Open Forum #8 AFRICAN UNION OPEN FORUM 2024

Summary

This discussion focused on the African Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and digital initiatives across Africa. The African IGF 2024 was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with over 430 delegates from 43 member states discussing topics like artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and digital inclusion. Youth and parliamentarian tracks were highlighted as important components. Plans for the 2025 African IGF in Tanzania were announced.

Representatives from the African Union Commission and UN Economic Commission for Africa presented upcoming initiatives. These include the development of a continental AI strategy, revision of the Malabo Convention on cybersecurity, and efforts to expand digital infrastructure and skills across Africa. Particular emphasis was placed on bridging the digital divide in rural areas and empowering youth and women in the digital sphere.

Participants raised questions about strategies for rural connectivity, capacity building, and increasing ratification of the Malabo Convention. The need for greater inclusion of diverse stakeholders in policy development was stressed. Speakers acknowledged challenges but highlighted ongoing efforts to collaborate with various partners, including universities and the private sector, to advance Africa’s digital transformation.

The discussion concluded with calls for better storytelling to showcase Africa’s digital progress and more targeted initiatives for women in technology. Overall, the session demonstrated Africa’s commitment to leveraging digital technologies for development while addressing persistent challenges in connectivity and inclusion.

Keypoints

Major discussion points:

– Updates on recent and upcoming African IGF activities, including youth and parliamentary tracks

– New initiatives from the African Union Commission and UN Economic Commission for Africa, such as AI strategies, cybersecurity efforts, and digital inclusion programs

– Challenges in bridging the digital divide, especially for rural communities in Africa

– The need for capacity building, training, and empowering youth and women in digital technologies

– Improving storytelling and communication about Africa’s digital initiatives and successes

Overall purpose:

The purpose of this discussion was to provide updates on African digital initiatives, share plans for upcoming projects and strategies, and gather feedback from stakeholders on priorities and challenges in advancing digital development across Africa.

Overall tone:

The tone was largely informative and collaborative, with speakers sharing updates and plans in a positive manner. There was also an undercurrent of urgency around addressing challenges like the digital divide. The Q&A portion introduced a more critical tone as participants raised concerns and pushed for more concrete actions on issues like rural connectivity and women’s inclusion. Overall, the discussion maintained a constructive tone focused on working together to advance Africa’s digital future.

Speakers

– Adil Sulieman: African Union Commission representative, moderator

– Speaker 1: Provided report on African IGF

– Amina Ramalan: Youth representative, reported on Africa Youth IGF

– Speaker 2: Parliamentarian representative from Malawi

– Lilian Nalwoga: MAG chair

– Waleed Hamdi: Head of Information Society Division, African Union Commission

– Makhtar Sheikh: Representative from UN Economic Commission for Africa

Additional speakers:

– Jingbo Huang: Director of United Nations University Research Institute in Macau

– Wisdom Donkor: Executive Director for Africa Open Data and Internet Research Foundation

– Levy Syanseke: Leader of Internet Society Zambia chapter and youth IGF

– Abdi Jalil Bashar: Partnership advisor of National Cyber Security Agency in Chad, member of Economic Council of African Union

– Ahmed Farak: Chair of the North African IGF

– Martin: Representative from GFC Africa

– James: Representative from Zimbabwe

– Winnie Kamau: Association of Freelance Journalists

– Aicha Jeridi: Vice Chair of the North African IGF

Expanded Summary of African Internet Governance Forum Discussion

Introduction

This summary provides a comprehensive overview of a discussion focused on the African Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and digital initiatives across Africa. The session, moderated by Adil Sulieman from the African Union Commission, brought together representatives from various organisations and countries to discuss recent developments, upcoming initiatives, and persistent challenges in Africa’s digital landscape.

African IGF 2024 Outcomes

The African IGF 2024, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was reported as a success, with delegates from numerous member states participating. The forum covered a range of topics including artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and digital inclusion. Two key components of the event were highlighted:

1. Youth Track: Amina Ramalan, a youth representative, reported that the Africa Youth IGF focused on digital governance and emerging technologies, with over 100 participants on-site and 100 online. The main theme emphasized the importance of engaging young people in these discussions.

2. Parliamentarian Track: A representative from Malawi discussed how parliamentarians explored legislation and stakeholder collaboration related to internet governance.

The MAG chair also noted that a new charter was developed to guide the organisation of future African IGFs, demonstrating a commitment to improving the forum’s structure and effectiveness.

Upcoming Initiatives and Strategies

Representatives from the African Union Commission (AUC) and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) presented several upcoming initiatives:

1. Continental AI Strategy and African Digital Compact: Waleed Hamdi, Head of the Information Society Division at the AUC, announced the development of these comprehensive frameworks to guide Africa’s digital future.

2. PRIDA Phase 2: Set to launch in early 2025, this initiative will focus on internet governance across the continent.

3. Continental Cybersecurity Strategy: Hamdi reported that this strategy is under development and will be presented to AU organs for consideration in the second half of 2025.

4. Digital Strategy Support: Dr. Makhtar Sheikh from UNECA outlined plans to support 10 countries in developing their national digital technology strategies.

5. African Summit on AI: An event planned to take place in Mozambique before June 2025.

6. Global Digital Compact: Dr. Sheikh mentioned its adoption by the UN General Assembly in September 2024.

7. Continental CERT Initiative: Hamdi discussed plans for this cybersecurity measure.

8. Common Position on International Law in Cyberspace: Hamdi noted ongoing work in this area.

9. School Connectivity and Capacity Building: UNECA plans to connect schools and build capacity for 100,000 young students across 14 countries.

10. Digital ID Program: Ethiopia has registered 1 million people, with plans for 24 million next year.

11. STEAM Center in Rwanda and WSIS Plus 20 meeting in Benin: Both initiatives mentioned by Dr. Sheikh.

12. African Center of Cybersecurity in Togo: Plans for this center were discussed.

13. STI Forum: Planned for April in Uganda.

14. Data Governance Working Group: Plans to support six member states in building capacity on data governance.

These initiatives demonstrate a concerted effort to advance Africa’s digital transformation at both continental and national levels.

Challenges and Areas for Improvement

Throughout the discussion, several challenges and areas for improvement were identified:

1. Digital Divide: Audience members emphasized the need to address the digital divide in rural communities, calling for concrete strategies to bridge this gap. Dr. Sheikh noted that connectivity in Africa increased only 1% (from 37% to 38%) in the past year.

2. Capacity Building: Multiple speakers stressed the importance of capacity building for youth, women, and government officials in digital skills and technologies.

3. Malabo Convention: There were calls to revise the Malabo Convention on cybersecurity and increase ratifications among member states.

4. Communication and Storytelling: Winnie Kamau from the Association of Freelance Journalists highlighted the need for better storytelling to showcase Africa’s digital progress and IGF activities.

5. Women’s Inclusion: Aicha Jeridi, Vice Chair of the North African IGF, called for more targeted initiatives for women in technology. Dr. Sheikh mentioned that the digital gender gap has increased to 13.13 points.

6. Identity and Employment: Dr. Sheikh noted that 500 million people in Africa lack legal ID, and there’s a need to create 625 million jobs by 2030.

Collaboration and Support

The discussion emphasized the importance of collaboration and support in advancing Africa’s digital agenda, including invitations for collaboration from the United Nations University and requests for support for sub-regional IGF activities.

