{"id":14930,"date":"2018-07-08T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-08T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/igf\/2018\/07\/08\/en-afghanistan-igf-2018-overview\/"},"modified":"2018-07-08T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-07-08T01:00:00","slug":"en-afghanistan-igf-2018-overview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/igf\/2018\/07\/08\/en-afghanistan-igf-2018-overview\/","title":{"rendered":"IGFA 2018 \u2014 the Second Internet Governance Forum Afghanistan \u2014 In-Depth Report: Minutes Digest &#038; 3-Line Summary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/en-afghanistan-igf-2018-overview_thumbnail.svg\" alt=\"Afghanistan IGF 2018 \u30ab\u30d6\u30fc\u30eb \u2014 Thumbnail\"><\/p>\n<h2>The 3-Line Summary<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/en-afghanistan-igf-2018-overview_s3.svg\" alt=\"Afghanistan IGF 2018 \u30ab\u30d6\u30fc\u30eb \u2014 3-line summary\"><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>The second IGFA met in Kabul on 2\u20133 May 2018 with over 300 registrants, simultaneous interpretation in English, Pashto and Dari, and remote participation.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Key issues were access and diversity, cybersecurity, youth and gender. The communications minister pledged to cut bandwidth costs &#39;by 80%&#39;.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>With a three-day School of Internet Governance (AfSIG), a Girls-in-ICT Day 0 and a children&#39;s academy for ages 6\u201312, the programme was strikingly advanced for a national IGF.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Welcome \u2014 this is the Japan IGF Support Organization. This in-depth report on <strong>IGFA 2018 \u2014 the Second Internet Governance Forum Afghanistan<\/strong> draws on official outputs, session records and on-site reporting. In a hurry? The three lines above and the diagrams carry the gist.<\/p>\n<h2>Conference at a Glance (from official records)<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/en-afghanistan-igf-2018-overview_h2.svg\" alt=\"Afghanistan IGF 2018 \u30ab\u30d6\u30fc\u30eb \u2014 Conference at a glance\"><\/p>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Item<\/th>\n<th>Detail<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Official name<\/td>\n<td>IGFA 2018 \u2014 the Second Internet Governance Forum Afghanistan<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Edition<\/td>\n<td>Second annual meeting<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Dates<\/td>\n<td>2\u20133 May 2018<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Venue<\/td>\n<td>Kabul, Afghanistan<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Theme<\/td>\n<td>Regional governance themes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Participants<\/td>\n<td>Over 300 registered participants \u2014 technical professionals, academia, civil society, business, government officials, students and youth<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Languages<\/td>\n<td>Simultaneous interpretation in English, Pashto and Dari, with remote participation<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Host<\/td>\n<td>Organized by the Internet Society Afghanistan (ISOCA), supported by CLDP, IO Global Internet Services, the IGF Support Association, ICANN, the Ministry of Communications and IT (MCIT), TechNation and TechTV<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>(See the source list at the end of this article.)<\/p>\n<h2>Discussion Digest \u2014 from the Session Records<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/en-afghanistan-igf-2018-overview_minutes.svg\" alt=\"Afghanistan IGF 2018 \u30ab\u30d6\u30fc\u30eb \u2014 Discussion map\"><\/p>\n<p>Key exchanges extracted from session records and transcripts.<\/p>\n<h3>1. Access and Bandwidth Costs \u2014 An &#39;80% Cut&#39; Pledge<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Sessions<\/strong>: Opening session (address by the Minister of Communications and IT)<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&quot;These initiatives will help create an enabling environment and encourage private investment. We are reducing costs of the bandwidth by 80% in the coming future.&quot;<br \/>\n\u2014 <strong>Shahzad Gul Aryobi, Minister of Communications and IT<\/strong> [1][2]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>The government presented its Open Access Policy and Cyber Crime Law as twin pillars of an investment-friendly environment [1][2]<\/li>\n<li>Expensive bandwidth was the biggest barrier to Internet adoption in Afghanistan; the 80% cost-cut pledge was the headline of the meeting [1][2]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>2. Connectivity, Local Content and Online Safety \u2014 Conditions for Growth<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Sessions<\/strong>: Main sessions and public forums<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&quot;Issues critical to the growth and development of Internet in Afghanistan include: connectivity \u2014 availability, affordability of price and quality of services; local content and technologies; collaboration among diverse stakeholders in Internet Governance; online safety, privacy and cyber security.