[Excom] [Ext] Re: Africa DNS forum 2024

[Barrack Otieno]

Dear Partners,

The AFTLD Executive Committee met on 15th November 2023. Among the 
issues discussed was the Africa Domain Name System Forum 2024.

The committee considered the responses received from ICANN following an 
email submitted by AFTLD citing a number of concerns it had to the 
partners. After consideration of the response and listening to 
submissions from nic.SN which had offered to host the forum, EXCOM 
resolved to go by the earlier offer received from nic.sn as the host of 
the Africa Domain Name system forum. In addition to the issues raised in 
the submissions we made earlier, AFTLD in partnership with ANRT held a 
marketing workshop in Rabat in 2023. We thus dont see rationale of going 
back to Morocco again and with Rwanda out of consideration due to 
reasons explained in ICANNs response, we would like to propose that we 
take up the offer by nic.SN.

We look forward to your feedback on our proposal and are available for 
further consultations on the same subject through a joint partners 
meeting.

Thank you
Best Regards



On 2023-11-06 20:25, Pierre Dandjinou wrote:
> Dear AFTLD colleagues,
> 
>  Thanks for your note; this is well received. Thank you for
> enumerating and sharing your concerns concisely with us. We appreciate
> the concerns and would like to respond as follows:
> 
>  Firstly, we would like to clarify that the Africa DNS Forum is not an
> ICANN - led process, rather is a collaborative project between equal
> partners and we apologize for any misunderstanding that may have
> represented it as such.
> 
>  Similar to you, we were informed of the joint regional proposal at
> the Hamburg meeting and deemed it best to first bring it to all
> partners for their visibility and input, before responding to the
> proposal.
> 
>  It is ICANN’s view that all partners in the project are equal
> partners. Notwithstanding, as has been the case in the past, we have a
> lead partner that supports with coordination for the project.
> 
>  As stated above, we strongly believe in consensus of all key
> decisions. Our view is that having a joint Middle East and Africa DNS
> Forum offers a peculiar opportunity for sharing best case practice and
> learnings between the two regions. The joint proposal is unique given
> this is the 11th Forum and would signal some novelty to the community.
> It allows each region to develop its own agenda to leverage cross -
> regional experience, case studies and expertise. It also makes it
> easier to pool resources and streamline responsibilities between the
> partner organizations.
> 
>  Unfortunately, it may be difficult to realize the proposal to have
> the forum in Kigali, co - located with the ICANN80 Kigali meeting. We
> have the Africa Engagement Forum as well as a Parliamentary track
> planned as pre-events for ICANN80 which, being a Policy Meeting, is
> relatively short, 10 - 13 June.
> 
>  For the avoidance of doubt, ICANN remains strongly committed to help
> the domain name industry in Africa to grow at a competitive rate and
> ensure that the continent is at par with the rest of the world.
> 
>  To allow for enhanced coordination, we would like to propose a
> meeting to align on the next steps and identify the best way forward.
> A doodle for an ideal time to speak will follow once we hear back from
> you. We look forward to speaking then.
> 
>   Regards
> 
>  Pierre
> 
>> ATTENTION: ce message ne provient pas de l'organisation ARCEP
>> Burkina Faso. Ne cliquez pas sur les liens ou n'ouvrez pas les
>> pièces jointes si vous ne connaissez pas l'expéditeur
>> pierre.dandjinou at icann.org et que vous n'êtes pas sûr que le
>> contenu soit légitime.
> 
> --
> Barrack O. Otieno
> +254721325277
> +254733206359
> Skype: barrack.otieno
> PGP ID: 0x2611D86A

-- 
Barrack Otieno

General Manager

Africa Top Level Domains Organization

+254721325277

www.aftld.org

'The Regional Association of African ccTLDs