Agreements and Consensus

There was broad agreement on several key points, including the importance of capacity building, youth engagement, comprehensive digital strategies, and improved storytelling about IGF activities in Africa.

Conclusion and Next Steps

The discussion concluded with several key takeaways and action items, including Tanzania hosting the next African IGF and a call for new MAG members. While the discussion demonstrated Africa’s commitment to leveraging digital technologies for development, several issues remained unresolved, particularly strategies for effectively bridging the rural digital divide and increasing women’s participation in ICT and cybersecurity.

Adil Sulieman: Please put your earpieces, please. Good afternoon. We will start momentarily. We are just waiting for the panelists to come to the podium. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. My name is Adel Suleiman. I’m with the African Union Commission. It gives me great pleasure and privilege to be here with you, the African IJF 20, the IJF 2024, with the main theme of digital, leveraging digital for peace, development, and stability. So we are very happy and pleased to be with you here. This is our annual gathering as Africans. It’s like a family gathering. It’s a family gathering, and we really feel like this is a talk between brothers and sisters. And I think the objective of this open forum, the annual open forum, is to share what the African institutions are doing in terms of new initiatives, and to share some good news with you on the new initiative and project that are in Africa. And also, there will be some representatives from African institutions in this gathering that are also going to be sharing with us what they are doing. And we also want to have a dialogue. I think that also we want to listen from you, your challenges, and what you are doing in terms of some progress on your side, either on an individual basis or on an institutional basis. So basically, I think we stand here with mixed emotions. We have good news. I start with the good news. One of our colleagues who was predominant in this discussion, Dr. Nyambura, I’m glad to announce that now she is the minister in Kenya. So I think we are very proud and happy to have one of the family members to take this high position in their country. I think you have to look yourself as future, also, leaders in Africa, because it’s not far from you. So you can achieve everything that you want. The sad news that, of course, we lost Makan Faye. Makan has been instrumental with the African IGF, as well as with the global IGF. If you can stand up, we just observe a minute of silence. Thank you very much. So let me just walk through the program for today. We will have feedback on the African IGF. So it’s going to be presented by our colleagues. And we have two other tracks during the African IGF. We have the youth track and the parliamentarian track. So also, we are going to get some reporting on those. After that, we will hear from the MAC chair, and then a couple of African institutions, the African Union Commission and the UN Economic Commission for Africa. They’re going also to share with us their new initiative in 25 and moving forward. Without further ado, let me give the floor to Sorine to give a high-level report on the African IGF. Sorine, the floor is yours.

Speaker 1: Thank you, Adil, and good afternoon, everyone. I just want to give a brief background. And we have everybody’s, OK, all the focal points for different aspects of the African IGF. And they will provide a detailed background information. So for the African IGF that had just concluded from the 20 to the 22nd of November in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, we had over 430 delegates. All those delegates got the badges. And we had over 43 member states was represented. And more or less, we had the stakeholders, a diverse one, UN representative, academia, CISOs, parliamentarians, youth, and partner agencies, including research institutes, member states representing, and also private sector were present. Just to give you the demographic and gender balance, we had from the delegate that are present, we had 154 female and 276 male delegates were present during the forum. We started the African IGF first from the African School of Internet Governance, which was led by the APC. The focal point was UNRWA in Peace. They had one week long. The delegate that they covered in the AfRICC close to 55 participants, including the resource personnel, and also including parliamentarians for intergenerational dialogue. So we had, unlike any other days during the African IGF, this year we started quite late. So with the support of the MAG and the MAG chair, who will provide a detailed information on our process, we started quite late. But with the support of the host country, which is the Ethiopian government, we tried to buy in some of the time. As I said, we started with AfRICC. And that was from the 14th to the 19th of November. The topic that was covered or the practicum was around data governance and cross-data flow, which is on the implementation of the African Union Data Policy Framework. And also we had a parliamentarian session, which was facilitated by Celine. She is the focal point from IGF Secretariat. They had one full day parliamentarian track, which had three or four subtopics. And also they had parliamentarian session, included intergenerational dialogue with the youth. And on day zero also, we had a youth track or youth forum, which was a full day. The young lady, Aminata, and Mariam Jope, and Lilian, were the focal point. They will be talking about what the thematic area was, what was the message, and the call for action. We had also partners session. GFC is, I think, present. Martin Koyabe is there. They organized more or less three session. They hold the regional forum, GFC forum, on day zero. they had also a session on coordination committee across the partners and also implementation of the Togo cyber security session. Martin will be a good person to provide more detail. So on the main session of the African IGF, as I said, it was three days including day zero. We had across nine sub thematic areas, that is artificial intelligence and emerging technologies, cyber security and cybercrime, local content and multilingualism were there, technical and infrastructure and many other sessions including also technical infrastructure which was led by ICANN and ISOC sessions. I think we had also a plenary session where we tried to gather all the parallel workshop which were complete like 44 workshop that we hold, plenary sessions, one high-level session on the multi-stakeholder building our multi-stakeholder digital future for Africa, that is the main thematic area for the African IGF this year and we had a main session, one is on misinformation, disinformation in internet shutdown, the second one is around cybercrime and cyber security, the third one was advancing cyber security in digital economy, the last one was around e-government, this were the plenary session and during the high-level session we tried to revisit the global digital compacts in the WSIS annual review in the upcoming WSIS plus 20 review process that we’ll be holding. At the end we concluded our session on open mic which we heard from the community what went right, what went wrong and how we can improve the African IGF process and to make it an inclusive and more representative of the stakeholders and we had also closing ceremony which we announced the next year host for the African IGF, this time will be Tanzania has accepted and considering that the global IGF will be in June, the host government are thinking to hold it just before the global IGF but once the date is agreed with them will be communicated and the last session that I don’t want to forget is hosted by the global digital inclusion partnership, they had breakfast session to make sure that how the women initiative or initiative aim to bridge the digital gap to get their funding from existing funding agencies. So I think I will give back the mic to the moderator to give it to them.

Adil Sulieman: Thank you very much, I think let’s give her a round of applause. One key message is that the African IGF is going to be in Tanzania, most likely it’s going to be early in the year because the global IGF is going to be in June, so just to be ready for that so that we will attend and hopefully maybe we have some representative here will volunteer for the 2026. So I want to be with the presenter to be brief because I think the one of the essence of this session is to have dialogue. So we want to, if you could also take your indulgence that you park the question to the after we finish all the presentations. So I will give the floor now to the youth representative to just give us a briefing on what inspired in Addis Ababa when they met in the youth track. Amina, please go

