The East Africa Internet Governance Forum: Advancing the Internet Governance Debate for meaningful participation. * * * *An East African broadband policy framework was the topic of discussion at the second East Africa Internet Governance Forum held in Nairobi in September 7-9^th 2009. Over 200 participants and observers from 15 countries representing private sector, civil society, Internet community, media, government, parliamentarians, regulatory authorities, development partners, United Nations agencies, consumer networks and academia came together to discuss local and regional Internet Governance (IG) issues. The main themes of the meeting were cybercrime, policy regulatory requirements, consumer issues, critical Internet resources, and access to broadband. In each thematic session, representatives of the five East Africa countries provided a national perspective, identifying key issues, progress and challenges, followed by discussion among all EA-IGF 2009 participants around developing recommendations and a way forward. A new addition to the EA-IGF was a session organised for East African members of parliament. The EA-IGF, first convened in 2008, aims to create a community of practice that will, in the long term, become a sustaining foundation for the meaningful participation of East African stakeholders in Internet public policy debates at the national, regional and international level. The EA-IGF model allows for informed participation, contribution and engagement of community members through research, sharing of experiences and skills, solving common problems, identifying challenges, and creation of new knowledge. The Forum follows a bottom up multi-stakeholder approach, which begins at the national level with mailing list discussions in each country, followed by national face-to-face IGFs, to continue discussions and debate, which go further to validate the issues identified and begin to explore recommendations and solutions. The national IGFs then form the building block for the regional East Africa IGF. During the 2009 EA-IGF, consensus emerged that access continues to be one of the most important issues for the region, with the most fundamental access issue being universal affordable access to broadband. Forum participants recommended the development of a regional broadband policy framework to enhance affordable universal access. Other essential issues included strengthening country code top-level domains (ccTLDs), developing national and regional policy and regulatory frameworks for spectrum management, cybercrime, and consumer protection, among others. The proposal to create an enabling environment for universal affordable access was supported by Kenya’s Permanent Secretary Ministry for Information and Communication Dr. Bitange Ndemo, who noted in his welcome speech that “the next billion Internet users would come from Africa. The Internet is about enabling access to the world's information and knowledge in all of its languages. We must therefore ensure that we localise the Internet to preserve our cultures and knowledge, and share our knowledge and cultures with the rest of the world.” He further added that African governments needed to develop Intellectual Property frameworks that would protect Africa’s rich heritage and resources from theft. *The 2009 EA-IGF recommendations:* On Policy and Regulation, there was consensus around the need to complete and approve an East African Communication policy, as well as development of additional policy frameworks covering broadband, spectrum management, cybercrime, consumer protection and intellectual property. The need for increased civil society advocacy for better quality of service, universal affordable access, and a legal framework for consumer issues including codes of conduct was also agreed upon. The provision of transparent and accessible complaint resolution channels and promotion of informed consumer choice by providing publication of statistics and information to empower consumer choice was also recommended. The session on critical Internet resources recommended strengthening country code top-level domains (ccTLDs), the creation of national and regional data centres, strengthening and protecting national and regional internet Exchange Points (IXP), and awareness raising on IPv6- transition. * * Discussing cybercrime, there was agreement on the need to establish national and regional* *Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) to coordinate and respond to issues of cyber security in the region. Participants also agreed on the urgent need to begin to address the specific needs of vulnerable groups like women and children and how they are affected by cybercrime. While adopting these recommendations, Forum participants acknowledged the need for sustainable means of following up on the issues with various activities, including encouraging further discussions, advocacy efforts, as well as development of necessary policy frameworks at national and regional levels. Participants also agreed that these issues needed to be presented at the global IGF, and discussions begun to explore ways in which they could be included and integrated within the IGF in future years. The EA-IGF will seek to contribute on how the IGF could achieve more practical and useful outcomes drawing on the local and regional lessons with greater consideration