AFRINIC · RIR Watchdog
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BTW reporting and context linked to this RIR. For the proposal-by-proposal history, the people involved and their changing positions, start with Policy.
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The Gate Before the Ballot: AFRINIC’s 2021 Geography Rule
On 20 January 2021, four appointments turned a short bylaw restriction into a practical gate: before AFRINIC members could vote for Board candidates, geography had already helped decide who was allowed to sit on the committee that would shape the choice put before them.
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The Decision Before the Invitation: Resolution 202101.595 and the Order of Consent
AFRINIC’s mailing-list rules acquired two approval dates and one public comment window. The awkward fact is that the first approval came before the invitation to comment. That does not make the consultation worthless, but it does change what the consultation can honestly be said…
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The Resolution That Opened the Ledger — and No More
On 20 January 2021, AFRINIC’s Board approved publication of a report that put numbers against weaknesses in the registry’s public word. The decision made part of the institution’s bookkeeping open to inspection, an important act in a system where operators and outsiders may rely…
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The mailbox test that entered a meeting without a defined consequence
AFRINIC’s sixth Abuse Contact Policy Update arrived with a precise timetable for checking contact records but no operative answer to the most consequential question: what, exactly, would follow a failed check? Its passage through an online meeting exposed why delivery, response…
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What AFRINIC’s 2019 Audit Assured—and What It Left Open
In June 2020, AFRINIC’s Board approved annual accounts carrying an unmodified BDO opinion while a separate investigation into alleged allocation malversation was already under way. The importance of that juxtaposition lies not in a sensational claim that the two records…
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What USD 71,217 Can — and Cannot — Prove About AFRINIC’s RPKI Priority
In June 2020, AFRINIC’s Board chose to move a single total of USD 71,217 from the MyAFRINIC and infrastructure budgets to the RPKI project. The precision of the sum makes the choice inspectable, but it does not turn an approval into delivery: the consequential story lies in the…
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AFRINIC notified members of a no-approval meeting. Its draft minutes record a 99% adoption
AFRINIC's 23 March notice said the 2021 accounts would only be received and noted on 14 April because no approval was required. The draft minutes record a different operative text: receive, note and adopt. They report a 99%-1% poll but publish no ballot totals. That missing…
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Consensus could move Draft 2. It could not create the power the draft assumed
In September 2020, AFRINIC’s co-chairs declared consensus on a second draft about Board prerogatives in the Policy Development Process. That procedural judgement could move an identified text through a private coordination process. It could not answer the prior question that…
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Five Minutes at the Registry, Longer on the Network
AFRINIC’s second draft of its RPKI AS0 proposal introduced a narrow but important restraint: a separate trust anchor could let networks choose whether to receive the registry-generated warning and let observers measure it apart from ordinary holder authorisations. That choice…
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The Gate and the Missing Receipt: AFRINIC’s USD 100,000 Board Checkpoint
Resolution `202006.559` placed a clear numerical gate in AFRINIC’s banking process: a bank transaction above USD 100,000 required Board approval. The gate is intelligible and defensible, yet the public record leaves open the practical questions that decide whether any transaction…
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The two-page contract behind a shared registry
Five private regional registries signed a two-page instrument because a globally shared registry can fail at the seams between regional administrators. AFRINIC’s Board first authorised its chief executive to sign; the five organisations then accepted four duties and extended a…
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AFRINIC 32 and the virtual policy floor without a denominator
When AFRINIC moved its public policy meeting online in September 2020, it kept a consequential private coordination process alive; it also made the quality of access, identity, speaking order and public evidence inseparable from any claim about what the virtual room meant.
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The Board Could See the Risk. Draft 1 Asked Whether It Could Act
AFRINIC’s Board might have been right to notice a danger to the company or to network continuity. That observation did not, by itself, tell the Board whether it could originate policy, alter community text, stop deliberation, veto an outcome or direct somebody else to act. The…
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The emergency ledger: what Resolution 202006.556 proves—and what it leaves unauditable
In June 2020, AFRINIC’s Board placed a numbered decision in its corporate record: Resolution `202006.556`, adopting an organisational contingency policy. The decision could represent sensible preparation. A registry should not wait for systems, credentials, staffing or essential…
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One resolution, two proof burdens: what AFRINIC had to preserve in 202002.552
One resolution, two proof burdens: what AFRINIC had to preserve in 202002.552 intelligence summary explains the development, the public evidence available to readers, the organisations involved, the regional context, market exposure, and the infrastructure consequences that may…
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The USD 200 Question: What AFRINIC’s Communications Reimbursement Needed to Show
In May 2020, when remote board work could make ordinary connectivity an institutional necessity, AFRINIC’s directors authorised communications reimbursements of up to USD 200 per director per month. The ceiling was modest, but that is what makes Resolution 202005.553 revealing: a…
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A Confidential Poll at the Gate
On 12 February 2020, AFRINIC’s Board used a confidential poll, a tie-break and an uncontested nomination to appoint the four people who would shape the candidate field before members saw a ballot. The minutes disclose the five first-round vote totals, the second-round result and…
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Before the Ballot: What AFRINIC Resolution 202001.547 Put in Place
In January 2020, AFRINIC’s Board adopted a new Election Processes and Guidelines rulebook covering the path from nomination and candidate screening to voter eligibility, proxies, electronic and paper ballots, counting, ties, disputes and publication of results. Resolution…
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The Policy Compliance Dashboard appeal tested reviewability of a non-consensus assessment
The Policy Compliance Dashboard looked like an administrative instrument, but its classifications sat upstream of notices and potentially serious registry actions. When the co-chairs concluded that significant objections remained, the ensuing appeal posed a more important…
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The date that made the appeal: Draft 4 and the limits of internal review
On 7 October 2020, after a last call begun on 21 September and amid disagreement over whether changes in Draft 4 had received enough final review, the co-chairs said consensus was maintained. The two appeal records that followed did not ask the Appeal Committee to choose whether…