AFRALO Newsletter

May 4, 2020


      April 2020  AFRALO NEWSLETTER  Volume 2 | April 2020 The latest news from the African At-Large Regional Organization (AFRALO) Visit our Website From the Chair's Desk Seun Ojedeji, AFRALO Chair Welcome to 2020   On behalf of the AFRALO Leadership (Aziz, Sarah and myself), I wish the members of the AFRALO, At-Large, and the entire ICANN community a happy 2020. Its an honour to welcome you to the second edition of our newsletter as Chair of AFRALO and I would like to once again thank the AFRALO community for giving me the opportunity to serve in this capacity. Many thanks also goes to the past leadership of AFRALO, most especially the immediate past Chair, Mohamed Elbashir and Vice Chair, Fatimata Seye Sylla. During the coronavirus outbreak, many in our region and around the world are facing this challenge with resilience and bravery. I would like to express our appreciation to all the AFRALO membership for keeping engaged and enthusiastic. I like to commend all AFRALO members who actively participated (remotely and physically) during the ATLAS III in Montreal (November 2019). The Third At-Large Summit (ATLAS III) event has become a great resource for At-Large to further improve our participation in ICANN processes. ATLAS III was quite unique in its own way through the various capacity building and engagement sessions. Many thanks to everyone involved in the planning of the event which was a success and as part of the post ATLAS III discussions our RALO committed to 3 things which i will like to remind us all about: Improve our engagement and participating in Working Groups     Provide feedback to our RALO about our participation and engagement     Reviewing our rules with the intention of finding ways to improve participation We have witnessed some of our members taking up responsibilities and we hope that more of this will continue to happen. In order to improve our participation, we have submitted a number of additional budget requests for FY21 one of which will introduce French translation of discussions on our mailing list. We have reactivated our Rules of Procedure (RoP) working group which will be reviewing the Individual Membership section of our rules to determine and propose any required changes. Let’s not forget the history behind this; the individual membership rules were approved by AFRALO members over 2 years ago and as per the rules, we are required to review them after 2 years. This is therefore an activity that is long overdue which rightly falls within our focus areas for the year. I commend members who have provided updates on their activities to us in this newsletter edition and I would like to once again encourage us all to keep us informed about your participation within the ICANN community, send us a mail on the Afridiscuss list (afri-discuss@atlarge-lists.icann.org) and let us know what current ICANN process you are contributing towards and how we may support you. Our monthly meetings will continue all through the year and I encourage us all to join the meeting to make our opinion and voice heard. Our meetings are open to everyone so feel free to join and contribute to the discussions. Finally, ICANN67 was held virtually and I hope you all joined remotely. As usual, we held a Joint AFRALO/AfrICANN meeting, discussion on the topic around Domain Name System (DNS) abuse; the session was the first session during the historic ICANN67 Virtual Community Forum, and provided us the opportunity to read from our Global Stakeholders Engagement (GSE) team, ALAC leadership and ICANN Board members. See more information below about AFRALO and ALAC/At-Large activity during ICANN67. Here is to a hopeful 2020! See At-Large 2020 Priorities Editorial Team Editor-in-Chief: Seun OJEDEJI Deputy Editor-in-Chief: Aziz HILALI Managing Editor | Secretariat: Sarah KIDEN Editor (English): Remmy NWEKE Co-Editor (French): Olévié KOUAMI CONTRIBUTORS ENGLISH Adetokunbo Abiola Aisha Hamid Bram Fudzulani  Bukola Oronti  Dave Kissoondoyal  Hadia El Miniawi Haroun Mahamat FRENCH Adam Ahmat Brahim Mustapha Cedric Kinanga Christine Anaky Gabdibé Gab-Hingonne Ines Hfaiedh Minata Zong-Naba Full list of team members SUPPORT ICANN At-Large Staff staff@atlarge.icann.org About AFRALO  African Regional At-Large Organization: Engaging Africa for Development AFRALO is the home of the individual Internet user community for the African region. It provides news, key resources and interactive information sharing tools for individuals and end-user groups in the African region who are interested in ICANN and in shaping the future of the Internet. AFRALO aims to: Strengthen users’ participation in ICANN decision-making structures Help ensure that its members will actively encourage more direct participation by end users Build Internet policy making capacity in the region Reach out to Internet users on the issues in the scope of ICANN Represent users’ interests and defining public interest aspects of Internet governance with specific focus on the areas of privacy, transparency, and accountability Strengthen consumer protection in ICANN policies Identify social impacts of technical infrastructure design Take cultural diversity into account when formulating technical standards (e.g. IDN implementation) AFRALO currently consist of 62 ALSes located in 32 countries and territories, as well as 14 Individual members and 3 Observers. To learn more about the ongoing work of AFRALO, you are welcome to check out the AFRALO workspace. AFRALO Secretariat Update: Joint AFRALO-AfrICANN Statement for ICANN67 The AFRALO community once again organised the Joint AFRALO-AfriCANN Statement for ICANN67. The session was virtual because ICANN had made the decision to hold the first ever virtual session due to the coronavirus outbreak.  