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23Dec

How Applicable is the Multi-stakeholder Approach to Internet Governance in Africa?

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By Ashnah Kalemera |
What is the value for Africans in international Internet Governance processes if the approach towards Internet governance on the continent has not fully embraced the multi-stakeholder model? This was among the concerns heard during debates at the 11th Internet Governance Forum (IGF), as some participants questioned the applicability of the global internet governance agenda to Africa.
At a global level, the IGF, an initiative of the United Nations, discusses public policy issues related to the internet. The annual gathering drives best practices and common understanding of how to maximise internet opportunities and address the risks and challenges it faces. At the core of the IGF is the multi-stakeholder approach which aims to bring together individuals, groups or organisations with a stake in the internet to cooperate in advancing policy and practice for its development globally.
This approach is said to be “optimal” in ensuring government, business, civil society and the technical community take part in making policy decisions for the internet that are accountable, sustainable and effective.

Why the multi-stakeholder approach?

  • Decisions impact a wide and distributed range of people and interests,
  • There are overlapping rights and responsibilities across sectors and borders,
  • Different forms of expertise are needed, such as technical expertise, and
  • Legitimacy and acceptance of decisions directly impact implementation.

Internet Governance: Why the Multi-stakeholder Approach Works (Internet Society)

National and regional IGF initiatives (NRI) are similarly conducted to address community needs and involve multiple stakeholders. However, few African stakeholders participate at the global IGF and NRIs, rendering the principles of multi-stakeholderism difficult to achieve.

More than 2,000 participants from 123 countries attended the 2016 IGF held in Mexico. By stakeholder group, civil society constituted the majority (44.5%). Government representation was 20.5% and private sector was 15.5%. By region, Africa had the second lowest regional representation– 6.7%, beating only Eastern Europe from which 2.5% of participants originated.

There are up to 16 national, sub-regional and regional IGFs in Africa. Of the African countries that hosted forums during 2016, most were civil society led with some support from government reported – for instance in Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda. However, there was limited participation by the judiciary and law enforcement, youth and the private sector.
Organisers of the Africa Internet Governance Forum (AIGF) and national forums say there is a challenge of multi-stakeholder participation at gatherings on the continent due to lack of political will and limited knowledge and awareness of internet governance issues, among other reasons.
Organisers of the regional AIGF also reported limited representation by policy makers and other government officials. Private sector and youth were reportedly underrepresented at the fifth AIGF held in Durban, South Africa, last October.
According to Olusegun Olugbile who sits on the technical committee of the AIGF and the Nigeria national forum, limited stakeholder participation in national and regional internet governance forums was due to a lack of trust and confidence in the dialogue and ensuing outcomes.
Speaking at the African Union (AU) session at the IGF, Olugbile stated that bringing more stakeholders to the table on internet governance in Africa requires “embracing” policy documents from the continent, such as the African Union Convention on Cyber Security and the African Declaration on Internet Rights –  less so international instruments – so as to ensure contextual understanding of key concerns. This would contribute to a demonstration of value in participation for the stakeholders currently not participating. Furthermore, it would ensure that agendas for debate are localised to suit African needs and follow ups on recommendations are directly linked to the mandate of the relevant stakeholders.
Whereas discussants at the Africa themed sessions also called for more public-private partnership efforts in pursuing the principles of internet governance in Africa, regional bodies such as the AU were also called upon not only to convey outcomes to governments but to actively advocate and “push” for the implementation of recommendations from the AIGF among member states.
Meanwhile, the Africa School of Internet Governance (AfriSIG), which started in 2013 was commended for its role in bridging the internet governance knowledge and skills gap on the continent. To-date, the school has graduated over 150 individuals from government, the private sector and civil society across Africa in the principles and procedures of internet governance. Continued capacity building efforts by the school and other practitioners were recommended.
The 2016 IGF was convened under the theme ‘Enabling Inclusive and Sustainable Growth” from December 6–9, 2016 in Jalisco, Mexico.
 
 

09Nov

CIPESA at the Internet Governance Forum 2015

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The annual Internet Governance Forum (IGF) this year takes place in Joao Pessoa, Brazil from October 10-13. We are excited to participate at the forum which is themed “Evolution of Internet Governance: Empowering Sustainable Development”, during which we will share our insights on internet governance and related issues in East Africa.
An initiative of the United Nations, the IGF is a multi-stakeholder dialogue forum open to representatives from Government, NGOs, academia, private sector, as well as any other entities and individuals interested in Internet Governance issues. This year’s forum will explore the main theme through eight sub-themes including: Cyber security and trust; The internet economy; Inclusiveness and diversity; Openness; Enhancing multi-stakeholder cooperation; The internet and human rights; critical internet resources; and emerging issues.
Through our membership of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and partnerships with Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN), Facebook Africa Policy and the Deutsche Welle (DW) Akademie, among others, CIPESA is directly participating in the forum in the following events:
Pre-Events
November 8 – 9, 2015

  • Deutsche Welle Preparatory Workshop
  • Local Actions to Secure Internet Rights (LASIR) Learning Meeting

Workshops
November 10, 2015

  • Workshop 187 on Promoting Local Actions to Secure Internet Rights

November 11, 2015

  • Civil Society Round Table with the United States Department of State Cyber Coordinator Chris Painter
  • Round Table – #AfricanInternetRights: Whose rights are these anyway?

