<h1 class="title">New Africa Internet group pushes regional issues at ICANN</h1>
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<a href="http://www.computerworld.co.ke/articles/2009/03/12/new-africa-internet-group-pushes-regional-issues-icann">http://www.computerworld.co.ke/articles/2009/03/12/new-africa-internet-group-pushes-regional-issues-icann</a><br>
By Rebecca Wanjiku, Computerworld Kenya<br>12 Mar, 2009 </div>
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<div class="aggregation_item"><div class="aggregation_item_body"><p>To
make African Internet users' voices heard internationally, the
Africa-At-Large Organization (AFRALO) held its inaugural meeting last
week on the sidelines of the Mexico City meeting of the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).</p><p>"AFRALO
meetings will be held at every future ICANN meeting," said Fatimata
Seye Sylla, president of the tech professional organization Bokk Jang
Bokk Jeff in Senegal. "All participants expressed commitment to work
together for a more meaningful participation of Africa in ICANN-related
issues," Sylla said.</p><p>African issues have been underrepresented in
ICANN, industry insiders say. Paul Levins, ICANN vice president of
corporate affairs, has acknowledged that there exists <a href="http://www.computerworld.co.ke/articles/2008/11/07/meeting-exposes-gap-icann-discussions">a gap within ICANN </a> between issues affecting developed and developing countries. </p>
<p>While
Africa grapples with issues of connectivity and access, ICANN meetings
address larger issues such as the introduction of new generic Top Level
Domains, security and Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), which are
important to Internet development but remote for Africans with no
access.</p><p>ICANN plans boost underserved regions through a new outreach policy, as part of its overall development strategy. </p><p> </p><p>"There
are a number of initiatives ongoing: training on security, stability
and resiliency for country court Top Level Domains," said Ann-Rachel
Inne, the Africa liaison at ICANN, in response to an online forum query
posed by Yassin Mshana, a former Africa representative in ICANN. Mshana
questioned how far implementation of the outreach policy had gone. </p><p>ICANN
is also offering fellowship for civil society and government
representatives to participate in public meetings, and ICANN staff is
reaching out to local communities and universities and organizing
regional meetings, Inne said.</p><p>There are various At-Large groups
within ICANN that address issues affecting individual Internet users
and participate in ICANN policy development work. At-Large
representatives attending the Mexico summit came from Africa; Europe;
Asia-Australia; the Pacific islands; Latin America and the Caribbean
islands; and North America. </p><p>In a meeting report, however, the
At-Large groups said that there is uneven participation and engagement
in ICANN-related issues and a lack of mechanisms to connect ICANN with
the end-users.</p></div></div> </div>
<div class="taxonomy"> in <ul class="links inline"><li class="first taxonomy_term_46"><a href="http://www.computerworld.co.ke/category/africa/middle-east" rel="tag" title="" class="taxonomy_term_46">Africa/Middle East</a></li>
<li class="last taxonomy_term_14"><a href="http://www.computerworld.co.ke/category/internet" rel="tag" title="Internet" class="taxonomy_term_14">Internet</a></li></ul></div>
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