The session was attended by at least 117 participants. The statement focused on DNS Abuse and the following recommendations were made: We recommend the following key steps to assist in the mitigation of DNS abuse:  We call upon the ICANN Org to set aside adequate resources as the Steward of the Global Domain Name System, geared towards creating more awareness on DNS Abuse in its global multistakeholder community and how the same can be mitigated. Fighting the DNS Abuse shouldn’t turn in a content regulation which is out of the ICANN remit. In fact, what is considered as content abuse in a country may be a freedom of expression in another. AFRALO would not accept any effort to fight DNS Abuse that becomes a content regulation. In view of this, we call upon the ICANN organization to facilitate more discussions on DNS Abuse at Regional Level through the coordination of Policy, GSE and ICANN Learn teams with African community leadership to ensure effective deliberation. We call upon the ICANN Org through the office of the Chief Technical Officer to embrace reporting on DNS abuse in clear and simple language geared towards end users who are major consumers of DNS Products and services. Please see the full statement here.  ICANN67 Virtual Community Forum Update This March, ICANN held the ICANN67 Community Forum via remote participation due to the coronavirus outbreak. The first ICANN Virtual Community Forum had 65 sessions and was attended by 1,752 unique participants from 130 countries. There were 9 At-Large sessions, including several engaging At-Large policy sessions. See all At-Large sessions and recordings on the At-Large ICANN67 workspace. The Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) Communique for this meeting is available here. A post meeting survey was also conducted to collect the feedback of the meeting. The Post-ICANN67 Policy Report is now available! Click here to access the report >> https://go.icann.org/post67 Congratulations to Sarah Kiden, AFRALO Secretariat, for winning first place for the At-Large Social Media Working Group (SMWG) ICANN67 Twitter Competition! ALAC Update The ALAC held their Monthly Calls over the past quarter. During the most recent ALAC Monthly call, on 28 April, there was an identification of At-Large Priority Activities, which the ALAC Chair, Maureen Hilyard, noted were crucial to identify during the coronavirus outbreak. In addition, the ALAC discussed the At-Large Review Implementation and next steps, take aways from the feedback provided on ICANN67, and planning for ICANN68. See the At-Large workspace for ICANN68 here. ALAC / At-Large Policy Comments & Advice All of AFRALO and the At-Large community are invited to contribute to ICANN public comment proceedings. For more information, please visit the At-Large Policy Advice Development Page or contact At-Large staff. The At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) is currently developing (3) responses to public comment proceedings, and AFRALO is developing (1) statement: Comment Phase 1 Initial Report of the Review of All Rights Protection Mechanisms in All gTLDs Policy Development Process 04 May 2020 Comment Addendum to the Initial Report of the Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) on the Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data Team – Phase 2 05 May 2020 Comment ICANN Africa Regional Plan for Fiscal Years 2021-2025 27 May 2020 AFRALO Statement AFRALO commends the team that worked on the development of the AFRALO-APRALO statement on ICANN MEAC Strategy, and is also drafting a response to the public comment on the ICANN Africa Strategy. Drafting Draft PTI FY21-24 Strategic Plan 01 June 2020 In addition, there are an ongoing workspaces regarding CPWG SubPro Comment and PDP 3.0. Have your say! To contribute to ALAC public comment, please comment on the wiki space or volunteer as penholder, and join the weekly At-Large Consolidated Policy Working Group (CPWG) meetings. The ALAC submitted (17) policy comments since the last AFRALO Newsletter:  Revised Community Travel Support Guidelines The ALAC noted that At-Large is unique within the ICANN community in that virtually all volunteers in At-Large activities, including those involving travel, do so as true volunteers. Without ICANN travel support, the number of active At-Large participants at ICANN meetings would be few in