Dear Mike,
I think that Goran have mentioned in his speech that this  'The Intention' and he did not refer to any policy as you can see in the joined picture .
In addition and in my opinion what Goran mentioned is a request of  the majority Non Latin Community  members , and not limited to the African community, so reviewing the Sub Pro  in order to favor non latin or non english TLD will be a good proposal for At-large or UA team.
Friendly regards.
Chokri

Le jeu. 1 déc. 2022 à 22:18, mike palage.com via CPWG <cpwg@icann.org> a écrit :
Hello All,

This week I have seen many ICANN community members participating, in person and virtually, at IGF 2022.  Today during the IGF 2022 Town Hall, "Launch of the Coalition for Digital Africa" there was a statement by Goran which made me do a double take. In response to a questions about new gTLDs Goran stated that "[t]he intention of the top level domains is not to have more English top level domains where you read left to right."

I have included the full scribed text below along with a link to the YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VXcWW74qG4 at 4:34:42)

When exactly did this change in policy happen, I must have missed it. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Best regards,

Michael

"One more thing.  One other small thing that I can do, and it's one of the biggest things we have done in a long time.  We are going in the process where we want to have more top level domains, domain names and we are right now in the process after a long period of time from ICANN community work, where we -- on the 14th, we are going to start about the Next Generation of top level domains.  The intention of the top level domains is not to have more English top level domains where you read left to right.  And the intention is to make sure the top level domains are for regions, Africa is one we would like to talk about.  We would like to see more African top level domains operated here in Africa and that support your businesses and community and lives."
_______________________________________________
CPWG mailing list
CPWG@icann.org
https://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/cpwg

_______________________________________________
By submitting your personal data, you consent to the processing of your personal data for purposes of subscribing to this mailing list accordance with the ICANN Privacy Policy (https://www.icann.org/privacy/policy) and the website Terms of Service (https://www.icann.org/privacy/tos). You can visit the Mailman link above to change your membership status or configuration, including unsubscribing, setting digest-style delivery or disabling delivery altogether (e.g., for a vacation), and so on.