We are excited to share with you our October 2014 edition of the AfrICANN newsletter, and hope you enjoyed reading our EMEA Newsletter, which covered the general developments in the last three months within ICANN in the EMEA regions, as
well as the wider Internet Ecosystem. It is our hope that these tools continue to be important vessels in keeping you - our community and stakeholders - informed about our work in Africa and beyond. With your feedback, we believe that together, we will make
significant strides in elevating the DNS industry in Africa.
In this AfriICANN edition, we shall highlight some of the key activities and events that the Africa team has participated in the last two months and update you on the planned activities coming in the near future. A special focus (Spotlight) has been given to
our recent participation in the just concluded
Smart Rwanda Days forum in Kigali Rwanda where ICANN Africa team and one of the ICANN board members – Mike Silber – hosted two distinguished panels. We are also happy to welcome The Gambia and Niger as the latest addition to the list of Africa’s GAC members
in ICANN. Our DNSSEC roadshow flagship project has now reached 8 countries and counting.
Lastly, and in response to the desire by the community to re-evaluate the Africa Strategy with a view of making it more responsive to African needs, the ICANN Africa team is planning a special consultative meeting to be held during Afrinic 21 in November 2014
to help come up with modalities of appointing a Steering Committee to oversee the Implementation of the Africa Strategy. Please read on.
Welcome to AfrICANN and happy reading!
Africa Team
Spotlight: ICANN at Smart Rwanda Days (Oct 2-3 2014)
SMART Rwanda Days is to be an annual event bringing together national and international stakeholders in the ICT sector – industry experts, policy makers, and development partners – to discuss how Rwanda can leverage Information Communication
Technologies for economic transformation in line with her Vision 2020. This year’s event was held at the Serena Hotel, Kigali under the theme “Digitising Rwanda” and was attended by more than 400 participants. The overall programme is
here.
It is the first of a series of SMART Africa days to be organized in each African country. To be noted, ICANN is a member of the SMART Africa Alliance, which was formed in October 2013 in Addis Ababa; other members are the ITU, the AUC and the AfDB. ICANN was
represented at SMART Rwanda days by the Africa team and Mike Silber, a member of the ICANN board of directors.
We did three things during the 2-day forum. We held bilateral meetings and hosted two panels. The bilateral meetings were with government delegations - ICT ministers from Kenya, Rwanda and Republic of Southern Sudan). Also in attendance were ITU secretary General
Dr. Hamadoun Toure and One UN resident Coordinator for Rwanda Mr. Lamin M. Manneh. We also held meetings with lecturers from the Carnegie Mellon University of Rwanda. As for the two panels hosted, they revolved around:
A) Internet Governance
B) Greasing the wheels of the Internet Economy
While speaking at the official closure of the forum, President Paul Kagame echoed the rallying call and tone of the forum “We need to treat broadband like a utility that we should avail and make affordable to as many people as we can.” Specifically, he stressed
that digital innovation means ideas do not have borders and therefore countries cannot be landlocked! On his part, Dr. Toure, echoed Kagame’s remarks on the progress made in recent years in ICT, saying that Africa was catching up with the rest of the world
and that the next step would be building a knowledge-based society. “We have the right resources, the younger generation who we believe in, and a framework that was established and detailed in the Smart Africa Manifesto,” Toure said.
The two ICANN Panels were spot on and generated very active debates.
Moderator: Steve Mutabazi, Acting Head ICT; Rwanda Development Board
Speakers:
- Pierre Dandjinou, VP, Stakeholder Engagement – Africa, ICANN
- Mike Silber, Head Legal and Commercial of Liquid Telecomms
- Patrick Nyirishema, Ag. Director General of RURA, Rwanda
- Ghislain Nkeramugaba, Ag. CEO, RICTA
- Hon. Vincent Waiswa Bagiire, MP, Parliament, Republic of Uganda
The panel discussion opened with a video presentation by Fadi Chehade; in his welcoming remarks Fadi emphasized on what ICANN does and why Africa should be part of the overall debate on Internet Governance. Pierre took over with slides presentation on ICANN
and most specifically current discussions and work on the NTIA’s declaration on transition of the stewardship of IANA’s functions. Other panelists proceeded with addressing specific points related to ICANN’s role within the debate on the Internet governance.
The representative of RURA, the Rwandan regulator insisted on the necessity for inclusive debates and the need for countries to have a certain control over the content, which circulates on the Internet. The Honourable Vincent Bagiire, a Parliamentarian from
Uganda recognized the important role played by ICANN, but was on the opinion that ICANN does not communicate enough on its activities and moreover, has been too slow in solving issues related to re delegation of ccTLDs. The representative of the ICT Association
of Rwanda, RICTA which manages the .RW gave an account of how the country’s domain is being managed and called for a national organization of stakeholders so that they could best contribute to the Internet governance. He brought in the issue of Cybersecurity.
Mike Silber indicated that ICANN ‘s remit is about coordination of critical resources and that many issues being raised such as content control or cybersecurity should be dealt with in other arenas to be created. He insisted on the importance of participating
in the global debate on Internet governance.
In summary, it was agreed that:
- Africa needs an informed participation to be able to contribute to ICANN and other fora on Internet governance
- There is a need to promote debates on IG at national and regional levels
- ICANN should help build a conducive environment which generates the type of leadership that is needed to contribute to ICANN’s activities
- Though some information is available on ICANN’s website, it should seek other means to better communicate on its activities, while targeting different stakeholders.
B) Panel Discussion on “Greasing the wheels of the Internet Economy"
Moderator: Ali Hussein, CEO, 3Mice Interactive (Kenya)
Speakers:
- Hon. Dr. Fred Okeng'o Matiangi, Ministry of ICT, Republic of Kenya
- Pitchette Kampeta Sayinzoga, PS, Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning - Rwanda
- Tongai Maramba, CEO, Tigo Rwanda
- Sunir Chandaria, Vice President, Conros Corporation (Rwanda)
- Andrew Rugege, Regional Director for Africa, ITU
- Pierre Dandjinou, VP, Stakeholder Engagement Africa, ICANN
This session was held in the main plenary, with over 100 participants in attendance including the ICT ministers from Republic of Southern Sudan, Rwanda, and PS ICT for Republic of Mali and Gabon and
streamed live. To set the stage for the panel, the BCG report was presented in a few slides; followed by presentations by each speakers and an interaction with the audience.
In summary, very interesting dialogues with high profile panelists. The discussions reflected the rich mix of the panelists with most supporting the findings of the BCG report. “This report has summed up our headache in matters of ICTs in Africa with the correct
term - efriction” noted Mr. Tongai of Tigo. Pierre was keen on addressing the motivation as to why this report was commissioned by ICANN while Dr. Matiangi elaborated the various initiatives in flight in Kenya and within the East African Northern Corridor
projects to address some of the efrictions listed in the report. Panelists were in general agreement that it is high time ICT infrastructure was considered as ‘critical’ as roads, Power lines and water infrastructure, and that strategies including content
and application generation as well as skills development be central to the uptake of ICT for growth and job creation in the African region.
This was echoed by the ICT minister from Rwanda Hon. Jean Philbert Nsengimana who stressed in his remarks during the closing ceremony that “For the Smart Rwanda Days specifically this year we chose ‘Digitising Rwanda’ as a theme, in recognition of the fact
that Africa’s digital economies are growing faster than traditional sectors and the potential for an even bigger contribution to national GDPs is yet to be unleashed".
The ICANN Africa team