Side Events
November 12, 2015

  • State of the Internet in Africa
  • APC 25th Anniversary Celebrations @APC

Follow us on twitter – @cipesaug for updates. Also follow the Forum proceedings using the hashtag #IGF2015.
More information about the IGF is available here.

17Oct

What does the future hold for the Internet Governance Forum?

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By Juliet N. Nanfuka
As the dust settles following the ninth Internet Governance Forum (IGF) which was held in Istanbul, Turkey between 2 and 5 September, many questions remain lurking. The biggest being whether the IGF has made a strong enough case for its continued existence. The IGF currently has a mandate that takes it until 2015. The United Nations (UN) General Assembly is due to take a decision about its renewal at the beginning of December 2014.

Lillian Nalwoga (third from left), Policy Officer at CIPESA makes a comment during a panel session at the 9th IGF in Istanbul, Turkey.
Lillian Nalwoga (third from left), Policy Officer at CIPESA makes a comment during a panel session at the 9th IGF in Istanbul, Turkey.

In keeping with the IGF’s core principle of multi-stakeholder engagement, the 9th Internet Governance Forum brought together an assortment of internet policy stakeholders including multinational organisations, state representatives, civil society and internet enthusiasts. The theme of this year’s IGF was “Connecting Continents for Enhanced Multi stakeholder Internet Governance” and was explored through the lens of net neutrality, multilingualism, youth and social media, gender, policy development, stakeholder roles and other related issues.
In a series of workshops, book launches and open sessions, internet policies were discussed and how they relate and impact upon society, development, business, governance and democracy. While there was agreement on some issues, divergence remained when it came to discussions on where monetising the internet clashed with big data, privacy, surveillance, intermediary liability and net neutrality.
This year’s meeting saw over 3,000 delegates from across the world convene in a country currently battling with some of the controversial internet related issues such as surveillance, censorship, privacy and data protection under discussion at the IGF. According to the 2013 Freedom on the Net report, nearly 30,000 websites and social media accounts are blocked in Turkey for social or political reasons. But Turkish bureaucrats deftly skirted these issues in their opening and closing speeches. While mention was made of the state of Turkish internet freedom by delegates, it mostly remained a rumbling in the underbelly of the meeting. However, some light on Turkey’s internet freedom status was heavily discussed at the Internet Ungovernance Forum organised by Turkish civil society organisations to protest the country’s hosting of the meeting given their government’s internet rights violations record.
For many participants, NetMundial was still a key talking point and formed the basis of some of the IGF’s discussions including promoting multilingualism, collaborative multi-stakeholder models, gender and internet rights, minority rights online, child online protection, privacy and surveillance and developing relevant local content. NetMundial demonstrated that multi-stakeholderism is possible and consensus can be drawn even on the most contentious internet governance topics (see NetMundial statement).

NetMundial sought to deliberate on the Future of Internet Governance by crafting Internet governance principles and proposing a roadmap for the further evolution of the Internet governance ecosystem.

Even though the IGF has for the past nine years provided a platform for the debate and deliberation on the very issues that NetMundial dealt with, there have been limited discernible outcomes and impact measurements due to the nature and complexity of internet governance and its actors.
However, much like the constantly transforming internet, the IGF will have to re-asses its financial sustainability model to ensure its survival and position itself as a driver of best practices on internet governance. Part of this includes the production of outcome documents such as policy recommendations for voluntary adoption – a suggestion put forward by the European Commission – a key funder of the IGF. Such actions could help shake off the ‘talk shop’ cloak that has shadowed the IGF and position it as a platform for deliberation on global internet governance concerns with more discernible outcomes.
The Tenth IGF is scheduled to take place in João Pessoa, Brazil on 10 to 13 November 2015.

01Sep

CIPESA's Reflections on the Third Africa Internet Governance Forum, 2014

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By Lillian Nalwoga.
With the internet projected to reach almost 20 per cent of the Africa population in 2014, it becomes important to discuss modalities under which it should remain an open and reliable tool for development. It is with this background that Africa Internet stakeholders gathered in Abuja, Nigeria, July 10 -14, 2014 to deliberate on key internet governance issues affecting the continent. The main theme for this year’s meeting was “connecting continents for enhanced multi-stakeholder internet governance.”

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