The 3-Line Summary
- On 27–28 September 2019 the third Nepal IGF met in Kathmandu under the same theme as the UN's Berlin IGF — 'One World, One Internet, One Vision' — with workshops chosen by open call.
- Data governance ('data is political — and economic fuel') and child online protection headlined: government, telcos, cyber police and Facebook shared panels and spoke frankly about Nepal's legislative gaps.
- It was a small country's own take on the year's global questions — and, as it turned out, the last main Nepal IGF annual meeting held before the pandemic era.
Welcome — this is the Japan IGF Support Organization. This in-depth report on Nepal Internet Governance Forum 2019 (3rd Nepal IGF) draws on official outputs, session records and on-site reporting. In a hurry? The three lines above and the diagrams carry the gist.
Conference at a Glance (from official records)
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Official name | Nepal Internet Governance Forum 2019 (3rd Nepal IGF) |
| Dates | 27–28 September 2019 |
| Venue | Kathmandu, Nepal (venue name not confirmed in surviving sources) |
| Theme | One World, One Internet, One Vision (adopting the UN IGF 2019 overarching theme) (Alongside three IGF sub-themes, Nepal added its own sub-theme on 'Social Norms and Public Policy') |
| Host | The Nepal IGF multistakeholder steering group (MSG), with an open call for workshop proposals |
(See the source list at the end of this article.)
Discussion Digest — from the Session Records
Key exchanges extracted from session records and transcripts.
1. Data Governance — 'Data Is Political, and Economic Fuel'
Sessions: Panel 'Data Governance: Prospects and Challenges in Nepal' (28 September, moderated by Hempal Shrestha)
- IT-governance specialist Vivek S. Rana framed data as 'political' and as 'economic fuel' for development, and pressed the distinction between governance (decision-making) and management [4]
- Panellists flagged data trapped in non-interoperable silos across government tiers, and the lack of strong data-protection legislation as tech companies collect ever more [4]
- The panel — Kathmandu University, the National IT Center and e-governance experts — went on to surveillance risks, gender representation and data-localisation concerns [4]
2. Child Online Protection — Government, Telco, Police and Facebook at One Table
Sessions: ChildSafeNet panel on child online protection (28 September, moderated by ICT lawyer Shishir Kumar Yadav)
- The panel brought together ChildSafeNet president Anil Raghuvanshi, Nepal Telecom senior engineer Amrita Khakurel, SSP Nabinda Aryal of the Central Cyber Bureau, a parent advocate, and Facebook's Shruti Moghe (by video) [3]
- Its message: only multi-sector collaboration — government, ISPs, UN agencies, schools, platforms and parents investing together — makes the internet safer for children [3]
- Putting police, operators and platforms on one public stage to discuss child safety was itself a first for Nepal [3]
3. Global Questions, Local Voices — Open Calls and the Borrowed Theme
Sessions: Overall design: theme adoption and the call for workshop proposals
- The MSG adopted the UN IGF 2019 theme wholesale and added a home-grown sub-theme on social norms and public policy [1][2]
- Workshops were selected through an open call, with off-theme internet-governance topics explicitly welcome [1][2]
- Even the hosting of the forum was put out to an open call — multistakeholderism applied to the machinery itself [1][2]
Three-Minute Short Talk — Your Questions Answered
Q. What was the headline?
A. Data governance. Framed as 'data is political — and economic fuel', the panel took on siloed government data, weak data-protection law and surveillance risks with unusual frankness.
Q. What was new about the child-safety session?
A. The cast. A cyber-police chief, the state telco, Facebook, an NGO and a parent shared one panel and agreed that child online safety is a shared investment, not any single actor's job.
Q. Why should I care?
A. Siloed data, interoperability and data-protection law are the same issues every digitising government faces — and Nepal shows how a small country translates the global IGF agenda into its own terms.
What Is Nepal IGF? (for first-time readers)
Nepal IGF is a National or Regional IGF Initiative (NRI), aligning local internet governance discussion with global IGF principles.
Why It Matters to You
What was discussed here becomes the baseline for national digital policy, platform rules and AI regulation worldwide within a few years. The principles confirmed at the 2019 meeting are the foundation of the "next rules" for the phones, social platforms and AI services you use every day.
Sources & References
- Nepal Internet Governance Forum (Nepal IGF) 2019 — 公式サイト（Wayback Machine） — Nepal IGF（2019.igf.org.np） (accessed 2026-07-16)
- THEME 2019 — One World, One Net, One Vision（Wayback Machine） — Nepal IGF（2019.igf.org.np） (accessed 2026-07-16)
- Nepal IGF 2019（子どものオンライン保護パネル報告） — ChildSafeNet (accessed 2026-07-16)
- Data Governance: Prospects and Challenges in Nepal – Nepal IGF 2019 — ICT Frame (accessed 2026-07-16)
- Nepal IGF（NRI会合記録：カトマンズ開催） — intgovforum.org (accessed 2026-07-16)
Quotes are translated or condensed from the records listed above. Bracketed numbers [n] refer to the source list.
Related links
- IGF official (NRI list): https://www.intgovforum.org/en/content/national-and-regional-igf-initiatives
- Japan IGF: https://japanigf.jp/
- Yuki Nakazawa's blog: https://nkzw.jp/category/igf/
Revision History
Rev. 1 — published 4 July 2019, 10:00 (Article published)
Rev. 2 — updated 17 July 2026, 12:32 (Fully revised into the in-depth edition: added the 3-line summary, minutes digest, short talk, source list and diagrams (all quotes verified against the listed sources))
— 中澤祐樹
