This announcement has been updated with an updated agenda to a previous announcement published 14 June 2023.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced today that it will host the second Africa Engagement Forum on 25-27 July 2023 at the Marriott Hotel in Accra, Ghana. The Forum aims to encourage the active involvement of African community members in Internet governance by promoting their participation in ICANN.
Hosted by the Association of African Universities, this year's hybrid event builds on the success of the virtual 2021 edition and will include technical talks, panel discussions, and community updates highlighting news from across the continent.
The first day of the forum features a keynote address on the topic of Africa's digital potential and a presentation of key findings from the Africa Domain Name System (DNS) Market Study 2023, commissioned by ICANN and conducted by Powersoft. The highlights of Day 2 include a panel discussion on the status of the next round of new generic top-level domains and a session highlighting the projects initiated over the last year by the Coalition for Digital Africa. On Day 3, ICANN's Global Stakeholder Engagement Africa team will present a mid-point report and status update on the ICANN Africa Regional Plan for Fiscal Years 2021-2025. The session will also provide updates on selected hot topics and projects that the community is following.
The full agenda is available here. Attendance is free. All sessions will be conducted in English. Interpretation in French and Portuguese will be provided.
Preceding the Africa Engagement Forum will be the African Regional At-Large Organization (AFRALO) General Assembly, which takes place on 24-25 July. On the morning of 25 July, a technical workshop, "DNSSEC Validation to Protect Your End Users," will take place in parallel with the assembly. The workshop is aimed at chief technical officers, chief information officers, information technology (IT) network managers, and IT engineers, and will delve into Domain Name System Security Extensions validation and how to configure it to protect users from certain types of attacks on the Internet.
All attendees, both in person and remote, are required to register here.