The African Regional At-Large Organization (AFRALO) is one of the five RALOs that make up the At Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) constituency within ICANN. It provides news, resources, and information for individuals and end-user groups in the African region so that they can actively participate in the different activities of ICANN, particularly in the process of policy development to make the African voice heard.
An extensive number of ALSes have joined our organization in recent years and the number of ALSes in AFRALO is today no less than 42 At-Large Structures representing 32 countries from the African region. These ALSes are either NGOs or ISOC Chapters or associations representing local users of the Internet and ICT in general. These organizations are usually involved in training young people in deprived areas, promotion of open source software, development of culture, health, environment, and in general Human development in the continent"
AFRALO Activities
One of the key activities undertaken by the AFRALO team since 2009 is the Capacity Building Program. We often hold on-site and/or virtual training for our African ALSes members. The objective of this program is not only to sensitize our ALS to the ICANN process of development, but also to involve them more on the issues that ICANN deals with and thereby increasing the effectiveness of the participation of Africa through the end users.
Our aim now is to extend the development we have undertaken to ensure that our ALS's participation in ICANN's Working Groups is much larger and more efficient so we can do a good follow-up and contribute effectively to Open Public Consultations. We actively participate in the Open Public Consultations for which ALAC prepares comments and we are present in several At-Large Working Groups.
Concerning the IANA Oversight Transition and ICANN Accountability, we are very active in the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG), the Cross-Community Working Group (CWG), and the Cross-Community Working Group on ICANN Accountability (CCWG-Accountability). As part of the call for proposals from communities, AFRALO contributed to the debate with a statement of the African ICANN community.
Cooperation AFRINIC / AFRALO
A Memorandum of Cooperation and Understanding was signed with AFRINIC in 2013. The purpose of this agreement is to strengthen cooperation for mutual development of both organizations, facilitate the development of joint capabilities, and promote events and activities of mutual interest, including meetings, workshops or projects for research and development concerning the African region.
Joint meeting AfrICANN
Another tradition that we initiated in 2010 is the joint meeting - AfrICANN - that we organize during each ICANN meeting. This activity gathers together the African ICANN community to deal with a fixed theme related to community concerns in our region. These meetings end each time with a joint statement, which is then submitted to the Board of Directors of ICANN. We have, in this regard, submitted 16 joint statements to the Board of ICANN to date.
AFRALO Showcase
AFRALO was the pioneer of the RALO (Regional At-Large) Showcase, which highlights the region in which the ICANN meeting is being held. We organized showcases in Nairobi, Dakar, Durban and Marrakech and are proud that this Showcase has now become an ALAC tradition. In addition to the activities related to the showcase, we also try to organize activities that are beneficial to the local community so they can benefit from the existing opportunities surrounding the ICANN Meetings.
Get involved in AFRALO
Within ICANN's Multistakeholder model, AFRALO is a volunteer community acting in the interests of Internet users in Africa. A great majority of At-Large working groups are open to everyone regardless of their membership status in At-Large.
To become an ALS, your group or organization will need to meet some conditions. Then simply fill out an online form (Application for "At-Large Structure" (ALS) Accreditation). All ALS representatives are automatically subscribed to the mailing list of their region. The regional lists are publicly visible, and everybody can subscribe to them. You can subscribe independently to any of these public At-Large mailing lists, which are available here.
About the Author
Dr. Abdelaziz Hilali is Professor at the Moroccan Telecommunications graduate institution Institut National des Postes et télécommunications. He graduated from the University of Grenoble where he earned a PhD in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science in 1987.
He is President of Mediterranean Federation of Internet Associations, Chairperson of AFRALO (African At-Large Organization/ICANN), and VP of ISOC Morocco, of which he was one of the principal founding members in 1994.
Prof. Hilali is actively involved in various government and international Internet and IT organizations and has a distinguished career as an academic, researcher, and government advisor, with a history of publications on many aspects of the Internet and Telecommunications Sciences. Abdelaziz Hilali participated in the World Summit on the Information Society and the different IGF meeting as member of the Multistakeholder Advisory Committee (MAG) and has participated in many ICANN meeting and events.
