Open Forum #43 African Union Open Forum Advancing Digital Governance and Transformation

Summary

This discussion was the AU Open Forum for the African Internet Governance Forum (IGF), where representatives from the African Union Commission, UN Economic Commission for Africa, and various stakeholders shared updates on digital transformation initiatives across Africa. The forum served as a platform for African organizations to report on their accomplishments and for participants to share experiences and challenges from their respective countries.

Dr. Maktar Sek from UNECA outlined four key challenges facing the continent: policy harmonization, connectivity issues, digital inclusion gaps, and cybersecurity threats. He reported that African internet connectivity had only increased by 1% in 2024, reaching just 38% coverage, which he deemed unacceptable. UNECA has developed various tools to address these challenges, including a tax calculator for ICT sectors, an AI innovation platform showcasing 2,400 continental innovations, and support for digital ID systems across multiple countries.

The African Union Commission representative discussed ongoing initiatives including the digital transformation strategy implementation, PRIDA phase two launch, and development of continental AI and cybersecurity strategies. A significant focus was placed on the low ratification rate of the Malabo Convention on cybersecurity, with only 17 countries having ratified it despite its importance for continental cyber governance.

The Permanent Secretary of Tanzania provided a comprehensive overview of the 14th African IGF held in Dar es Salaam, which attracted 1,097 participants from 67 countries. The forum produced the Dar es Salaam Declaration, identifying nine key challenges including infrastructure gaps, digital inclusion barriers, and cybersecurity vulnerabilities, along with corresponding commitments for addressing these issues.

Several participants raised concerns about implementation of IGF recommendations, noting that while excellent outputs are produced annually, there is insufficient follow-up and monitoring of actual implementation. The discussion concluded with calls for stronger institutional support for the African IGF Secretariat and better coordination among various organizations working on digital policy harmonization across the continent.

Keypoints

## Major Discussion Points:

– **Digital Infrastructure and Connectivity Challenges**: Extensive discussion about Africa’s low internet connectivity (only 38% by end of 2024), affordability issues, infrastructure gaps, and the need for policy harmonization across the continent to create a digital single market.

– **Implementation and Governance of Digital Policies**: Focus on the slow ratification of the Malabo Convention on cybersecurity (only 17 countries have ratified), the need for stronger institutional frameworks, and challenges with internet resource management through AFRINIC.

– **Capacity Building and Skills Development**: Emphasis on digital literacy programs, youth empowerment, the African School on Internet Governance (AFRICIG), and the need to build local expertise rather than relying solely on external support.

– **Sustainable Funding and Resource Mobilization**: Discussion about reduced international cooperation budgets, the need for African countries to step up with domestic funding, greater private sector involvement, and potential GDP levy mechanisms for development funding.

– **Moving from Discussion to Action**: Concerns raised about the gap between IGF declarations/recommendations and actual implementation, with calls for stronger monitoring frameworks and the need to transform IGF from a discussion platform into one that produces actionable resolutions.

## Overall Purpose:

The discussion served as the AU Open Forum for the African Internet Governance Forum (IGF), aimed at sharing progress reports from key organizations (AU Commission and UN Economic Commission for Africa), presenting outcomes from the 2025 Tanzania African IGF, and facilitating multi-stakeholder dialogue on Africa’s digital transformation challenges and opportunities.

## Overall Tone:

The discussion maintained a collaborative and constructive tone throughout, characterized by professional engagement and shared commitment to African digital development. While participants acknowledged significant challenges (low connectivity, funding constraints, slow policy implementation), the tone remained optimistic and solution-oriented. There was a strong spirit of pan-African cooperation, with frequent expressions of gratitude for partnerships and mutual support, though some frustration was evident regarding the slow pace of policy ratification and implementation gaps.

Speakers

**Speakers from the provided list:**

– **Adil Suleimana**: Moderator/Chair of the AU Open Forum, representing African Union organization

– **Maktar Sek**: Chief Digital Officer, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)

– **Participant**: Permanent Secretary of Tanzania, host of the African IGF 2025

– **Amenta Ramalan**: Representative of Africa Youth IGF, from Nigeria

– **Henriette Esterhuisen**: Organizer of the African School on Internet Governance, works with AU Research ICT Africa and Association for Progressive Communications

– **Jacqueline Jijide**: Ambassador for Pan-African Youth Internet Governance, Digital Inclusion Practitioner, member of Malawi Youth IGF, from Malawi

– **Michel Kenmo**: West Africa Advisor for Communication and Information, UNESCO

– **Tobias Thiel**: Resident Director of GIZ for the African Union, based in Addis Ababa

– **Audience**: Multiple unidentified speakers from the audience making various interventions and questions

**Additional speakers:**

– **Dr. Amina Miyada**: EVC, CEO of Nigeria Communication Commission (acknowledged but did not speak)

– **Honorable Minister from Chad**: (acknowledged but specific remarks not transcribed)

– **Honorable Minister from Gambia**: (acknowledged but specific remarks not transcribed)

– **Honorable Minister from Zambia**: (acknowledged but did not speak)

– **Sorine**: Instrumental in African IGF organization over the last two years, works on African IGF Secretariat

# AU Open Forum for African Internet Governance: Discussion Report

## Executive Summary

The AU Open Forum for the African Internet Governance Forum convened as a platform for multi-stakeholder dialogue on Africa’s digital transformation progress and challenges. The forum brought together representatives from the African Union Commission, UN Economic Commission for Africa, government officials including ministers from Gambia and Chad, civil society organisations, and youth representatives to share updates, discuss implementation gaps, and coordinate future actions.

Key discussions centered on Africa’s persistent connectivity challenges—with internet penetration reaching only 38% by 2024—alongside efforts to establish comprehensive policy frameworks for cybersecurity, digital inclusion, and economic transformation. Participants engaged in frank discussions about the gap between policy declarations and actual implementation, coordination challenges among multiple organisations working on similar initiatives, and the need for sustainable funding mechanisms for Africa’s digital agenda.

## Opening Remarks and Context Setting

Adil Suleimana from the African Union Commission opened the forum by outlining the AU’s ongoing digital transformation initiatives, including implementation of the continental digital transformation strategy and the launch of PRIDA phase two. He highlighted the development of comprehensive continental strategies for artificial intelligence and cybersecurity as foundational elements for Africa’s digital future.

A significant concern raised was the limited ratification of the Malabo Convention on cybersecurity and personal data protection. Despite being in force since 2023, only 14-17 countries have ratified this critical framework, with major economies including South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and Ethiopia yet to adopt the convention. The Commission proposed establishing a dedicated committee to examine barriers to ratification and develop model laws to facilitate broader adoption.

## Continental Digital Landscape Assessment

### UNECA’s Digital Transformation Analysis

Dr. Maktar Sek, Chief Digital Officer at UNECA, presented a comprehensive assessment of Africa’s digital challenges. He reported that African internet connectivity reached only 38% by the end of 2024, representing minimal annual progress that he characterized as “unacceptable.” This stagnation stems from multiple factors including affordability barriers, inadequate infrastructure, limited digital literacy, and fragmented policy frameworks.

Sek emphasized that “Africa needs policy harmonisation to create a digital single market for implementing the African free trade area,” highlighting how the continent’s fragmented regulatory landscape hinders cross-border digital commerce and creates barriers to seamless digital services.

UNECA has developed several tools to address these challenges, including a tax calculator for ICT sectors that enables governments to optimize taxation policies. Sek argued that “when we optimise, we have seen our old tax collection revenue will be increased because the impact of ICT sector in other sector, health, education, finance service.” The organization has also launched an AI innovation platform showcasing continental innovations and provides support for digital ID systems across multiple countries.

### Infrastructure and Energy Challenges

The discussion highlighted fundamental infrastructure constraints, with approximately 700 million Africans lacking access to electricity—a prerequisite for meaningful digital participation. This energy deficit compounds connectivity challenges and limits the effectiveness of digital inclusion initiatives.

## African IGF 2025 Outcomes from Tanzania

Leo Magomba, Tanzania’s Permanent Secretary, reported on the successful 14th African IGF held in Dar es Salaam, which attracted 1,097 participants from 67 countries. The forum produced the Dar es Salaam Declaration, identifying nine key challenges: infrastructure gaps, digital inclusion barriers, cybersecurity vulnerabilities, limited digital literacy, regulatory fragmentation, insufficient funding, weak institutional frameworks, limited local content in African languages, and inadequate monitoring mechanisms.

Corresponding to these challenges, the forum produced nine specific commitments including accelerating infrastructure development through public-private partnerships, implementing targeted digital inclusion programmes, strengthening cybersecurity frameworks, expanding digital literacy initiatives, harmonising regulatory approaches, mobilising sustainable funding mechanisms, building robust institutional frameworks, promoting local content development, and establishing comprehensive monitoring systems.

## Youth Perspectives and Capacity Building

### Africa Youth IGF Contributions

Amenta Ramalan from Nigeria reported on the Africa Youth IGF 2025, which attracted over 200 participants for discussions on digital identity interoperability, content moderation approaches, and AI readiness across African countries. The youth forum emphasized the importance of intergenerational dialogue, particularly between youth and parliamentarians, as crucial for reviewing the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) mandate and charting future directions.

### African School on Internet Governance

Henriette Esterhuizen, representing the African School on Internet Governance (AfriCIG), highlighted the programme’s success in developing local expertise. However, she raised a critical concern about the tendency to constantly generate new proposals at the expense of implementing existing recommendations: “we have such a spirit of collaboration in Africa and we produce good outputs. Every African IGF has produced excellent outputs, but we don’t go back to them and see if we are actually implementing.”

