Message on behalf of AFRALO officers: Dear AFRALO members please be so kind to provide your comments to the AFRALO Statement on the Brazil Internet Governance Conference ( April 2013 ) by Monday Dec 23 at 24 UTC. Thank you! Kind regards, Silvia Silvia Vivanco Manager, At-Large Regional Affairs Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Telephone: + 1 (202) 570-7119 Fax: +1 (202) 789-0104 Cell/Mobile: +1 (202) 735-7011 From: Silvia Vivanco Sent: Thursday, December 19, 2013 8:58 PM To: 'afri-discuss@atlarge-lists.icann.org' Cc: Mohamed El Bashir <mbashir@mbash.net> (mbashir@mbash.net); ICANN At-Large Staff Subject: AFRALO Statement on the coming Brazil Internet Governance Conference ( April 2013 ) Dear AFRALO members, On behalf of AFRALO's leaders: Kindly see the below the draft AFRALO Statement for comments . Please be so kind to provide your comments as soon as possible. The Target date for publication of the statement is 20th December 2013 . -------------------------------------------------------------STATEMENT---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AFRALO Statement on the coming Brazil Internet Governance Conference ( April 2013 ) The internet services have experienced exponential growth in Africa. This has allowed millions of Africans to connect to the internet and benefit socially and economically. Only 16% of the continent's 1-billion people are online. Africa is now in a better position to benefit from the internet as a catalyst for economic and social development especially as it is currently experiencing a huge growth of international bandwidth and capacity. However, this economic and social growth cannot prosper without trust built within an inclusive internet governance mechanism, at regional level and worldwide. That's why AFRALO supports the Montevideo statement for the future of the Internet issued by the Internet Technical Organizations and emphasizes the need to globalize ICANN, including its IANA function, as an organization that serves the internet communities specially in emerging and developing Africa. In order to sustain the current and future growth of the Internet in Africa, AFRALO supports the upcoming Brazil Internet Governance Conference based on the below principles : - The conference and stakeholders participating should express their continued commitment to keep the internet open and accessible for the benefit of all people - Importance of keeping a globally coherent Internet, and avoid Internet fragmentation at a national or regional levels - The conference should not be an alternative or replacement of the current Internet Governance forums to ensure coordination with the global IG discussions Finally, AFRALO is committed to actively participate and support the "/1Net" initiative, and will make the necessary outreach in its community of African At-Large Organizations and continue advocating for the Internet multi-stakeholder model . ========================== Silvia Vivanco Manager, At-Large Regional Affairs Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Telephone: + 1 (202) 570-7119 Fax: +1 (202) 789-0104 Cell/Mobile: +1 (202) 735-7011