15 May 2017 - AFRINIC’s Nominations Committee 2017 (NomCom2017) would like to announce that only one nomination was received and consequently approved towards the position of one Co-Chair of the PDWG (Policy Development Working Group).

The candidate is Adewole David Ajao from Nigeria

Election will be held during the AFRINIC-26 public policy meeting that will be held in Nairobi on 1^st June 2017.

More information is available at: https://www.afrinic.net/en/community/elections/pdwg-election

For any queries or clarification, please contact the nominations committee by email to nomcom2017 at afrinic.net

2017 Nominations Committee

15 May 2017 - The final candidates slates for the following elections taking place during AIS’17 are now published as follows:

1. AFRINIC Board Elections 2017 
2. NRO NC ASO AC Elections 2017
3. PDWG Elections 2017
4. Governance Committee Election 2017

The community is invited to view candidate information on the URLs above, as well as comment publicly on a candidate’s suitability for the respective positions.

The public comment period will end on 31 May 2017.

Please note that due to a recently approved change in the election timeline by the AFRINIC Board, e-voting for Board and Governance Committee seats will now start on 19 May 2017.

AFRINIC will be holding its Annual General Members’ Meeting (AGMM) at the Boma Hotel, in Nairobi, Kenya. This will be during the AFRINIC-26 Meeting and the Africa Internet Summit 2017.

We are hereby inviting all our members to this AGMM during which matters related to AFRINIC business will be discussed. An individual Notice and invitation have been sent to all registered contacts of our Members.

You can read more about the AGMM at: http://www.afrinic.net/en/about/agmm

Thank you all for your continuous support and look forward to your participation and contributions at the AGMM.

19 May 2017 - Please note that electronic voting and appointment of proxies is now open. Both services are available through the MyAFRINIC portal to members in good standing.

We encourage electronic voting but paper ballots will also be made available to Members who have not and do not intend to vote electronically. You can view Candidate Slate here 

1. E-Voting

This service has been assigned by default to a registered  administrative contact of your organisation. The admin-contact can also assign the voting right (through MyAFRINIC) to another registered contact.

To vote electronically, please follow the following steps:

a. Log on to MyAFRINIC at https://my.afrinic.net/login;

b. Navigate to ‘Election’ and ‘Access Election Centre’;

c. Select the election in which you wish to participate;

d. Choose the option ‘Vote Online’.

To assign the online voting right to another registered contact of your organisation:

a. Log on to MyAFRINIC at https://my.afrinic.net/login ;

b. Navigate to ‘MY Account’ and ‘User Administration’;

c. Check the ‘Voter Role’ to a corresponding listed contact.

2. Proxy Appointment:

A proxy can be any individual.

Please follow the steps below to appoint a proxy:

a. Log on to MyAFRINIC at https://my.afrinic.net/login;

b. Navigate to ‘Election’ and ‘Access Election Centre’;

c. Select the election in which you wish to participate;

d. Choose the option ‘Appoint Proxy’;

e. Fill the proxy form;

f. Print the form, sign it and physically hand it over to the person being appointed as your proxy.

Members who require a paper ballot, and people carrying a proxy on behalf of a Member, may obtain a paper ballot on Wednesday 31 May 2017 .

Please note that a member who has voted on-line cannot appoint a proxy.

The proxy form MUST be signed, stamped and returned 24 hours prior to the election to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Electronic voting will be closed on Thursday 1 June 2017 on the day of the AGMM. Proxy appointment will close on Wednesday 31 May 2017  to allow the elections committee do the appropriate verification ahead of the AGMM.

26 May 2017 - In April 2017, AFRINIC's Policy Development Working Group (PDWG) Co-Chairs received a policy proposal, AFPUB-2017-GEN-001-DRAFT-01: "Anti-Shutdown", authored by members of the AFRINIC community.

This policy proposal has ignited much discussion in the AFRINIC region and beyond. Several news articles and blog posts have also been published.

Some articles, unfortunately, have contained factually incorrect information on how the consensus-based, multi-stakeholder, bottom-up policy development processes (PDP) works, the role that AFRINIC Ltd plays in it, and the differences between AFRINIC Ltd, AFRINIC Members, and the AFRINIC Community.

The debate and intense discussion surrounding this proposal -- and any policy proposal – is a natural, welcomed and expected part of the AFRINIC policy development process. All stakeholders, including governments and regulators, are encouraged to join this discussion and voice their opinions. 