Amina Ramalan: ahead. Good afternoon everyone, my name is Amina Ramalan. So the 2024 Africa Youth Internet Governance Forum held November 20th on day zero of the Africa IGF. The theme of the 2024 Africa Youth IGF was digital governance and emerging tech, amplifying youth voices in multi-stakeholder dialogue. So during the Africa Youth IGF we had over a hundred participants on site and we had about a hundred participants online from all over the world. We had four panel sessions and we had two workshops. The panel session covered the main theme of the Africa Youth IGF. We also spoke to the global digital compact, understanding its opportunities and perspectives of youth. We had a multi-stakeholder dialogue with policymakers. We had opportunities for engagement by our sponsors, by the stakeholders that were on our panel such as ICANN, UNECA, the Tony Blair Institute, GIZ. We also had a closing session by representatives from the UN IGF Secretariat. Some resolutions from the 2024 Africa Youth IGF include stakeholders committing to taking constructive criticism from the forum. Agreements were also made to increase youth participation and representation in the ecosystem. Governments through policymakers agreed to prioritize integrating digital literacy into academic curriculum. There was also a strong agreement by all participants for the need to develop Africa-specific solutions to Africa-specific problems such as in dealing with digital governance, agricultural health, education that includes integrating our local languages into AI and digital tools. Some of the key outcomes from the Africa Youth IGF include improving digital literacy among youth, advocating for representation of youth in the ecosystem, launching initiatives that will strengthen cross-border collaborations on digital rights. Stakeholders such as ICANN, UNECA also spoke to expanding their capacity building initiatives, prioritizing infrastructure development. There was also discussions on promoting lifelong learning and mentorship opportunities to foster youth leadership in Africa’s digital economy and there was also the consensus to strike a balance between digital innovation and human rights. Thank you. Thank you very much Amina. I

Adil Sulieman: think you did a wonderful job to summarize what inspired in Addis on the youth track. I hope that also the following presenters will also try to keep it short and precise. Let me take this opportunity to welcome Honourable Susan from Malawi to give us a briefing on what inspired during the Parliamentarian symposium. Honourable, please the floor is yours.

Speaker 2: Briefly, at the Africa IGF in November, we had a parliamentary track where we were giving out the issues that we have done so far in our countries, various countries. We had members of Parliament from different countries as well as members who represent Africa Parliamentary Network on Internet Governance. So we discussed issues whereby we spoke about issues of legislation. How can members of Parliament work together with other stakeholders to make sure that we work together. We shouldn’t leave anyone behind. We have to be working together as Africa. We have to, whatever issues we have, we need to put them together and so that we can face the challenges that we are facing as one continent. So it was a very good session and through that session we were able to come up with strategies, plans that can enable us Parliament to work on our duties. As you are aware, as members of Parliament we have a key role to play in our different countries. Coming up with legislation is not that easy so we want every stakeholder to work with us, to be with us and legislators should not be left behind but we have to work together so that we make sure that Africa is connected. Africa is one Africa we are doing the right things together. So as parliamentarians we assured everyone at that session that we are ready to work and we are ready to come up with legislation, maybe on the issues of AI as well on the AI frameworks and anything that will come up even if there will be issues of maybe some amendments to the laws that we already have in our countries. We are ready to to do that. In

Adil Sulieman: brief I think that’s what I can talk about. Thank you. I think we are stronger because we in the African IGF family we have the parliamentarians and we look forward to have other stakeholders like diplomats also so that the family can be also can grow and become more stronger. I think the parliamentarians since they joined in 2022 I think they they they had impact on the ground and we we’re really happy to have them along in this journey with us. Thank you very much. Let me now give the floor to the MAG chair Lilian just to give us a briefing on the MAG activities and what what they have done during last year. Thank you. And also part of this year.

Speaker 3: From the MAG I would like to thank my fellow MAG members and past members. Perhaps I would like to recognize the current. Yes send TiJaan you served last year, Aisha is around he’s currently joined this year. So these plus a number of our colleagues who are not in the room today were very helpful in the shaping of the program last year and this year. So part of our task force when we joined the MAG in towards end of 2002 was to revise the current charter and I would like to tell them inform the community that we have a new charter that guides the organizing and the convening of the Africa IGF. This charter started with a journey that was led by Dr. Makta Sek in Choto last year. It constituted a task force of 12 members and some of them are in the room. TiJaan I don’t see the rest Mama Mary and Harriet. It was led by Honorable Gavenger from the Gambia a Hodge a Hodge Honorable yes from the Gambia and they did quite a wonderful job in advising and guiding and revising so that the charter could fit within the current settings of the Africa IGF. The charter came live this year during the IGF in in Ethiopia last month so it is still very fresh and currently we’ll be opening up call to have new MAG members and this should come out towards the end of next month. I’m looking at Serena and Dr. Makta to be sure that this is going to happen because we realize that the IGF has to we have a very short time frame and again the current MAG I think is used to working under tight deadlines because we had a very short time frame this year to organize the Africa IGF and it was a good success so we believe that if we start as early as next year in constituting a new MAG then the community should be able to give be given time to organize around workshop submitting workshops give the MAG ample time to select the workshops and also have an agenda announced before probably we hear from Tanzania on the month or date they will host we should be able to have our program ready. So I think those are the updates we we have from the MAG so members just look out for that call inviting you to announcing the call for nominations for the MAG members and then we’ll take it on from there. Thank you.

Adil Sulieman: Thank you. Thank you very much Lillian. So you had the news there is a charter and there is an also MAG election so if you guys are interested please especially the youth please just be on the alert something is going to come up and then maybe you can put your name for the for this was some of this position even though they are voluntary but you know this is just to serve Africa and we we are really looking for the youth and their spirit and their you know hard work so that they can make a difference. Thank you very much to the panel. Thank you. Please give them round of applause. Let me ask Mr. Walid Hamdi and Dr. Maktar Sek to come to the high table so that they can also give presentation on some of the initiatives that from the African Union Commission and also the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. I think this is maybe so I’ll be very interested interesting so because you’re going to hear some good news about some development of new policies and and also some new project that are going to be launched in Africa. So let me give the floor to Mr. Walid Hamdi. Mr. Walid Hamdi is the new head of division for the information society division within the African Union Commission. Mr. Walid please go ahead. Thank you. I think there was a mic here.

Waleed Hamdi: Hello. Very good evening brothers and sisters. Very good evening everyone. All protocol all protocol observed. I’m really proud to see this African representations in the room. It’s something that show how we are very keen to for our voices for African voices to reach to this global platforms and to be very effective in shaping global policies. I’m talking about 2024 both very intense as globally the directive the strategic directions was about how to move from strategies to actions. So at the African Union Commission particularly the information society division we were thinking about how to move from strategy strategies to actions and then we kind of like wanted also to promote African efforts and like I mentioned we are very keen that the African voices to be heard in this global platforms. So we started with Global Digital Compact. We had a very long session of thinking about how to submit an African common position to the Global Digital Compact so that our voice is united and also our goals objectives so that we can easily accomplish these tasks all as African all together. So in the preparation of the summit of the future under the African Union Commission stewardship we produce a common position towards an open free and secure digital future for all. These positions have been articulated in an African Digital Compact which was submitted during the summit of the future as I mentioned as a common position for Africa in the Global Digital Compact. That was during the second half of the year and I’m very proud also to say that we managed to develop the continental AI strategy at the same time. We have been working very hard utilizing our resources to provide the African Digital Compact as well as the AI continental strategy because as we all know AI is a very hot topic and we don’t want to be late and also the emerging technologies and specifically AI is now in every conversation around achieving sustainable development goals, addressing the African challenges and we have a lot of unique challenges in Africa as you may know. The continental AI strategy was endorsed by the EU Council back in July in July 2024 with the support from UNESCO and also the African Digital Compact was supported by our colleagues in GIZ. We provided these two frameworks, and those two frameworks developed by multi-stakeholder groups representing African actors in the digital sphere. They developed oriented with specific commitment that measurables, time-bound, and with ownership of objectives clearly assigned. I’m pleased to announce that both frameworks, of course, now are adopted by the EU Summit, by the EU Executive Council, and now they are available. Both of them are accompanied by implementation plans so that Member States can follow these implementation plans for the ease of start implementing those frameworks. I’m very pleased to share today with you all that the second phase of PRIDA, PRIDA Phase 2, will formally launch early 2025. We are speaking about second half of January. Internet governance will be a focus area under the new initiative. I would also like to announce that EU Commission will launch, with the support of LuxDev, a continental CERT initiative following the completion of the project formalization phase which is currently underway. The EU developed a common position on the application of international law, cyberspace, this year. This common position was adopted by EU organs early this year and the Commission is currently assisting Member States to develop their own national position. As I mentioned, we are moving from strategies and policies to actions so that this one is kind of like applying international law into the cyberspace and also to assist Member States to do so. Next, I’m also pleased to report that a continental cybersecurity strategy is under development. Once the draft is finalized, the EU Commission will carry out validation workshops with different stakeholders, African stakeholders, involving various groups in the continent. Ideally, the final draft should be presented to the EU organs for consideration and possible adoption within the second half of 2025. We started with 2024 very excited, but we are continuing to have also 2025 to have these big milestones where we will have the African cybersecurity strategy. This EU cybersecurity flagship project, the EUC will be launching cybersecurity initiatives in close collaboration with the World Bank and the German Foreign Affairs Ministry. This collaboration, the key areas will be domestication of the Malabo Convention Center for Cybersecurity. Also, the cyber strategy and we can’t talk about this without mentioning the child online safety and digital ID. With this, I’ll stop here and thank you so much.