given to capacity building and other Internet governance needs the East African countries identified. The, Executive Coordinator for the United Nations Internet Governance Forum, Mr. Markus Kummer noted that while “much of the IGF discussions tended to focus on international factors the development of National and regional IGFs now have an even more important role of informing the global IGF". "The international level", he added, "Cannot work without national agreements and involvement as well as effective participation and commitment of all the stake-holders". *The Parliamentarian IGF session* The inclusion of members of parliament as a key stakeholder group in the meeting was unique to the 2009 EA-IGF. Recognising that parliamentarians have an important role to play in the Internet governance dialogue, the aim of the session was to begin to encourage essential contributions of members of parliament to the IG debate. The session hosted by Kenya’s Member of Parliament and Minister for Information and Communication, Hon. Samuel Porgishio and the Speaker of the Kenya National Assembly Hon. Kenneth Marende and was attended by members of parliament from Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, Kenya and United Kingdom. In his welcome speech, Hon. Kenneth Marende, noted, “The Internet governance process and debate is very important for the region, particularly now with the increase of access to broadband, which will result in greater benefits and opportunities as well as Internet governance related challenges.” On introducing Internet governance, Adam Peake, from the Centre for Global Communications (GLOCOM) noted that “the architectural principles of the Internet provides an open platform and network on which anyone, who has the skills, and will can provide services, content, and applications. This principle of openness is what makes the Internet so unique and provides the opportunities for social, economic, cultural and political benefits as well as innovation and entrepreneurship.” He therefore encouraged parliamentarians to engage in the Internet governance process in order to encourage their constituents to make use of the social economic development benefits offered by access to the Internet. ** Hon. Samuel Porgishio formally announced Kenya’s intention to host the 2011 IGF. The IGF mandate set by WSIS decisions will be reviewed after the fifth meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, in 2010. While the EA-IGF does not attempt to mirror the global IGF, consensus emerged that the IGF is a very important and useful mechanism for continuing discussions and debate on Internet governance. As the only multi-stakeholder forum that discusses IG issues, it is important that stakeholders seek assurances of the global forum’s continuity. Acknowledging the importance of the process, Ugandan Member of Parliament, Hon. Nathan Nabeta Igeme announced Uganda’s commitment to host the 2010 East Africa Internet Governance Forum (EA-IGF 2010). Ambassador Nick Thorne noted that “Members of Parliament had a vital role to play in Internet governance processes and must consider themselves as a key stakeholder group in the national, regional and global processes. Representing their various constituents, parliamentarians are needed, and are best placed to put pressure on governments and resist unnecessarily restrictive legislation, which might stifle the benefits of the Internet as we have come to know it.” Applauding the EA-IGF, UK Member of Parliament Rt. Hon. Alun Michal encouraged all parliamentarians to engage and understand the process, from national, regional and international levels. "The EA-IGF is a success story", he said, "not because you are doing it right, but because you have set the pace for the rest of the world” The Parliamentarian session approved a declaration, which sought to support the development of regional policy frameworks on broadband access and cybercrime, among others. *Commonwealth Internet Governance Forum (CIGF)* Mark Carvell, from the UK Department for Business Innovation and Skills introduced the Commonwealth Internet Governance Forum (CIGF), which “seeks to encourage greater participation from Commonwealth member states on policy issues and discussions related to Internet governance with a view to coming up with informed solutions to address their needs.” He announced that the CIGF has launched a travel bursary for Commonwealth participants to attend the forth IGF meeting taking place in Egypt in November 2009. Kenya is a member of this initiative and the Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is partner of the CIGF. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The 2009 EA-IGF was supported by the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Kenya’s Ministry for Information and Communication, the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK), Kenyan Network information Centre (KENIC), AT&T, the Telecommunication Service Providers Association of Kenya (TESPOK), Kenya Internet Exchange Point (KIXP), Africa Network Information Centre (AfrINic), Kenya ICT Board, and the Centre for Global Communications (GLOCOM), International University of Japan, East African ICT for Development network and the Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet). For more information about the EA-IGF Visit: www.eaigf.or.ke <http://www.eaigf.or.ke>