A Successful AfriNIC-10 Public Policy Meeting in Cairo, Egypt, May 2009

AfriNIC-10 Public Policy Meeting which was held jointly with AfNOG's 10th Year Anniversary meeting, from 10 - 21 May 2009 at the InterContinental Cairo, Citystars Hotel, Egypt and attended by some 150 delegates, proved to be a great success! It was hosted by the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) of Egypt and Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of Egypt (MCIT), and sponsored by Internet Society (ISOC), Cisco Systems Inc. (CISCO) and Google.

The event was opened by a Keynote Address from Mr. Mahmoud El Gowini, Advisor to Honourable Dr. Tarek Kamel, Minister of Communications and Information Technology and was comprised of training workshops; presentations on the latest Internet technology trends referenced by interesting case studies; overviews and updates from AfriNIC and the other Regional Internet Registries (RIRs); Policy Discussions; AfriNIC Board Elections; and, closed with a social dinner at the Smart Village which was also hosted by the MCIT where the delegates were privileged by the presence and speech from the Honourable Dr. Tarek Kamel.

One major outcome of the meeting was the approval of the Global Policy Proposal for the Allocation of IPv4 Blocks to Regional Internet Registries (RIRs). In line with the AfriNIC Policy Development Process (PDP), the policy proposal is now in the 15-day last call for comments period. However, the IPv4 Soft Landing and the IPv6 Allocations to Non-Profit Networks policies did not reach consensus during the meeting and were therefore sent back to the RPD mailing list for further discussion. More information on the policy proposals can be found at: http://www.afrinic.net/docs/policies/afpol-v4gb200903.htm and to learn more about the AfriNIC PDP, please visit http://www.afrinic.net/docs/policies/afpol-pdp200707.htm

Delegates also had the opportunity to participate in IPv6/LIR workshops and hear presentations from Industry leaders on subjects including the Legal Aspects of IPv6; Egypt IPv6 Task Force; Economics and Technical aspects of Internet Exchange Points (IXPs); updates from ICANN and IANA, discussions on the importance of participating in the policy development process; and, updates on the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) 2009, which we are proud to say will be held in the African Region in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, 15-18 Nov 2009.

AfriNIC Board Elections also took place on 21 May 2009 and the candidates elected to AfriNIC Board are: Southern African Region: Mark J. Elkins (of South Africa): Primary; Silvio Almada (of Angola): Alternate; (2) Eastern African Region: John Walubengo (of Kenya): Primary, Lillian Wambui Karanja (of Kenya): Alternate. The term of the newly elected Board members start on 01 July 2009 and for a three-year period.

AfriNIC Public Policy meetings are open to anyone and are particularly relevant to members, ISPs, the Internet community, academia, governments and regulators. Participation in these meetings will give you tremendous opportunities to upgrade your business, increase your knowledge on Internet related issues, make valuable contacts for building business relationships, and to have your say in policies that affect future development of the Internet in your region. We are pleased to announce that the AfriNIC 11th Public Policy meeting will be held in Dakar, Senegal from 28th Nov to 4th Dec. 2009 and would like to extend a warm invitation to the community to attend and participate. Please visit our website for additional information.

AfriNIC the Regional Registry for Internet Number Resources for Africa is a non-government, not-for-profit, membership-based organization, headquartered in Mauritius (with operation centre in Egypt and South Africa) to manage Internet Number for Africa.

Please visit our website for more information www.afrinic.net.