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The African Internet Governance Forum (AfIGF) is a multistakeholder forum that facilitates dialogue on Internet governance issues. It is one of the 19 regional IGF initiatives [1] and aims to address and discuss the issues of all 54 nations in Africa. [2]
The African Internet Governance Forum was established during the global IGF held in Nairobi in 2011. [3] 2nd to 4 September, the Council of Ministers of ICT of the African Union approved of the institution. [4]
The first AfIGF meeting, where participants determined its terms of reference, [4] took place in Cairo in 2012. Since then, eight other meetings have followed. [5]
AfIGF’s secretariat is structured in a similar way to the global IGF’s secretariat. [3] Its host is the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and it also receives support from the African Union Commission. [6] It is located in Addis Abbaba.
The secretariat’s duties include administrative, logistical and organizational tasks, promotion of the members’ AfIGF activities and maintaining AfIGF and itself. It gathers the knowledge and resources about AfIGF and manages sub-regional and national IGFs in Africa while overviewing the different sub-regional and national IGF’s needs. Moreover, the secretariat summons AfIGF meetings and provide up-to-date information about AfIGF to the public. [3]
The Bureau of the African Internet Governance Forum consists of the five regional IGF conveners or their designates. The host country of the last AfIGF chairs the bureau. [3]
The AfIGF’s meetings are financed by the host country. The forum also receives funds from different organizations, such as PRIDA, UNDESA, ICANN and AFRINIC. [3]
Participants come from all African member states and Africa's subregional IGFs (WAIGF, EAIGF, SAIGF, FGIAC and NAIGF). In addition, academia, the private sector, the civil society, and regional and international organizations are also involved. [4]
| Meeting (year) | Number of participants | Number of countries represented |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 195 [7] | 29 [7] |
| 2014 | >470 + 214 remote participants [8] | 40 [8] |
| 2015 | >150 + 30 remote participants [9] | >41 [9] |
| 2016 | >200 [10] | >30 [10] |
| 2017 | >300 [11] | >30 [11] |
| 2018 | >300 [12] | 26 [12] |
| 2021 | 695 (only remotely) [13] |
Registration to participate in an AfIGF meeting is possible online. [14]
The African Internet Governance Forum hosts fora annually. It also represents the African continent at global IGFs and holds workshops there. [3] Every year, the AfIGF is hosted by another country:
In addition to the African Internet Governance Forum, there is the African School on Internet Governance (AfriSIG), which is co-convened by the Association for Progressive Communications, the Information Society Division of the African Union Commission (AUC) and Research ICT Africa. Its objective is promoting collaboration among various stakeholders in national to global internet policy and development. First held in Durban (South Africa) in 2013 (with 13 participants from 12 countries), the ninth annually course took place virtually from the 4th to the 15th of October 2021, addressing digitalization, internet governance and architecture, social issues like human rights and gender in the context of internet governance, cybersecurity and content-regulation. The participants were experienced in the field of internet governance or information technology and members of designated stakeholder groups. [24]
As one of the 19 regional IGF initiatives, the AfIGF is connected to the global IGF. Its role is to bring in topics from the African continent to the global IGF and it is committed to ensure that all Africans benefit from a viable information society. The forum also ensures a multistakeholder representation from Africa at the global IGF and promotes exchange between different stakeholders and countries. [25]
There are also five sub-regional Internet Governance initiatives: West Africa Internet Governance Forum (WAIGF), East Africa Internet Governance Forum (EAIGF), North Africa Internet Governance Forum (NAIGF), Southern Africa Internet Governance Forum (SAIGF) and the Forum de Gouvernance de lÌnternet en Afrique Centrale (FGI-CA). [26] [3]
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