Adil Sulieman: Thank you very much, Walid, for the presentation. Now, I’ll give the mic to my good friend, Dr. Makhtar Sheikh, to also give us some insights on the activities that were carried or plan to be carried by ECA in 2024 and 2025. Dr. Sheikh, please. I think so. You can use your.

Makhtar Sheikh: Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for this. For we are going to let’s go faster because we have a meeting running soon. For UNECA, we have a lot of accomplishment during this 24 years, but 25 will be more busy. Just so we can highlight in 2024, the adoption of the Global Digital Compact by the UN General Assembly in New York in September. And also was the launch of the AI Working Group and also the Data Governance Working Group at the UN level. We work closely with the AUC and we support a lot of member states in several areas. And now we are going to align our work in 2025 on the five objectives of the Global Digital Compact. Let me give you a summary of what we plan to do in 2025. Regarding the first objective of the Global Digital Compact, closing the digital divide and achieving sustainability. Today, our support to member states to develop their national strategy on digital technology. This year, we focus on 10 countries. 10 countries will be beneficial for this support. We will continue also to work on digital public infrastructure, DPI, to support some member states and also to develop some African guidelines on digital and DPI. And focus more on climate change, the impact of the climate in our continent. Also, we will continue to support African members to expand their broadband infrastructure by bringing some investment companies to support them. 2025. Also, in terms of connectivity, we are going to continue our work to promote connectivity across the school. And as a joint program, we have UNICEF, ITU, and ECA to connect a lot of schools across the continent this year. And also capacity building. We are going to build the capacity of young students. We target 100,000 this year across 14 countries. Now, on the second objective regarding this digital inclusion and to make this digital technology beneficial for all. We have several activities like the digital ID program. We will continue our digital ID program in member states. Now, we focus in 2025 on seven countries. We will add four more countries on 2025. Now, we have a great result in Ethiopia. In the database, we have now, at the end of last week, 1 million registered to get their digital ID. And next year, we plan to go to 24 million. And we will add also, we already have finalized a strategy for Malawi. And we are going to start this implementation in Gambia, in Malawi, and other African countries. Also, we are going to launch this STEAM Center in Rwanda in June. Also, inclusion needs this whole meeting we are going to organize. WSIS Plus 20 will be discussed in May in Benin to discuss how we can align WSIS Plus 20 and the Global Digital Compact for African countries before the Global WSIS in July in Geneva and also before the General Assembly in September where we are going to organize the continuation of IGF and WSIS Plus 20 in line with the Global Digital Compact. The third objective regarding cybersecurity, make our cyberspace secure. We are going to continue our work on cybersecurity. We focus more on capacity building this year because last year, we have a lot of policy and AUC will develop the national African continental. We are going to revise the Malabo Convention. We are going to see how to assist member states to implement this new revision of the Malabo Convention. We will continue also the capacity building program targeting member states, parliamentarians, and the private sector as well as the law judiciary. On cybersecurity also, hopefully, we are going to launch this year the African Center of Cybersecurity in Togo. We are working closely with GFC and World Bank on that. We think by the end of this year, we are going to launch this cybersecurity center. Also, objective four regarding data governance and data sharing. We have the implementation of the African Union Data Governance Framework. We are going to support six member states to build their capacity on data governance and also to develop their data. their national strategy. The country has already identified, and the work will start as of 1st or 2nd January next year. Also, on data governance, we are going to develop this data governance guideline for Africa. We are going to set up in place a working group on data governance for the continent. Because at the world level, we already put a data governance working group. And this data governance working group, we have only four member states per continent. Africa will be represented by four member states. And at UNECA, we are going to put a large data governance group. And this data governance group, the outcome will be discussed in the global data governance to make sure all the parts of Africa are being taken into consideration in this data governance. The last one, it is AI, very important, AI governance. And we’ll continue our work to artificial intelligence policy supporting member states and to develop their national policy. Already, we support the AUC to develop the African AI strategy on AI. Now, we are implementing at the member states. We’ll organize next year’s African Summit on AI in Mozambique before June 2025. That agreed now with the government. We are going also to put a lot of capacity building on AI. Because the issue is we need to build the capacity of the policymaker and the youth generation on AI. And we are going to use this artificial intelligence center we have created in Congo to build more capacity for member states and for African youth in AI. Also, we are going to organize this STI forum in April in Uganda. And we are going to show a lot of innovation on AI at the continental level. We already developed a website showing more than 300 innovation on AI in several areas, going to agriculture, health, business sector, industry. And we are going to launch this platform during the African STI forum that we organized in April with the government of Uganda. On AI also, there is an issue of ethics of AI. It’s a regulation we will work with UNESCO to have a one ethic guideline for the continent, as well as how to regulate this emerging technology. We have an approach sandbox for Africa. I will provide the result as soon as possible. As you see, I’m going to stop there. Because we have a lot of activity in 2025 going to policy development, capacity building, project knowledge sharing, as well as a platform of dialogue like this, which is African IGF. And also, the think tank for Africa to discuss how they fit their priority in the global agenda. Because we have a big issue in Africa. If you look at the statistic last year, 2023, the connectivity, it was at 37%. And the last statistic we get two weeks ago by ITU, it is at 38%. We have only 1% increase on connectivity in one year. It is a big issue because we need to make progress. Also, when we look at this digital gender gap, the digital gender gap in 2023 was between men and women. Now, it is 13.13 point. And there is an increase. And we need to find a solution to make everybody access a digital space. And also, we have to curb the digital ID negative impact. Because we still have 500 million not connected without any form of legal ID. We have some challenges like that. And also, as you know, by 2050, 40% of the African youth population will represent 40% of the youth population. We need to build their capacity. And by 2030, we need to create 625 million jobs in Africa focused on digital skills. And we have to find a way to bridge the gap and to create more, more, more, more people connected and more, more people skilled in the digital era to make sure we leave no one offline. Thank you. Thank you very much, Dr. Sek, for the presentation. As you can see from the two presentations, there’s a lot to be done. And if you are representing an institution or maybe individual, we will seek your help with all this. Because we cannot do it alone. We need the support of everybody in their own capacity so that we can accomplish all these aspirations. With that, we finish our presentation.

