African internet governance in the spotlight this week
INTERNET
| Oct. 1, 2012, 7:38 a.m.
Governance of the internet in Africa will come under discussion when Egypt hosts the African Internet Governance Forum (AfIGF) at the Smart Village in Cairo this week.
The forum, to be held on 3 – 4 October, is a platform to conduct multilingual discussions about significant issues between African stakeholders related to the internet in Africa in general and internet governance issues in particular, says Egypt’s Ministry of ICT.
The event is co-organised by AUC, ECA and the Government of Egypt through the Ministry of ICT. AfIGF 2012 is expected to bring together over 500 participants from all over the continent to discuss Africa’s participation in the IG agenda and shape the way for Africa’s participation in the Baku IGF. The meeting will share best practices from countries and from sub-regional IGFs.
Among the specific objectives of the forum are to increase awareness and build capacity on internet governance for African users to ensure that all stakeholders are well prepared for contribution and interaction; to put in place a coordinated African process for dealing with internet governance issues; to facilitate national and regional exchanges and interactions between countries and sub-regions in continent; and to promote use of African languages in cyberspace.
