Forums (11)
As Cameroon's Internet stakeholders debate on policy issues
The 6th edition of the African Internet Governance Forum (AfIGF), hosted by the National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (NTRA) of Egypt, took place 04-06 December 2017, at Sharm EI-Sheikh, Egypt under the theme “Enabling an Inclusive Digital transformation of Africa”.
The objective of the forum was to come up with a common agenda to be presented at the IGF World summit, in Geneva later in the year.
Over 300 participants drawn from the government, private sector, academia, research institutions, technical community, civil society organizations and media from over 30 countries attended the forum. ANTIC represented Cameroon with a delegation of seven (07) staff.
The forum was officially opened by Dr. Sherif Hashim, Vice president, National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA) Egypt and a welcome statement was also delivered by H.E. Dr. Amani Abou-Zeid, Commissioner of Infrastructure and Energy, the African Union (AU).
Activities of the AFIGF 2017
The forum was organized as follows: one (01) high level discussion session, nine (09) plenary sessions and eight (08) parallel sessions.
The high level discussion session was moderated by Mr. Moctar Yedaly from the AUC with the main aim of capturing the perspectives of the delegates on the policy implications of digitization to enable an inclusive digital transformation.
Key issues addressed during the plenary and parallel sessions included:
- The role of DNS as a technology in the Internet Policy ;
- Connecting to the Next Billion ;
- Enabling the Digital Transformation of Africa: The Role of Youth ;
- AFEX Internet Freedom Reports ;
- Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) ;
- Cyber Security in Africa ;
- Internet Universality Indicators;
- Public libraries rise to the challenge to connect the next billion.
The forum ended with a presentation of the recommendations of the AfIGF 2017 and Dr. Sherif Hashim, Vice president, NTRA, Egypt gave the closing remarks.
Outcomes
- The African IGF Charter was adopted during the plenary session. Implementation of the charter will begin from the 7th AfIGF to be held in Khartoum, Sudan 2018.
- The organizers of AfIGF are soliciting a Central African country to host the AfIGF 2019;
- The African IGF equally expressed the wish for African countries to actively involve youths in Internet Governance activities and how they can digitally transform their countries.