number. The ALAC specifically commented on wire transfer and foreign exchange fees/losses, visa reimbursement, travel insurance, ICANN arranged travel, room guarantees, forced overnight delays, early check-in and late check-out, as they pertain to the successful participation of the community during ICANN meetings. Middle East and Adjoining Countries (MEAC) Strategy 2021-2025 The AFRALO and APRALO joint statement was the first joint RALO statement within the At-Large Community, in response to the ICANN MEAC Strategy 2021-2025. The countries that fall under the MEAC Strategy within AFRALO and APRALO provided feedback on strategy topics as security, ICANN's governance, unique identifier systems, and geopolitics. Note: Ratified by the AFRALO & APRALO Leadership Teams and the ALAC. Draft Proposal for NextGen@ICANN Program Improvements The ALAC suggested several significant recommendations to the NextGen@ICANN Program, to the benefit of the community by opening the program and ensuring a welcoming environment to all NextGenners, including first time participants. The ALAC's recommendations would ensure that participants are selected with a stronger focus on their work and can then attend more than one meeting to engage with the community and find their "policy home". As a part of its recommendations, the ALAC stated that At-Large would welcome a more active participation of NextGenners in its community. Name Collisions Analysis Project (NCAP) Study 1 The ALAC acknowledged the report as a useful primer on the subject of Name Collisions. The ALAC noted that they look forward to further deliberation by the relevant groups and their onward action with respect to the third goal of Study 1, which is to determine if the NCAP Project will proceed onto a Study 2. Initial Report of the Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) on the Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data Team - PHASE 2  For all recommendations not listed in the ALAC statement, the ALAC noted that they they "Support as written". The ALAC "supported wording with change" for several other recommendations - 1, 6, 7, 9, 15, 19 - and made a general comment that differentiation between natural and legal persons would offload the system from unnecessary queries that are permissible under GDPR. Second Security, Stability, and Resiliency (SSR2) Review Team Draft Report The ALAC noted that ensuring the security, stability and resiliency of the DNS is arguably ICANN's single most important role. The ALAC has a particular interest in the recommendations related to DNS Abuse, and notes that several of the recommendations overlap with and complement those issued by the RDS WHOIS2-RT and the CCT RT. DNS Security, stability and resiliency is not something that we can afford to ignore. The ALAC has a particular focus on and interest in DNS Abuse. To address this may require contractual changes to facilitate Contractual Compliance action. Such changes require either negotiations with the contracted parties or a PDP, and the ALAC recommends against a PDP and instead encourages ICANN to come to an agreement with contracted parties. Known vulnerabilities need to be corrected with the utmost haste. ALAC Feedback to PIR Public Comment Proceeding Note: Not an ICANN Public Comment. The Public Interest Registry (PIR) held a Public Comment proceeding on the issue of the ISOC/PIR. (8) responses were submitted on behalf the ALAC to the PIR Public Comment proceeding. The ALAC made several suggestions to PIR regarding the issue of ISOC/PIR. The ALAC noted that PICs are the best mechanism with which to enshrine the essential characteristics of a .ORG registry, yet there are significant issues with PIC enforcement that need to be addressed for PICs to be considered a trustworthy assurance. They noted that from the standpoint of an "individual end user," a 10 annual price cap would add a lot of predictability. The ALAC also noted that the stewardship council for .ORG is a good start, but its mandate should be wider than just free speech and privacy, and suggested a few board seats reserved for 501c(3) organizations, chosen by the community, would be more powerful. Reserving certain seats to be selected by NPOC and perhaps the ALAC (to represent the individual registrants) would help a great deal. The ALAC's objective is to enshrine PIR's best practices in its contract with ICANN such that they survive any further transitions of ownership. Draft FY21-25 Operating & Financial Plan and Draft FY21 Operating Plan & Budget The ALAC congratulated the ICANN Finance and Planning team, as the draft plans and budget have shown great improvement over the past few years. Not only in how the information is provided, but in the way the plans and budget are structured. The ALAC made several suggestions with regards to the Operating & Financial Plan and Budget, emphasizing that there is not an exact correlation between the number of domains and the income of ICANN. This is important because ICANN relies upon the number of contracted registries and registrars and the number of