## Critical Implementation and Coordination Challenges

### AFRINIC Governance Crisis

A significant portion of discussion focused on challenges facing the African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC). An audience member clarified that contrary to initial characterizations of financial instability, AFRINIC maintains substantial reserves. The real challenges are governance-related, representing what the speaker termed “a failure of the multi-stakeholder approach” due to low participation rates and attempts at institutional capture.

This situation highlights vulnerabilities in multi-stakeholder governance models and serves as a cautionary example for other continental digital governance initiatives. A follow-up meeting was scheduled to address these concerns.

### Policy Harmonisation Coordination

Multiple speakers raised concerns about coordination failures among various organisations working on digital policy harmonisation. An audience member identified a meta-problem: “Different organisations work with different policy approaches and policy framework, and if we do not harmonise the work we are doing, then what is going to happen is that neighbouring countries may have different policy frameworks that do not speak to each other.”

This observation revealed how well-intentioned efforts by multiple organisations—including the African Union Commission, UNECA, Digital Impact Alliance, and Smart Africa—could inadvertently create the very fragmentation they aim to resolve.

## Funding and Resource Mobilisation

### Declining International Support

Tobias Thiel, GIZ Resident Director for the African Union, raised critical questions about funding sustainability given reduced international cooperation budgets. This challenge reflects broader shifts in development cooperation, with traditional donor countries reducing commitments while African countries face competing priorities for limited domestic resources.

### Domestic Resource Mobilisation

In response to funding challenges, Suleimana emphasized that “African countries need to step up in providing funds and mobilising private sector participation, as private sector plays a major role in developed nations’ digital space.” The discussion explored various mechanisms including the proposed 0.02% GDP levy for development purposes, though insufficient countries have adopted this approach.

## Sectoral Focus Areas

### Information Integrity and Content Governance

Michel Kenmo, UNESCO’s West Africa Advisor, outlined efforts to promote coherent approaches to information integrity policy and digital platform governance across West Africa. UNESCO is developing model policy frameworks that countries can adapt while maintaining regional coherence, addressing growing concerns about misinformation and the need for culturally appropriate content moderation.

### Digital Identity and Payment Interoperability

Despite having over 130 digital payment systems across Africa, more than 100 cannot communicate with each other, creating barriers to cross-border commerce and financial inclusion. This fragmentation reflects broader interoperability challenges extending beyond payments to digital identity, data sharing, and service integration.

## Rural and Community-Centred Approaches

Jacqueline Jijide from Malawi emphasized the need to rethink digital inclusion approaches in rural communities, arguing for making “digital inclusion more accessible and practical” through community-centred approaches that address specific local needs rather than imposing standardised solutions. This perspective challenges infrastructure-first approaches, suggesting instead that connectivity should be embedded within solutions to specific community problems.

## Education and Technology Production

A particularly challenging intervention came from an audience member who observed: “Africa is not on the supply side. We can clap about every small gain, but we are not significant suppliers of anything on the internet.” The speaker argued that addressing this requires focusing on “science education, and also in particular, the sciences that are creating these technologies, which is really computer science.”

This perspective redirected attention from consumption and access issues to fundamental questions about technological capability and production capacity, suggesting that sustainable digital transformation requires building educational foundations for technological innovation and production.

## Implementation Mechanisms and Accountability

### Moving from Discussion to Action

A central theme was the challenge of translating forum discussions into concrete implementation. Maktar Sek observed that “IGF recommendations lack implementation mechanisms as it’s just a discussion platform without obligation to implement outcomes.” This limitation reflects broader challenges of multi-stakeholder governance processes that can generate consensus but lack implementation authority.

### Proposed Solutions

Participants proposed several accountability mechanisms including developing continental monitoring and evaluation frameworks with annual reports to African IGF, establishing formal communication mechanisms to share declarations with National and Regional IGFs, and strengthening the African IGF Secretariat with institutional rather than just forum support.

Additional proposals included submitting African IGF and WSIS declarations to the African Union Specialised Technical Committee meeting for ministerial adoption as official resolutions, thereby giving forum outcomes greater political weight and implementation authority.

## Conclusion and Next Steps

The forum revealed both the strengths and limitations of current approaches to African digital governance. While strong collaboration and consensus on challenge identification provide a solid foundation, persistent implementation gaps, funding constraints, and coordination challenges among multiple organisations threaten to undermine well-designed initiatives.

Key priorities identified include strengthening implementation mechanisms and accountability frameworks, improving coordination among organisations working on digital policy harmonisation, addressing governance challenges facing critical institutions like AFRINIC, developing sustainable funding mechanisms, and shifting focus from technology consumption to production through strategic investments in science education and innovation capacity.

The forum concluded with specific follow-up actions, including a scheduled meeting to address AFRINIC governance challenges and commitments to improve coordination among continental organisations working on digital transformation initiatives.

Adil Suleimana: Hello, good morning, everybody. Welcome. Welcome to the AU Open Forum this year. I think for those who are joining for the first time, you can see that this is like your home. And I think it’s the platform we share as an organization, African organization. We share what we are doing, what we have accomplished. And also it’s also an opportunity for you also to share with us what you have accomplished back home and the challenges that you are facing. So so I think without further ado, let me welcome you once again. Also, let me recognize that we have also some ministers with us. Honorable Minister, you are welcome. And also we have members of parliaments with us also. They are welcome. I think after we make the introduction and the briefing from the organization, if you are if you feel that you want to speak for the ministers, I will give you the floor so that you can at least greet everybody. And and somehow if you have something to share with us, please feel free to share without further ado. The agenda for today, we are going you are going to get briefing from the two main organization that are responsible for the African IGF and also from the activity, digital activity within Africa, namely the African Union Commission and the United Nations Commission for Africa. We just you’re going to hear. what we are doing so that you rest assured that a lot of things are being done in the continent. And the next session we are going to hear, get a briefing on the African IGF that was held in Tanzania. We hear from the youth representative, the MAC chair, and then we’re going to open the floor for Q&A. I can see that we have the Honorable Minister of Zambia. Welcome. It’s an honor, Gambia. Welcome. It’s an honor to have you with us today. And also we have the Permanent Secretary of Tanzania, the host of the African IGF 2025. Without further ado, let’s start the program. And let’s hear from Dr. Maktar Sek, Chief Digital Officer within the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. Maktar, the floor is yours.

