Introducing Advocacy Bytes – a resource for civil society advocacy

Over the last few decades, as the internet has pervaded all areas of human life, states have become more actively involved in its governance.

At the global level, traditional multilateral institutions like the United Nations (UN) have seen their own mandates become intertwined with this new environment and started claiming their space in the emerging internet governance ecosystem. Indeed, it was a UN summit – the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) – which was perhaps the first major signal to a global audience that the governance of international internet policy processes was to receive greater attention from state actors. This trend is also clear at the national level, as shown by the proliferation of cybersecurity strategies and government-led digital switchover programmes.

Learning to effectively negotiate in spaces where state actors are engaged is therefore becoming increasingly important for actors interested in influencing decisions related to the governance of the internet. Yet the effective participation of civil society groups in particular is affected by a number of structural limitations such as complex mechanisms, protocols, and decision-making procedures. These are compounded by practical constraints – including a lack of financial resources, and knowledge capacity gaps.

This is where our new project Advocacy Bytes comes in. It is, simply put, an experience bank, recording specific case studies of civil society groups engaging in internet governance processes, in order to help support more strategic and effective civil society engagement in the future.  

We hope this project will evolve and grow organically and invite submissions from civil society working in all corners of internet governance. Please email Sheetal Kumar (sheetal{@}gp-digital.org) if you’d like to get involved.

Explore the tool here.