domains a gTLD has. The ALAC drafted a separate response to Appendix C, relating to the Evolution of the Multistakeholder Model, following their statement. The At-Large community registered its surprise and disappointment at seeing this important subject, which has been such a major topic of discussion, now relegated to an appendix in this Public Comment - in which it is unlikely to get the time and attention it deserves from the ICANN community. Proposed Final Report of the New gTLD Auction Proceeds Cross Community Working Group While several Members of the ALAC Auction Proceeds team originally preferred Mechanism B - where ICANN worked with a non-profit organization already adept in the evaluation, selection and the allocation and distribution of grant funds - ALAC consensus was arrive at for Mechanism A. (Mechanism A allows outsourcing if viewed as advantageous, and in fact ICANN often outsources parts of its responsibilities which are not core to overseeing its Bylaw-mandated responsibilities. Thus Mechanism A could end up being comparable to Mechanism B, but provided more management flexibility in deciding how the varying aspects of the project would be carried out). The ALAC notes that presumption of the independent panel, with no connection to or control by either ICANN Org or the ICANN Board (preferably contracted to a suitable non-profit or a set of experts in the field of grant selection and allocation) is a critical part of this decision and the ALAC would strongly object and withdraw its support if that condition changes. "At-Large Valentine" submitted to the ICANN Board regarding Proposed Amendment 3 to the .COM Registry Agreement An “At-Large Valentine”, regarding the Proposed Amendment 3 to the .COM Registry Agreement, written in good faith and good humor, was submitted to the ICANN Board on 13 February 2020. Jonathan Zuck, ALAC Vice Chair for Policy and CPWG Co-Chair, drafted the letter on behalf of At-Large. ALAC Members and At-Large community members reviewed and approved the letter during the CPWG meeting on Wednesday, 12 February 2020.  The ALAC welcomed the LOI between Verisign and ICANN as a commitment to expand efforts to identify and promulgate best practices by contracted parties to mitigate DNS Abuse. While there are many whose efforts exceed those of others, the At-Large Community believes that even more can be done both in terms of best practices and in terms of bringing along those whose practices are not the best. Proposed Dates for ICANN Public Meetings 2024-2028 and Revised Dates in 2022 The ALAC noted that ICANN has been striving to be more inclusive in an effort to engage more volunteers with diverse backgrounds. ICANN acknowledges the difficulty in getting new people to join and engage within ICANN and to increase the diversity of participants. The Multistakeholder Model Work Plan takes note of the importance to ICANN to develop pathways to enable effective participation. One of the more practical ways for ICANN to facilitate participation is for ICANN Org, to be more aware of and to avoid clashing with important holidays and religious days observed by volunteers who work countless hours to improve ICANN’s multistakeholder advisory work. By avoiding these dates as much as possible it is showing all  volunteers that ICANN Org understands their concerns and does its best to avoid conflicts.  The ALAC made several other suggestions regarding ICANN meeting dates in 2022 and from 2024-2028. Third Accountability and Transparency Review Team (ATRT3) Draft Report The ALAC noted the ATRT review has produced a considerable amount of work in little time and this is laudable. Nevertheless, from an end-user perspective, ATRT should consider deliberating the following questions: (1) How can ICANN better address conflicts of interest? The ICANN community is relatively small, with relatively few actors involved in the process. Conflicts of interest, perceived or real, can impact negatively on ICANN’s standing; (2) How can transparency be increased? (3) How can ICANN ensure that in cases where issues persist, processes are initiated to correct trajectory? (For example, if multiple reviews identify the same issue or if they find implementation to be lacking, how can this be fast-tracked transparently and effectively?) (4) Might it be necessary to “silo off” or ring-fence certain functions, including reviews, compliance, and other types of community oversight? (5) How can ICANN improve their responsiveness to community and review team questions and affairs, and what policies should be created to ensure these are dealt with? The ALAC also suggested taking several noted options into consideration, emphasizing from an end user perspective, more, not less, accountability and transparency is required from the ICANN community and org.  