Maktar Sek: Thank you, Adil. And good morning to everyone. Good morning, P.S. Honorable Minister, distinguished delegate, let me going to start by thanking you for attending this open forum to listen what are we doing for you. And also we need to get a view from you. It’s very important because we are here to serve the member states of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. And this support should be based on your needs. And for this year, 2024, 2025, lots of things have been happening at the continental level, driven by ECA. And this activity or key project are based on the needs of the continent. And where we are focused during this period under review, as you know, our continent is facing several challenges. Let me just focus on four. One, it is on policy harmonization. We have a lot of fragmentation of our policy and one of our role, it is to work with AUC on how to harmonize all this policy because our objective is to come with a digital single market in the implementation of the African free trade area. Second, connectivity is a big issue across the continent. You have seen in end of 2023, the connectivity was 37% for African country and end of 2004, we have 38%. Means we have only 1% progress for one year. It’s something not acceptable. Why? Because we have an issue of affordability. Issue of infrastructure, of issue of literacy and policy also and also involvement of the private sector. Why we have several activity? To try to put more involvement of the private sector by supporting African country to develop as a rule and regulation involving this private sector. Also to develop also this access to the service and device. Why we have developed one platform, tax calculator, to review the taxation in the ICT sector. I think we can share the link at the screen and this taxation has been conducted in 54 member state. We’ve all data following the salary payment, the tax of VAT, excess debt, everything regarding tax in the ICT sector. And we have shown to the Minister of Finance in this conference last year that. Optimizing ITC tax can increase not only the GDP, but we have seen an increase according to our statistic of the broadband connectivity as well as the job creation. What does it mean? ICT sector, it is not an area where government think they can get more money. Generally, all our government will focus on the ICT sector on the taxation. We have to optimize. When we optimize, we have seen our old tax collection revenue will be increased because the impact of ICT sector in other sector, health, education, finance service. It is a one platform, one you have at your disposal and we invite Minister of Finance and Minister of ICT to go through to this tool and to discuss how they can optimize the taxation in your respective country. It is a very comprehensive tool. You can play one percent, two percent, four percent until you get the amount necessary for the development of the country. Another point, we talk about a lot on AI, artificial intelligence, but the big problem is we don’t know exactly what’s happened in the continent. I don’t know if I’m Rwanda, what’s happened in innovation on artificial intelligence in Kenya or in Senegal or in Mauritania or in Tanzania. We have developed a web-based platform to show all innovation on AI in the continent. And we select, we have found around 2,400 innovation across the continent. And we have selected, given the impact, 343 innovation in around, I think, 28 sector. And we have the platform, you can visit the website. And this innovation, this platform will show you what is the impact of this innovation, how to contact also people who led this innovation across the continent, and we’ll create a knowledge sharing as a partner. partnership, collaborative technical transfer digital skills between Africa. It is the second project. The other one, on data governance, we thank GIZ, we work with GIZ to support four African countries to harmonize or to develop their national framework on data governance and to build their capacity in line with the African Union data governance framework. Namely, we are supporting DRC, Burundi, and Tanzania, as well as Mozambique. We are making good progress in DRC and Burundi, and we started last week the process, two weeks ago, the process in Tanzania and in Mozambique. And by the end of this year, we are going to have the four strategies ready and build the capacity of these four African countries through the support provided by GIZ. Digital ID, very important as a continent if you want to develop the continent. As you know, we are 500 million of our population without any legal form of identity. When you talk about 38% connectivity, you forget the 500 million. It is something we need to overcome in the continent, and why we have a big component project activity on digital ID, and we support a lot of African countries to develop their national digital ID. Ethiopia, we are supporting them now, and we have now more than 10 million people registration in the digital ID database, and we organized a successful digital ID for Africa meeting in May in Ethiopia. Another issue on policy, the issue of cyber security. We talk about the Malabo Coalition is there since, I don’t know, more than 10 years, 12 years. We have only 14 countries who ratify, and when we ask countries, they told, yeah, you have to adapt. But we are working with the African Union to adapt, to update this framework to respond to the need of African countries. Digital single market also, we are working on this. And also, we work with African Nenda and World Bank on the digital payment system, how we make this cross-border digital transaction happening in the continent. As you know, we have around 130 digital payment system in the continent, and more than 100, they don’t speak each other. Because issue of interoperability, issue of regulation, and we work of this African country to make sure we have an interoperability system across the continent in order to make this digital payment happening in all African continent. Because we need to develop this digital trade between African country, not in a country alone. It is what we do in cross-border digital payment this year. Another point where we are, it is a capacity building. We need to build the capacity of policy maker, of youth, of also private sector. Why we have several program on capacity building targeting this women entrepreneurship on digital trade, on finance technology, policy maker on how to use this emerging technology, how to develop the law and regulation, as well as capacity building for the parliamentarian. We have also a program of capacity building for the youth on innovation. And we organize this STI forum, SEAS technology innovation forum, for African country. And we have a very good component for youth, how this youth can utilize, can use this digital technology to solve the African problem. And we call it this concept, the origin concept. The origin concept is become, find local solution for problem, African problem. And it is this work, this concept work very well in Kenya, in other three, four country, Morocco, and Zambia, and in Senegal also, we have this project, this original project. Another point, it is on the collaboration, international collaboration. How African country should amplify its voice at the international level. We are the focal point for Wishes for Africa, World Summit Information Society. We organize several gatherings, several meetings. And this year, we organized Wishes Plus 20 in Kotonou in May. And almost all African country were represented at the government level, private sector, civil society. And we come up with a declaration on the Wishes Plus 20. What are the view for Africa since the implementation of the Wishes in 2025? What we need for Africa? Also, what are our key priority? We did the same thing also in Tanzania with the African Internet Governance Forum. And thank you also for the government of Benin and the government of Tanzania for their support in organizing Wishes Plus 20 and the African Internet Governance Forum. And for these two events, because they are linkage between Wishes and IGF, because IGF is part of the Wishes, it is one key outcome of Wishes, we agree. Africa, priority of Africa, it is on policy, harmonizing policy. We need to harmonize our policy. We need to bridge the digital divide between rural, urban, and between country, because we have several digital divide between the country and Africa. Also, between the men, women, and youth, we need to bridge the digital divide. priority for Africa, it is a digital literacy. We need to build our capacity of our policy maker, of our youth generation, because Africa, the aspiration for Africa is to be leader in this digital technology by 2050. And we have more than a lot of you across the continent who are making a lot of progress, innovation. I give you an example. During the COVID period, Africa has registered around five innovations on AI, of focus on medical issue, health care, and other. It is one priority for Africa. Another priority, it is this collaboration. We need this kind of collaboration, knowledge sharing, discuss between us what happened in Rwanda, what happened in Tanzania, what happened in Nigeria, and to share knowledge. We have to start this collaboration in Africa first. Yesterday, during the session, we have several initiatives shared by the Minister of Chad. I think it is something very important. We have to learn about it and to see how we can collaborate it. Also, I’m going to finish quickly because we have too many things. Another area where we need to focus in Africa, it is energy. We talk about a lot of time on digital technology, but we forget the energy side. As you know, 700 million of our population doesn’t have access to electricity. And when we want to build this digital future, this internet society, this digital economy, we need also to take into consideration energy. And last but not least, it is security, very important. Cyber security, it is a big challenge for the continent if we want to use this digital information, this service. Also, we talk about disinformation, misinformation. It is something we have because it’s coming with this knowledge society. We need to find a way. There is a good example presented yesterday by Gambia. I think it is something we can build to see how we can mitigate this cyber system, misinformation, disinformation across our country and across also our continent. And all this declaration, continue declaration, we have to do it in the Africa, we need to find a solution conclusion to find a solution for all of this challenges in Africa. We are as an IGF, to expand the mandate of the Internet governance forum to give it the aspect of this mandate, we have to make an alignment also with the global digital compact, we have adopted in September through five objectives, namely connectivity, inclusion, data governance, cyber security, and also artificial intelligence. We are going to stop there and thank you very much.

Adil Suleimana: Thank you. Thank you very much, Mokhtar. Thank you. Thank you. I promise you, you will be able to speak, because I think that’s the essence of the session, to have people on the floor to speak and share their experience. Let me also acknowledge the presence of the Honorable Minister from Chad, and also Dr. Amina Miyada, the EVC, CEO of Nigeria Communication Commission, I think Nigeria has been a strong ally of the African IGF, they hosted three or four times. So we are very thankful to Nigeria. Let me just run quickly through some of the activity within the African Union Commission. This is not like something, this is an ongoing activity, and most of this activity are going to be reported through the ministerial meeting that is going to take place by the end of the year. With regard to the digital transformation strategy for Africa, we are working with the World Bank to implement the digital transformation strategy for Africa, and we are working with the World Bank to implement this strategy. With regard to the digital transformation strategy for Africa, and in collaboration with World Bank, the following activities commence this year. connectivity for education and agricultural sector, digital implementation tracking tool, offline, online, data collection tool to track implementation of digital transformation across Africa, digital transformation strategy implementation monitoring and visualization dashboard, report on digital transformation implementation across the continent, and recommendation. Development of green digital infrastructure framework guidelines and standard as well as GHG calculation tool for Africa. Following the adoption of the interoperability framework for Africa digital ID, the AUC is now considering developing guidelines and minimum standard for interoperable digital ID across Africa. They also is pleased to share that PRIDA phase two will be formally launched as early as August of this year. PRIDA two will support AUC to accelerate the implementation of the digital transformation strategy for Africa, harmonization of policy and regulation to support the realization of the African digital single market, and strengthening the ability of African stakeholders to actively participate in the global Internet governance debate. On the implementation of the AU data policy framework, the Commission will prepare the following reports. Progress report on the implementation of data governance technical assistance program with the support of GIZ, data categorization and sharing framework, cross-border data flow framework and mechanism, continental open data strategy. On the implementation of the continental AI strategy, the Commission will impact on the development of the following. Plan plan and MNE framework for the continental AI strategy, study on the implication of AI on African economy, society, peace and security, democracy and development. Report on the AU participation in G20, including update of the AI. Africa initiative, African AI conference and G20 outcomes in relation to AU digital agenda. A draft continental cybersecurity strategy has been developed. The commission is conducting consultation and validation workshop involving various stakeholder groups on the continent. The final draft should be presented to the specialized technical committee meeting for approval by early November of this year. The AU commission also will be launching cybersecurity initiative in close collaboration with the World Bank, EU. Key areas under the two initiatives is domestication of Malawi Convention as mentioned by my colleague here, including developing model laws on Malawi Convention related to Malawi Convention and cybersecurity strategy and also development of child-friendly online portal and for Africa, for African children and also the digital ID. I stop here, let me give the floor to his excellency the permanent secretary of Tanzania, the host of this current African IGF.

