[kictanet] kictanet Digest, Vol 47, Issue 70 - Africa IGF

[Nnenna Nwakanma]

Hi people

I agree that the most important participation needed is at national  
level.  In Côte d'Ivoire where I live, we have a formal and  
functioning IG initiative with even an elected President.  The man had  
been to Kenya also to understudy the Kenya IGF.  The IGICI, the  
Ivorian one, is entirely sponsored by national stakeholders.

In West Africa, OSIWA has given a 1 year support for the WAIGF, which  
hitherto had been supported partly by AfriNic and partners.  The  
framework of WAIGF (which is being managed by FOSSFA) was to have a  
resource person in a country and support that individual to do an  
initial mobilisation, so that once an initial national IGF was  
organised, national stakeholders will take it from there.

Here are the issues:
1.  The WAIGF does not cover all the countries.  So 1 year support to  
8 out of 15 countries is not sustainable. At this time, the countries  
that may be able to carry on without continued support in West Africa  
may be Senegal, Gambia, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.
2. Central Africa is far more shaky than West Africa.  Schombe Baudoin  
can update on that.
3. ECA has been lending support to EAIGF, (according to Makane) but  
there was not any national IG initiative in Ethiopia until last two  
weeks after we finished the Diplo training in Addis and the ET  
participants agreed to begin something.
4. The SAIGF idea is only about a few months old. I know Anriette of  
APC has started work on this, but so far, there are not much national  
IGF in the region.
5.  North Africa,  I am not aware of (I may be wrong)

On AFIGF, what we have so far is ECA and AU saying "it is a good idea  
and we will go for it".  And NEPAD saying, 'it is a good idea and we  
will support it", and Diplo that is willing to engage.

Nonetheless, there are questions on how best an AFIGF can best serve  
the needs of ongoing and yet-to-start initiatives, outside of a  
once-a-year meeting.  The other important issue also is that there are  
key stakeholders who are not necessarily linked to a sub-region, like  
ADB, ATU, MTN who need to engage.  As well as sub-regional economic  
commissions.  In west Africa, ECOWAS has not been very active, despite  
a willingness.

When I heard that ECA had accepted to hold the IG workshop, I  
contacted the people involved in the ongoing initiatives and sent a  
draft for the AFIGF that I wanted to go and present at Addis.  So what  
we have now is a kind of evolving document on : What will an African  
initiative look like and what should it accomplish?  Hopefully, an  
open forum will happen in Nairobi so that stakeholder present can  
evaluate and decide what direction is best.

It is true that for some countries where with an active IGF, it might  
seem like a waste of energy, but for some other countries, they are  
hoping to ride on the back of AFIGF to either begin or strengthen  
their national IGF.

All the best

Nnenna


Nnenna  Nwakanma |  Founder and CEO, NNENNA.ORG  |  Consultants
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