Implementing WSIS+20 and the Global Digital Compact Across Critical Infrastructure

The WSIS+20 Review reaffirmed the World Summit on the Information Society as a unique multistakeholder framework for advancing an inclusive, secure, and development-oriented digital future. At the same time, the Global Digital Compact highlights the need for resilient, trustworthy, and sustainable digital infrastructure as a foundation for digital cooperation and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. As governments, businesses, and societies become increasingly dependent on digital services, ensuring the resilience of the Internet and its supporting infrastructure has become a strategic imperative.

This session explores how Internet resilience can help translate WSIS+20 commitments into practical implementation. Recent disruptions, from cloud outages and power failures to supply-chain vulnerabilities and cyber incidents, have demonstrated that digital resilience is not solely a technical issue. The reliability of digital services depends on a complex ecosystem of networks, domain name systems, routing infrastructure, cloud services, energy systems, and governance arrangements. Understanding and managing these interdependencies is essential to maintaining trust, continuity, and inclusion in the digital age.

Building on the work of the Marconi Society Internet Resilience Institute, the session will present practical approaches developed through multistakeholder collaboration. These include the Life of a Packet dependency-mapping initiative, which visualizes the often-hidden relationships between technical, physical, and institutional components of the Internet, and the Business Resilience Guide, which translates resilience practices used by large infrastructure operators into practical guidance for governments, SMEs, and other organizations. These projects demonstrate how resilience can move from abstract principles to actionable measures that improve preparedness and reduce systemic risk.

Looking beyond 2025, the session will examine how Internet resilience can support the implementation of WSIS Action Lines, the Global Digital Compact, and emerging discussions on AI governance and digital public infrastructure. Particular attention will be given to cross-sector cooperation, learning from incidents, stress-testing critical systems, and strengthening trust in digital services. Through an interactive discussion involving policymakers, technical experts, industry leaders, civil society, and youth representatives, participants will identify practical actions that can be taken to embed resilience into digital development strategies.

As the first WSIS Forum following the WSIS+20 Review, this session aims to contribute to a shared vision in which digital transformation is not only innovative and inclusive, but also resilient, reliable, and sustainable. By fostering greater understanding of dependencies, risks, and opportunities for collaboration, it will help advance a future where the benefits of the Internet remain available to all, even in the face of disruption.

Register for remote participation here.