Tanzania Internet Governance Forum (TzIGF) is a multistakeholder platform for dialogue on Internet Policy. The annual event brings together stakeholders from the civil society, government, private sector, the academia and the technical community. This is a knowledge sharing platform that informs and inspires policy actors in both the public and private sectors.

TzIGF uses an organic bottom-up multlitakeholder process that involves all of the above stakeholders on equal terms to drive a national conversation on Internet issues of the day that disrupt our local Internet ecosystem for better or for worse.   

Since its inception in 2008, seven (7) meetings have been conducted

Relationship with UN Internet Governance Forum
The, Tanzania National IGF or TzIGF is recognized by the United Nations Secretariat for the Internet Governance Forum as a national IGF that adheres to the core IGF principles and procedures, as outlined in the NRIs Toolkit. It regularly participates in the monthly meetings of all 137 NRIs, coordinated by the IGF Secretariat, contributes to the NRIs network development and integration of NRIs in the IGF’s global processes.

Multistakeholder empowerment

We see our strength on importance of in empowering all stakeholders of all disciplines, gender and ages.  We take 50/50 gender rule very seriously and ensure people with disabilities are intentional included in the development of the agenda as well as active participation in the Tanzania School on Internet Governance and the forum itself.   

The Meeting Agenda development

The agenda of the meeting is developed in a consultative process that includes all key stakeholders from Tanzania Multistakeholder Advisory Group (TzMAG). Once the agenda is agreed up, then calls on local theme, topics and sessions are made to the public.  The theme normally mirrors the UN IGF theme and topics and sessions are based on the key Internet local issues.

The TzIGF Secretariat.

The operational secretariat’s role is entrusted to the Internet Society Chapter Tanzania www.isoc.ne.tz 

Internet Society Tanzania Chapter is has been entrusted to host the Secretariat of the Internet Governance Forum (TzIGF).

As major global stakeholder of Internet and its governance, we are honored to play this significant role.  We shall continue to work with ”everyone” as our vision says to ensure that this bottom-up and multistakeholder driven meeting takes place every single.

We shall also continue to work all stakeholders to ensure that we conduct some quarterly activities that that will make the multistakeholder platform thrive. For example the formation of Tanzania Zonal Schools of Internet Governance ( TaZoSIGs) under the coordination of Tanzania Internet Governance Regional Hubs(TzIGHs) will ensure that the Internet Governance Education and awareness permeate all 31 administrative regions of Tanzania. In the end this will produce the finest minds in the issues of Internet Policy and Internet Governance

The History

Tanzania Internet Governance started in 2008 as National Internet Governance Forum (NIGF). At the time it was held together with the East Africa Internet Governance Forum (EAIGF). 

The second NIGF was on 24^th July 2009. It was organized co-hosted by Union of Tanzania Press Clubs (UTPC) and SwopNet Chapters in the region of Mwanza and Dar es Salaam. Thereafter the meeting remain inactive until 2012 when the forum was held again. The 2012 forum discussed three critical issues of

• National Backbone Status and last Mile Connectivity and Local Content:
• New Media( the Social Media) in promoting Democracy.
• Dot tz Domain

Thereafter it remained inactive.  It was held again in 13^th July 2018 and it was hosted by Kuza STEM Generation (KsGEN).  There was a little error in the reporting where the organizers mistakenly dubbed it as the First Internet Governance Forum in Tanzania as they fell short of the history.  At this time the phrase National Internet Governance Forum (NIGF) was conveniently changed to Tanzania Internet Governance Forum (TzIGF) to avoid confusion with such IGFs as the Nigeria Internet Governance Forum.

In 2019 Union of Tanzania Press Club sponsored the forum and the Tanzania School of Internet Governance (TzSIG) and they were both organized by Internet Society Tanzania Chapter.  The Secretariat that comprise of Multistakeholder representations from the government, civil society, the technical community and private sector is currently hosted by Internet Society Tanzania Chapter.