IGF 2019 – Day 1 – Convention Hall I-D – OF #3 African Union Open Forum

The following are the outputs of the real-time captioning taken during the Fourteenth Annual Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Berlin, Germany, from 25 to 29 November 2019. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid to understanding the proceedings at the event, but should not be treated as an authoritative record. 

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>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Good afternoon.  Welcome to the AU Open Forum.  This is -- we have been doing this for many years now.  And I'm glad to see many familiar faces here in the room.

And it's very encouraging that we have you here all the time during the global IGF.

And just to remind everybody, this is a forum where we as Africans get together and discuss IG issues in Africa and share best practices and learn from each other and try to keep everybody informed of initiatives in Africa, various initiatives on IG in Africa.

And we tell you where we are, where we are heading in terms of IG in Africa.  And we are very happy to have you here.

We had discussion with the IGF Secretariat to make sure that they allocate more time for this meeting because as time goes we see more participations, and this is something really admirable.

And also we also requested interpretation because in Africa we don't always speak English.  We have other languages so we need to make sure at least we have English and French moving forward.  Moving next year.  Starting next year.

Let me just take this opportunity to acknowledge the presence of ministers and parliamentarians.  And as we say in the environment, all protocol observed.

Last year, we have the African IGF in Chad, and it was really remarkable IGF.  We had one of the best IGF so far in terms of the environment in Chad and the number of people attending the IGF.  And I would really hope that the other country would take a cue from Chad and try to copy what has happened in Chad.  And we take this opportunity to thank the government of Chad and all of the stakeholders that were involved in making the event a successful one.

And I take this opportunity also to welcome the Minister from Chad, Dr. Idriss Bachar.  And I will give him the floor as a chair of the -- of the last African IGF to give a brief statement.  Your Excellency.  (Applause)

>> IDRISS BACHAR: Thank you, Adil.  (Speaking non-English language)

(Applause)

>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you very much, Your Excellency, for the statement.  Let me just remind you of the program for today.

We are going to have a kind of a briefing on the African IGF that took place in Chad followed by a statement by the MAG chair.  And also another statement from Mr. Makane

Faye on the way forward.

And we are going to dedicate more time for an African Union initiative called PRIDA.  I think His Excellency referred to this initiative, and we want to keep you up to date on the initiatives and we have more interactions from you.  We will tell you where we are, where we are heading, and hopefully we can get more valuable feedback from the floor.

Let me also take this opportunity to congratulate the new IGF-MAG, Ms. Anriette Esterhuysen.

(Applause)

>> Anriette, please stand up.

>> Stand up.  Stand up so that people know you who are new here.

>> ANRIETTE ESTERHUYSEN: Thank you very much, Adil.

All I can say is that I would not have been selected if not for your support, and I really need your support going forward.

The MAG Chair has a limited mandate, but at least one of the things I want to bring to the IGF-MAG is greater inclusion and participation of African stakeholders from all sectors -- governments, business, civil society.

>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you, thank you very much. Let's work together so we have the next -- after Poland, we will have the global IGF in Africa.  So let's have this as a goal moving forward.

And we are going to rely on your -- on you to help us a lot with regard to this session, for instance, we need more time.  We need interpretation.  So this is in to-do list for you from now on.

So let me give the floor to Halime Ali to walk us through the event that took place in Jimena.

>> HALIME ASSADYA ALI: Thank you, Adil.  The presentation is in English, but I will present it in French to permit French speaker to understand.  (Speaking non-English language)

(Applause)

>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you.  Thank you very much, Halime.  As you can see, so many firsts.  The first African Youth IGF.  A statement declaration and so so much.  What struck me from the presentation, two-thirds of the participants were young people.  So this is something really, really inspiring.

We move next to a statement by the current MAG Chair, African IGF-MAG Chair, Ms. Mary Uduma.