Participant: Thank you so much, thank you so much. Honorable ministers, dear colleagues, good morning. As we all know that the 14th Africa IGF was held in Dar es Salaam from 29 to 31st May 2025 and this forum was represented from with various stakeholders including policemakers, parliamentarians, private sectors, technical committees, youth advocates, civil society organization, academia. We are all gathered in this forum and it also welcomed almost 1097 participants both in person and most of them were online from almost 67 countries including 49 from the African continent, 18 international partner countries and the forum both brought together a wide range of stakeholders across. the digital ecosystem. And on this forum, we came out with a declaration which due to limited time I’ll just go and talk about the key points what was discussed and what is inside the declaration. Inside this declaration, we identified the key challenges which were almost around the nine of them. I will go through one by one. And one of the key challenges that was discussed and which is in this declaration is the issue of infrastructure and connectivity. And this we are trying to address the large segments of our population remains excluded due to limited broadband coverage, high data cost and insufficient access to fixed broadband networks. And the second key challenge which was addressed in the Dar es Salaam declaration is the internet resource management. As we all know, the African Network Information Center, AFRINIC, faces serious operations and governance challenges including financial instability, leadership disputes, regulatory uncertainty, jeopardizing effect resources management. So those are most of the challenges that we are facing in the internet resource management on AFRINIC. And the third issue that is inside the Dar es Salaam declaration is the digital inclusion vulnerable and mechanized groups including persons with disabilities, refugees and stateless persons, women, rural youth, informal sector workers remain excluded from digital opportunities. And the fourth challenge which has been addressed in the Dar es Salaam declaration is regulatory readiness, fragmented digital And the fourth one, which has been addressed in the recent declaration, is capacity development, education systems, lack of integration of advanced digital skills, such as AI, artificial intelligence, big data security, cyber security, and furthermore, many other issues. And the fifth one, which has been addressed in the recent declaration, is capacity development, education systems, cyber security, and furthermore, many schools’ curricula do not integrate ICT education at the primary level, limiting early exposure to digital skills. And the sixth challenge is cyber security threats. We all know weak data protection regimes and limited cyber security capabilities leave countries vulnerable to cyber crime, data breaches, and attacks on critical infrastructure. The seventh key issue that was identified, the challenge, is stakeholder engagement and continental coordination. Here we are trying to address the inadequate framework exists for definition roles, responsibilities, and oversight mechanism among the key stakeholders, as well as the articulated and defined African common position on digital governance issues. And the eighth issue that has been declared in the recent declaration is localized content. Limited availability of digital content in local languages and cultural relevant formats undermines digital inclusion and cultural preservations. And the last key challenge that has been addressed is the energy infrastructure. Unreliable electricity supply continues to constrain ICT deployment and digital connectivity. So my dear colleagues, thank you. These are the nine challenges that we discussed in Dar es Salaam forum, and they are all well explained in the Dar es Salaam declaration. So what we did is we came up with commitments to addressing the above challenges through following actions. One is to do investment in secure and resilient infrastructure. Here we are trying to address, to promote investment in the development and expansion in critical internet infrastructure to ensure equitable and secure access to digital resources across Africa, including domain names, IP address, and root servers. The second commitment is accelerating and the adoption of digital public infrastructure, DPI, to foster public-private civil society partnership, to scale up DPI as a means to improve service delivery, governance, and digital innovation. The third one is enhancing energy infrastructure and connectivity. Here we are trying to address the support to support the modernization and digitalization of power systems while integrating renewable energy solutions to expand broadband access in remote areas. And the fourth one is ensuring effective governance to internet resources. Here we are trying to address that to strengthening the institutional and organization stability of AFRINIC, guided by transparency, accountability, and regional ownership. As we all know, we have a lot of challenges in AFRINIC. And the fifth one is strengthening police and legal frameworks. Advanced regional harmonization of digital governing policies, legislation with focus on AI regulations, data protection, and inclusive digital innovation. We are conducting, sort of, continuation of this evaluation using multistakeholder governance sandboxes. And the sixth one is advancing cyber security. We were trying to harmonize national and regional frameworks to achieve inclusion and skills development. We were trying to implement inclusive digital literacy programs that address gender, stability, and geographical disparities, and integrate advanced technology modules into national curricula, including AI, Internet of Things, quantum computing, and AI technologies. And the eighth is establishment of regional centers for colleges, universities, community science and institutions. And the ninth one to support African-led digital transformation. The ninth one is advancing content development that supports the production and development of African-languages and knowledge system. We also looked at empowering African youth. Here we are committed to empower African youth to lead, innovate and thrive in the digital future by investing in their potential, fostering digital skills, and providing the necessary support to unlock the benefits of digital transformation for the continent. The next one is empowering African parliamentarians. And the last is the parliament. the role as key drivers of digital governance, shaping policies that promote sustainable development, foster innovation, and ensure equitable access to digital opportunity across the continent. The next one is encouraging African countries to ratify the Malabo Conversion by establishing a dedicated committee to examine the underlying reason for the low ratification rate and to propose necessary reforms or actions to facilitate broader adoption. And the last one is developing African Internet Governance Index. Here we are trying to come into and find specific targets, indicators, and metrics for the progress and development of internet governance in Africa. Dear colleagues, these are the commitments that are mentioned in the RISLAM declaration that took place on 29th to 31st May of this year. To conclude, we also came up with additional commitments and the strategic imperatives. One is to do is strengthening monitoring, evaluation, and the oversight frameworks. Here we are trying to come up to develop a continental mechanism for monitoring and evaluation progress by annual report to the African IGF to ensure transparency and evidence-based decision-making. We also came up with advancing gender equality and intergenerational digital justice to close the gender-digital divide, promote women leadership in internet governance, and empower African youth to co-create digital policies and solutions. We also came up with promoting multilingualism and the protection of legal knowledge systems. Here we are trying to enable promoting… and develop digital services in indigenous African language to preserve traditional knowledge through inclusive digital platforms. The additional one is integrating environmental sustainability and climate smart digital transformation. Here we adopt a green ICT policy, invest in low carbon digital infrastructure and promote circular economy approach including e-waste management. We also came up with mobilizing partnership in international solidarity, call on international partners to support African led digital transformation through investment, technical assistance and equitable partnership in global governance processes. Safeguarding human rights and digital freedom and hold fundamental rights including freedom of expression, access to information, privacy and protection for discrimination in all digital policies and technologies. Strengthening national and sub-regional IGF support the development and sustainability of national and sub-regional internet governance forum NRI as inclusive platforms aligned with African IGF process. Elevating African digital influence, enhancing intra-Africa coordination to ensure effective and sustainable African engagement global is forum. To conclude with the declaration is that the present declaration reflects African collective commitment to reaffirm the pivotal role of the internet governance IGF as an essential platform for fostering inclusive, transparent and multistakeholder discussion on global internet governance as well as global spectrum of a digital policy and policy issues. Also to ensure that progress remains aligned with global priorities including the objective of the Global Digital Compact. We call for the continuous of ongoing process within the framework of the World Summit Information Society, OASIS, throughout the next decade. Furthermore, we look forward to the OASIS Plus 20 review formally establishing the Internet Governance Forum, IGF, mandate as a permanent United Nations entity with secure and sustainable funding, ensuring the continued impact and relevance in the evolving global governance of the Internet Digital Policy. Thank you so much.

Adil Suleimana: Thank you very much, permanent secretary. Thank you very much for the report. It was very enlightening. I am sure by now you guys are tired of this side of the meeting, so we are going to open the floor. I don’t see from far, so if there is a representative from youth, Afrinik, Afrisik, Apnik, and Mark, please, you can take the floor. But let me start also by understanding the minister. I think the permanent secretary is going to excuse himself. He has an engagement. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Let me start by giving the floor. I understand the minister from Gambia wants to address the meeting. Okay. Thank you very much. Let’s open the floor for intervention, Q&A, remarks, reports from the floor. I think, as I said, this is the essence of this meeting. It’s good that we have almost 35 minutes or 36 minutes. We start with, I think that there is a queue there. We start from.

Audience: Yeah, thank you very much, Chair. Ponsleit speaking for the record. I would like to know, you talked about this committee being set up to get more countries to adopt the Malabo Convention. If you look at it currently with the 15 countries that have adopted and rectified, it is really very embarrassing. You only have Egypt and Senegal as the big countries there. All the others are small countries, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, they have not adopted it. So I don’t know what, Ethiopia, who houses the African Union. I don’t know how you are going to do it with this committee because I believe that to go forward with, when you want to localize cyber security initiatives, our own GDPR, which is the Malabo Convention, at least the big countries should be a good example for that and it has taken time. So I don’t know how this committee will do it. Thank you very much.

Adil Suleimana: Henriette.

Henriette Esterhuisen: Thank you, thank you Adil. Henriette Esterhuisen, I am the organizer, one of the organizers of the African School on Internet Governance, which is an initiative of the AU Research ICT Africa and Association for Progressive Communications. And I just want to share that we had AFRICIG this year. It was the 13th AFRICIG in Tanzania. I cannot thank enough the Ministry of ICT, the Permanent Secretary, Mr. Leo Magomba, his team and everyone in Tanzania for doing an exceptional job in hosting us and for giving us so many of their staff to be part of the school and participate in the school. So just to thank everyone, the Nigerian Communications Commission who’s hosted, ECA, everyone who’s hosted. And that I do feel that over time AFRICIG. is really contributing to leadership development and internet governance in Africa. It’s a school, not for entry-level people, it’s for people that are practicing, professionals, leaders from all stakeholder groups and internet governance. It’s very intensive, but we really have results. And I think it also demonstrates that there is so much leadership and there is so much capacity. And the faculty of AFRICIG as well, and many of them are in the room, are people of exceptional quality. And I think the one thing that AFRICIG shows us is that we already have expertise. We have existing internet governance expertise in the continent. We need to galvanize it. And Adil, I’ll just share with you, I won’t name the donor, but there was a donor that we had a meeting with recently that referred to AFRICIG as the Ivy League among schools of internet governance. So I just want to thank everyone who’s always been part of that. Just how many people here have participated in AFRICIG over the years? Just put up your hands. So thanks very much to everyone. And then I think just in response to the call you put to us, I think that what we really just have to be cautious about, we have such a spirit of collaboration in Africa and we produce good outputs. Every African IGF has produced excellent outputs, but we don’t go back to them and see if we are actually implementing. I’m even thinking of AFRICIG in 2022, where we collaborated with the African Union to produce an input for the open-ended working group, which was a strategy on how to build multi-stakeholder cyber resilience. Very practical steps and recommendations. And I think we should really be very cautious about constantly making new proposals, coming up with new ideas. Often, I think that happens at the expense of actually fully implementing the ones we’ve already generated. Thanks very much.

Adil Suleimana: Thank you. Please introduce yourself.

Amenta Ramalan: Good morning, everyone. My name is Aamenta Ramalan, I’m from Nigeria I’m a representative of Africa youth, I will be giving a brief about the Africa youth 85, 2025. The forum was organized by the African youth IGF. It was a series of conversations that was aligned with the theme for the main Africa IGF. The forum had over 200 participants from across several African countries. This was actually one of our most attended Africa youth IGFs and hopefully it will be impactful and the recommendations will be implemented. We had a series of conversations around the importance of digital identity and how it can be implemented in Africa. We had a series of conversations around the importance of digital identity and how it can be implemented in Africa. One of our conversations around that was for cross-continental interoperability, so the digital identity is interoperable between nations. We also had conversations on collaborative approaches to social media content moderation, ensuring that different platforms are available to share the same content and to ensure that the content is accessible and easy to understand. We also had conversations on open source and open future, Africa’s youth on AI and frontier tech. We noted that UNESCO’s open AI readiness assessment is being implemented in 50 plus African countries, however, there is still a need for investment across the continent within the US, before releasing the results. And we’re afraid that the funding will be lost. Because without skilled youth and infrastructure funding alone will not succeed. We said, let me tell you, this has to be done and this is what we’re doing. We said, let’s go to Africa, and okay, let’s not take the data off because will not be effective in developing AI solutions. And lastly, we had an intergenerational dialogue between the youth and parliamentarians. Now, the key of this session was to bring together the architects of the early WSIS engagement and the leaders of today. We had conversations around the founding principles of the WSIS and engaged in dialogue on how we can chart our way forward as a region and what will be most important for us while the WSIS mandate is being reviewed. In conclusion, the Africa Youth IGF provided a platform for young leaders to engage in meaningful dialogue on the role of youth in shaping Africa’s digital transformation. Thank you.

