As the world approaches the 20-year milestone of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the WSIS+20 Review provides a critical opportunity to evaluate and build on the progress made since 2003 in advancing global Internet governance and digital policy processes. This review process also offers the opportunity to reflect on the adoption of the Global Digital Compact (GDC), which underscores the need for inclusive, people-centric, and development-focused digital cooperation.  The WSIS+20 Review offers a platform to assess the WSIS mechanisms, including the CSTD, the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), the WSIS Forum, UNGIS, and the WSIS Action Lines, and to explore how the GDC commitments can best be integrated in them.

The objective of this side event is to discuss the subject-matter and institutional updates required to adapt the WSIS mechanisms to current global digital policy challenges and to ensure the inclusion of multistakeholder perspectives in shaping the WSIS+20 outcomes and the integration of GDC outcomes.