[Community-Discuss] Accountability assessment - PDP review?

[Omo Oaiya]

Dear Community,

I am not suggesting there is a problem with the PDP per se or criticising
the co-chairs, past or present, but recent discussions on accountability
and co-authoring a policy proposal has resulted in my taking a closer look
at the PDP and its requirements.

The current PDP (
http://www.afrinic.net/en/community/policy-development/251-policy-development-process-in-the-afrinic-service-region-afpub-2010-gen-005)
adopted in 2010 specified improvements from its predecessor.

It lists fixing the following issues amongst others as incentive:


   1. the case of PDP moderators inability to attend public policy meetings
   2. the lack of appeal mechanisms against moderators actions
   3.  issues fixed on mailing list being reopened at face to face meetings
   weakening the decision making process.
   4. consensus building process leading to scenario where opinions
   expressed at face to face have more weight that the ones expressed on
   mailing list

While the new PDP succeeded in addressing #1 and #2, it has not addressed
#3 and #4.

The current PDP introduced the PDWG with co-chairs to perform the
"administrative functions” of the group.

- It did not describe what these administrative functions were.

- It did not prescribe criteria for co-chairs selection or an election
mechanism.

- It also did not describe the process for determining “rough consensus”.

As a result, we have seen:

- co-chairs candidates who could be more familiar with PDP and Internet
Number Resource management.

- insufficient moderation of policy proposal discussions on the mailing
list and at face to face meetings leading to endless repetitive discussions

- inability of co-chairs to determine consensus encouraging abuse of the
process with some people persistently opposing proposals and stalling
progress with insubstantial arguments causing unnecessary delay and
frustration

The policy discussions at AFRINIC-24 is a perfect illustration.  Another
easy example is that since AFRINIC-24, there has been little discussion on
proposals which were sent back on mailing list for further discussions as
per meeting minutes (
http://www.afrinic.net/en/library/policies/archive/ppm-minutes/1847-afrinic-24-pdwgpdp-minutes)
and no action from the working group co-chairs.

**Some questions for the community and co-chairs**

- How do we fix issues #3 and #4?

- Will the proposals returned to the list be presented in AFRINIC-25? if
yes, what will be the discussion points be and for which expected outcomes?

-Omo
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