Adil Suleimana: Thank you very much.

Audience: I think I have to adjust this. Thanks very much for organizing the forum. I’ve been away for a while and so I’m quite impressed with the activity I’m seeing. I thought I’ll try to redirect some things and then maybe also post my priorities just so that I’m also included. I like to do a check. There was a mention of domain names. So I like to find out how many of the people here have domain names from African ccTLDs or .Africa. Okay, you have some, but notice that it’s very small. So redirect to we believe in ourselves and owning the domain name system in Africa. The second thing is there was a mention about AFRINIC having financial problems. I think the evidence is that they even have reserves of about $9 million. I do not know many companies. in Africa that, apart from operating capital, have reserves of nine million. So that needs to be, the problem we see with AFRINIC, our resource management organization, is more about failure of the multi-stakeholder approach, where it’s not able to reach consensus, and there are attempts of capture. You know, when participation is low, this process we like so much can easily be captured, and that may be a good study for the researchers and academicians regarding the case of AFRINIC. Now, I just want to now throw my priorities. For me, I think the supply side is where we are not. Africa is not on the supply side. Even on the internet, Africa is not on the supply side. We can clap about every small gain, but we are not significant suppliers of anything on the internet. Not really, okay? So we have to kind of focus on what creates that supply side. In my opinion, it’s science education, and also in particular, the sciences that are creating these technologies, which is really computer science, okay? Applications of it is what we are seeing that we are enjoying. We’ve been doing AI since the 70s, okay? And we’ve been doing all these distributed systems since that time. So for me, the priorities in beefing up science education, it does not mean that the other humanities and social sciences are not significant, but you need a minimum composition of the sciences to be able to advance, in my opinion. The second message that I can give. give is we need to adopt the MS practices in our domestic environments, because it requires certain techniques, such as active participation, and you must be knowledgeable enough, and you must be constructive, and you need to have a moderator that will call consensus. So if you miss participation, it can be captured. If you don’t have a moderator that can call consensus, you are doomed. So I just leave it there. The last bit is we have to preserve and grow the capacities that we have by focusing on intergenerational mentorship and coaching. Currently, it looks like it’s disjointed. Everybody’s going their own way, peer to peer. We forget that you have to have a stream, especially in certain areas like cybersecurity, where you cannot afford to have any vacuum in the chain. So I thought I’ll give you these two ideas, and thank you very much for a good follow-up. Thank you.

Adil Suleimana: Thank you very much. Can you please be brief, because I think we need to give the floor for as many people as possible.

Tobias Thiel: Sure. Good morning. My name is Tobias Thiel, and I’m the resident director of GIZ for the African Union, based in Addis Ababa. Thank you so much for a comprehensive presentation. You outlined quite an extensive list on African-led initiatives in the digital sector, which I believe is a crucial prerequisite for the digital transformation of the continent. At the same time, we also know from experience that the commitment is also very much measured in terms of the resources that are being committed. So my question to you would be, given recent reductions… and international cooperation budgets. How do you realistically expect this wealth of initiatives to be funded, especially with a view to member state resources, but also private sector? Thank you so much.

Adil Suleimana: All right. So from this side.

Jacqueline Jijide: Good morning.

Adil Suleimana: Oh, you have also another side. Okay. So please go ahead.

Jacqueline Jijide: Okay. Thank you. So my name is Jacqueline Jijide, and I’m from Malawi. Actually, I’m Ambassador for Pan-African Youth Internet Governance, as well as the Digital Inclusion Practitioner, and also a member of Malawi Youth IGF. Thank you so much for the presentations that have been made, especially on the issues to do with digital inclusion. My question this morning will be directed more especially on the proposed solution to do with promoting digital inclusion as well as skills development. I always advocate for a digital divide, more especially for the remote areas. So my question is, in rural communities where digital infrastructure is weak, digital literacy is low, and participation in development programs is limited, how can we rethink our approach to make digital inclusion and skills training more accessible, practical, and embraced by people themselves? Thank you.

Michel Kenmo: Good morning. I am Michel Kenmo. I’m the West Africa Advisor for Communication and Information for UNESCO. Thank you for the presentation. My intervention here is to share with you an initiative that is ongoing in West Africa. and the region and related to information integrity. I’m happy to see the Honorable Minister from Gambia, who is one of our champions of that initiative. And the initiative is aimed at promoting a coherent and integrated approach to policy on information integrity, as well as enhancing digital platform governance. As you know, UNESCO has adopted a few years ago the guideline for digital platform governance and it’s been adopted by the African Union, and it’s been adopted by the African Union, and it’s been adopted by the African Union, and it’s been adopted by the African Union. So, through the initiative, it’s to come up with a policy framework, a model policy framework across the region on information integrity that will cover, among other, digital platform governance, access to information and data, in line with the model on access to information adopted by African Union. So, I think it’s very much a hunk of the treasure trove of digital platform governance and acceptance, and the media endorsements and views in Africa do fundamental elements of digital platform governance and accessibility for Africa. And this will be implemented from June until July due to a COVID19 outbreak, and it’s been implemented already will lead to information integrity for West Africa and Sy-Hale, and it’s expected the conference will lead to the conversation among UNNOC representatives. So, thank you for your attention.

Adil Suleimana: Thank you very much.

Audience: Thank you very much. I Landing particularly the comprehensive assessments of the Africa IGF that held in Tanzania. I’m particularly concerned about the implementation of some of the declarations that were mentioned, particularly one of the contributors here listed the nations that have adopted some of those declarations, and I tried to make consultations with my secretaries to find out if these declarations have been formally written in correspondences to the NRIs, and I got a negative response. So my presentation here is that when such events like the Africa IGF or even the West Africa IGF that we hosted, we should be able to reach out to all local and regional IGFs to formally write that these are the outcomes and these are the roles that you are supposed to play. And then thereafter, we all are aware that implementation of policies, adoptions and all that are usually difficult, so we should create a provision for following up and monitoring the execution of this so that to a great extent we will be able to achieve what we have set out to do. That’s my contribution. Thank you.

Adil Suleimana: Thank you very much. I think we stop here, maybe the second round after we go to the question. I think we have some of the interventions were not questioned, it was just reporting, but we will try to address the questions that were raised. Let me start before I give the floor to the rest of the colleagues here. There was a question about Malibu Convention, the first question I guess. It’s true that there was a small ratification, but Malibu Convention went into force in 2023. We needed 15 ratifications for the treaty to go into force, and we are now at 17. I agree it’s very low, the number of countries ratified, and that’s why we are taking a two-pronged approach. Number one, working with the government. ECA, we want to have this committee, first of all, to do some kind of research, why country are not ratifying, what are the reasons, what are the challenges, so that we can address those challenges and then go to the country and give them answers. Second approach is to develop model law to explain, because as you mentioned, correctly mentioned that the Malabo is a very old treaty, it has to be updated. So I think we also did a review report of the Malabo Convention, we suggested some amendments, but unfortunately the countries, they are supposed to champion those amendments, but they have not, so far they have not come forward. But the model laws are, the intent of the model law is to be able to explain and to add more content, because as I said 2014 is a long time ago in this space, so we are doing model law so that the countries can feel more comfortable after explaining, like data protection, cybercrime and all that. So after explaining that in the model law, so the countries are going to be more inclined to ratify. So this is with regard to the question. There was a question from the GIZ director about, I will leave some of the question to my colleagues, but I will try to see the direct question, that’s what the rest was. There was a question about these initiatives, there are too many initiatives and with all the politics, geopolitics that is happening now, what are we going to do, especially with the international partners, being a little bit now, they are going through a very tough time. It’s true, I think the country they have to step up, the African countries, I think it’s good that we have ministers with us, they have to step up, not only actually in providing funds, in mobilizing funds and getting the private sector, I think it’s important for the private sector to be part of this. in developed nation, private sector is playing a major role on the digital space. So I think we look forward to the countries to step up in terms of playing a leadership role, not only in providing funds, but also in mobilizing funds through the private sector. I think it’s very important that we get the private sector into this equation. There is also, within the African Union Commission, there is also a move to take a levy from the GDP. It’s like 0.02% levy from GDP so that it can go into development. We’re still not getting enough number of country to adopt this approach. But I think if it’s adopted, then I think maybe it’s going to provide a little bit of improvement. But I totally agree that there is a challenge, a huge challenge, actually not only Africa is facing. Even developing countries now, they are facing this challenge. Let me stop here and then pass the mic to my colleague, Maktar, and also the representative from Tanzania.

