The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) enters its second phase after completing its five year mandate. This year's event will be hosted at United Nations Offices in Nairobi (UNON), and will run from 27th to 30th September 2011. The IGF seeks to review the challenges and achievements experienced during the past five years of operation. The conference will cover key topics like, Internet governance for development (IG4D), managing critical Internet resources, Internet Security, openness and privacy and access and diversity.
Speakers will include Dr. Bitange Ndemo, Kenya's Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information and Communications; Paul Kukubo, CEO  Kenya ICT Board; Michael Katundu from the Communications Commission of Kenya; Joseph Mucheru, Google Regional Lead for Sub-Saharan  Africa and John Walubengo from AfriNic (Africa Network Information Centre) among other international and regional speakers.
Prior to the IGF meeting, Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet) on Monday held its sixth annual symposium to discuss Internet governance processes and institutions.
Jeremy Malcolm from Consumers International says multi – stakeholderism is declining in Internet governance. Government bodies, private institutions, individuals and Internet forum work groups need to work together to enhance cooperation in future. They need to have an equal footing to carry out roles & responsibilities in international public policies pertaining to the Internet.
Defiant governments have however promoted narrow non – governmental models of enhanced Internet cooperation which has contributed to the decline of multi – stakeholderism in Internet governance. Apart from that, the indifference and hostility of businesses and Internet technical communities towards multi-stakeholder models that would empower broader civil society, is another major cause.
IGF becomes an integral component of this enhanced cooperation process among various Internet stakeholders. This year's theme focuses on the Internet as a catalyst for change: access, development, freedoms and innovation.