<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> </div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> </div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Great idea Mr Manga,</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> </div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">We need to have guideline for sponsoring attendance in forms of fellowship.</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">However much I like the idea, I don't believe it can be enforced as a mandatory practice, but seeing it as a general guideline would be good a good thing and with some help can even be promoted.</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">I cannot afford traveling myself, but I would love to be able to apply to the various groups offering fellowships, AFRINIC, ISOC, OIF, ICANN, LARUS, for some, I know who they are and how to apply, I have just not yet been lucky.</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Having a page with "How to attend?" would be great:</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">List of official fellowships:</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Fellowship Website A</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Fellowship Website B</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Etc...</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> </div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Attendees badges could have the logo of the sponsors, great publicity for the sponsors and full disclosure of who paid for their trip.</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">That would be a great step in transparency and promoting chances of attendance for everyone.</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">organizations that want to be seen would sign up for such programs without hesitation as it would only increase their presence and prestige, organizations with "sinister" goals would not want to be openly disclosed and would stay under the radar as they already do today.</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> </div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Like Mr. Borg said earlier, removing the consensus from the public session would in itself remove any possible criticism on who attends the policy meeting and their affiliations/sponsors.</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">I never quite heard of this LARUS foundation, but the name has been mentioned on the lists a few times.</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> </div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">LARUS has sponsored events of AFRINIC in the past:</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">https://twitter.com/afrinic/status/741305950267543553</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> </div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">So LARUS indirectly and openly has been sponsoring AFRINIC meetings and attendees for a few years already.</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> </div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> </div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">I had never heard of OIF involvements in the AFRINIC community until recently.</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> </div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">OIF apparently silently sponsors people for a long time already for what I understood from the exchanges on the list, they even paid money directly to AFRINIC in the early stages of AFRINIC.</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">I could not find the MOU between OIF and AFRINIC, I would love to see it just to have an understanding of what made them get involved in the first place.</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> </div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">I searched the OIF website for their goals and motivations into AFRINIC, I cannot find much, last big news are from 2014 when Mr Adiel Akplogan was invited to an OIF internet governance meeting at the headquarters in Paris along with Mr Fadi Chehadé from ICANN:</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">https://www.francophonie.org/Vers-une-nouvelle-gouvernance-de-l.html</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">(Google translate does a good job to translate the content.)</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> </div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">A government sponsored organization that specializes in promoting French agenda has enough power to invite the AFRINIC CEO and ICANN CEO to attend their own private events created on the side of official internet governance meetings, this is shows a strong and powerful organization is at play here within the AFRINIC community.</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> </div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Full disclosure on their participation and the affiliates they sponsor he attendance of, I believe would be appreciated by the community and provide a much needed clarity on their goals.</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> </div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">/Dabu</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> </div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> </div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> </div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">10.12.2018, 02:19, "Willy MANGA" <mangawilly@gmail.com>:</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">> Hi,</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">></div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">> Le 10/12/2018 à 07:23, Chevalier du Borg a écrit :</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">>>  I have hear of</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">>></div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">>>  - Larus Foundation Fellowship</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">>>  - OIF Fellowship</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">></div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">> From my humble point of view, if there is a fellowship-like program in</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">> these organizations (and others) a better transparency will be to</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">> clearly state on their website:</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">>  * what is the objectives of the program ?</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">>  * criteria to apply ?</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">>  * a public list of people selected at each meeting ...</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">></div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">> --</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">> Willy Manga</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">> @ongolaboy</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">> https://ongola.blogspot.com/</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">></div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">> ,</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">></div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">> _______________________________________________</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">> Community-Discuss mailing list</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">> Community-Discuss@afrinic.net</div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">> https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo/community-discuss</div>