People

Anne-Rachel Inné is an Internet and digital transformation veteran and established leader on connectivity for communities. She also works right now as lead consultant Digital for Development, and co-founder at Africa Ultimate Expertise (AUE) in Niger.

Prior to going back to the private sector, Anne-Rachel was the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Regional Director for Africa with Ambassadorial credentials, serving as liaison to the African Union and UNECA. She worked to programme, organise and implement the ITU’s strategic and operational objectives on digital in all sectors, in Africa.

Before joining ITU, she was the Senior Vice President of Government Affairs, at the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) and the primary link to Governments of US, Canada, and more than 25 Caribbean and North Atlantic economies that constitute ARIN’s region and the focal point for International IGOs, IOs and their work. She participated to the writing of the OECD Policy Paper on: Routing security: BGP incidents, mitigation techniques and policy actions.

Immediately prior to working for ARIN, Anne-Rachel was the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)’s Vice President Government Engagement in Geneva, Switzerland, and worked for ICANN for 11 years. She served in various capacities – policy, Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), processes, and global partnerships in support of constituencies. Later, in the ICANN Brussels office, as Manager of Regional Relations for Africa for ICANN, she was instrumental in our first steps toward becoming a global organization.

She also worked as the Chief Operations Officer (COO) of the Africa Regional Internet Registry, AFRINIC, taking care of the whole registry operations, and building the community of governments’ engagement in the Registry’s public policies and processes.

Anne-Rachel worked at the IICD in The Hague, Netherlands (1998-2001) as several African, Caribbean and South American countries’ programme manager directing multi sector social development projects that were early adopters of ICT/Internet. She produced and publicized Learning by Doing: Lessons emerging from the ICT Stories Projects for the benefits of the projects and the wider community.

She was a member of the Bureau of the African Group at the World Summit for Information Society (WSIS), as a representative of the African private sector and a member of the Gender Coalition during WSIS with which she helped write Creating Your Own National Gender Programme – A Practical Guide

Anne-Rachel was an entrepreneur and consultant in the ICT4D for several years in developing economies and worked with African Union and UNECA on the African Information Society Initiative and subsequent NICI plans.

She was featured as ICT Expert in the ILO/IOM book for the AUC: African Women at the Service of the Union and a recipient of several awards for her demonstrated immense commitment and continued engagement with African communities.

She is the Chair or member of the Board of several NGOs that work in Digital Skills for all and for girls and women, Diplomacy in the digital age, African languages and ICTs and is the initiator/participant to several other initiatives around education and Internet/ICTs for Africa, by Africans. She is the God mother of other NGOs working on nutrition, health, prosperity and well-being via the re appropriation of African foods and their value chain.