AFRINIC - 10 Public Policy Meeting Minutes | 20 & 21 May 2009 | Cairo Egypt

 

AfriNIC PDP Overview and why participate and discussion procedures by Mr. Vincent Ngundi, AfriNIC PDP-MG Chair

Mr. Ngundi gave an overview of the IP Resource Management. He stated that IANA is the Body responsible for managing internet protocol at a global level; these resources are then allocated to the 5 RIRs who are responsible internet resources in their respective region of service. The RIR in turn allocate these resources to Local Internet registries. He stated that the reason behind decentralization is to be near the end user for effective management and to make sure that the needs of the end users are met – to ensure that internet resources are managed closely to end users needs.

 

He then did an overview of policy development process in the AfriNIC region. Mr. Ngundi mentioned that the AfriNIC organizational structure is set to encourage a bottom-up self governance management modelwhere policies and other organizational functions are determined by the community in general. He elaborated that AfriNIC policies are developed through an open Policy Development Process (PDP). There is no requirement to participate in the process and anybody can propose and discuss policy matters related to Internet resource management in the AfriNIC service region. He stated that the AfriNIC PDP is moderated & coordinated by the PDP-MG and the AfriNIC PDP-MG comprises of 3 members elected from the AfriNIC region & 1 AfriNIC staff who provides support to the MG. AfriNIC PDPMG members are as follows: Mr. Vincent Ngundi (Chair); Mr. Hytham El Nakhal ; Dr. Paulos Nyirenda and Mr. Alain Aina (AfriNIC staff).

 

He stressed to the point that the development of Internet polices should be an all-inclusive process as this will help to ensure that the needs of all Internet users are addressed in the various policies; it is therefore the onus of Internet users (members) to present their views/needs during the PDP. He thus highly encouraged the community to be actively engaged in the PDP. Mr. Ngundi clearly stated that sound Internet policies enhance the effective and efficient utilization of Internet number resources.

 

He also mentioned that there are various ways the community can participate like: to propose policies either by drafting policy proposals or by assisting in drafting policy proposals; take part in the mailing list discussions and public policy discussions; as a community, encourage each other to engage in the PDP; those who have experience can mentor others – act as ambassador; learn what is happening in other regions.

 

He ended the presentation with the following note: “Member involvement is critical in sound policy development and its imperative that members are engaged during and after the process – to make surethose policies are dressing the needs of those communities.”

 

Open Discussions/Open Mic

 

Question: In some countries some LIRs get IP resources from RIR and then sell it to local operators at a very expensive rate and at times they don’t provide security – would it be better to have a National Internet Registry (NIR) rather than the Local Internet Registry?

Answer: Mr. Ngundi replied that IP resources are not for sale – they are not property – he requested Adiel to respond as representative of an authority.

 

Mr. Akplogan stated that IP resources are allocated for specific usage – sales are definitely not allowed – at AfriNIC presently we don’t have policies for NIR – the community should come up with such policy first of all. He added that we should also consider what NIR will be solving really in the proposal.

 

Dr. Padayatchy added that regarding security this is solely in the agreement between the service provider and the user – ISP may be part of services offered – it might be charging for these services.

 

One interesting comment from the attendees was that NIR has proved to be more incumbent and encouraging a monopoly rather than encouraging competition. APNIC is the only one with NIR – and NIR don’t manage IP resources for their countries – it is a general misconception on NIR. It is therefore important to have limited intermediary between RIR and the end users in order to better understand the requirements of the end users (operators). The end users should review their agreement t with their operators.

 

Mr. Mouhamet added that people need to be informed about the various levels of responsibilities to avoid misunderstanding.

 

Another interesting comment was that operators normally participate as observer; they should be more active in discussion list and on policy proposal and discussion. The best is for regulators to come as members; government should come as members for effective services.

 

Policy Proposals for AfriNIC-10 Meeting by Mr. Vincent Ngundi AfriNIC PDP-MG Chair

Mr. Ngundi gave an overview on policy being currently discussed in the AfriNIC region; there was one Global policy proposed on the allocation of remaining IPv4 addresses. He stated that this policy came with the imminent exhaustion of IPv4; it has to be approved by all RIRs before sending to IANA where the proposal stated to reserve one /8 to each RIR from the free IANA pool. He also stated that the proposal focus on measures that should be taken globally in the address management area in order to prepare for this situation in all RIR regions and to assure the equal distribution of the IANA remaining IPv4 address space across RIR regions.

 

Mr. Ngundi made an overview on the other 2 policies to be discussed in tomorrow’s meeting; the policies were as follows:

• IPv4 Soft Landing Policy by Mr. Douglas Onyango proposed on 05.01.2009. In order to ensure a smooth transition to IPv6 from IPv4, it is necessary that the life span of IPv4 be sustained as much as possible.
• IPv6 Allocations to Non-Profit Networks by Mr. Graham Beneke proposed on 13.01.2009. Policy proposals seeks to define criteria for non-profit and community organizations to be recognized for membership of AfriNIC and to allow them to request resources.
• He explained about how they will proceed tomorrow; each policy author would be requested to make an overview of policy proposal and participants would give their comments and decide to retain or back to mailing list. He stated that those who are interested to participate in public forum; they can simply register to the mailing list https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo.cgi/rpd and he has encouraged for more participation.

 

3 Policies were discussed in the meeting including 1 global policy; they are as follows:

• IPv4 Soft Landing Policy:
  Incentive: In order to ensure a smooth transition to IPv6 from IPv4, it is necessary that the life span of IPv4 be sustained as much as possible. This policy was proposed by Douglas Onyango.
• IPv6 Allocations to Non-Profit Networks:
  Incentive: Define criteria for non-profit and community organizations to be recognized for membership of AfriNIC and to allow them to request resources proposed by Graham Beneke.
• Global Policy Proposal for the Allocation of IPv4 Blocks to RIRs
  Incentive: This policy provides a mechanism for the RIRs to put the recovered IPv4 address space back to the IANA central pool and provides the IANA the policy by which it can later re-allocate them to the RIRs on a needs basis.

 

The Global Policy Proposal for the Allocation of IPv4 Blocks to RIRs was approved.

 

The IPv4 Soft Landing Policy and The IPv6 Allocations to Non-Profit Networks did not reach consensus during the meeting, therefore, both policy proposals were sent back to the RPD mailing list for further discussion

 

The provided text is an excerpt from the AFRINIC 10 meeting report.