Maktar Sek: Thank you, Adil. Thank you all for your pertinent question and contribution. Let me start first by Ariat about the implementation of the IGF recommendation. As you know, IGF, it is just an outcome of the wishes. It’s just a platform for discussion. Everything happening in IGF, you don’t have any obligation to implement it. It is why, in the new reform of IGF, we need to look at this implementation side. Because we discuss every year since 19 years on IGF, and nothing has happened about the recommendation. So, I would like to conclude by saying that we need to have a resolution. We need to have a resolution. When you come to the global IGF, there is no recommendation. Just a report and the summary of the discussion. In Africa, we try to adopt this declaration, but you don’t make confusion between declaration and resolution. The declaration, it is just commitment. We have the key challenge and we think we are going to do this, but we need to have a resolution. We need to have a resolution and we need to have a resolution to IGF for sustainable development. How IGF can contribute to the digital divide in the continent and other continents also. And this discussion, this ongoing discussion on the expansion of IGF, also how to align IGF with this global digital compact and we need to have a resolution. So, I would like to conclude by saying that this monitoring framework and IGF, it is something also we have to take into consideration. I fully agree IGF provide a platform of discussion where a lot of great ideas are coming, but the lack, it is an implementation side, but it is a spirit of IGF, it’s a little bit different to WSIS, where we have some target and some resolution and this is something we try to sort it out. So, it’s the very first time I am here and it’s my first time here in Munich. And I really thank the IGF. Thank you. So we need some resolutions to see our voices innovate in order to see how we can go together to support them. It’s very important for the future. digital skills, we need to involve you in the discussion. When we talk about entrepreneurship, job creation, we need to involve you in this discussion. It’s very important. And sometimes it is something we forget in several discussions. You don’t have a youth, and we need to have this youth to be fully part of the discussion across the continent. It’s not only ICT sector. When you talk about agriculture, climate change, we need to involve you. Industrial development, we need to involve you. Me, fully agree with you, we discussed a lot on this. But for the AFRINIC, I will not respond now. Because tomorrow, we are going to have a discussion, a meeting, on AFRINIC. We have several issues about AFRINIC on CCTLD and the domain name in the continent. And to Wisdom, tomorrow, the meeting is at 10, I think. What time is it? Wisdom, is it in the room? No, we have a meeting. Sorry, what time is the meeting? OK, 11. We invite tomorrow, 11.30, to attend this meeting. Very important for the continent. We have a special discussion among the agenda on AFRINIC. Supply side, yeah, it’s where we have to go. I think we talk about 20 years, but more than 20 years. The same 30 years, we talk about development technology across the continent. And we are still not progressing very well. It is the reason why, at ECA, we have this Search Technology Innovation Forum. Also, we already established the African Center of Artificial Intelligence in Congo. And also, we are going to establish soon the STEAM Center in Rwanda, and also the Cyber Security Center in Togo, to push and to promote innovation across the continent. And without the supply side, we can’t use. We can’t be a key actor in this technology revolution. The other question is, GIZ, thank you, Dr. Tobias, also for the support we receive from GIZ, we have France, we have Kaku, all is here, we work closely with you and we appreciate this collaboration and we are fully right, given this freeze, what we have to do. You know, we have several organization, even at UN, we have several organization doing same thing, sometime. Now, it is a reflection under the UN80, we talk about UN80, and to see how we can be more efficient working together. First, with the UN agency, with our partner, and also with member states. We have seen, where we have a duplication, we have to avoid, it is the policy now. If you have two agency doing the same thing, we are going to merge them, it’s clear. With our several partner at the continental level, we are going to look at the comparative advantage of each organization, and each organization who has this comparative advantage should lead any project related to each sector. And we have to change approach of our member state. We need to give them, member state doesn’t have a lot of issue on funding. We need to give more advisory service to the member state. There’s some countries, you go there, they told you, we don’t need money, yes, we need advisory service. What’s happen in other continent or other country, how can I adapt my need to be more efficient? When you talk about digital ID, we can look at the case we develop in, what call it, in Ethiopia. When you look at digital agriculture, look at what we have done in Botswana, to see how we can replicate it in this country. And also, we have to involve our member state in the all development support we are doing is something very important and will become more and more efficient. I think this freeze is very important and also it comes at the right time now for people to think about the new way to support member states and the new way also to work together and inside also to develop our own expertise in-house. I think it is something we are doing now. We have several working groups at the UN, UNAT, and by the end of June we are going to have a first proposal for all UN agencies and after we go to member states before we are going to the General Assembly. And also Malawi, how to promote digital inclusion in the rural area. You know we have several ways to develop this digital inclusion. First the big issue it is a usage gap in the continent. You have the network but you don’t have connectivity. People didn’t connect, why? Because they don’t have money to pay. Because there is an issue of affordability on the data and also on the device. For data it is easy. We can just look at our taxation policy and have a good regulation of the sector to reduce the data. We have one tool developed by ECA on the taxation of the ICT sector. This will improve the connectivity across all the continent in the rural area, urban area. As a device we need to have an industry in Africa. How we can work together to develop the device in the continent. And data also, why also this support from GIZ is very important. It is the way to harmonize data, to make data accessible in the continent at a low cost also. And this one can help the rural area to be more connected. And also technology. Technology side, I think Poncele was there. They have a lot of technology adapted to the rural area. Why you put 5G in place where you don’t need it? You have several applications, satellite, constellation, Wi-Fi. You can use other technology alternative for this rural area. And also there are Another point, it is a universal access fund. In several countries they have a universal access fund to connect what is called an inter-service area, real area included, but sometimes this innovation, this universal fund is not going to support the real area. It is a political issue. Unfortunately, we have to think about if you want to put a universal fund for ICT, this universal fund should respond to the need of this sector. It is where we can develop also this, promote this inclusion in the real area. Another one, it is UNESCO, we fully agree with you, I think it is a good project. Also in the Internet Governance Forum, we have this declaration, the declaration is posted in the website. Now we are going to make it very official, there is an STC to be organised by the African Union by the end of October, beginning of November, and we are going to submit this declaration, the WSIS declaration and the IGF declaration to the Minister of ICT for adoption. Now when they adopt it, it becomes a resolution for African travellers, their common position on WSIS plus 20 and IGF also, and now at the national level we are going to see how we can implement and we can report on this next year. Thank you.

Adil Suleimana: Thank you. Thank you very much. I think we have time for one intervention, and basically I think before, just let me compliment a little bit before I give you the floor. I think this is why now IGF plus is very important, because I see a lot of questions about the recommendation, what happened, implementation and all that, so IGF plus is very important and contribution from people like you I think is very important so that it can be enhanced. It can be strengthening the IGF. And on the inclusion question, I think we need to think more about not connectivity, but solutions. I think we need to think about also community, provide solution to the communities. Like if there is an issue with education, we provide education, but embedded in the solution is connectivity everything. So we need to change the mindset from providing connectivity and it’s not used to solutions. Meaning like if you have issues, local issues, community issues, you need to address them through provision of solution, and then the solution is going to be an integrated solution. Let me give the floor to our colleague here, Koko.

Audience: Thank you very much, Adil. So yesterday in our session, the point of harmonizing our data policies was made strongly. But what we usually do not talk about is also something that Matar just mentioned, which is to get the organizations to work together. So I think one area we need to look at is the harmonization of the efforts of the several organizations on the continent that are working on data policies. So you have AUC leading the effort, UNECA is supporting member state, Digital Impact Alliance, Smart Africa. There are several organizations and I think we need to harmonize this effort because the challenge I see is this, different organizations work with different policy approaches and policy. the policy framework, and if we do not harmonize the work we are doing, then what is going to happen is that neighboring countries may have different policy frameworks that do not speak to each other, and this will make harmonization extremely difficult. So this is also an area that I think we should look at going forward. Thank you.

Adil Suleimana: Thank you very much. I think we are going to be not doing a disservice if we don’t give the floor to Sorine. Sorine has been very instrumental in the African IGF organization, so let’s give the floor for her to say a few words, but I think let’s give her a round of applause for the job well done with the organization of the African IGF over the last two years. Thank you very much, Sorine.

Audience: Thank you, Adil. Thank you, everyone, for coming to this open forum. I just want to start from the declaration, especially on the last line, that we are calling for the permanent structure of the IGF. When we are calling for the global IGF to be a permanent structure, we ask ourselves in the African region, how do we make sure that the African IGF Secretariat, which is the brain of the African IGF, is the one that is going to be the executive branch, the one that is going to be the foundation or the machine behind what happens in the African IGF forum. I just want to take you back two years. When the African community had an engagement meeting in Kyoto, we decided to have a task force to make sure that we need to the African school of Internet Governance. We have been working with the African school of Internet Governance, which is a program that was already adopted last year in November in Addis Ababa, which today you see Anne Rait, which is the program director of the African school of Internet Governance, talk very happily about the organization and the support she got from the host country, because this year we made sure that the African school of Internet Governance and the host country, which is the host country, has been working with us before the forum to happen, working cohesively. Not only even the African IGF, even the global IGF has been working with us seamlessly. But I just want to also go back what the director said. Our commitment is how much resource we put in place to strengthen the African school of Internet Governance, and how much we support the African school of Internet Governance. We have been working for a long time to make sure that the Secretariat institution is strong enough, so that’s why this year we can really see the success of African IGF. So going forward, we need to create stability for the Secretariat, and I want to thank the GIZ which is our greatest supporter, and we need to make sure that the Secretariat is strong enough to support institutions that are not institutional support, instead of forum support, because all the conversations we have, the Malabo Convention, the WISIS Review, the NRIs, for them to play the Secretariat has to be as strong as possible, which will require institutional support. With that, I will close. Thank you so much for always being supportive.