Adil Sulieman: And we come to the real work of receiving comments from the floor. And please keep it to one question or one intervention comments, because there are so many people in the room. And we want to give opportunity to everybody who wants to speak, who wish to speak, so that we can learn from you. And also, maybe you can ask question not to only these two gentlemen, but also to the people who were here before on the African IGF, the MAG, and all that. So without further ado, let me open the floor. I see one hand here. Let’s take maybe four at a time. One, two, three, where is number four? And OK, four. Start with the lady. By the way, I am very proud that we have a very good gender balance in the room and also on the panel. I think this is good. And I think this is a testimony of the African spirit. I think this is great. Please go ahead. Thank you. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

Audience: My name is Jingbo Huang. I’m the director of United Nations University Research Institute in Macau. So I’m very enthusiastic about the plans for African continent, because we have a lot to offer. And UNU, as you know, is a UN organization, also think tank. We do teaching, training, capacity building specifically, and education. So our institute, the institute that I’m heading in Macau, is specialized in digital tech and SDG, research and capacity building. We have a 13 institute in 12 countries. And I hear from both of the distinguished speakers and also the previous panel the needs of strategy development, for example, related to digital tech, capacity building for youth, for policymakers. That’s exactly what we can do in UNU Macau. So I will be happy to connect offline to let you know. For example, we have a training catalog related to demystifying AI. We have also done the UNESCO AI ethics readiness assessments in some other countries. So we have a lot to offer. And in our institute, it consists of former university professors from different parts of the world and with different backgrounds related to digital tech. So just to provide you that we have this implementation power and also to support your visions in doing so. So the second point is that we hold a UNU AI conference. And this year, we had the first one. And we actually invited some African ministers of ICTs to our conference. And in collaboration with the UNDESA, we put together a data governance digital transformation workshop. So many of the ministers have already participated in it. So this year, 2025, we would like to invite our guests here to join our AI conference. October 24, UN Day 2035, is going to mark the UNU’s 50th anniversary and also the UN’s 80th. So it will be a big year. I hope that you will come to join us. Third is we have a UN for youth. During this conference, we will also have a AI social innovation hackathon awards competition for young people to present AI social innovation solutions for local problems. So I also invite the youth from Africa. Thank you.

Adil Sulieman: Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Is there a mic? Thank you very much.

Audience: My name is Wisdom Donkor, the executive director for Africa Open Data and Internet Research Foundation. My concern goes to. Waleed, you talk about the strategies to help Africa, but my worry is that we still not talking about how we are going to get the rural communities out of the state in which they are now. So I want to understand from you what concrete strategies do you have in order for us to be able to bridge that digital divide gap within the rural communities because within our part of the continent that is where most of our food basket comes from, that is where most of the, I should say, employment comes from within the agriculture sector and trade. So I would like to know. And then also to Dr. Maktar, now we are talking about data governance and then the working group and all of that. The AI is also coming up. Other programs are also coming up. We still have the rural communities to connect. And then, I don’t know, it looks like we are overloading ourselves. I just want to understand how we can move towards these rural communities and then help them because everybody in the room here seems to come from the urban cities and all of that. The rural communities are still in the dark. When you talk about electricity, they are still in the dark. When you talk about connectivity, it’s still in the dark. And then other components, and if you take the educational sector as well, you mentioned UNESCO. Now, I didn’t hear about local content. I was expecting to hear about local content and what we can do to bridge that gap because if you look at our educational institutions, the urban cities, the programs that we learn, the rural communities, it’s the same thing that they also learn. But then the urban cities have that privilege of having everything digitally. The rural communities don’t have. But yet, this is the case that the rural communities sit in the same exam room as the urban cities. We write the same exam. So what do we have concretely to do for us to bridge that gap? Because that is where I think those problems are coming from. If we’re able to bridge those gaps, then we’ll be there. Good afternoon. I’m Levi Siansege from Zambia. I lead the Internet Society Zambia chapter and also the youth IGF. I think from its two comments in one, my concern question goes to Dr. Macta. You mentioned, I think, a number of projects are supporting a limited number of countries in Africa. I would like to find out which country, which project Zambia would fall in. I would like to write on that since I’m from Zambia. And then earlier, I think part of the opening, there was a concern about the Africa IGF 2026. If there is room to place a voluntary role for 2027, I’d like to pledge my country. We can work, I think, on a number of things to ensure that 2027 can be hosted in Zambia. And with that said, I think those are my questions and contributions. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. It’s okay? Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. It is Abdi Jalil Bashar from Chad. I’m the partnership advisor of National Cyber Security Agency in Chad and also a member of Economic Council of African Union. So I need to thank Walid and Macta for the intervention because there’s a lot of things to do it in next year or in the few days. So about the artificial intelligence strategy in Africa and how to do the revision of Malabo Convention. So my question is about capacity building. So I think that capacity building is very key. So we need to train the young people, women, the official, the parliamentary. So how we can contact you because sometimes you send the official invitation through the foreign affair, but sometimes are not sent to the key minister of ICT or National Cyber Security Agency. So is that any opportunity to send the request directly to you and we can work together on that? Thank you so much.

Adil Sulieman: Just am I audible? Can hear me guys? You can hear me? Okay. I don’t know. Sorry for

Speaker 4: that. Yes. So I would like to start by thanking director UNU Macau. Definitely at the African Union we value this collaboration, we value this cooperation and we value these partnerships because we cannot do it all by ourselves and Africa is a part of the world and we need to position ourselves in this as partners to other organizations as well as also to kind of like exchange our African experience, our African knowledge in terms also to know what others are doing and we have already some collaboration with UNU and we are happy of course to receive your invitation and also to participate in UNU Macau event. So thank you so much for your comments, we appreciate it and we can also always discuss future collaboration. So my brother, that’s a great question regarding the strategies to bridge the digital divide especially focusing on rulers, areas and communities. So yes, you might not hear it today but we all know that it’s a real challenge. I talked about that we have real unique challenge in Africa but the reason that we mentioned AI and other frameworks it’s not to neglect this gap rather than also to look for innovative ways to kind of like bridge the gap of the connectivity. So it’s been in our agenda, in our priorities. The strategies we put in place for this is that we are working very closely with ATU, African Telecommunication Union. We are exploring new technologies that can help because connectivity issue, we had so many conversations with ITU for example, we look at the ITU fact sheets and we’re also monitoring this gap bridging. So we are working very closely with African Telecommunication Union, we are trying also to look at innovative and not so traditional way of bridging the gap by using you know internet satellites, maybe using low orbit connectivity. So all these things are things that we are thinking about, we work together, we push for bridging the gap with the rural area and we thank you for being the voice in the room for these communities that’s like you mentioned might not be able to come all the way here. We thank you for your interest, we thank you for being the voice for these communities and we work tirelessly to kind of like see improvement in this challenge. You mentioned electricity, earlier this month we have our STC for energy and we tabled Africa energy efficiency strategy and we have been very clearly given directions also to use AI technology in these things and to use AI in also kind of like when we use renewable energy to reserve the African resources and to best utilize these resources. So we are working on that, our strategies work together is to take a multi-stakeholder and collaborative approach with our colleagues in Ato. The capacity building Abdul Jalil mentioned, well as I said earlier that we have implementation plans for both for African digital compact and for AI strategy and in those framework, in those strategies there is a pillar for the capacity building, there is a pillar about advocating and promoting the AI application development. All this needs capacity building, all this needs training and maybe also as a director of UNU Macau mentioned that we are working, this is a good example in the room, that we are doing this either by our resources or by collaborating with other international organizations. How to approach us? Everyone knows in the AU my door is always open, you can have my card, you can have my email, there is an email also isd at africa union africa-union.org you can send us we keep monitoring and we don’t ignore any email any idea any suggestion any kind of like communication you can approach me directly if not all my team are there