>> MARY UDUMA: Bonjour, Africa, and good afternoon, everyone.  My name is Mary Uduma.  I'm the current AF IGF-MAG Chair.  And I want to say that I'm excited to see the number of people that are in this room.  And I also want to see such number as we go on to the Africa IGF 2020.  The location and time has not been fixed, but I want people to bear that in mind that we have Africa IGF 2020.

Before I continue, I just want to say thank you to the Honorable Minister from Chad and all the ministers here and parliamentarians that are here to be with us this short period.

(Applause)

>> MARY UDUMA: And we also want to say that Africa MAG Chair has put us in the global MAG Chair this 2020.  So that is another thing we are celebrating.  We celebrate all of you.  And we want to see more countries run the national IGFs.

For now, not all of the countries in Africa or states in Africa have started their IGF process, national IGF processes.  So we want to see that happen come 2020.

But for Africa IGF, the hosting was great, as the report has said.  From university hostel in 2013, we were -- we were accommodated at the five-star hotel, and which is a great leap, quantum leap from what we used to have.

From non-government high level to the highest government level in the country at the presidency level participated at the Chad IGF and Africa IGF.  And so we are so much grateful to the Chadian.  And in a short space of time they were able to put together, pull together such a great hosting.  Thank you again, Chad.

From less than 150 participants, we had -- there was a day the hall was almost 1,000 people, and it was a great time for us.  We could see that the bar has been raised and also the competition to host is stiff.  So if you are not careful, it might be difficult to get that.  But we don't want to lower the standard, we want to go with that standard.

The big bang of launching the Youth IGF was the icing on the cake of Africa IGF in Chad.  And it was a big one, it was a good one, and so many youth came around to say Momma, how will I be part of IGF?  And some of them are still writing me, and we are communicating and it was a good experience for us.

Local participation was very great.  Over 50% of participants or 70% of participants were from Chad.  And that is what we want all of the African countries to do.  Whenever we are coming to your country to host the Africa IGF, want to see participants, the local participants so that they can understand.  And again, the capacity building was very good.  The Africa School on Internet Governance and thanks again to Anriette and her team, APC, and PRIDA for bringing participants to the school from all over Africa.  Except those that were not able to make it, it was an opportunity for everybody to be there.  And most African countries were there to be trained and to build their capacity.

So that look at participation we want to see continue in 2020 and also for you to be part of Global IGF.  It was not only that we are doing physical meeting, there was remote participation, and which created opportunity for those that are not present to be able to connect with us and be able to share what we are doing there.

We saw more sponsors in the 2019 Africa IGF, and we are hoping that more would join to sponsor us.  We want to see the business sector be more active, AfICTA and the rest, we want to see more of you at the Africa IGF.  And then businesses in AfICTA to be able to sponsor the African IGF.  And when we have more sponsorship, we have more people participating and we have the dialogue with all, and we share our common goal and we take a common position that we will bring to the Global IGF.

So the shortfall or the flip side is communication was a problem.  So it made me think of what do we do to bridge the communication gap?  So hats off when we get back to our countries, we should make two languages or three languages in Africa to be compulsory so we can always communicate.  I'm not sure my friends from the French speaking understand what I am saying.  It is a challenge for us.  I'm happy that AU has taken it upon themselves that they would have interpretation by next time we are in search forum.

I want to welcome all of you and tell you that 2020 we will call upon you to be part of 2020 Africa IGF.  And the country will soon be announced and the date also.

So I leave that to Makane to continue from there.  Thank you.

(Applause)

>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you so much, Mary.  And now I give the floor to Makane to talk about the way forward.

>> MAKANE FAYE: Thank you, Mary.  Thank you all for coming to this, our forum.  I will move at the hosting issue.

You know, the Africa IGF takes place every year between end of June and end of November for three days in an African country.  And the process to host is a bid will be prepared in Arabic, English, French and Portuguese and put on the African IGF website.

