; Berlin, Germany, in November 2019; virtually hosted by the United Nations in 2020; Katowice, Poland, in December 2021; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in December 2022; Kyoto, Japan, in October 2023; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in December 2024; and Lillestrøm, Norway, in June 2025. The twenty-first annual IGF meeting will be hosted by the Government of Kenya in Nairobi from 14 to 18 December 2026.

The full list of members can be found at the IGF website

For further information, please visit https://www.intgovforum.org/en, or contact the Secretariat of the Internet Governance Forum at tel.: +41 (0) 229 173 411, or e-mail: [email protected].