3rd EAIGF final day highlights and resolutions

The 3^rd East African Internet Governance Forum ended today Friday 13^th August. The following is summary of the issues discussed today and paraphrased resolutions of the forum.

• Creation of viable framework for ICT skills enhancement. This would
  include regional mutual recognition of IT certification to foster acquisition
  of internationally compatible and competitive skills to take advantage of
  the regional integration and globalization.
• Recognizing that the youth form over 50% of the population in East Africa, to forum recognized the need to support
  youth in ICT entrepreneurship and facilitate their engagement in the
  Internet-governance related policy making processes.
• Emphasis to strengthen existing ccTLDs in light of other gTLD initiatives in the continent including the Dot
  Africa initiative. The dot Africa
  was presented as a compliment rather than a competitor to existing ccTLDs.
• Code of Good Practice and its application to Internet Governance guidelines was presented. The
  aim of the code is to improve information, participation, transparency and inclusive
  engagement of IG-related entities in their arrangements and practices.

Session 8: Way Forward

Some of resolutions of the forum are paraphrased below:

1. Formation of a working group to develop strategies to strengthen ccTLDs in the region in light of
   competition for gTLDs and determine the business case for the .eac domain.
2. Registration of the EAIGF domain name (.ug .tz .rw .bi) all pointing to www.eaigf.or.ke
3. East African countries ratify the United
   Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Relevant sections of the Convention in view of submarine cables include Part VI; Article 79 and Part VII; Article 87(c) and Article 112.
4. EAIGF host a knowledge management repository for that IG-relevant information from national and regional organisations in particular East African Communications Organization (EACO)
5. Support of the creation of a regional exchange point and [taking into cognizance the local context develop harmonized IPv6 transition strategies]
6. Adoption of unified strategies in initiatives including youth initiatives, mutual recognition IT skills
   certification, new gTLDs, among others.
7. Utilize the Code of practice as a tool for achieving balanced participation and carry forward IG-related resolutions of and recommendations from organisation and country in the region.
8. 4^th EAIGF to be hosted in Rwanda and a call for support for the Kenya’s bid to host the UN-IGF in
   2011 in the event that the UN-IGF’s mandate is extended.