Sent to all stakeholders also by e-mail.  And criteria are put on the bid.  And any country meeting the criteria, they can bid for hosting.

And the bid is sent by an African government or an African government institution, submitted to the AU Commission.  Bid is not yet sent, but we have some countries which have vied to host for the next African IGF in 2020.  The bids will be sent out early January.  And when the bid is accepted, the criteria accepted, then MOU will be signed between the African Union Commission and the host country.

As was stated earlier by Mary and Adil, the bar is set very high by Chad.  And we hope that the next host will follow suit or else we will go back to Chad.  Thank you.

(Applause)

>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you very much, Makane, for the statement.

Now we move to the initiative that I spoke about in the beginning, which is PRIDA, the Policy Integration Initiative for Africa.  At the AU leadership, it was felt that Africa participation in the global debate is -- IG debates is low and something has to be done.

So we thought about PRIDA.  And as you can see the logo there, European Union Commission is assisting with PRIDA on supporting the PRIDA for which we are very thankful.

But PRIDA basically has two tracks.  We are building capacity for Africans, all of the stakeholders in Africa.  We are also making sure that countries who don't have IGF, we are enabling and promoting IGF at the national level.

So I give the floor to my colleague, Dr. Nyambura to walk us through the PRIDA initiative.

>> MARGARET NYAMBURA: Thank you, Adil.  PRIDA is a Policy and Regulation Initiative for Digital Africa.

The next.  As my colleague has said, it is initiative.  Let's go to the next slide.  It is an initiative of the African Union, the European Union, and the International Telecommunication Union that has three main tracks or three main objectives.

The first one being to address various dimensions of broadband demand and supply in Africa.  Monitoring and evaluation and harmonization of ICT, telecommunication policies, legal and regulatory frameworks.  And the third track is streamlining the internet governance, structures, and processes and building the capacities of African member states in the IG space.

We go to the next slide, please. It's okay, I will still continue.  So PRIDA internet governance implementation strategy has two tracks, as has been said.  The first one being to strengthen the IG structures and processes at the national, regional and continental level.  By this, we are streamlining the policy development process at all these levels.  Again, we are coordinating African's participation in IG matters at the global level.

The second main track is to build capacity and develop -- build and develop capacity and offer coaching services to the internet community and diplomats of member states.  And in this, what we are doing is to strengthen the ability of African stakeholders to actively participate in the global internet governance practices that is both policy and technical debates and to develop negotiation skills of our state members before and during international meetings where decisions are taken.

The next slide where we have the actors and workflows.  Please go to the other slides.  We have the African Union Commission.  And at the national level we are working with the PRIDA focal points.  And we are working with the national governance.  At the regional level, we are working with the regional economic communities and regional conveners.  Then we have the Continental Africa IGF that is -- whose Secretariat is hosted by the African Commission that informs the global processes.

So what we are working on is to streamline the processes from the national to the regional to the continental and then inform the global processes.

So what has PRIDA done so far?  At the beginning of the year, there were three studies that were commissioned between April and July.  And these studies looked at challenges of active participation by the Africans in the Global IG decision-making processes.  So that is, we are a bit behind in that.  But basically that is what I discussed below before.  The various actors that we are working with.

So what we have done so far is that we have done three studies that -- between April and July.  And the focus was to understand the challenges, why are we not in the global processes both at the policy level and the technical level.  And we also developed an IGF toolkit that is available in both French and English to help at the national, the regional -- both national, regional and continental level, the whole process of organizing an IGF.

Again, we are developing contextualized training models that we are working with the DIPLO Foundation.  The other output we have is the PRIDA internet governance implementation strategy, which we are discussing now, which is a draft of it for now, but should be finalized very soon.  And the harmonization of national, regional and continental IGFs.

What we have done is the IGF toolkit should be able to streamline the processes in all the 55 countries and this tookit to be used for those countries that do not have an IGF.  At the moment, we have 29 countries with IGF.  So from the 55, there are still 20 plus countries that we need to focus on.

