IGF 2022 Town Hall #98 Launch of the Coalition for Digital Africa

The Coalition for Digital Africa (the Coalition) is an ICANN initiative designed to bring together organizations and people that can directly impact the expansion of the Internet in Africa. The goal of the initiative is to build the necessary Internet infrastructure to support the development of Africa’s digital economy by promoting innovation and advancing Africa’s digital transformation through the expansion of local content and encouraging entrepreneurial efforts. This will be done by collaborating on projects that will directly benefit the African continent, and in which values and unique missions of the organizations in the coalition are aligned. The Town Hall session will officially launch the Coalition and allow partners of the projects, rolled out this year, to discuss their collaboration. Activities under the initiative range from ccTLD capacity-building workshops in support of the role of ccTLDs in national digital strategies to investment in Internet infrastructure and facilitating participation in the multistakeholder policymaking processes across the continent. The Coalition aims to support the growth and sustainability of the digital economy in Africa by ensuring a stable, resilient and secure Internet, through partnerships with governments, regional and international organizations, and the local internet community.

The session will be designed in a hybrid format, with panelists and participants joining virtually and onsite. The session will allow the panelists to present and talk about their role and activities in the different initiatives of the Coalition. The session will be structured to provide at least 20% of the duration for questions, comments, and discussion. All participants’ interventions and questions will be treated in an equal manner, which will be ensured through communication between onsite and online moderators in private chats and extensively exchanging information during the session. ICANN will use best practice from its hybrid public meetings that can be implemented at the IGF to make the interaction vibrant for both in person and remote participates Chat and Q&A pod (if available) will be actively monitored. Once details of the Zoom platform are available, we will look for ways to add features to improve interaction, if possible -- ICANN has been holding all our meetings and working group sessions online since March 2020 (thousands of hours) and will have held two hybrid ICANN meetings by the time of the IGF 2022. For those unable to attend due to time zone disparities, questions can be submitted prior to the session organizers. Additionally, background materials will be made available before the session so attendees can come prepared. Following the session, outstanding questions will be answered privately and means to engage with the Coalition will be provided.