[rpd] On Bottom up vs Top down - ref: policies development

[Noah]

Hi Jaco,

On Tue, 21 Jul 2026, 6:44 pm Jaco Kroon via RPD, <rpd at afrinic.net> wrote:

> Simply put:
>
> AFRINIC as RIR may not make operational decisions without relevant POLICY
> controlled by community.
>
Some operational decisions do not require policy because they fall within
the mandate of AFRINIC internal operations, such as paying for software
licenses or infrastructure upgrades.
For policies related to INR, the bottom-up process has always been
employed, consistent with the spirit of internet governance principles
enshrined in our bylaws, to produce policies that support the registry's
governance and operations. However,

> As such, if AFRINIC were to implement contemplated restrictions (by way of
> operational choice) without relevant policy, they'd be acting outside of
> their mandate.
>
In 2020, we voted for some amendments to the Bylaws and resource members
empowered the AFRINIC board/directors with certain powers. They can
exercise these powers regarding policy adoption by invoking Articles 11.4
and 11.5 of the Bylaws at the next PPM...

That being said, top down policy adoption is already in place, as long as
we rubber-stamp the said policy....

Ahsante..
Noah
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