Youth IGF Nepal 2023 (2nd edition, Kathmandu and online) — In-Depth Report: Minutes Digest & 3-Line Summary

The 3-Line Summary

On 29 May 2023 the second Youth IGF Nepal met at Kathmandu's Aranya Boutique Hotel and online, gathering 90+ young representatives under the theme 'Empowering Youths for Open, Inclusive and Secured Internet'.
The NTA chairman and UNESCO's representative to Nepal opened the day; panels ranged from an international youth exchange (Nepal, India, South Korea, Myanmar, Nigeria) to a policy panel with a political party, prosecutors and entrepreneurs — plus a role play on Nepal's social-media platform registration.
That the registration mandate — which later escalated into real platform shutdowns — was already on the youth training table in 2023 is striking. The closing ceremony also institutionalised a leadership handover.

Welcome — this is the Japan IGF Support Organization. This in-depth report on Youth IGF Nepal 2023 (2nd edition, Kathmandu and online) 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	Youth IGF Nepal 2023 (2nd edition, Kathmandu and online)
Dates	29 May 2023
Venue	Aranya Boutique Hotel, Kathmandu, and online
Theme	'Empowering Youths for Open, Inclusive and Secured Internet'
Participants	90 (The official report counts 'more than 90 young representatives' (the website's wrap-up article says approximately 70))
Host	Youth IGF Nepal (secretariat: Internet Governance Institute), supported by the NTA, Internet Society Foundation, Nepal Telecom, APNIC, the UN IGF Secretariat and others

(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. Role-Playing Platform Registration — Rehearsing a Crisis Before It Happened

Sessions: 'Human Rights in the Digital Age: Multi-Stakeholder Roleplay Session' on social-media platform registration in Nepal

Participants took government, business and civil-society roles to negotiate over social-media platform registration in Nepal [1][2]
The mandate became real in the government's 2023 social-media directive and escalated to the 2025 shutdown of 26 unregistered platforms — youth had rehearsed the flashpoint two years early [1][2]
The session's conclusion: defending digital rights requires multistakeholder collaboration [1][2]

2. A Party Politician, a Prosecutor and Entrepreneurs — The Inclusive-Internet Policy Panel

Sessions: 'Youth at the Digital Crossroads: Shaping Policies for an Inclusive Internet' (moderated by advocate Mamta Siwakoti)

Code Himalaya co-founder Ismaran Duwadi argued taxation and a domestic-server requirement blunt Nepali IT firms' competitiveness against India, and pressed for industry-aligned curricula [1]
Joint attorney Sandesh Shrestha proposed stronger investigation infrastructure, dedicated cyber bureaus and wider court jurisdiction so cyber-justice reaches all of Nepal [1]
Nepali Congress central committee member Ajaya Siwakoti said the digital divide, literacy and AI feature in party policy debates, voicing concern over AI's job impact while balancing misinformation control with free expression [1]

3. Youth from Five Countries and Global On-Ramps — An International Second Edition

Sessions: 'Youth Perspectives Unleashed' (Nepal, India, South Korea, Myanmar, Nigeria) and 'Youth in the Digital Frontier' (Prof. Salma Abbasi, Amrita Choudhury, ISOC Youth SG Chair Veronica Piccolo and others)

"By equipping our youth with digital expertise and empowering them to participate in decision-making processes, we can address the evolving obstacles brought about by digitalization."
— Anja Genjo (NRI Coordinator, UN IGF Secretariat; written message in the report) [1][2]

Young speakers from five countries compared their Internet-governance journeys, moderated by Bibek Silwal [1][2]
The global session mapped fellowships and capacity programmes at ICANN, the IGF and APNIC, plus the ISOC Youth Standing Group [1][2]
Prof. Salma Abbasi of eWorldwide Group stressed building human digital resilience [1][2]

4. Opened by the Regulator and UNESCO — Closed with a Generational Handover

Sessions: Opening plenary (chief guest NTA Chairman Purushottam Khanal; keynote by UNESCO Representative Michael Croft) and the closing ceremony with leadership handover

The NTA chairman as chief guest and UNESCO's representative as keynote speaker underscored a safe Internet for youth [1][2][3]
The closing ceremony handed the chair from Deepa Bhattarai to Ananda Gautam before e-Governance Commission CEO Dipesh Bista — institutionalising leadership turnover as a formal rite [1][2][3]
Backing from the UN IGF Secretariat, NTA, ISOC Foundation, Nepal Telecom and APNIC was unusually deep for a second-year initiative, reflecting a tight-knit national IG community [1][2][3]

Three-Minute Short Talk — Your Questions Answered

Q. What kind of event was it?

A. The second edition of Nepal's youth IGF: 90+ young people in Kathmandu running through a social-media-regulation role play, a five-country youth panel and a policy debate featuring a party politician and a prosecutor — in one day.

Q. The most prescient moment?

A. The role play on social-media platform registration. That very mandate later became a real directive — and by 2025, the shutdown of 26 platforms.

Q. Why should I care?

A. Platform regulation is contested everywhere; Nepal's method of letting youth stress-test a rule through simulated negotiation before it bites is a lesson in policy education.

What Is Nepal Youth IGF? (for first-time readers)

Nepal Youth 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 2023 meeting are the foundation of the "next rules" for the phones, social platforms and AI services you use every day.