We want to rationalize scheduling of IGFs and Internet Governance schools from 2020 to ensure all of the national IGFs are held between January and June of each year starting from next year.  Again, we want to ensure that regional IGFs are held between July and September and to ensure that the continental IGF is held in October.

PRIDA is offering support for the regional internet governance schools and regional IGFs.  We already did this with the East Africa IGF and the ACA's IGF.  And capacity building and development.  We have already developed 11 modules, training modules on internet governance and they were tested in Malaysia.  And we have already trained 70 regional trainers that we are using at the regional level to ensure that we expand the numbers and build capacities at the national and regional level.

In collaboration with DIPLO, we are contextualizing the content for internet community and diplomats to ensure that while we are thinking global we are again taking cognizance of our challenges at the country level so that we harmonize that and ensure we move hand in hand.

So what are the next steps for PRIDA?  We need to finalize the IG implementation strategy.  We are working on a study on sustainability of internet governance trainings, and that again we are doing with DIPLO Foundation.  Support and creation of national IGFs where they do not exist.  And continue supporting regional and continental IGFs.

We are developing contextualized online and offline training modules for the internet community with embedded certification.  Again, this will be available in both French and English.

We are developing contextualized online and offline training modules for diplomats.  And again, this will have an embedded certification, both in English and French.  We are working on a digital platform that will be hosted by the African Union Commission.  And we are developing a framework for digital policy clinic for on-demand coaching on both technical and policy issues.

And finally, we are fostering communities of practice around internet governance composed of researchers, practitioners, technical experts and policy makers. And that is about PRIDA.  Thank you.

(Applause)

>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you so much, Dr. Nyambura.  I think the key takeaway here, there is a PRIDA strategy.  We ask you to be all involved in the implementation of this strategy.

I think the aim is to make sure that Africa participates in the global debate with one voice.  I think the idea we wanted to make sure that at the country level we have a coherent policy development process.  And then you move up to the regions and at the continental level.  So when we reach to the African IGF, then we will have one voice or at least a common position on various issues in the IG space.

This is something that we -- I think we all aspire to have achieving.  And I think it is very important at the national level we have a coherent policy development process, and at the continental level we have a common position when we come to different debates pertaining to IG.

I think we have 20 minutes.  We are going to open the floor for Q&A.  I think this is one of the thing that just reminding the next MAG Chair that we needed more time for our session.  And I cannot stress enough the interpretation.

I think I start here and then we have this gentleman.  Please introduce yourself.  And then briefly the question because we need to have more people participating.

>> AUDIENCE: (Speaking non-English language)

>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you very much.

>> AUDIENCE: Thank you very much for very good moderation. And I take this early opportunity to also thank the presenters for some very wonderful presentations on Internet Governance Forums in Africa.

And on the subject of the day, even as I commend this good turnout here today of Africans in this room, I would like to remind us of the important role that legislation has to play in internet governance in our continent.  And there are parliaments that are actually taking the lead to start legislating on laws that are not only internet friendly but are also leading into a better space in the internet that is safer and more moderated content.

We have a good delegation from Kenya, and I would take this opportunity to report some few things that Kenya has been able to do in the last year.  Kenya Parliament has been able to pass four pieces of legislation in the last two years.

And these pieces of legislation range from a number of issues that have to do with internet governance.  We have been able to pass the Kenya Data Protection Act.  We have been able to amend the Kenya Information and Communication Act.  We have been able to pass the Kenya Copyright Act, which was an amendment bill.  And we have also been able to pass a very ground-breaking law in Africa, the Computer Misuse and Cybercrime Bill, which of course offers a safer space on the internet.

There is a good issue also that was raised about the language that Africa Internet will be speaking.  And I would like to remind us about the words that were spoken by a great African leader who told us that if you speak to me in English or French or Arabic, you are speaking to my mind.  But if you speak to me in my native vernacular language, you are speaking to my heart.