Adil Sulieman: and also through the official channels of course through the AU official channels we are approachable and we are happy to work peer-to-peer and also to work together with anyone who is interested for the gentleman I will give Dr. Mokhtar because the question was addressed to him. Thank you I think you

Makhtar Sheikh: have a very interesting question first we work together we have a MOU and we develop some activity at the regional level on e-government I think we took note on your idea and we’ll see how we can involve you on our activity on capacity building and AI we work also on climate change review how to use digital for climate change to mitigate it this like climate impact in the continent digital gap you have a right because now Africa in the real area we have a 25% productivity as a digital area and our objective is to bridge this digital gap when you look at the first objective of now United Nation on the global standard compacted to bridge this digital divide in the UNEC our strategy is to involve the private sector in the development of the infrastructure in the real area now we start with some country we are going to start with Ethiopia how to bring private sector to develop the real area through PPP with the government and it will work very well because we did something like in Guinea to develop the broadband infrastructure and also we have a research strategy universal service strategy we are going to launch next year I think it is something we can help to bridge this digital divide and in the real area also we have our program on digital ID and we provide digital ID to all people across the country now Zambia we woke up and request if there is advisory service we have to receive a letter from the government just to if government want to develop national strategy or to develop policy or need support to develop one project digital ID program or cyber security or e-commerce or AI policy now we have to receive the letter from the government it is a process I think all the government Africa know how to work with UNECA and if we have activity on capacity building now we send directly we target people in the parliamentarian in the policymaker among youth and we target people to be part on this policy on this capacity building Zambia it will be digital ID we support Zambia in digital ID but our strategy is not is to we don’t have a possibility to support all African country for one project we build the capacity for one or two country and this country will serve as model for other country and other country can go there to learn and to develop their policy what we did I give you an example we build is the capacity of Rwanda in digital technology yeah me I spent seven years in Rwanda that just working on the digital Zambian project the digital now Rwanda is a model people country can go there learn about what they have done on the digital policy what they have done on the on digital finance and can use the system and lot of country now go to Rwanda for this kind of for collaboration how we can use it AI in the agriculture sector how we can transform with this real area by creating more activity we we have the example of Botswana and people can go there we have the developer the innovative technology at 700 kilometers from the capital at this place when we come there is no network there is nothing but now we have everything and the farm has very happy because there is a lot of new revenue using digital technology for for their farm and I think we thank you very much for this very good questions and I think if I may complement also the panel Jalil I think it’s the request has to be sent to the formal channel and also you can contact the individuals who are here I think that will make sure that and then to the point on the connectivity is the rural connectivity I think maybe we need

Adil Sulieman: to change the mindset not to talk about connectivity anymore rather to talk about solutions will provide solution to the communities and then part of the solution will be the connectivity but this is the different discussion so we can so we open the floor for the next round of questions okay you have one here two three and four yeah you are the first question you thank you you we can hear you

Audience: Technology is failing us. Thank you. My name is Ahmed Farak. I’m chair of the North African IGF and I would like to share with with you some activities that we have organized in 2024 and followed up with a question for the panel. We have organized our annual meeting the 8th annual meeting in October and in Mauritania and we have almost more than 10 sessions actually the 11th session and we have discussed some important topics regarding the data governance, the broadband and cybersecurity and more than this GDC as well and the women inclusion and we are in the North African IGF we are committed to organize a specialized session for the youth IGF initiative in the North African. Before the forum we have organized the school internet governance. We served the program for more than 34 students of from the seven countries of the North African IGF. As you see and as I mentioned before we are focusing on the youth okay we are dedicated our efforts to help them and to offer them a class building program that allow them to be the next leaders of the region. My question is if there any channel okay that can support the sub-regional in our continent Africa during the sub-regions IGFs that can might help us in the capacity building track that we are insist to promote and enhance the outcomes of these tracks. Thank you.

Adil Sulieman: Thank you very much for this opportunity. First of all let me take this opportunity to thank AUC and of course UNECA for the cooperation that we’ve

