West African IGF takes off in Dakar

ITRealms Online

23 August 2010

http://itrealms.blogspot.com/2010/0...

All is now set for the 2010 West Africa Internet Governance Forum (WAIGF) in the city of Dakar, the capital of Senegal.

This is coming as WAIGF takes off today for a three-day session, it has been gathered that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and Open Society Institute for West Africa (OSIWA) among others endorsed the forum and saw to its success.

Disclosing this, a key player and a member of the Local Organisation Committee cum chairperson, Free and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) Ms. Nnenna Nwakanma, said that the two organisations drummed support for WAIGF.

“ICANN is giving support. OSIWA is supporting the participation of 20 international participants and l’Initiative pour la Gouvernance de l’internet en Côte d’Ivoire (IGICI) also supported some participants from Côte d’Ivoire. Certainly, the African Network Information Center (AfriNIC) would be supporting some people too. Then we cannot forget the national telco and the national regulatory authority in Senegal,” she said.

According to her, participants did not only come from West Africa, but were from all over the world, stressing that they were happy to welcome participants from all walks of life.

…“The theme for WA-IGF 2010 is ‘Promoting the Multi-stakeholder Model for further Internet Development in Africa’ and thank you all for your time,” she said.

The FOSSFA chairperson also disclosed that they recently opened call for Internet Governance Forum core team in West Africa to be hosted in Dakar between August 23 and 25, this year, noting that her organisation, the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and other partners, with support from the Open Society Institute of West Africa (OSIWA) launched a call for West Africa Internet Governance Forum preparation.

The terms of reference for West African IGF consortium group, she said, comprised of the formation of the core team, which entails background for the key members of the consortium group of organizations who would be contributing to the development and organization of the 2010 West African Regional Internet Governance Forum.

The Consortium, she said, include members and organizations from the seven targeted countries, namely Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire and Cameroon; as well as the convening organizations….