&quot;<br \/>\n\u2014 <strong>Omar Mansoor Ansari, IGFA 2018 Coordinator, Internet Society Afghanistan<\/strong> [1][2]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>The four pillars were access and diversity, cybersecurity, youth and gender, and emerging issues \u2014 run as public forums where the community could question and propose improvements [1][2]<\/li>\n<li>The stated objective was to localize global IGF debates and start an in-country dialogue on issues specific to Afghanistan [1][2]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>3. Youth, Women and Children \u2014 From Girls in ICT to a Children&#39;s Academy<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Sessions<\/strong>: Day 0 (celebrating Girls in ICT) and the Children&#39;s Academy<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A Day 0 celebrating Girls in ICT, co-organized with TechWomen Afghanistan and TechWomen.Asia, set the stage for the policy debates [2]<\/li>\n<li>A Children&#39;s Academy for ages 6\u201312 let children engage and ask questions about the Internet \u2014 described as unique among the 100+ national and regional IGFs [2]<\/li>\n<li>A three-day Afghanistan School of Internet Governance (AfSIG 2018), co-organized with the National IT Professionals Association of Afghanistan (NITPAA), fed young talent into the main meeting [2]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Three-Minute Short Talk \u2014 Your Questions Answered<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Q. What did the meeting decide?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A. Nothing binding \u2014 it was a dialogue where government, business and civil society spoke as equals. But the government used the stage to announce its Open Access Policy and an 80% bandwidth cost cut, making it a de facto policy launch.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q. What stood out most?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A. Beyond the 300+ registrants, the Girls-in-ICT Day 0 and a children&#39;s academy for ages 6\u201312 \u2014 deliberately including women and children in a conflict-affected country was rare even globally.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q. Why should I care?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A. Bandwidth pricing and investment climate are the same levers every developing Internet market debates; IGFA 2018 is a compact case study, complete with trilingual interpretation as an inclusion practice.<\/p>\n<h2>What Is Afghanistan IGF? (for first-time readers)<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/en-afghanistan-igf-2018-overview_h1.svg\" alt=\"Afghanistan IGF 2018 \u30ab\u30d6\u30fc\u30eb \u2014 About Afghanistan IGF\"><\/p>\n<p>Afghanistan IGF is a National or Regional IGF Initiative (NRI), aligning local internet governance discussion with global IGF principles.<\/p>\n<h2>Why It Matters to You<\/h2>\n<p>What was discussed here becomes <strong>the baseline for national digital policy, platform rules and AI regulation worldwide within a few years<\/strong>. The principles confirmed at the 2018 meeting are the foundation of the &quot;next rules&quot; for the phones, social platforms and AI services you use every day.<\/p>\n<h2>Sources &amp; References<\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/pajhwok.com\/2018\/05\/02\/successful-conclusion-second-internet-governance-forum-afghanistan-igfa-2018\/\">Successful Conclusion of the Second Internet Governance Forum Afghanistan (IGFA) 2018<\/a> \u2014 Pajhwok Afghan News\uff08\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2\u30ea\u30ea\u30fc\u30b9\u63b2\u8f09\uff09 (accessed 2026-07-23)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/pajhwok.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/old\/Press%20Release-IGFA2018-en.pdf\">Press Release: Successful Conclusion of the Second Internet Governance Forum Afghanistan (IGFA) 2018\uff08\u5168\u6587PDF\uff09<\/a> \u2014 IGFA \/ ISOC\u30a2\u30d5\u30ac\u30cb\u30b9\u30bf\u30f3 (accessed 2026-07-23)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intgovforum.org\/en\/content\/afghanistan-igf\">Afghanistan IGF\uff08UN\u516c\u5f0fNRI\u767b\u9332\u30da\u30fc\u30b8\u30fb\u7cfb\u5217\u306e\u8a2d\u7acb\u8a18\u9332\uff09<\/a> \u2014 UN IGF Secretariat (accessed 2026-07-23)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><em>Quotes are translated or condensed from the records listed above. Bracketed numbers [n] refer to the source list.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>Related links<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>IGF official (NRI list): <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intgovforum.org\/en\/content\/national-and-regional-igf-initiatives\">https:\/\/www.intgovforum.org\/en\/content\/national-and-regional-igf-initiatives<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Japan IGF: <a href=\"https:\/\/japanigf.jp\/\">https:\/\/japanigf.jp\/<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Yuki Nakazawa&#39;s blog: <a href=\"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/category\/igf\/\">https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/category\/igf\/<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>\u66f4\u65b0\u5c65\u6b74<\/h2>\n<p>\u7b2c1\u7a3f\u6295\u7a3f 2026\u5e748\u670813\u65e5 19\u664240\u5206\uff08\u8a18\u4e8b\u30b3\u30f3\u30c6\u30f3\u30c4\u30a2\u30c3\u30d7\uff09<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2014 \u4e2d\u6fa4\u7950\u6a39<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The second IGFA met in Kabul on 2\u20133 May 2018 with over 300 registrants, simultaneous interpretation in English, Pashto and Dari, and remote <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,15,3,11],"tags":[163,2668,161,160,162,164],"class_list":["post-14930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-afghanistan-igf","category-aprigf","category-igf","category-regional-igf","tag-3-line-summary","tag-afghanistanigf2018","tag-deep-dive","tag-english","tag-minutes-digest","tag-sourced"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/igf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/igf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/igf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/igf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/igf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/igf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14930\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/igf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/igf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/igf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}