Adil Suleimana: Thank you, very much, Serene. With that, we thank you very much. We’ve come to the conclusion of this meeting. Thank you for coming, and have a wonderful day. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Agreement points

Digital Infrastructure and Connectivity Challenges

Speakers

– Maktar Sek
– Participant
– Jacqueline Jijide

Arguments

Africa has only 38% connectivity with just 1% progress in one year, facing issues of affordability, infrastructure, literacy and policy

Large segments of population remain excluded due to limited broadband coverage, high data costs and insufficient access to fixed broadband networks

In rural communities where digital infrastructure is weak and digital literacy is low, we need to rethink approaches to make digital inclusion more accessible and practical

Summary

All speakers acknowledge that Africa faces severe connectivity challenges with low penetration rates, high costs, and inadequate infrastructure, particularly affecting rural communities and requiring comprehensive solutions beyond just technical fixes

Topics

Development | Infrastructure

Need for Policy Harmonization

Speakers

– Maktar Sek
– Participant
– Audience

Arguments

Africa needs policy harmonization to create a digital single market for implementing the African free trade area

Fragmented digital policies and regulatory frameworks hinder progress across the continent

Different organizations work with different policy approaches, and neighboring countries may have incompatible policy frameworks if efforts aren’t harmonized

Summary

There is strong consensus that fragmented policies across African countries are a major barrier to digital development and that harmonization is essential for creating an integrated digital market and effective regional cooperation

Topics

Legal and regulatory | Economic

Implementation and Monitoring Gaps

Speakers

– Maktar Sek
– Participant
– Audience
– Henriette Esterhuizen

Arguments

IGF recommendations lack implementation mechanisms as it’s just a discussion platform without obligation to implement outcomes

Need to develop continental mechanisms for monitoring and evaluation with annual reports to African IGF for transparency and evidence-based decision-making

There’s need for formal communication of IGF declarations to National and Regional IGFs with follow-up and monitoring mechanisms

There’s tendency to constantly make new proposals at the expense of implementing already generated recommendations from previous forums

Summary

Multiple speakers identified the critical gap between policy discussions/declarations and actual implementation, emphasizing the need for systematic monitoring, evaluation, and follow-up mechanisms to ensure commitments translate into concrete actions

Topics

Legal and regulatory

Capacity Building and Skills Development Priorities

Speakers

– Maktar Sek
– Participant
– Audience
– Henriette Esterhuizen

Arguments

Africa needs to build capacity of policymakers, youth, and private sector through various programs targeting women entrepreneurship, digital trade, and innovation

Education systems lack integration of advanced digital skills like AI, big data security, and many schools don’t integrate ICT education at primary level

Africa needs to focus on supply side development through science education, particularly computer science, to become significant suppliers of internet technology

The African School on Internet Governance (AfriCIG) demonstrates existing expertise and contributes to leadership development, showing Africa already has internet governance capacity that needs galvanizing

Summary

There is broad agreement that Africa needs comprehensive capacity building across all stakeholder groups, from basic digital literacy to advanced technical skills, while also recognizing and leveraging existing expertise and leadership capabilities

Topics

Development | Sociocultural

Similar viewpoints

Both speakers emphasize that Africa must address fundamental infrastructure challenges (energy) and take greater ownership of its digital transformation through increased domestic resource mobilization and private sector engagement

Speakers

– Maktar Sek
– Adil Suleimana

Arguments

Unreliable electricity supply constrains ICT deployment and digital connectivity, with 700 million Africans lacking access to electricity

African countries need to step up in providing funds and mobilizing private sector participation, as private sector plays a major role in developed nations’ digital space

Topics

Development | Infrastructure | Economic

Both speakers advocate for meaningful youth participation in policy discussions across all sectors, not just technology-specific areas, and emphasize the importance of connecting different generations of leaders

Speakers

– Maktar Sek
– Amenta Ramalan

Arguments

Youth need to be fully involved in discussions about entrepreneurship, job creation, agriculture, climate change, and industrial development, not just ICT

Intergenerational dialogue between youth and parliamentarians is crucial for charting the way forward while reviewing WSIS mandate

Topics

Development | Sociocultural

Both speakers recognize the need for stronger institutional frameworks and mechanisms to support regional digital governance initiatives, whether through improving treaty ratification processes or strengthening coordinating bodies

Speakers

– Adil Suleimana
– Audience

Arguments

The Malabo Convention has low ratification rates with only 17 countries ratified, requiring research into barriers and development of model laws

The African IGF Secretariat needs institutional support and stability to effectively coordinate regional internet governance efforts

Topics

Legal and regulatory | Cybersecurity

Unexpected consensus

AFRINIC Governance Challenges

Speakers

– Participant
– Audience

Arguments

AFRINIC faces operational and governance challenges including leadership disputes and regulatory uncertainty, representing failure of multi-stakeholder approach due to low participation and capture attempts

Explanation

There was unexpected consensus that AFRINIC’s problems are primarily governance-related rather than financial, with speakers agreeing that this represents a broader challenge with multi-stakeholder processes when participation is low and vulnerable to capture

Topics

Infrastructure | Legal and regulatory

Energy Infrastructure as Digital Prerequisite

Speakers

– Maktar Sek

Arguments

Unreliable electricity supply constrains ICT deployment and digital connectivity, with 700 million Africans lacking access to electricity

Explanation

The explicit recognition that energy infrastructure is a fundamental prerequisite for digital transformation was notable, as this connection is often overlooked in digital policy discussions despite its critical importance

Topics

Development | Infrastructure

Supply-Side Technology Development

Speakers

– Audience

Arguments

Africa needs to focus on supply side development through science education, particularly computer science, to become significant suppliers of internet technology

Explanation

The emphasis on moving from technology consumption to technology production through science education represented an unexpected shift from typical discussions about digital access and inclusion to fundamental technological capability building

Topics

Development | Sociocultural

Overall assessment

Summary

The discussion revealed strong consensus on fundamental challenges facing Africa’s digital transformation: inadequate connectivity infrastructure, fragmented policies, weak implementation mechanisms, and capacity building needs. There was also agreement on the need for greater African ownership of digital initiatives and better coordination among stakeholders.

Consensus level

High level of consensus on problem identification and broad solution directions, with speakers consistently identifying similar barriers and emphasizing the need for harmonized, well-funded, and properly implemented approaches. The consensus suggests a mature understanding of digital governance challenges and readiness for coordinated action, though implementation remains the key challenge.

Different viewpoints

Nature of AFRINIC’s problems – financial vs governance

Speakers

– Participant
– Audience

Arguments

AFRINIC faces operational and governance challenges including leadership disputes and regulatory uncertainty, representing failure of multi-stakeholder approach due to low participation and capture attempts

African Network Information Center, AFRINIC, faces serious operations and governance challenges including financial instability, leadership disputes, regulatory uncertainty, jeopardizing effect resources management

Summary

The Participant characterized AFRINIC’s problems as including financial instability, while an Audience member strongly disagreed, arguing AFRINIC has $9 million in reserves and the real issue is governance failure due to low participation and capture attempts in multi-stakeholder processes

Topics

Infrastructure | Legal and regulatory

Focus on new initiatives vs implementing existing recommendations

Speakers

– Henriette Esterhuisen
– Maktar Sek
– Participant

Arguments

There’s tendency to constantly make new proposals at the expense of implementing already generated recommendations from previous forums

IGF recommendations lack implementation mechanisms as it’s just a discussion platform without obligation to implement outcomes

Need to develop continental mechanisms for monitoring and evaluation with annual reports to African IGF for transparency and evidence-based decision-making

Summary

Henriette cautioned against creating new proposals without implementing existing ones, while Maktar argued the problem is IGF’s lack of binding implementation mechanisms, and the Participant proposed new monitoring frameworks – representing different approaches to the implementation challenge

Topics

Legal and regulatory

Unexpected differences

Characterization of AFRINIC’s financial status

Speakers

– Participant
– Audience

Arguments

African Network Information Center, AFRINIC, faces serious operations and governance challenges including financial instability, leadership disputes, regulatory uncertainty, jeopardizing effect resources management

AFRINIC faces operational and governance challenges including leadership disputes and regulatory uncertainty, representing failure of multi-stakeholder approach due to low participation and capture attempts

Explanation

This disagreement was unexpected because it involved a direct factual contradiction about AFRINIC’s financial status, with the Audience member providing specific evidence ($9 million reserves) to counter claims of financial instability, suggesting different stakeholders have different information or interpretations of the same organization’s status

Topics

Infrastructure | Legal and regulatory

Overall assessment

Summary

The discussion showed relatively low levels of direct disagreement, with most conflicts centered around implementation approaches rather than fundamental goals. Key areas of disagreement included the nature of AFRINIC’s challenges and whether to focus on new initiatives versus implementing existing ones.

Disagreement level

Low to moderate disagreement level. Most speakers shared common goals around digital transformation, policy harmonization, and capacity building, but differed on implementation strategies and problem diagnosis. The disagreements suggest healthy debate about methods rather than fundamental conflicts about objectives, which could facilitate collaborative solutions if properly managed.

Partial agreements

Similar viewpoints

Both speakers emphasize that Africa must address fundamental infrastructure challenges (energy) and take greater ownership of its digital transformation through increased domestic resource mobilization and private sector engagement

Speakers

– Maktar Sek
– Adil Suleimana

Arguments

Unreliable electricity supply constrains ICT deployment and digital connectivity, with 700 million Africans lacking access to electricity

African countries need to step up in providing funds and mobilizing private sector participation, as private sector plays a major role in developed nations’ digital space

Topics

Development | Infrastructure | Economic

Both speakers advocate for meaningful youth participation in policy discussions across all sectors, not just technology-specific areas, and emphasize the importance of connecting different generations of leaders

Speakers

– Maktar Sek
– Amenta Ramalan

Arguments

Youth need to be fully involved in discussions about entrepreneurship, job creation, agriculture, climate change, and industrial development, not just ICT

Intergenerational dialogue between youth and parliamentarians is crucial for charting the way forward while reviewing WSIS mandate

Topics

Development | Sociocultural

Both speakers recognize the need for stronger institutional frameworks and mechanisms to support regional digital governance initiatives, whether through improving treaty ratification processes or strengthening coordinating bodies

Speakers

– Adil Suleimana
– Audience

Arguments

The Malabo Convention has low ratification rates with only 17 countries ratified, requiring research into barriers and development of model laws

The African IGF Secretariat needs institutional support and stability to effectively coordinate regional internet governance efforts

Topics

Legal and regulatory | Cybersecurity

Key takeaways

Africa faces significant digital connectivity challenges with only 38% connectivity and minimal progress, requiring urgent action on affordability, infrastructure, and policy harmonization

The Malabo Convention on cybersecurity has critically low ratification rates (only 17 countries) despite being in force since 2023, necessitating research into barriers and development of model laws