And that is why I'm excited about what is happening in Kenya when I see that I can go on Google and do an entire search and browsing and surfing in Swahili because then we are taking the internet right to the people who need to use it into the future.

Finally, I would like to just recognize members of parliament in the room from Kenya.  We have right there Honorable Antonio Loitch (phonetic), a member of Parliament from the city.  We have the Honorable James Gazaru Mashrakuru (phonetic)from the Better Constituency, and sitting right next to me is Honorable Major Bashir who was a former soldier and our big advocate of internet governance.

And we have got staffers and members of public from Kenya.  I would just like to recognize that they are in the room.  People from Kenya, kindly stand up.  So Kenya is decidedly -- Kenya is decidedly wanting to lead the way in internet governance.  And we like what you say about Internet Governance Forums at national levels.  Thank you very much.

(Applause)

>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you.  Thank you very much.  Please next time introduce yourself before you make the comment or ask questions.  I think you bring a very good point. I would like --

>> AUDIENCE: Can I introduce myself?

>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Yes, please.

>> AUDIENCE: Thank you, Mr. Moderator.  I'm very sorry for that.  My name is Honorable George Macharia Kariuki.  A member of parliament and sit on the Committee of Examination, Communication and Innovation in the Kenya Parliament.

>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you very much Your Excellency.  Thank you very much.

And I think this is exactly why we need -- we want and need IGFs at the national level.  We need to be able to link the debate during the IGFs to ongoing processes at the national level so that you have direct impact on the processes and somehow the voice that is formed within the multi-stakeholder discussion is heard when you do the legislation and so forth.

I give the floor to our friend here at the CEO and then the lady, the COO and then the lady here.  And I think there is some people at the back.  I think let's also take some.  Yes.  And then here.  Okay.

So one -- one, two, three.  And then -- three and four at the back.  And then we get some question from remote.

>> AUDIENCE: Thank you, Adil and Makane.  I think at this AU Open Forum it is only appropriate that we give feedback to you on the progress of the one of the tasks of the project that we are undertaking on behalf of the African Union.

So my colleague Honorable KJ introduce the honorable members from the Parliament of Kenya, I would like to recognize my Honorable Deputy Minister from South Africa, Mr. Canna.

So I would like to give you feedback on dot-Africa domain name where we stand today.  In terms of history, in 2012 we were appointed by the African Union to administrate the dot-Africa domain name.  2014, We signed an agreement with ICANN for the same.

And in 2016, unfortunately the litigation commenced which cost us close to 3 million U.S. dollars.  And in 2017, this is only then we commenced the delegation of dot-Africa.

In 2018, there was a dot-Africa Foundation that was established.  The dot-Africa Foundation had a key mandate of addressing issues of local content, development of registrars across the continent, development of CCTLDs and the Pan-African ICT program.

All of the funds when you acquire a dot-Africa domain name, the funds go towards the foundation, a percentage of that.  And in 2019 the litigation was over.  So we are only happy today to tell you that the litigation is over.  We have finally prevailed.  Dot-Africa is now an African project, it belongs to all of us, and I hope nothing will deter us going forth.

Next steps is to capacitate and launch the foundation.  We are looking to do that in DRC Congo in 2020, during the AIS, which is the Africa Internet Summit.  We will launch dot-Africa.

And we are going to continue creating awareness in line with the OR Tambo, the Abuja and Sharm el-sheikh Declarations.  These are the declarations that are pivotal for our domain name.

And now we are working towards the release of AU.Africa from ICANN reserve list so the African community can have their own domain name under AU.Africa away from AU.INT.  Now we are only happy this will be realized next year.

And for now, I want to implore each, request African community to now register for your domain name under dot-Africa.  Make your presence in this digital space of Africa and acquire a beautiful name under dot-Africa.  I thank you.

