[IGFmaglist] Where is Africa?

Mon May 12 06:00:30 EDT 2014

Dear Anriette, thanks for these reflections!

I guess it should also take us, as MAG, to some discussions related to
outreach around the Open Call for Workshop Proposals - in order to reach
out to all stakeholder groups around the world and encourage more active
participation! Outreach as such has not been specifically addressed by us,
and I think that identifying a whole set of outreach tools (both online and
offline) in the future might be worth looking at!

With very best,
Veronica

On Mon, May 12, 2014 at 12:29 PM, Anriette Esterhuysen <anriette at apc.org>wrote:

>  Dear Anju
>
> It is probably simply a reflection of where there is concentration of
> internet governance activities, actors (from all stakeholder groups, but
> particularly government and business - civil society is more evenly spread
> in the IGF) and the academic and research community.
>
> I felt that, considering its small size, the technical community in Africa
> is reasonably represented in this year's IGF workshop proposals. Civil
> society is not well represented, and business and government is almost not
> there.
>
> Caribbean and Pacific countries have a small presence among the workshop
> proposals, as you say, and I did not notice new voices. What is good is to
> see a stronger ccTLD presence than during past IGFs. This is very
> impressive, and  it was good to see lots of new proponents, particularly
> from China, and also from Latin America.  We don't ask what region
> proponents are from, so it is not always easy to know.
>
> Your question is important. If less-developed regions are losing interest
> we should talk about it. One thought is whether the regional IGFs are
> satisfying the needs for networking in those regions. And the resource
> requirement for people from these countries is huge considering cost of
> travel/exchange rates etc.. I.o.w. it is hard for them to participate in
> both the regional, and the global IGF - not to mention national IGFs if
> they exist.  One thought we have had for a while in APC is changing the
> cycle to have regional IGFs only once every two years. But there is demand
> for regional IGFs and they do add value, and lend themselves to capacity
> building and more focused problem solving.
>
> From experience we know that hosting location can make a big difference.
> We need governments from less developed regions to host.
>
> Let's discuss more. This is directly relevant to implementing the
> recommendations of the CSTD Working Group on IGF improvements.
>
> And, we should also wait until we have more accurate data from the
> Secretariat.
>
> But definitely a worry. The NETmundial had very good participation from
> Africa, particularly from governments. This is also important food for
> thought.
>
> There are definitely solutions. E.g. a thematic IGF focusing on access
> issues. Or perhaps if we get the Best Practice Forum modality right, that
> can also be of value to countries still struggling with affordable access.
>
> Anriette
>
>
>
>
>  On 12/05/2014 05:49, Anju Mangal wrote:
>
>  There's nothing wrong with this observation. I feel the same way about
> Pacific Countries and Territories. Are the African/Caribbean and the
> Pacific region losing interest? If so, why?
>
>
> On May 11, 2014, at 4:29 PM, Lillian Nalwoga <lnalwoga at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>    Hi Anriette,
>
> I observed that too. There were also proposals that aimed to share
> experiences from 'developing' countries and on the list of speakers no
> representatives from Africa were being mentioned. I wonder maybe Africa is
> no longer in the category of developing countries. Anyways, I made comments
> on such proposals recommending that they try to equally have panelists from
> all regions including Africa.
>
> But then, the issue of few proposals from Africa could mean 3 things
> -either Africa has no interest in IG  discussions or there are no enough
> voices to rightly represent the continent in the IG debate or workshop
> proposers do not know who to reach out to!.
>
> However, I think there is need to encourage accepted workshops to have
> equal representation of speakers from all regions.
>
> Regards,
>
> Lillian
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, May 11, 2014 at 4:42 PM, Anriette Esterhuysen <anriette at apc.org>
> wrote:
>
> Dear fellow MAG members
>
> Am I being over-sensitive as an African, or is there really a very, very
> weak presence of African voices in this year's proposals?
>
> I felt as I was reading through the proposals that Africa is the
> internet's forgotten continent. Very few proponents from Africa and few
> proposed speakers
>
> I find this quite depressing.
>
> Anriette
>
>
>
>  --
>
> ------------------------------------------------------
>
> anriette esterhuysen anriette at apc.org
>
> executive director, association for progressive communications
>
> www.apc.org
>
> po box 29755, melville 2109
>
> south africa
>
> tel/fax +27 11 726 1692
>
>
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>
> --
> ------------------------------------------------------
> anriette esterhuysen anriette at apc.org
> executive director, association for progressive communicationswww.apc.org
> po box 29755, melville 2109
> south africa
> tel/fax +27 11 726 1692
>
>
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-- 
*Veronica Cretu *

*President, Open Government Institute**Republic of Moldova
- http://opengov.si.md/ <http://opengov.si.md/>*

*Member of the Steering Committee, *
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<http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/>*

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*Email: veronicacretu at gmail.com <veronicacretu at gmail.com> and/or
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