Audience: had. My name again is Martin from the GFC Africa. What I have is first of all I’ll just want to give you four areas that came out of our regional meeting which require some interventions from the floor and probably you may want to respond to. During the global during the regional meeting that we had in the margins of the Africa IGF we had a session where we covered four areas. The first area looked at the protocols the strategies that have been developed within the continent especially looking at Malabo Convention the IE’s strategy and so forth. The key question that came out within that was how do we allow and how do we expand the inclusion of specific interest groups in expanding the understanding of the implementation. For example we have different sectors we’ve got health we’ve got transport and so forth so those sectors need to be included so the question is how do we do that. And then there was also an intervention within the area of diversity and I know we haven’t covered quite a bit on that in terms of women and girls inclusivity and the key issue is to strengthen the intervention when it comes to policy especially to make sure that policies are gender sensitive within either regional or national level and also when we do capacity in those sectors how do we ensure that we get people absorbing the people who are being trained so that’s another question that came out of that and then the other one that we looked at was cyber diplomacy norms and issues of confidence building measures which is a new area and I know we’ve had a session today looking at cyber diplomacy but the key there was the issue around building capacity at regional level so what is it that we can do in the ECOWAS region we know ECOWAS is doing a good job but more likely in SADAC East African region to build capacity to understand those particular areas and then finally when it came to the issues of enhancing resilience we are seeing that there is an agreement that regional dynamics in terms of resilience is important we are seeing SATs being looked at and I’m glad AUC has actually formally announced that they are going to look at the formulation of the Africa SAT at a continental level and the key question is the understanding of the services and other areas that need to be absorbed and then lastly just a quick one here is the issue around the Togo Center which Mark Tasek talked about this has progressed significantly there are two areas which are being looked at one is the issue around the interest within the region and investment from the private sector thank you very much thank you okay so thank you just to know I want to know if there are some MOU with the different universities in Africa for okay I want to know if there are some MOU UN and African Union and each the university in Africa to let the knowledge you are providing to be available for everyone in Africa is there something like that you my name is James from Zimbabwe mine is on the revision of the Malabo Convention I think this is long overdue but really welcome now that we hear that African Union is going to look at that if you look at the fate of Budapest now you have a new UN treaty on cyber security and I think what was observed today should have been long observed for us under Malabo my hope is for African Union to devise a strategy to push for more ratifications of the Malabo Convention there is one hurdle in terms of ratification with the Malabo where a member state is supposed to have in place a data protection legislation in southern Africa we have tried to go around this by having model laws to assist member states to come up with their data protection legislations so perhaps the African Union can also consider something similar to help member states to come up with those data protection legislations as a condition to fulfill the ratification of Malabo and then we can have more ratifications it’s very possible to have 100% ratification of Malabo we have already seen it happening with the African continental free trade area protocol where you have a massive number of member states who have ratified the protocol so it’s an appeal to African Union to consider devising a strategy to increase the ratifications of Malabo otherwise it’s a document which won’t be useful let it be useful further and we can avail our AU network and arrangement collaboration arrangement to well I don’t want to say to more empower because now we are doing our best to empower the youth but to continue empowering them to the full limits so that we can they can assist us in our mission and to reach Africa we want so I’m very glad to continue this discussion maybe offline and put all our resources to support the regional initiatives dr. Martin you the question was about the four main areas the strategies how to include different players so the African Union Commission when we look at the strategies we we serve all our member states all of them equally and to be able to kind of like zoom in to integrate specific stakeholders regarding in different fields health education all our strategies comes with a pillar around partnerships how can we achieve the strategy goals of the strategy and we are working also the same approach cybersecurity strategy we are taking the same approach of trying to have a strategy that’s inclusive and that we can reach we can reach our strategic objectives with with integrating everyone however it’s challenging to be done completely at the continental level so there is some work to be done as a country level that we always try to put it as a direction in the strategies but it’s it’s also kind of like a shared responsibility between us and the member states gender inclusivity and gender sensitivity all our initiatives or meeting or groups are gender sensitive and inclusive and we always try to take initiatives that encourage African women to join us in the cybersecurity sphere and to participate more and also kind of like to have opportunities where they can show their abilities and also where can they learn from others and we started by ourself in the division where we always advocate for women in cybersecurity the cyber diplomacy the regional we tend to take peer-to-peer regional approach meaning that we are in we are advocating for regional experience sharing and peer to peer learning between all our regions and Mohtar is not here to answer the toggle part so I’m going to maybe you can take it offline with Dr. Seck so yes James regarding the Malabo Convention I am going to divert this question to Mr. Adil because he is he is one of the pioneers and he worked closely with the team and he spearheaded the Malabo Convention work so I think he’s going to make justice answering your question more than me so also just to share the floor not to feel that I’m under the spot by myself share some of the questions with him so Mr. Adil if you would like to address yeah thank you

Adil Sulieman: very much thank you for the questions let me go also through the just to enrich the answers on the questions that were raised. So the first question was about the regional initiative. I think PREDA2 is going to focus, as mentioned by Waleed, that IG is going to be one of the pillars of PREDA2 and of course you know PREDA2, IG is national, regional, continental. So there’s going to be support for the regional initiatives. Martin, I think we’ve been working with the UK government on CBMs and training for the RECs. We started with ECOWAS and we did SADEC and hopefully next year we’ll do Central Africa, East Africa, North Africa and we will do one for the continent so that we can go bottom up and then we have Africa common position when it comes to CBMs and norms. A Malibu Convention, you are right, I think we have to devise and I think this is also was announced by Waleed in his initial remark that this is something that we are going to be working on, on the ratification and also model laws so that the country can also ratify and accelerate the ratification. There is support from German government on that and the World Bank and we’ll be working on that exclusively. For the question on PREDA2 and the lesson learned and the scope, AI is going to be featured in PREDA2, IG and DTS, the sectorial strategies, so that’s going to be covered and also data is going to be also featured. Lesson learned, so we had COVID and then we had to work around COVID and this is something that also we need to focus on. Gender was missing in PREDA2, so this is lesson learned that we have also to have more focus on gender in PREDA2, but we are very excited about the initiative so that this is also going to be, is going to have a reflection on also IGF, the global IGF. We may have more African participating in the global IGF. I was told that I think we have five minutes, if there is one intervention. She wants to ask a question and then I don’t know if we are going to be covered more than one question. It’s okay. Hi, my name is Winnie Kamau from the Association of Freelance Journalists. You can hear me now? Thank

Audience: you. For me, I’m just wondering where is the role of storytelling in telling the good work that is being done by the IGF sector, especially in Africa. We are not telling our stories more. It’s the first time I’m hearing about North Africa having, I mean, what they did. I would like to hear more stories from the North Africa team, what they’re doing there and also in AU and everything. So I don’t know what is the role of the media and in your storytelling. Thank you. Initially, can you hear me? Yes, this is Aisha Jaridi. I’m the Vice Chair of the North African IGF. I am from North Africa and I just wanted to compliment what my colleague says, Ahmad, is that during the last North African IGF, we’ve launched a new initiative, especially for women, capacity building for women in North Africa. So it’s a series of webinars that we will conduct to address the needs of women in North Africa. This is being said, my question to be short, and we can link after that to tell you more about North Africa. My question is to you, Dr. Waleed or Dr. Adel. In your agenda, where is women? Do you intend or do you have specific objectives, specific inclusion measures for women or do you have specific projects targeting immediately women? So this is shortly what I wanted to know. Thank you. Yes, I think I will agree with my sister that storytelling is a very powerful tool. We are always using storytelling. We are always engaging with media. We share with them media briefs. We share with them what we are doing, what we have achieved, our success. But I think there is room

Adil Sulieman: for improvement. I think we need also to understand. We have a team of communication experts. Maybe if they were here, they would tell more. But for us, we need also to do more about storytelling, do more about sharing our success, do more about sharing our experiences. So I do agree with you. Storytelling is a very powerful tool to show and to learn also from these stories and inspire people also to come work with us. Because again and again and again, we will keep mentioning that we cannot do it alone. We need all Africans to come work with us in different capacities to achieve these goals for Africa we want to. Thank you so much for the question. Yeah, let me take the women question. I think BRIDA 2 is going to feature. I think we did a study on BRIDA 1 and how to improve women involvement in ICT and hopefully this is going to be reflected in BRIDA 2. And as mentioned also in the opening statement by Walid, that women in cyber, this is something that we are going to also, is going to take off in 2025. So this is a couple of things that we can talk about, we can make reference to. But I think we come to the end of this session. Thank you very much for being here and attending the session and actively

Agreement Points

Need for capacity building and digital skills development

Makhtar Sheikh

Audience

Supporting member states on digital strategies, ID programs, and capacity building

Importance of capacity building for youth, women, and officials

Multiple speakers emphasized the importance of capacity building and developing digital skills across various groups in Africa, including youth, women, and government officials.

Focus on youth engagement in internet governance

Amina Ramalan

Lilian Nalwoga

Youth track focused on digital governance and emerging tech

New charter developed to guide organizing of African IGF

There was a shared emphasis on engaging youth in internet governance discussions and processes, both through dedicated youth tracks and in the overall organization of the African IGF.

Similar Viewpoints

Both speakers highlighted initiatives aimed at developing comprehensive digital strategies and frameworks at the continental and national levels in Africa.

Waleed Hamdi

Makhtar Sheikh

Continental AI strategy and African Digital Compact developed

Supporting member states on digital strategies, ID programs, and capacity building

Unexpected Consensus

Importance of storytelling and media engagement

Audience

Adil Sulieman

Enhancing storytelling and media engagement about IGF activities

I think we need also to do more about storytelling, do more about sharing our success, do more about sharing our experiences.

