Policy Development Process - AFPUB--2004-GEN-001

The policy-working group proposes a transitional Policy Development Process based on common practices in the Internet community. Policies are proposed and discussed by community and ratified by the RIR board after regional consensus has been reached. Here is a brief description of the process:

1. A policy is proposed (by anyone).

2. It is posted to the AfriNIC policy-wg mailing list for discussion. (The policy-wg list will be open to anyone from the community at all times, and anyone can join the list for discussion).

3. After at least 30 days of discussion and comments on the mailing list, the policy is brought to the public open policy (face to face) meeting for the community and members' discussion and endorsement through consensus. (The first meeting was the AfriNIC-1 meeting in Dakar, Senegal, May 2004).

* Consensus is defined as general agreement of the group and is not measured by a majority vote.

4. If there is consensus at the open policy meeting, go to step 5 as itemized below. If there is not consensus, step 3 will be repeated until consensus is reached or the policy proposal is abandoned (or withdrawn)

5. A last call for comments on the policy will be announced on the policy-wg mailing list. A period of 15 days will be given for the community to suggest any final changes and amendments.

6. The Board of Trustees will then ratify and adopt the policy for use.