Developing Asia Pacific Youth Leaders: APIGA 2025 and BeyondYien Chyn Tan

We are excited to share that we have successfully wrapped up the 2025 Asia Pacific Internet Governance Academy (APIGA), conducted from 18-22 August in Busan, Republic of Korea. This is the first cycle of the expanded APIGA program, with seven Local APIGA events held between August 2024 to April 2025, and a "masterclass" Regional APIGA 2025, an enhanced program built on an upgraded curriculum.

APIGA is a key capacity building program in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region focused on Internet governance (IG) targeting young people between 18 and 35. In this first expanded cycle, we continued to build and strengthen two distinct elements of the APIGA program:

1. Interactive and hands-on components
2. Developing APIGA alumni to become youth leaders, mentors, and community leaders

The Regional APIGA 2025 "masterclass" program was designed to integrate current focus discussions in the real IG world. Some key highlights:

• ICANN model conference on the topic of addressing Domain Name System Abuse vis-à-vis the upcoming New gTLD Program: Next Round
• ICANN roleplay simulating string objections process in the Next Round
• Developing a collective youth statement for potential submission in the upcoming call for written input on the Zero Draft of the 20-year review of the World Summit on the Information Society outcomes (WSIS+20) process
• Working on workshop proposals for potential submissions in upcoming regional and global IG Forums

At the Regional APIGA 2025, several APIGA alumni led sessions and served as mentors. Specifically, Manju Chen designed and headed the ICANN roleplay session, Adrian Wan led the Internet Way of Networking session, and Barkha Manral served as a mentor for the ICANN model conference. We were also joined by five youth leaders, all recent APIGA alumni, who supported in developing materials and helped guide participants throughout the program.

To add, all seven Local APIGA events - held in the cities of Kathmandu, Greater Jakarta, Melbourne, Putrajaya, New Delhi, Taipei, and Hong Kong - were organized and led by past Regional APIGA alumni.

The expansion of the APIGA program aims to scale for a larger cohort of youth leaders. With alumni taking the lead in organizing these local events, we hope to build their confidence and expertise, preparing them to serve as mentors and community leaders in the regional and global IG space. This is in line with the focus of developing a new generation of leaders, as indicated in Strategic Goal 1.1 of the ICANN Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 26-30.

Together with our co-host, the Korea Internet and Security Agency, as well as our APIGA partner organizations, we continue to work on improving the program, integrating Local and Regional APIGA to achieve a more seamless experience. The co-hosts and partner organizations have begun discussions and will continue to brainstorm as we gear up for the next cycle.

Local APIGA events in the next cycle will take place between September 2025 to March 2026, and the next Regional APIGA event is targeted for July/August 2026. Stay tuned for updates - the next APIGA will be a very special one as we celebrate the program's 10th anniversary!