The Africa Internet Governance Forum (AfIGF)

Nnenna Nwakanma writes:

The sixth global Internet Governance Forum in Nairobi in September 2011 will be witnessing the first joint action of many African initiatives on Internet governance. Actors from all the sub-regions of the continent will be deciding on concrete steps and objectives of the newly announced Africa Internet Governance Forum.

It was an idea whose time has come. Regional initiatives in East and West Africa are already in their fourth year; the Central Africa Internet Governance Forum is in its third year; the South Africa Internet Governance Forum kicked off in 2010.

Word had been going around about the Africa Internet Governance Forum (AfIGF) for some time now, but it was only during Diplo’s recent Internet Governance and ICT Policy workshop, which was co-organised by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in early April, that the AfIGF was finally born.

Expectations are high on all sides and hopes are up on the fresh breath that AfIGF will infuse into sub-regional, and especially national, on-going activities. Africans from Cape to Cairo, Dakar to Djibouti and throughout the diaspora have started pooling ideas on how AfIGF will best serve the continent.

This is a great time to take stock, to plan together and to strategise. You are welcome to be part of it. You can follow @AfrIGF on Twitter or e-mail nnenna at nnenna dot org. Whichever way, make it a point to attend the Africa Internet Governance session in Nairobi in September, and keep an eye open for more details on the evolution of the Africa Internet Governance Forum!