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Who Makes the AFRINIC Policies? You Do!

The policies that AFRINIC uses to distribute Internet number resources are proposed, discussed and accepted (or rejected) by the AFRINIC community.

Anyone can take part in the AFRINIC Policy Development Process (PDP) and you do not need to be an AFRINIC member to join the Policy Development Working Group (PDWG) and participate. 

Have Your Say

Discussions about policy proposals take place on the Resource Policy Development mailing list (rpd) and during open Public Policy Meetings.

The PDWG will hold the next open Public Policy Meeting during AFRINIC-25 on: 

Tuesday 29 November, 2016
11:00 - 19:00 (MUT)
Sofitel Imperial Resort and Spa, Mauritius.

If you cannot attend in person, remote participation is facilitated. 

Be Prepared

Get familiar with each of the policy proposals that will be discussed so you can join in the conversation.

As Internet Number resources are finite, their allocation is based on the operational needs of end-users and Internet Services Providers, while avoiding stockpiling. This policy proposal states that in order to ensure efficient and appropriate use of resources, AFRINIC shall conduct regular reviews of resource utilization of the resources held by its members. This would allow recovery of any type of resource where usage is not in compliance with the RSA. Those resources could then be reallocated for better usage. Read the full proposal.

Like the other Regional Internet Registries (RIRs), AFRINIC will soon exhaust its own IPv4 pool. In order to meet the needs of late IPv4 resource requestors, a transfer policy for IPv4 resources within the region is needed. The goal of this policy proposal is to define conditions under which transfers may occur. This policy proposal aims to solve the issue of an African organisation needing IPv4 number resources after the exhaustion of the AFRINIC IPv4 pool or when AFRINIC can no longer satisfy the needs of such an organization. Read the full proposal.

The AFRINIC community has voiced concerns that enacting a transfer policy will result in the flow of Internet number resources off the continent. This policy addresses this issue by purely catering for inbound transfers without allowing or affecting transfers flowing out of the continent to other RIR service regions. This policy proposal covers the inbound transfer of all IP resources, including ASNs (16-bit and 32-bit), IPv4 and IPv6 space. Read the full proposal.

The soft landing policy ratified by the board on the 11/11/2011 describes how AFRINIC should manage allocations/assignments from the last /8. It defines 2 phases for the IPv4 exhaustion:

  • During phase 1, it sets the maximum to be /13 instead of /10.
  • During phase 2, it sets the maximum to /22 and the minimum to /24.

This policy proposal solves the problem described above by:

  • Changing the value of the maximum of allocations/assignment size during the exhaustion phase 1.
  • Imposing IPv6 resources as pre-conditions to IPv4 resources requests during exhaustion,
  • Reserving address spaces for Critical Internet Infrastructures and new LIRs or End-Users.
  • Removing minimum allocation size as this may evolve over time during the exhaustion period. Read the full proposal.

While it is acknowledged that there is a need to ensure that new entrants into the IP resources world may require a small amount of IPv4 space, beyond this, further delaying the depletion of IPv4 address space may well be holding the region back while the rest of the world moves on, leaving Africa at a significant disadvantage moving forward. This policy proposal still maintains that a block of IPv4 space is reserved for new entrants, but beyond that, it allows for the natural depletion of IPv4 through standard demand, and hence encourages the uptake of IPv6 in a more aggressive manner. Read the full proposal.

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