The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) and the League of Arab States (LAS) today started in Cairo three days of meetings of the Workshop on the Outputs of the AIGF2020 Initiative's Technical Cooperation Working Group (TCWG). The meetings are held at both the United Nations Information Centre in Cairo (UNIC) and LAS headquarters.

The Workshop brings together members of the TCWG who represent the various stakeholders in the Arab Internet Governance Forum (AIGF) process, together with the ESCWA and LAS Arab IGF teams. Topics of discussion include progress made and methodology of work in implementing the AIGF2020 initiative, the results of a AIGF2020 survey, recommendations from the thematic sub-working groups for the development of the AIGF, and the review and finalization of the outcome TCWG report on the AIGF2020 initiative.

Within the Arab IGF, ESCWA and LAS have implemented in 2016 the AIGF2020 Initiative that aims at developing its process for the next phase that is expected to extend from 2017 to 2020.  Established in 2012 by ESCWA and LAS, the first mandate of the AIGF (2012 to 2015) was concluded with the Fourth Arab IGF in 2015 that resulted in launching the AIGF2020 initiative. 

The first phase of the Arab IGF made many achievements but faced a number of challenges. It concluded at the same time the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015; and it coincided with the conclusion of the second phase of the global IGF (2011-2015) as well as the time-frame of the Arab Roadmap for Internet Governance (2011-2015), the implementation of which was the objective of the Arab IGF process in the first place.