Southern Africa Internet Governance Forum Communiqué

We, the participants to the Southern Africa Internet Governance Forum (SAIGF) held at the Hilton Hotel in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 1^st to 3^rd September, 2011,

Acknowledging the importance of Internet Governance and the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) as captured in the 2005 Tunis Agenda for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS);

Aware that the mandate of the IGF was extended for a further five years beginning in 2011 and that the first IGF under the renewed mandate will be held in Nairobi, Kenya from 27^th to 30^th September 2011;

Recalling that the Multi-stakeholder Advisory Group selected five themes for the IGF as follows:

• Internet Governance for Development;
• Access and Diversity;
• Managing Critical Internet Resources;
• Security, Openness and Privacy and
• Emerging Issues;

 

Recognising that in addition to these themes issues of Multi-stakeholder participation, Capacity Building, Impact on Vulnerable groups, Cybersecurity and Cross-border Internet Governance are important for Southern Africa;

Aware that this is the inaugural forum for the Southern Africa region and that regional Internet Governance Forums have been established in East, West and Central Africa;

Recalling the “2010 in 2010 Communiqué” drafted by  the participants to the Diplo Internet Governance workshop held 20^th October, 2010, in Gaborone Botswana, calling for the establishment of the Southern Africa Internet Governance Forum;

 Recalling that the SADC ICT Ministers’ meeting held on 16^th June 2011 in Gaborone, Botswana endorsed the holding of the inaugural SAIGF in order to establish a coordinated and coherent framework for dealing with Internet Governance issues in the Southern Africa region;

Recommend the following priorities:

1. On Multi-stakeholder Participation and Internet

• Promote the establishment of national structures for Internet Governance taking into account the various stakeholders and their roles;
• Support the sustainability of the SAIGF and recommend that it be hosted by member states on a rotational basis;
• Recognise the importance of organisations such as AU, NEPAD and RECs in the partnership framework for the SAIGF;
• Recognise the importance of collaboration between the SAIGF and other African regional IGFs;
• Recognise that young people have a role to play in promoting Internet Governance;
• Encourage the use of remote participation for the SAIGF and the IGF;

 

2. On Internet Governance for Development (IG4D)

• A gender-sensitive approach to IG4D - gender and women’s rights should cut across all themes and should emphasize effective and meaningful participation beyond numbers;
• Promote awareness and mainstreaming of ICT policy and Internet Governance in Southern Africa; 
• A proactive approach to establishing policy, legal  and regulatory frameworks to promote uptake and usage of ICTs taking into account the needs of people with disabilities, the elderly and other vulnerable groups;
• Conduct research on critical Internet Governance issues ,  including both nationally and  regionally;

 

3. On Access  and Diversity

• Promote development of local content for cultural heritage and to boost local information economies; 
• Promote training and development including the use of indigenous languages;
• Promote open standards, inter-operability and open access principles on infrastructure and all Internet-related technology choices;
• Prioritize access to the Internet in libraries, educational and research institutions in order to promote e-literacy and integration of ICT  in the society and economy;
• Enforce universal service obligations to ensure access for rural and marginalized communities ;
• Encourage the establishment of national backbones that can facilitate broadband connectivity with minimum bandwidth of 1Mbps;

 

4. On Capacity Building for Internet Governance

• Recognise that capacity building should include training and funding for institutions;
• Encourage capacity building for local content creation and local technology development;
• Involve telecenters  and multi-purpose community ICT centers in capacity building initiatives;
• Encourage the development of capacity in Internet Governance in other relevant sectors;
• Generate targeted programmes for adults and people with low levels of  e-literacy;
• Develop programmes for young children to promote Internet usage and safety online as part of the school curriculum;
• Develop and mainstream academic courses and programmes in ICT policy and Internet Governance through our higher education institutions;
• Recognise that with 2 out of 3 people under the age of 25, Africa has a young population and there is need for tailored capacity building and awareness both in informal and formal setups for the youth of Africa;

5. On Managing Critical Internet Resources

• Prioritise IPv6 implementation and encourage governments to dual-stack their own infrastructure and that of their state-owned-enterprises (SoEs);
• Work together to promote the uptake and use of African domain names at national, regional and continental level;
• Support the creation of a dotAfrica domain name space guided by AU/NEPAD  principles and goals of African ownership in order to boost local economies;
• In the context of new generic Top Level Domain (gTLDs),  protect geographic, cultural and linguistic domain names  as they are critical in the building of the Information Society and Knowledge Economy;

 

6. On Impact on Vulnerable Groups

• Recognise that  the Internet can be a tool for empowerment and social upliftment;
• Promote access for people with disabilities and the physically-challenged;
• Develop mechanisms to prevent wrong use of the Internet with respect to vulnerable groups;
• Recognise that ICT-based spaces are creating new ways for objectification, abuse and disempowerment of women and as such the SAIGF should adopt a humane view to regulation that deals with this issue;

 

7. On Emerging Issues (Mobile Internet, Cloud Computing and Social Networking)

• Recognise that the mobile Internet presents unique opportunities and challenges such as the need to strengthen security and privacy for mobile Internet users;
• Recognise that cloud computing and social networking are important technologies and tools  which need to be appropriately harnessed;
• Encourage the use of green ICTs, green ICT infrastructure and alternative and renewable energy;

 

8. On Security, Openness and Privacy (including cybersecurity)

• Encourage countries to implement technologies such as DNSSEC  and BCP 38 (RFC 2827);
• Promote awareness, development of legislation and enforcement, as well as advocate for technologies to protect  children online;
• Develop or adopt  legislation for protection of personal information;
• Ensure that there is trust and confidence in online spaces through good security and authentication;
• Encourage and support the harmonisation of legal frameworks for cyber-security;
• Promote the establishment of national CERTs;

 

9. On Cross-Border Internet Governance Issues

• Encourage cross-border cooperation and harmonisation within the policy and regulatory frameworks;
• Call upon the AU  to facilitate unrestrictive and affordable cross-border networking in line with the Kigali Protocol;
• Promote national and regional interconnections through the establishment of national and regional Internet eXchange Points (IXPs) and encourage participation by the dominant players;

Urge the NEPAD Agency and the SADC Secretariat to continue supporting the SAIGF and associated follow-up processes.

Thank the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA), the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and the Southern Africa NGO Network (SANGONeT) for convening this forum;

Thank the partners that have provided material and financial resources namely: the Department of Communications, the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), Google Africa, the Center for Technical Cooperation in Agriculture (CTA), Sentech, AfriNIC, the Internet Society (ISOC), the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the Diplo Foundation;

Thank the SADC Secretariat for their endorsement of the forum;

Thank the Government of South Africa and in particular the Department of Communication for their excellent hosting of the forum.

Johannesburg, South Africa, 3 September, 2011

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