(Applause)

>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you very much.  I think it's a no-brainer, I think we need to have our own identity in this dedicated space, and dot-Africa is the perfect example for our identity.  I give the floor to the lady here.

>> LINDA BONYO: Good afternoon.  My name is Linda Bonyo.  I come from Kenya from the Lawyer's Hub.  We are a policy innovation hub for lawyers, the first in Africa.  And I have two comments.  One is a question.

Is IGF open to collaborate with private sector efforts to bridge the technology and policy gap?

I ask this because we are putting together an Africa Law Tech Festival in March 2019 to bridge the gap between law and technology.  And we are doing this in Nairobi from the 6th to the 11th of March next year.  I would be very open to hear if we could collaborate on running the Internet Governance classes as well as speaking engagements.  And we are working together with AfriLabs on this.

And two, I would like to defer with a few points mentioned as regarding the regulation sector.  And I would want to just indicate here that it is not proper to continue to stifle the internet of Kenya.  Like the introduction of social media regulation requiring bloggers to register.

And even the punitive regulations you are bringing across on drones.  Yet, they are delivering medicines on drones already.  I think it is important that ministers walk the talk, and even as they report that they say the truth on the ground.

I think we can do better, Kenya as a country.  And that we enable people to innovate.  We just introduced 16% taxation on e-commerce.  The same as for brick and mortar companies.

I think you need to walk the talk and make the sector in Kenya good for innovation.

(Applause)

>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you very much. Here.

>> DOROTHY GORDON: Thank you.  My name is Dorothy Gordon, and I'm the Chair of the Intergovernmental Council for UNESCO's Information for All Program.

I think that what we've heard today is really inspiring.  I just want to remind everyone here that you have representation at UNESCO where many important issues are also being decided.

And that it would be very important for civil society, private sector as well as those government organizations -- representatives that are here to make sure that your ambassadors at that level are briefed.

The question I actually wanted to ask is in listening to the presentation of the PRIDA, it was not clear to me how you address the very concerning issue of the gender and representation of women.  Whereas, Chad was very impressive, we see that the numbers of women represented were very low.  So it is clear that we need some special support to ensure that we build up the numbers of women.

Could you just clarify a bit more on what is being done?

>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you.  We have two questions at the back, or I think one question.  And then we will take questions from the online.

>> AUDIENCE: Hello.  Good afternoon, Africans, and Friends of Africa.  My name is Keith Andare (phonetic), I'm from Kenya.  And we -- Youth Representative of the African IGF-MAG.

I do not want to water down what my colleagues have said as far as the African Youth Internet Governance is concerned.

I just want to encourage all of you that Africa is youth and we can make much more interventions and conversations as far as IGF is concerned if we support young people at the national levels.  So I'm calling upon everyone in the room, conveners of National IGF to support youth initiatives at national level so that we can have meaningful conversation at global level and regional level.  Thank you so much.

(Applause)

>> ADIL SULIEMAN: I don't know if you have questions from the remote participation.  Who is -- do we have any question from the remote participation?

So I think before we proceed, there were a couple of questions that were asked regarding private sector participation in the IGF space.  Yes, definitely.

And I think we need to go beyond the classical stakeholder group and do mapping based on issues.  Whatever issues that you are discussing, and you want to debate on, you do mapping and see who has more stake in that process and then you invite them.

So I'm pretty sure they are going to capture people who really have a lot of stake in the process and who are really interested in the subjects.

So if you are doing something pertaining to private sector, definitely they are going to be one of the key stakeholder presented.

The question in regard to gender, I think we are trying, but this is an invitation to everybody to give us ideas.  But what we are trying to do when we organize meeting, workshops and so forth, we are always mindful of gender representation in our meeting, trainings and so forth.

Oftentimes, we are faced with no application from women and then find ourself in the dilemma where, for instance, you open an application and then you get only 10% women responding.  In which case then you are -- but we recognize the issue and we are open to ideas and thoughts so that we can improve on that aspect.

