What is the internet governance landscape in Africa? How do national and regional policies affect the shaping of the internet in the continent? What are the African perspectives on issues like name management or the role of internet exchange points? Forty-five participants from civil society organisations and governments from all over Africa joined the African School on Internet Governance (AfriSIG) on 21-26 November to discuss and come up with joint projects and ideas on these issues.
AfriSIG 2014, which took place in the island of Mauritius, was organised by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency’s e-Africa Programme. This was the second edition of the school, which included theoretical principles on human rights, history, politics and law relevant to internet users and intermediaries; analysis of regional and national policies; and a multi-stakeholder environment practicum.
“This school is a great way to learn and participate in internet governance debates, and to network with empowered actors from across Africa,” Khaled Fourati from the World Wide Web Foundation, and member of the AfriSIG faculty, said to APC.
“The NEPAD Agency values this school as a means of enhancing the capacity of stakeholders to engage in regional and global internet governance processes and spaces,” Towela Jere, programmes manager with the NEPAD e-Africa Programme and co-organiser of AfriSIG, added.
“The level of participation and the energy and enthusiasm of the participants at this year’s school was encouraging, and we hope that soon we will see them impact on their communities and countries positively with the knowledge that they have gained.”
In the words of Anriette Esterhuysen, APC’s executive director: “Conveying the range of concepts and processes related to internet governance in three and a half days is difficult, but AfriSIG2014 succeeded in giving participants an opportunity to experience the politics, complexity and challenges of distributed, multistakeholder internet governance. An internet governance that is democratic, inclusive, and ‘owned’ by all who use it.”
Participation in the school was not limited to the sessions taking place in Mauritius, but was expanded through the discussions taking place on social media, mostly through the #AfriSIG2014 hashtag on Twitter, and participants’ blog posts and interviews on the AfriSIG website.
“In the future, internet governance will be a clash of cultures. Governments vs. Communities, Hierarchies vs. Networks, Laws vs. Code, Top down vs. Bottom up. Are we ready?”