Policy fragmentation across Africa hinders the creation of a digital single market, requiring harmonized approaches among different organizations working on similar initiatives

Internet governance forums like African IGF produce excellent declarations and recommendations but lack effective implementation mechanisms and follow-up processes

Africa needs to shift focus from just providing connectivity to delivering integrated solutions that address specific community problems while embedding digital access

Capacity building and youth engagement are critical, with successful programs like the African School on Internet Governance demonstrating existing expertise that needs to be galvanized

Funding challenges due to reduced international cooperation budgets require African countries and private sector to step up with increased investment and leadership

Resolutions and action items

Establish a dedicated committee to examine reasons for low Malabo Convention ratification rates and propose reforms to facilitate broader adoption

Submit African IGF and WSIS declarations to the African Union Specialized Technical Committee meeting in October/November 2024 for ministerial adoption as official resolutions

Develop model laws related to the Malabo Convention to help countries understand and implement cybersecurity frameworks

Create formal communication mechanisms to share IGF declarations with National and Regional IGFs, including follow-up and monitoring frameworks

Strengthen the African IGF Secretariat with institutional support rather than just forum support to ensure sustainability

Develop continental mechanisms for monitoring and evaluation with annual reports to African IGF for transparency and evidence-based decision-making

Schedule a special meeting on AFRINIC challenges at 11:30 the following day to address internet resource management issues

Harmonize efforts among multiple organizations (AUC, UNECA, Digital Impact Alliance, Smart Africa) working on data policies to avoid conflicting frameworks

Unresolved issues

How to realistically fund the extensive list of African-led digital initiatives given reduced international cooperation budgets and limited member state resources

AFRINIC’s operational and governance challenges including leadership disputes and regulatory uncertainty that threaten internet resource management

The fundamental tension between IGF’s role as a discussion platform versus the need for binding implementation mechanisms for recommendations

How to effectively bridge the digital divide in rural communities with weak infrastructure, low digital literacy, and limited participation in development programs

The challenge of making 130+ digital payment systems across Africa interoperable when over 100 don’t communicate with each other

How to address the 500 million Africans without legal identity while pursuing digital transformation initiatives

The need to involve private sector more effectively in African digital development, following models from developed nations

Suggested compromises

Adopt a two-pronged approach to Malabo Convention ratification: research barriers while developing explanatory model laws to address outdated content

Focus on comparative advantages of different organizations to avoid duplication, with each leading projects in their areas of expertise

Shift from providing direct funding to member states toward offering more advisory services and knowledge sharing between countries

Use alternative technologies (satellite, Wi-Fi) adapted to rural areas instead of expensive solutions like 5G where not needed

Implement solution-based approaches that address specific community problems while embedding connectivity, rather than focusing solely on infrastructure provision

Optimize ICT taxation rather than viewing the sector primarily as a revenue source, as this can increase overall GDP and job creation

Strengthen intergenerational mentorship and coaching to preserve and grow existing capacities rather than having disconnected peer-to-peer approaches

ICT sector, it is not an area where government think they can get more money. Generally, all our government will focus on the ICT sector on the taxation. We have to optimize. When we optimize, we have seen our old tax collection revenue will be increased because the impact of ICT sector in other sector, health, education, finance service.

Speaker

Maktar Sek

Reason

This comment challenges the conventional government approach to ICT taxation by presenting a counterintuitive economic argument – that reducing ICT taxes can actually increase overall government revenue through multiplier effects across other sectors. It reframes ICT from a revenue source to an economic catalyst.

Impact

This insight shifted the discussion from viewing connectivity as purely an infrastructure challenge to understanding it as an economic policy issue. It provided concrete evidence (the tax calculator platform) that governments could use to make data-driven decisions about ICT taxation, influencing how participants might approach policy advocacy in their own countries.

Africa is not on the supply side. We can clap about every small gain, but we are not significant suppliers of anything on the internet… So we have to kind of focus on what creates that supply side. In my opinion, it’s science education, and also in particular, the sciences that are creating these technologies, which is really computer science.

Speaker

Audience member (unnamed)

Reason

This comment provided a brutally honest assessment of Africa’s position in the global digital economy, challenging the celebratory tone often found in such forums. It redirected focus from consumption and access to production and creation, identifying education as the fundamental bottleneck.

Impact

This intervention created a sobering moment that reframed the entire discussion from incremental improvements to fundamental structural changes needed. It challenged participants to think beyond policy harmonization and connectivity to address the root causes of Africa’s digital dependency, elevating the conversation to strategic rather than tactical levels.

We have such a spirit of collaboration in Africa and we produce good outputs. Every African IGF has produced excellent outputs, but we don’t go back to them and see if we are actually implementing… we should really be very cautious about constantly making new proposals, coming up with new ideas. Often, I think that happens at the expense of actually fully implementing the ones we’ve already generated.

Speaker

Henriette Esterhuisen

Reason

This comment exposed a critical flaw in the forum’s approach – the tendency to generate endless recommendations without accountability for implementation. It challenged the very premise of continuously creating new initiatives while existing ones remain unimplemented.

Impact

This observation sparked multiple follow-up discussions about implementation mechanisms and monitoring frameworks. It led to concrete suggestions about creating formal correspondence with National and Regional IGFs (NRIs) and establishing follow-up mechanisms. The comment fundamentally shifted the conversation from content generation to accountability and execution.

You only have Egypt and Senegal as the big countries there. All the others are small countries, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, they have not adopted it… I don’t know how you are going to do it with this committee because I believe that to go forward with… our own GDPR, which is the Malabo Convention, at least the big countries should be a good example.

Speaker

Ponsleit (audience member)

Reason

This comment highlighted a fundamental credibility problem with continental initiatives – when major economies don’t participate, it undermines the legitimacy and effectiveness of pan-African frameworks. It questioned the viability of the proposed solution (a committee) given the political reality.

Impact

This intervention forced organizers to acknowledge the political challenges honestly and led to a more nuanced discussion about implementation strategies. It prompted Adil Suleimana to outline a two-pronged approach involving research into barriers and development of model laws, showing how direct challenges can lead to more sophisticated policy responses.

Different organizations work with different policy approaches and policy framework, and if we do not harmonize the work we are doing, then what is going to happen is that neighboring countries may have different policy frameworks that do not speak to each other, and this will make harmonization extremely difficult.

Speaker

Koko (audience member)

Reason

This comment identified a meta-problem – that the organizations trying to solve fragmentation were themselves creating fragmentation through uncoordinated approaches. It revealed how well-intentioned efforts could inadvertently worsen the problems they aim to solve.

Impact

This insight added a new dimension to the discussion about organizational coordination and effectiveness. It complemented earlier comments about implementation gaps by showing how organizational silos could undermine even well-implemented individual initiatives, leading to calls for better inter-organizational coordination.

Overall assessment

These key comments fundamentally transformed what could have been a routine progress report into a critical examination of African digital governance approaches. The interventions created a progression from celebrating achievements to questioning fundamental assumptions about strategy, implementation, and coordination. The comments introduced three critical themes that shaped the entire discussion: the need to shift from consumption to production mindset, the imperative to focus on implementation over ideation, and the recognition that fragmented approaches by multiple organizations could undermine continental harmonization goals. Together, these insights elevated the conversation from operational updates to strategic reflection, forcing participants to confront uncomfortable truths about the gap between aspirations and reality in African digital transformation efforts.

Why are major African countries like South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and Ethiopia not ratifying the Malabo Convention despite its importance for cybersecurity?

Speaker

Ponsleit

Explanation

Understanding the barriers to ratification is crucial for developing strategies to increase adoption of Africa’s own cybersecurity framework

How will the proposed committee effectively address the low ratification rate of the Malabo Convention when previous efforts have failed?

Speaker

Ponsleit

Explanation

The effectiveness of the new committee approach needs to be evaluated given the historical challenges in getting major countries to adopt the convention

How can digital inclusion and skills training be made more accessible and practical in rural communities with weak infrastructure and low digital literacy?

Speaker

Jacqueline Jijide

Explanation

Addressing the digital divide in remote areas requires innovative approaches that account for infrastructure limitations and community engagement challenges

How will the extensive list of African-led digital initiatives be funded given recent reductions in international cooperation budgets?

Speaker

Tobias Thiel (GIZ)

Explanation

Sustainable funding mechanisms are critical for implementing the ambitious digital transformation agenda across Africa

How can IGF recommendations and declarations be effectively implemented rather than remaining as discussion outcomes?

Speaker

Multiple participants including Maktar Sek and audience member

Explanation

There’s a need to move from discussion platforms to actionable implementation frameworks with monitoring and follow-up mechanisms

How can the multi-stakeholder governance model be improved to prevent capture when participation is low, as seen in the AFRINIC case?

Speaker

Audience member (unnamed)

Explanation

The AFRINIC governance challenges highlight vulnerabilities in multi-stakeholder processes that need to be addressed

How can African countries move from being consumers to suppliers in the digital technology space?

Speaker

Audience member (unnamed)

Explanation

Africa’s limited presence on the supply side of digital technologies needs to be addressed through strategic investments in science education and innovation

How can the efforts of multiple organizations working on data policies across Africa be harmonized to avoid conflicting frameworks?

Speaker

Koko

Explanation

Coordination between AUC, UNECA, Digital Impact Alliance, Smart Africa and other organizations is needed to ensure coherent policy development

How can formal communication and follow-up mechanisms be established to ensure IGF declarations reach National and Regional IGFs for implementation?

Speaker

Audience member (unnamed)

Explanation

There’s a gap in formal communication channels between continental IGF outcomes and local/regional implementation bodies

What institutional support structure is needed to strengthen the African IGF Secretariat for long-term sustainability?

Speaker

Sorine

Explanation

Moving from forum-based support to institutional support is crucial for the African IGF’s continued effectiveness and impact