[kictanet] Statement made by Alice Munyua at the opening session of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) taking place in India 3-6th December 2008

[alice at apc.org]

Statement by  Alice Munyua at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) taking
place in India 3-6th December 2008


Good afternoon,
Chairman your Excellencies, Distinguished Guests,Ladies, Gentlemen, and
remote participants.
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We wish to thank India for hosting the third IGF and to extend its
sympathy and condolences over the recent acts of terrorism experienced in
Mumbai.


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The WSIS Society underscored the need for Multi-stakeholder processes
initiated at the national, regional, and international levels to discuss
and collaborate on the expansion and diffusion of the Internet as a means
to support development efforts to achieve internationally-agreed
development goals and objectives, including the Millennium Development
Goals.
It was in this regard that Kenya organized and hosted the First East
African Internet Governance Forum (EAIGF) from the 10 to 12 November,
2008. The forum’s main theme was: Opening the Internet Governance Debate
in East Africa; Thinking globally, acting locally. It was a follow up to
national Internet Governance Forums (IGFs) held in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania
and Rwanda in September and October 2008, to identify local priority
issues in the respective East African countries. The national IG issues
were then used as a building block for the regional Internet Governance
Forum (EAIGF). The forum was attended by approximately 180 stakeholders
drawn from the business, civil society, media, academia, internet users,
government, and general public.

It was the first of its kind in the Africa region and was initiated from
the realization that there was a need to address the limited participation
by African stakeholders on global internet governance debates and
processes and the need to ensure effective and meaningful contribution to
global ICT policymaking.  It was organised through a collaborative
partnership between various government institutions from the region,
private sector, civil society, media and international partners.
Some of the priority issues and recommendations identified by the EAIGF
meeting are:
•	Universal affordable Access (not from an incremental approach that
focuses on creating more consumers rather looking at creating
entrepreneurship opportunities, allowing for creativity, innovation that
would by extension translate into social, economic, cultural and political
benefits for all)
•	Capacity and skills development
•	Management of critical internet resources, including transition from
IPv4 to IPv6 and more clarity and improved mutual collaboration on red
legation of country code top level domains..Specifically dot UG and dot RW
•	 Cyber crime, security and privacy (creating a national and regional
framework, which would involve setting national and regional computer
emergency readiness team and computer security incident response team
among other strategies
•	Development of national and regional Internet exchange points
•	The MSP model is important to us in the EA region and it has worked so
far in terms of ICT policy and regulatory process. So it is crucial that
we continue to work with all stakeholders giving them an equal footing in
not only this IGF process but others as well.

Finally, the EAIGF will be an annual event with the second one taking in
Tanzania in 2009, prior to the Cairo IGF.
For more information about the EAIGF, Visit: www.eaigf.or.ke.
Thank you for your kind attention.