I think the honorable Mr.-- if you want to have a statement?  You are okay.  Let me give the floor to the Deputy Minister from South Africa.

>> AUDIENCE: Chair, thank you very much.  And I think I want to really appreciate this opportunity and congratulate the initiative, especially to make sure that Africa as a continent is not left behind in the internet governance space.

Two things that I want to propose, Chair.  We had the conference African Vision in South Africa.  And the SG is from Kenya, Mr. Komo.  One of the things he did for attendance at the conference was to say every country that want to participate, at least one delegation must be a woman.

So once we start to do that, we create an opportunity for women to be part of these kind of conferences, exposure but also deliberately wanting them to be active participants.

So one thing, Africa has the youth dividend, but the whole continent women are a majority so let's walk the talk along those lines.

The issue today is that we have the Pan-African Parliament.  Now, PRIDA, it is a brainchild of the AU Commission and all that we are doing the support by the AU Commission.

Harmonization of policies and legislation.  Let's also use the PAP platform for us to synergy because there are areas of mutual interest, especially countries that are along the coastline where we need to synergize some of the things that we want to do.

So let's also use the Pan-African Parliament to fast-track some of the policies because we are not starting from scratch.  They are codes of good practices from other countries.  Thank you very much.

(Applause)

>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you very much, Your Excellency.  Points well taken.

Let's take a question from this side.  My friend.  And I think, unfortunately, we are running out of time.  We are almost -- the time is up, but let's take these two questions and we can conclude.  Go ahead, please.

>> AUDIENCE: Thank you, Adil.  My name is Judy from Kenya.  Thank you for the presentations.

My question regards persons with disability.  I would really like to see -- or rather to hear what the Africa IGF intends to do regarding persons with disabilities.  Because even as it is, even the Africa IGF website cannot be read by a screen reader.  So I would like to know the way forward on that.  Thank you.

>> HISHAM ABOULYAZED: Thank you, Adil.  And I want to congratulate you on the team working on the beta for achieving this milestone in the project.

My name is Hisham Aboulyazed.  I'm with the NTRA, The National Telecom Regulator of Egypt.

And I'm also part of the PRIDA IG focal points across the continent.

I wanted just to take a moment, of course, to congratulate Anriette on the other side of the table for her appointment as the new MAG Chair.  Congratulations, Anriette.

This is -- this is an important moment for Africa and I want to link this also to the efforts for the beta.

At the moment, we are -- as a continent, I would say we are very lucky to have representation at the highest level in terms of the IGF-MAG at the Global IGF.  And we have also two representatives at the ICANN-GAC, the Governmental Advisory Group.  Manal Ismail of Egypt and Jacques Rodrigue of Burkina Faso as Chair and Vice Chair respectively.

So I was wondering if maybe in the next stages of PRIDA program we can put more focus also on organizations like GAC and ICANN and how we can assist representatives from across Africa.

And I want also to capitalize on -- at the presence of high level dignitaries from different countries across the continent to perhaps shape a message from this open forum on the need to make resources available for Africa to participate in these forums.

There are a number of things at IGF or at ICANN that we just cannot miss out on.  This morning it was the consultation on the digital cooperation that was launched by the UN Secretary General.  And there is a lot for the African countries to comment on and to engage on.

So I was hoping that maybe, Adil, we could introduce a component on these two tags regarding ICANN GAC and digital cooperation as well in the next stages.  Thank you.

>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you.  Thank you, a point well taken.

Judith, I think we want to solicit your help.  And I think you will be a very good candidate to give us insight and ideas on the subject so that we can improve the situation in the African IGF environment.  Okay.

So I think finally, I give the floor -- I think we have a request here on this side.  I give the floor.  And the debate is really interesting and we are just getting started, but unfortunately time is not on our side.  I think this will be the last comment.  And then we will close after that.