There was an unexpected consensus on the need to improve storytelling and media engagement about IGF activities in Africa, with both the audience and organizers recognizing its importance for increasing awareness and participation.

Overall Assessment

Summary

The main areas of agreement centered around the need for capacity building, youth engagement, development of continental digital strategies, and improving communication about IGF activities.

Consensus level

There was a moderate level of consensus among speakers on key issues, particularly on the importance of capacity building and youth engagement. This consensus suggests a shared vision for developing Africa’s digital ecosystem, which could lead to more coordinated efforts in implementing digital strategies and policies across the continent.

Different Viewpoints

Unexpected Differences

Overall Assessment

summary

No significant areas of disagreement were identified in the discussion.

difference_level

The level of disagreement among speakers was minimal to non-existent. This implies a high level of alignment and cooperation among African stakeholders in addressing internet governance and digital development challenges. The lack of disagreement suggests a unified approach to tackling issues such as digital divide, capacity building, and policy development across the continent.

Partial Agreements

Similar Viewpoints

Both speakers highlighted initiatives aimed at developing comprehensive digital strategies and frameworks at the continental and national levels in Africa.

Waleed Hamdi

Makhtar Sheikh

Continental AI strategy and African Digital Compact developed

Supporting member states on digital strategies, ID programs, and capacity building

Key Takeaways

The African IGF 2024 was successful, with over 430 delegates from 43 member states participating

The African Union Commission and UNECA have developed several new initiatives, including a continental AI strategy and African Digital Compact

PRIDA Phase 2 will launch in early 2025, focusing on internet governance

There is a need to address the digital divide in rural African communities

Capacity building for youth, women, and officials remains a priority

Collaboration with international organizations and support for sub-regional IGF initiatives is important

Resolutions and Action Items

Tanzania will host the next African IGF, likely early in the year before the global IGF in June

A call for new MAG members will be opened towards the end of next month

The continental cybersecurity strategy draft will be presented to AU organs for consideration in the second half of 2025

UNECA will support 10 countries to develop their national digital technology strategies

An African Summit on AI will be organized in Mozambique before June 2025

Unresolved Issues

How to effectively bridge the digital divide in rural communities

Specific strategies for increasing women’s participation in ICT and cybersecurity

Methods to accelerate ratification of the Malabo Convention

How to improve storytelling and media engagement about IGF activities

Suggested Compromises

Exploring innovative technologies like internet satellites and low orbit connectivity to address rural connectivity issues

Developing model laws to assist member states in creating data protection legislation to facilitate Malabo Convention ratification

Integrating gender sensitivity and inclusivity measures into all strategies and initiatives

We still not talking about how we are going to get the rural communities out of the state in which they are now. So I want to understand from you what concrete strategies do you have in order for us to be able to bridge that digital divide gap within the rural communities

speaker

Wisdom Donkor

reason

This comment challenged the presenters to address a critical gap in their strategies – the digital divide in rural areas. It highlighted an important issue that had not been adequately addressed.

impact

This led to more focused discussion on rural connectivity challenges and prompted the speakers to elaborate on strategies for bridging the digital divide.

How we can contact you because sometimes you send the official invitation through the foreign affair, but sometimes are not sent to the key minister of ICT or National Cyber Security Agency. So is that any opportunity to send the request directly to you and we can work together on that?

speaker

Abdi Jalil Bashar

reason

This comment highlighted practical challenges in communication and coordination between African Union initiatives and national agencies. It raised an important operational issue.

impact

It prompted discussion on improving communication channels and processes for engagement between continental bodies and national agencies.

My hope is for African Union to devise a strategy to push for more ratifications of the Malabo Convention there is one hurdle in terms of ratification with the Malabo where a member state is supposed to have in place a data protection legislation

speaker

James from Zimbabwe

reason

This comment provided specific, actionable suggestions for addressing challenges with an important continental policy framework.

impact

It shifted the discussion towards concrete strategies for increasing ratification of the Malabo Convention and highlighted the need for supporting legislation.

For me, I’m just wondering where is the role of storytelling in telling the good work that is being done by the IGF sector, especially in Africa. We are not telling our stories more.

speaker

Winnie Kamau

reason

This comment introduced a new perspective on communication and highlighted the importance of narrative in promoting African digital initiatives.

impact

It broadened the discussion to include communication strategies and the importance of sharing African success stories in the digital space.

Overall Assessment

These key comments shaped the discussion by highlighting critical gaps in current strategies, particularly around rural connectivity and communication. They prompted more concrete discussion of implementation challenges and strategies, while also broadening the conversation to include important aspects like storytelling and regional cooperation. The comments helped shift the dialogue from high-level policy announcements to more practical considerations of how to effectively implement and communicate about digital initiatives across Africa.

What concrete strategies are there to bridge the digital divide gap within rural communities?

speaker

Wisdom Donkor

explanation

Rural communities are still lacking in connectivity and digital resources, which impacts education and economic opportunities.

How can local content be developed and integrated to address educational disparities between urban and rural areas?

speaker

Wisdom Donkor

explanation

Rural students lack access to digital resources but are expected to compete with urban students in the same exams.

Which specific projects and countries is UNECA supporting in Africa?

speaker

Levi Siansege

explanation

Understanding which countries are receiving support can help others learn about potential opportunities for collaboration or assistance.

How can countries directly contact AUC and UNECA for capacity building and training opportunities?

speaker

Abdi Jalil Bashar

explanation

Improving communication channels could help ensure key ministries and agencies receive information about training opportunities.

Is there a channel to support sub-regional IGFs in Africa, particularly for capacity building tracks?

speaker

Ahmed Farak

explanation

Sub-regional IGFs are focusing on youth development and could benefit from additional support to enhance their programs.

How can specific interest groups and sectors (e.g., health, transport) be included in expanding the understanding and implementation of continental strategies?

speaker

Martin Koyabe

explanation

Ensuring diverse sector representation is crucial for comprehensive strategy implementation.

How can policies be made more gender-sensitive at regional and national levels?

speaker

Martin Koyabe

explanation

Gender-sensitive policies are important for promoting inclusivity in the digital sphere.

What can be done to build capacity for cyber diplomacy and norms at the regional level, particularly in SADC and East African regions?

speaker

Martin Koyabe

explanation

Regional capacity building in cyber diplomacy is crucial for addressing cybersecurity challenges.

Are there MOUs between the UN, African Union, and African universities to make knowledge more widely available?

speaker

Unnamed audience member

explanation

Formal agreements could help disseminate knowledge and resources more effectively across the continent.

Can the African Union devise a strategy to increase ratifications of the Malabo Convention, possibly including model laws for data protection?

speaker

James

explanation

Increased ratification is necessary for the Malabo Convention to be effective across the continent.

What is the role of storytelling in sharing the work being done by the IGF sector in Africa?

speaker

Winnie Kamau

explanation

Better communication of initiatives and successes could increase awareness and engagement across the continent.

What specific objectives or projects does the AUC have targeting women’s inclusion in digital initiatives?

speaker

Aicha Jeridi

explanation

Understanding specific measures for women’s inclusion is important for addressing gender disparities in the digital sphere.