Overall, the ALAC supports the suggested changes to the ICANN Public Comment, public input as well as the accountability indicators. We believe those changes would make the Public Comments more effective and show better transparency. We strongly believe that a wide, open and inclusive process should be maintained in policy development process especially with input representing the multistakeholder environment. Policy development must be transparent, efficient and should not be biased or skewed towards a group. ALAC Advice to the ICANN Board on ISOC/PIR Issue The ALAC noted the proposed sale of PIR to Ethos Capital has, understandably, created quite a stir, prompting commentary from many perspectives within the ICANN community, and applauds the efforts by the ICANN Board to clarify and make transparent, as much as possible, the process regarding the deal and to take the time to encourage the best possible result. The ALAC Advice to the ICANN Board suggested (8) recommendations: (1) The Registry for .ORG must be organized as either a charitable non-profit [501c(3) in the US] or a “Benefit Corporation” (B Corporation); (2) One-third of the Registry Corporate Board must be representatives of charitable nonprofits; (3) One Board member selected by the ALAC; (4) The Registry for .ORG must enshrine in its bylaws that the principal focus of the domain is nonprofits and individuals and not commercial interests; (5) The Registry must enshrine in its bylaws a commitment to free speech and a resistance to takedown demands with a political basis; (6) The Registry must provide 6 months prior written notice to its registrants of any increase in wholesale price of their domain names registration renewal fees and the option of a 20-year renewal thereof at the pre-increase price; (7) The Registry Agreement must enshrine PIR prohibited practices such a bulk sales to commercial registrars; and (8) The Registry Agreement must establish a “DNS Abuse Ceiling”. ALAC Advice to the ICANN Board on DNS Abuse Background Prior to ICANN66, At-Large and other community groups within ICANN identified the issue, released several reports on the topic of DNS Abuse. In advance of ICANN66, At-Large Consolidated Policy Working Group (CPWG) led by Co-Chairs Jonathan Zuck and Olivier Crépin-Leblond discussed recent DNS Abuse research and how DNS Abuse impacts the Internet end user community, including the erosion of trust and security. During ICANN66, At-Large organized a policy session on “DNS Abuse – End User Concerns”, with a panel presentation. Jonathan Zuck and Joanna Kulesza, ALAC Member, moderated the session and summarized how At-Large can enhance Internet end user protection against DNS Abuse. The ALAC drafted ALAC Advice on the topic during ICANN66, and finalized the draft in subsequent CPWG meetings. The ALAC Advice on DNS Abuse was submitted to the ICANN Board on 24 December 2019. ALAC Advice The ALAC made a series of (8) recommendations to the ICANN Board. The ALAC emphasized that community dialogue cannot delay or defer ICANN’s commitments or operations related to DNS Abuse. Their recommendations speak to the insufficiency of the status quo, and stressed their recommendations that no new round will be approved without substantial changes in the area of DNS Abuse. Please read the full advice here. Implementation Plan for the GNSO Consensus Policy Relating to the Protection of Certain Red Cross Names As a worldwide internationally recognized humanitarian aid organization, and one that has been regularly the target of those seeking to fraudulently extract donations, the ALAC believes that the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (incorporating National Red Cross or Red Crescent Societies, and the International Committee of the Red Cross) should be given the benefit of protection to its various identifiers, designations and/or acronyms as intended by the policy changes proposed for implementation in the said updated consensus policy. This includes the proposed action to recognize changes to the official names of the Red Cross Society entities, including component names, in Eswatini and Macedonia, respectively, an action we view as necessary. Registration Directory Service (RDS-WHOIS2) Review Team Final Report The ALAC finds the report to include very useful information that should be used to guide the development of relevant policies, and appreciates the team's effort and supports the provided recommendations.  The ALAC highlights the importance of the recommendations related to the accuracy of data, and it strongly advises its acceptance by the ICANN Board. In light of the GDPR, the ALAC noted the importance of several other recommendations in the WHOIS Report encouraging a more proactive position of contractual compliance, especially in regards to DNS Abuse, as well as the team's findings with regard to law enforcement needs. DRAFT PTI and IANA FY21 Operating Plan and Budgets The ALAC noted that the proposed PTI and IANA FY21 Operating Plan and Budgets are aligned with the ICANN Strategic Plan, and are also very similar to previous years' budgets. An adjustment in the PTI budget is noticeable, including adjustments in salaries, services and other administrative cross-charges from ICANN to PTI or IANA. However, the ALAC pointed out that a change is in process in the Governance of the Root Server