[Excom] Africa Domain Name System Forum 2024

[Barrack Otieno]

Dear EXCOM,

On 15th April 2024, the Secretariat sent out a call for hosts for the 
2024 Africa Domain Name System Forum. This decision was arrived at after 
concerns were raised with respect to Senegals ability to host the forum 
due to the impending presidential elections. We received Expressions of 
interest from the following ccTLDs:

1. .ZA Domain Name Authority
2. RICTA (.RW)

I would like to draw the EXCOMs attention to the fact that we had 
postponed NIC.SNs hosting for three consecutive years. Beyond hosting , 
our objective as the host of the Forum was to ensure that every Sub 
Region hosts the meeting since the meeting has proven to be a catalyst 
for ccTLD and domain name developement in any subregion or country that 
hosts it. To date the meeting has been hosted in the following 
countries:

1. South Africa .ZADNA (2013)
2. Nigeria (NIRA) 2014
3. Kenya (KeNIC) 2015
4. Morocco (Regulator) 2016
5. Tanzania (TzNIC) 2017
6. Benin (ANRT) 2018
7. Botswana (BOCRA) 2019
8. Virtual 2020
9. Virtual 2021
10. Kenya 2022 (Post COVID)

We had a call with our partner ICANN and they proposed that we consider 
going with Senegal now that the contentious political issue has been 
resolved. I relayed this information to Prof Idrissa who advised that he 
will be meeting the new Minister and will relay the information before 
reverting. I also had a call with .ZA and requested the leadership to 
consider according .SN and .RW an opportunity since .ZA had already 
hosted the forum to which they concurred. We will thus wait for Prof 
Idrissas feedback and make a decision between .SN and .RW. We can also 
have either as our host for next year.

Thank you

Best Regards

-- 
Barrack Otieno

General Manager

Africa Top Level Domains Organization

+254721325277

www.aftld.org

'The Regional Association of African ccTLDs