[kictanet] The East Africa Internet Governance Forum: Advancing the Internet Governance Debate for meaningful participation.

[alice]

    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.

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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>