The 5th African Internet Governance Forum – AfIGF2016 kicked off on October 16, 2016 in Durban, South Africa. Under the theme “Inclusive development and the Digital transformation of Africa”, the forum will run through 18 October 2016.
Raul Echeberria, Vice-President of the Internet Society, made an opening remark during the opening session of the Forum followed by presentations from Dawit Bekele, Director of the Internet Society African Regional Bureau, on “ How to shape the future of the Internet in Africa” and “Connecting the Unconnected”.
The Internet Society’s presence at the AfIGF2016 was also marked by a bilateral meeting held with Prof Hlengiwe Buhle Mkhize, Deputy Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services of the Republic of South Africa.
About the Internet Governance Forum
The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is a platform for multi-stakeholder policy dialogue on prevailing and emerging issues on Internet governance ecosystem. The IGF mandate was extended for ten years by the United Nations General Assembly on 16 December 2015. IGF aims at fostering the sustainability, robustness, security, stability and the development of the Internet, thus facilitating content development and access to information and knowledge.
About the African Internet Governance Forum
Presently, there are regional Internet Governance Forum initiatives in all the five regions of Africa. In order to bring together the national IGF initiatives together with the regional ones and to promote IG related issues on the continent, there was a strong need for the establishment of an African Internet Governance Forum (AfIGF). Accordingly, AfIGF was convened by the sub-regional IGFs in cooperation with the African Union Commission (AUC) and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) at the 6th IGF in Nairobi, Kenya. The AfIGF was formally launched on 30 September 2011.