[kictanet] Internet Governance Forum (IGF) - Continent to Send 20 Delegates

[alice]

*Hi all

Happy to let you all know that KICTANet was selected to present at the 
IGF taking place in Rio in November.

Any Kenyans on this list planning to attend the forum please let us 
know. We would like to provide members attending an opportunity to share 
their experiences  at the KICTANet Best Practice Forum.

best
alice
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Internet Forum - Continent to Send 20 Delegates*

Daily Champion (Lagos)


NEWS
13 September 2007
Posted to the web 13 September 2007

By Remmy Nweke
South Africa

Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Africa is to send a 20-member 
delegation to the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Rio de Janero, 
Brazil in November 2007 to ensure that African voice is heard.

At a roundtable session on IGF organised by the Open Society Institute 
for Southern Africa (OSISA) at the on-going 11th Highway Africa 
conference in Grahamstown, South Africa, CSOs resolved to ensure that 
Africa is not relegated at the global meeting.

IGF in Rio is being organised by the IGF Secretariat based in Geneva , 
Switzerland in support of the United Nations Secretary-General's mandate 
from the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) with regard to 
convening a new forum for multi-stakeholders policy dialogue.

Speaking on behalf of the CSOs, Ms Natasha Primo of the Association for 
Progressive Communications (APC) said that the essence of bringing the 
crusade to the largest gathering of pen-pushers on the continent was to 
guarantee that African communicators were not left out.

According to her, the session was basically to raise awareness in the 
participation of Africans at the IGF by having an understanding of the 
theme focusing on access, openness, security and critical Internet 
resources and capacity/development agenda.

African CSOs, she pointed out would be sending a 20-man delegate to the 
global meeting to "Get African voices heard centred on capacity and 
development agenda. We must make ourselves heard in all the themes."

She added that the CSOs presently want to continue the crusade online 
with so as to develop shared position to the Rio meeting with Africa at 
heart.

"We had a preliminary discussion and we want to take that online for 
further discussions," she asserted, adding that those interested should 
contact OSISA.

The online discussion would kick off on September 15 and that it's an 
open invitation to organisations and individuals to join hands with CSOs 
to make certain the aim is achieved.