>> AUDIENCE: Thank you very much.  I'm Nana Kofi Asafadou, the IGF Coordinator for Ghana National IGF and also the PRIDA focal point.  I would like to say that this year, Ghana had the maiden Youth IGF in Ghana.  And also as part of the National IGF we talked about a lot of the very relevant issues.

But before I continue, I want to also make you aware that we have a great delegation from Ghana including two women.  Could you please stand up and get a hand clap.

(Applause)

>> AUDIENCE: So there is a lot going on.  There is a lot going on in Ghana in terms of inclusion and cybersecurity in Ghana right now.  We have the Universal Access Fund which has digital literacy training going on.  There is a rural telephony, spreading the internet in the remote areas. And our minister in particular is very, very keen to include women.  So we actually are doing the Miss Geek Ghana contest which is going to tie into the Ms. Geek Africa to encourage women into ICT because we believe the more women in IT the more that will be represented at an IGF level.

So I just wanted you to be aware of that.  And thank you very much.

(Applause)

>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you very much.  I think we are way past time, but I will give the floor to this lady briefly and then a couple of announcements, people want to invite people for events.  It is going to be done by Hosam.  And then there is somebody from that side also want to make announcement.  Briefly, please.  Very briefly.

>> DOREEN MOKOENA: Thank you, Chair, for recognizing.  My name is Doreen Mokoena, I'm from the South Africa Domain Name Authority.

First of all, I would like to recognize the South African delegation which is the Deputy Minister, COO and our CEO as well.  South Africa recently had the first National Internet Governance in October.  And for the first time ever, we have the first inaugural of the School of Internet Governance and had a turnout of about 50 students.  And it was bearing the multi-stakeholder model, we had representation from all sectors as well.

And another thing that the South African government in terms of internet governance that has pushed thus far is to put through the cybercrimes bill to parliament for deliberation.  And we also have the prevention and combating of hate speech bill that is due for deliberation in parliament.  And we also have the Papaya Act as well.

And we need to be cognizant of the fact that South Africa is finalizing the report of the fourth industrial revolution as it is in full swing right now.  And next year we will have the second phase of the School of Internet Governance seeing that the first pilot was successfully carried. And we do appreciate what the Africa School of Internet Governance is doing because we have taken the model from them.  Thank you.

>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you very much.  Hossam.

>> HOSSAM ELGAMAL: Yes, quickly, thank you very much, Adil.

My name is Hossam Elgamal, I'm the Chairman of the African ICT Alliance, AfICTA, which gather members, SMEs and companies, private sector from 30 countries in Africa.

Just to announce that we are organizing a session, a workshop for Africa and developing countries in the digital inclusion theme on Thursday, 4:40 to 6:00 p.m. Unlocking the digital potential.  There are a lot policy challenges we want to discuss in multi-stakeholder for Africa and for the developing countries and we invite you all to be there with us.  Thank you very much.

>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you, Hossam.

>> AUDIENCE: Thank you so much, Chair.  My name is Yolanda Lumsi (phonetic), I'm from South Africa.  I work for Google.  This is just a short one to announce we will be having a reception at 5:30 and everyone is invited.  It's a Google reception inviting African delegation as well as Latin America.  It will be just outside the UN zone by the foyer.  So please make your way there.  Thank you so much.

>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you very much.  I think one final note.

>> AUDIENCE: Yes.  So one final comment from me.  The Ghana delegation is very, very honored to have among us a very active member of parliament doing a great job and ensuring a great internet in Ghana.

And if you don't mind, I would like you to acknowledge the presence of Honorable Sam George, Member of the Select Committee on Communication in the Parliament of Ghana.

>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you very much.  I think with that, we come to the conclusion of this session.  We thank you very much for staying here all the time.  And we appreciate.  And hopefully the next ones we are going to have more time and interpretation.

I thank you again.  And I wish you very good meetings here during IGF.  Thank you very much.