System, these changes are not reflected in the proposed PTI and IANA FY21 Operating Plan and Budgets. The ALAC asked several exploratory questions in their response. See: At-Large Website Policy Comments & Advice See: Executive Summaries: ALAC Policy Comments & Advice See: Consolidated Policy Working Group (CPWG) ALAC/At-Large Policy Issues The Third At-Large Summit (ATLAS III) Summary Reports “Speaking of ICANN66 in Montreal, I would say it was a great meeting, networking and capacity building experience. The training provided at ATLAS III was successful. Focused on change and opinion leadership; conflict management, etc., the course content was very rich and fitted very well with our positions at our ALS level. This will allow us to best deal with the different challenges as an ambassador at the level of our communities. This is the place for me to warmly thank the organizers for the success of the event." Bakary Kouyate (Translated from French) “ATLAS III - Simply a summit for everyone, leaders, aspiring leaders and followers. As change agents and thought leaders beyond At-Large and ICANN, learned how to better understand people, personalities, cultural backgrounds and responsibilities. Also, ways to harness all these differences to achieve common goal with minimal friction and handling conflicts better.” Bukola Oronti “ICANN66 in Montreal, Canada was my first ever ICANN meeting and I will say it was a nice experience. The way everything was well planned was great. The ATLAS III training was also excellent, especially the resource person Mr. Kolb. He is an excellent trainer. It was also a nice moment for me to meet my virtual friends in person. The preparatory courses we did gave me a good fit into the various discussions. In all, I will say it was a life changing experience, and I am grateful for the opportunity to be selected for funding for this meeting.” Raymond Mamattah See the Post-ATLAS III Activities page. AFRALO members and AFRALO ATLAS III participants, November 2019 SMWG Chair John Laprise awarding ATLAS III participant Bukola Oronti the ICANN66 SMWG Twitter Competition prize, November 2019 AFRALO Updates AFRALO Selection Timetable for 2020*: 27 April 2020 - Announcement of call for nominations and Nominee's Statement.* (Except for NARALO that requires a 30 day call for nomination.) 27 April – 8 May 2020 - Nomination period (nominations accepted for 10 working days).  15 May 2020 - Deadline for nomination acceptances 18 May - 22 May 2020 - Calls with the candidates if desired by the RALOs.  22 May - 29 May 2020 - Elections (If required, elections will begin no later than one week after the deadline for nomination acceptances and end no later than two weeks after that deadline). 2020 AGM [ ICANN69 ] - Newly elected ALAC Members and RALOs Leaders shall be seated at the end of the 2020 AGM following the close of the Board Meeting on 22 October 2020. 2020-02-19 AFRALO ROP Working Group Call Date: Wednesday, 19 February 2020 Time: 18:00 - 19:00 UTC Individual membership rules: Individual Membership - AFRALO ROP Review. The official name of the working group (WG) is: AFRALO WG on the review of the Operating Principles 2020 - Membership Section. There were 3 calls 23 April 2020, 09 April 2020, 24 March 2020. 2020-04-01 AFRALO Monthly Teleconference Date: Wednesday, 01 April 2020 Time: 18:30 - 20:00 UTC Note from GSE Africa Pierre Dandjinou, VP, Stakeholder Engagement - Africa Africa Strategy Group (ASWG) and Volunteers for the ASWG-2020 In your last edition of the newsletter, we indicated that we would shortly kick off another review process of the ICANN Africa Strategy that had been necessitated by the adoption of the new ICANN org FY21-25 Strategic Plan back in June 2019. My team is happy to inform you that a call for volunteers to join the new Africa Strategy Working Group – ASWG-2020 was consequently published on Jan 7th 2020 at the expiry of which we received an overwhelming amount of very qualified applications, of diverse backgrounds and experience who submitted their Expressions of Interest ready to join and help draft a new ICANN Africa strategic plan that is aligned to the global plan. We have now settled on a select team of twenty-five (25) community members, representing the diversity of our region, men and women who are now tasked with developing the first draft of our Africa Strategy. I want to thank Mr. Abdulkarim Oloyde, Mr. Muriuki Mureithi and Mr. Robert Nkambwe who have since been appointed by their colleagues in the Working Group and accepted to serve as Chair, Vice Chair and Rapporteur Respectively. They would be in charge of the overall coordination of the team’s activities for the duration of the drafting process. The main objective of this Working Group will be to propose a draft alignment for regional engagement strategy in Africa to the globaI CANN org Strategic Plan FY21-FY25. The team have agreed to spare every effort to ensure the below tight timelines are achieved: a)   Draft Africa strategy document completed by end of February 2020 b)   The strategy posted for public community Input by end of March 2020 c)   The draft document presented during ICANN67 for further face to face comments d)   New Africa Strategic plan adopted by 30 June 2020 In closing, I want to reiterate our deep appreciation to you, our community and especially AFRALO members who are very ably represented in the ASWG-2020. It is our hope that you would respond positively once more and give comments to the published draft once ready.  