Purpose And Objectives
AFRINIC’s mission is to serve the African and Indian Ocean Internet community by providing fair and responsible management of Internet number resources, supporting Internet infrastructure development, and facilitating open, bottom-up policy development for the benefit of its members and the wider community.
As a membership-based organisation, AFRINIC’s legitimacy is built on the full support, trust, and active participation of its Resource Members. Their engagement is essential to ensure that AFRINIC remains accountable, responsive, and aligned with the needs of the region it serves.
However, while AFRINIC public meetings continue to attract a high number of registrations from member representatives, physical participation remains challenging for some of them.This limits direct engagement between these members, elected Directors, AFRINIC staff, and the wider community involved in policy development and Internet governance discussions.
To address this matter, AFRINIC has launched the Resource Members’ Event Support Program. The purpose of this programme is to provide support and assistance to Resource Members to enable them to send representatives to AFRINIC public meetings. By facilitating in-person participation, the programme aims to strengthen member engagement, increase members’ understanding of AFRINIC’s services and governance processes, and create more opportunities for direct interaction with the Directors they elected, the staff who serve them, and the community members with whom they collaborate to develop policies.
Through this initiative, AFRINIC seeks to deepen member involvement, reinforce trust and accountability, and ensure that its public meetings remain inclusive, representative, and firmly anchored in the needs and voices of its members.
Overview
AFRINIC provides assistance to Resource Members to attend its two main meetings: the Annual General Members’ Meeting (AGMM) and AFRINIC stand-alone meeting.
This assistance may take the following forms:
- Hotel accommodation on a half-board basis;
- Travel insurance;
- Air ticket.
- Visa fees
This programme does not provide cash payments or cash allowances to Member representatives.
Who May Apply For The Event Support Program?
The programme is reserved for representatives of AFRINIC Resource Member organisations.
To qualify for support under this programme, applicants must meet the following criteria:
- AFRINIC membership status : The applicant must be a registered contact of an AFRINIC Resource Member organisation in good standing.
- Residence: The applicant must be resident in an African country or in the Indian Ocean region covered by AFRINIC’s service area.
- First-time physical participation: Priority will be given to applicants who have not previously attended an AFRINIC public meeting in person, and whose organisation has not previously been physically represented at an AFRINIC public meeting.
- Country representation: Priority will be given to applicants from countries with fewer than 50 AFRINIC Resource Members.
- Membership category: The applicant must represent an AFRINIC member organisation classified as a Micro, Mini and Very Small End-User or LIR .
- Organisational endorsement: The applicant must provide confirmation that they are authorised by their organisation to represent it at the meeting.
- Relevance to the organisation: The applicant should demonstrate how their participation will benefit their organisation, including improved understanding of AFRINIC services, governance processes, policy development, and member responsibilities.
- Commitment to participation: The applicant must commit to attending the full meeting programme, including member-focused sessions, policy discussions, and any orientation or briefing sessions organised by AFRINIC.
- Post-event reporting: The applicant must agree to submit a short report after the meeting, outlining the key lessons learned and how the participation benefited their organisation.
- Previous support from AFRINIC: Priority will be given to applicants who have not previously benefited from AFRINIC-funded travel or event support.
- Conflict of interest and compliance: Applicants must comply with AFRINIC’s applicable policies, meeting rules, code of conduct, and any programme-specific requirements.
- Availability of funds: Selection will be subject to the availability of funds and the approved number of supported participants for each meeting.
Other Initiatives