In order to ensure that meaningful discussion on all policy proposals can continue, we'd like to remind the community to keep the following key points in mind:

• The item under discussion, AFPUB-2017-GEN-001-DRAFT-01: "Anti-Shutdown" is not a policy, it's a policy proposal.
• It was not proposed by AFRINIC Ltd, it was proposed by a few people in the community.
• The proposal is in the early stages of discussion, and all interested parties may participate in the discussion.
• The policies that govern how AFRINIC Ltd operates and how it manages and distributes Internet number resources in the AFRINIC region are proposed, discussed and accepted or rejected by the AFRINIC Community using a transparent, open and inclusive, consensus-based, multi-stakeholder policy development process (PDP). This PDP is documented under the policy section of the AFRINIC website.
• AFRINIC's policy development process is open to everyone. Anybody may submit a policy proposal for consideration, and anybody may participate in the discussion.
• Before a policy proposal can become a policy, it must be discussed and reach agreement in the community, and must be ratified by the AFRINIC Board, as described in more detail in the PDP.
• During the discussion process, the authors of a policy proposal are expected to pay attention to feedback and input that they receive from the community. If a proposal seems unlikely to gain consensus, the authors may withdraw it, or edit it and submit revised versions for further discussion.
• AFRINIC Ltd facilitates the policy development process by providing a discussion forum.
• Sign up to the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. mailing list or attend the upcoming open public policy meeting to have your say on this proposal. Remote participation is facilitated for those who are unable to attend the public policy meetings in person.

More Information:

• About AFRINIC.
• AFRINIC ByLaws.
• AFRINIC Policy Development Process (PDP).
• Current AFRINIC Policies: The Consolidated Policy Manual.
• AFRINIC Policy Proposals under discussion
• Upcoming open public policy meetings.
• The Policy Development Working Group (PDWG)

Workshop led by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in collaboration with the Communications Authority of Kenya will explore ways to increase African Government Participation in ICANN and Policy Development.

24 January 2017 - Nairobi. AFRINIC has sent representatives to Kenya to take part in the ICANN/Communications Authority of Kenya’s Workshop for the Africa Government Advisory Committee. The workshop, themed “Harnessing the Potential of the Africa GAC Members for better Participation in ICANN”, is being held from 23-24 January 2017. The GAC provides advice to ICANN on issues of public policy and provides insight into instances where there may be an interaction between ICANN's activities or policies and national laws or international agreements within in the region.

“Governments are an integral part of the Internet industry and AFRINIC welcomes this opportunity to interact with African government representatives who are active in Internet governance,” comments Alan Barrett, CEO AFRINIC. “As Africa's supply of unused IPv4 addresses continues to run out, it is now more important than ever that governments, policy makers, business leaders and network operators come together to ensure that the African Internet continues to be developed in the most effective way. This includes the adoption of IPv6 and the increased use of Internet exchange points.”

This is the first regional workshop organised by ICANN’s recently established Nairobi Engagement Office. Joseph Mucheru, Cabinet Secretary Ministry of ICT – Republic of Kenya, opened the event, which was also addressed by Barrister Adebayo Shittu, Minister of ICT, Nigeria, Göran Marby, ICANN President & CEO, Thomas Schneider, GAC Chair, and Alice Munyua, co-chair of the GAC Under-served Regions working group, are also in attendance alongside the regional ICANN team, government representatives and community members.
While in Kenya, the AFRINIC team will also meet with representatives from the Ministry of ICT and other high level stakeholders in preparation for the upcoming Africa Internet Summit 2017 (AIS’17), which will be held in Nairobi from 21 May – 2 June 2017. The AIS is an annual, regional, multi-stakeholder ICT conference. It is the pinnacle educational and business ICT event in Africa where key players in the Internet industry interact with the global Internet community.

“The Africa GAC Workshop enables AFRINIC to talk directly with key government representatives to explain how policy development works in terms of Internet number resource distribution in Africa and beyond,” continues Mr. Barrett. “We have also been able to note that government participation in the AFRINIC policy development process is crucial and have extended a warm invitation to all participants in the GAC Workshop to attend the upcoming AIS’17, which is being organised by AFRINIC and The African Network Operators’ Group (AfNOG) and hosted by Tespok. 

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More Information

About the Africa Internet Summit (AIS):

The Africa Internet Summit (AIS) is an annual, regional, multi-stakeholder ICT conference. It is the pinnacle educational and business ICT event in Africa where key players in the Internet industry can interact with the global Internet community. Launched in The Gambia in 2012, the Summit consists of seminars, workshops, tutorials, conference sessions, birds-of-a-feather (BOFs), and other forums for sharing ICT knowledge within the African region. The Summit aims to bring the ICT business and technical community in Africa together under one roof to discuss ICT issues and challenges | www.internetsummitafrica.org

About ICANN’s Government Advisory Committee

The GAC is an advisory committee to ICANN, created under the ICANN ByLaws. It provides advice to ICANN on public policy aspects of ICANN’s responsibilities with regard to the Internet Domain Name System (DNS). The GAC is not a decision-making body. It advises ICANN on issues that are within ICANN’s scope | https://gacweb.icann.org