Thank you. AF NomCom Update by Hadia Elminiawi, ALAC AFRALO NomCom Representative The ICANN Nominating Committee (NomCom) is looking to fill seven (7) positions for key leadership positions within ICANN and Public Technical Identifiers (PTI), an affiliate of ICANN organization. The deadline for applications was 18 February. The NomCom is now reviewing the applications received. African Regional Organizations AF* Update ISOC Ghana: Roundtable on Universal Acceptance and IDNS Tuesday, March 12, 2019: ISOC Ghana Chapter organized   Time : 17:30 – 20:00 GMT Venue: Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT Resource Person: Yoavi Atohoun - Brief overview on ICANN and the Domain Name system and the New Generic Top Level Domain Names - Inform the participants on the importance of domain names in Information and communication activities - Help the participants to make their systems Universal acceptance ready.   Encryption and IOT Day Celebration of Excellence and Securing IOT Day Venue: University of Ghana – Legon. Time: 09:00am Date: 20th December, 2019. The Ghana Chapter held a general meeting for members and pioneers of the Ghana. The general was held alongside Securing IOT day and honoring the father of the internet in Africa and chairperson of ISOC Ghana Chapter. ISOC Benin Holds MemberForce 2020 The Internet Society (ISOC) Benin Chapter resumed the year with hosting of two sessions for its member’s capacity building programme called MemberForce.  The first session of MemberForce 2020 took place on Saturday January 25 and was dedicated to sharing knowledge and experience about how to engage on Internet governance. Moderated by Raihanath GBADAMASSI (former ICANN fellow) and Rachad SANOUSSI (fellow Youth IGF Summit 2019). They shared with the participants their unique experience in the respective programmes they went through. They also gave a lot of tips on how and where to start from when engaging on Internet governance. Also, they explained how people could remain active in the ecosystem and finally shared the advantages and opportunities that could be obtained by engaging with the Internet ecosystem. More details here. Partners on Cybersecurity & Digital Hygiene  Mr. Olivier KOUAMI, who has been in Benin since last December, participated in the first edition of MemberForce 2020 and decided to organize in partnership with ISOC Benin Chapter an awareness campaign on Cybersecurity and Digital Hygiene on Saturday, February 15th 2020. This training session was aimed at raising awareness of participants on issues related to the use of ICT and Internet in this era. Kouami also shared some good tips and best practices everyone should follow while using the Internet in general.  Some participants equally asked a lot of questions at the interactive, just as it ended with a cocktail for participants, the trainer and members of the Chapter board. Rwanda holds first Safer Internet Day The first annual Safer Internet Day (SID) was held in Rwanda on Tuesday, 11 February 2020 at G.S NYIRARUKOBWA, a public school located in Bugesera District, with a campaign slogan of “Together for a better internet”. This annual celebration aims at raising awareness on the importance of both a safer and a better internet, where everyone is empowered to use technology responsibly, respectfully, critically and creatively. Participants including children and young people, parents, teachers were encouraged to play their part in creating a better internet which is open and secure for everyone. By celebrating the positive power of the internet, discussions focused on busting the myths about the internet as a dangerous place, promoting a positive use of online platforms and technology through internet literacy education in the family. A workshop was conducted to enhance the teacher's ability to maintain the computer lab established by ISOC Rwanda for their research. During the ceremony a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between ISOC Rwanda and G.S NYIRARUKOBWA to establish a cooperation framework between the Parties Facilitating Teachers and staff with access on the internet to empower them in digital education. Stay Connected At-Large on Twitter | At-Large on Facebook | AFRALO Website | Mailing List ICANN | 12025 Waterfront Drive, Suite 300, Los Angeles, CA 90094-2536 Unsubscribe afri-discuss@atlarge-lists.icann.org Update Profile | About Constant Contact Sent by staff@atlarge.icann.org in collaboration with Try email marketing for free today!

ICANN At-Large

Olivier Kouami

Raymond Mamattah

Remmy Nweke

Olivier Kouami

Raymond Mamattah

Olivier Kouami

Patricia Akello

tags

participants (5)