Since their inception, Dynamic Coalitions (DCs) have played a vital role within the IGF process, serving as engines of innovation, dialogue, and community-driven research on some of the most pressing issues in Internet governance. Their intersessional work, from accessibility to cybersecurity, online safety, and digital financial inclusion, reflects the spirit of the IGF’s bottom-up, multistakeholder model. This session celebrates the achievements of DCs while asking: what’s next?
The session invites a forward-looking conversation on how the broader Internet governance community can benefit from the outreach and visibility, relevance, influence, and outcomes of DCs in alignment with the priorities of the Global Digital Compact. As “living labs” for multistakeholder collaboration, DCs are uniquely positioned to show how open, bottom-up governance can translate values into action.
Although DCs enjoy their independence, their respective work has relevance and meaning for their community and beyond in the whole IGF ecosystem. This is evidenced by four webinars held by the DCs’ community, each with a high number of participants from the IGF community (between 50 - 100 each), which have resulted in four workshops to be held at the IGF 2025 in Norway. The session will demonstrate the interrelatedness of the diverse Dynamic Coalitions’ work and their engagement with and contributions to the GDC, the WSIS Action lines, and the SDGs.
Policy Questions
Q1: How does Internet Governance and the IGF community respond to rapidly advancing and evolving technologies, and what role do DCs play in this regard?
Panelist: Amrith Kumar, back-up: Dino Dell’ Accio on behalf of DTC, DC ET, DC Digital Economy, DC Digital Health, DC IoT
Q2: How and where does the Dynamic Coalitions’ intersessional work address issues of (Cyber-) Security and Safety?
Panelist: Wout de Natris, back-up: Torsten Krause on behalf of DC IS3C, DC CRIDE, DC OER, DC SIG, DC 3
Q3: What achievements have Dynamic Coalitions generated in capacity building as a pre-condition to meaningful access for all?
Panelist: Laura Becall, back-up Dr. Muhammad Shabbir on behalf of DC Journalism, DCAD, DC Digital Financial Inclusion
Q4: What is the role of Dynamic Coalitions in the future of Multistakeholder Governance, and what is necessary to strengthen the impact of their important intersessional work?
Panelist: Pari Esfandiari, back-up Tatevik Grigorian on behalf of DC CIV, DC IUI, DC Interplanetary
Session Agenda
5 Min: Setting the Scene by the moderators
- Historical overview on DCs, their foundation and achievements (3 Min. Markus)
- DCs’ current role in the IGF ecosystem (2 Min Anriette)
60 Min: DCs in the service of the IGF and the larger communities in the governance environment of the future
- 30 minute presentations from DCs’ speakers addressing the policy questions as mentioned above
- 30 debate with input from participants from the floor based on the following questions asked by the moderators
all DCs’ representatives may come in here from the floor, given they let other participants go first
- How can DCs best provide guidance, recommendations, and illustrate best practices to the world and ensure that the work and the IGF itself remain as inclusive as possible?
- How do DCs connect their work to policy and governance efforts beyond the IGF ecosystem?
- How to sustain volunteer-driven initiatives and to improve inclusivity and regional representation?
- How to measure DCs’ impact and policy uptake? What kind of formal mechanisms can support the recognition of DC outputs as part of official IGF outputs?
- What tools could be identified and adopted to improve collaboration?
10 Min: Wrap-up: Messages from DCs to the IGF community
Participating DCs
· DC Journalism: Laura Becall (onsite): Policy Question 3
· DC Digital Financial Inclusion: Ayden Férdeline (onsite):
Policy Question 3
· DC IS3C: Elif Kiesow Cortez and Wout de Natris (onsite): Policy Question 2
· DCAD: Dr. Muhammad Shabbir and Judith Hellerstein (onsite): Policy Question 3, we can also cover question 4
· DC CRIDE (former DC COS): Torsten Krause and Jutta Croll (onsite):
Policy Question 2
· DC IUI: Tatevik Grigoryan (onsite) Policy Question 4
· DC SIG: James Kunle Olorundare, Nigerian School on IG (online): Policy Question 3
· DC ET (Emerging Technologies): Dino Dell’Accio (onsite): Policy Question 1
· DC Digital Economy: Dr. Rajendra Pratap Gupta (onsite): Policy Question 1
· DC CIV: Olivier Crépin-Leblond and Pari Esfandiari (onsite) Policy Question 4
· DC3 Community Connectivity: : Policy Question 1 or 3
· DC OER: Eleni Boursinou (Online): Policy Question 2
· DC BAS (Blockchain Assurance and Standardization): Heather Flannery (remote): Policy Question 1
· DC Digital Health: Mevish P Vaishnav (offsite/ online): Policy Question 1
· DTC-Dynamic Teen Coalition: Amrith Kumar (Online): Policy Question 1
· DC IoT: Maarten Botterman (onsite): Policy Question 1
· DC-Interplanetary: Roberto Gaetano (onsite): Policy Question 4
Open Zoom
