AFRINIC
Is ICANN dodging the AFRINIC community by supporting Smart Africa’s CAIGA?
A veteran African governance expert argues ICANN’s participation in CAIGA departs from long-held RIR norms, raising questions about neutrality and precedent.
Headline
A veteran African governance expert argues ICANN’s participation in CAIGA departs from long-held RIR norms, raising questions about neutrality and precedent.
Context
A key internet governance adviser has taken a swipe at ICANN and Smart Africa, whose announcement of a “Continental Africa Internet Governance Architecture” (CAIGA) goes against many of the fundamental principles on which the internet’s success has so far been based. Alice Munyua — who chaired the 2011 UN IGF in Nairobi, formerly led the Kenya ccTLD board, sat on the board of the Communications Authority of Kenya, and served as vice chair of ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee — is not only one of the most senior African actors within the DNS/governance layer; she is also one of the few who has occupied senior positions both inside and outside governments on this subject. So when she says a line is being crossed, everyone involved in internet governance issue should listen.
Evidence
Pending intelligence enrichment.
Analysis
Also read: ICANN and AFRINIC: A partnership or a power play? Her core argument is not speculative. It is grounded in documented elements of the CAIGA framework — and in the public record of the ICANN / Smart Africa MoU — and in the language used by Smart Africa whilst presenting the proposals at ICANN84 in Dublin in October, where Smart Africa described CAIGA as “two years of joint work with ICANN.” Munyua is asserting that ICANN has already lent institutional legitimacy to continental restructuring of AFRINIC governance through intergovernmental architecture, including funding and work-stream participation, without AFRINIC’s own membership community having meaningfully requested or initiated it. And she is saying plainly: that is not compatible with ICP-2. In her LinkedIn post she asks:
Key Points
- Smart Africa’s CAIGA introduces mechanisms where political endorsement and paid membership substitute for open, bottom-up RIR governance
- Munyua says ICANN must answer whether it would support equivalent intergovernmental restructuring of RIPE NCC, APNIC, ARIN or LACNIC
Actions
Pending intelligence enrichment.
