1. Background and purpose

1.1. Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) founded in 1998 coordinates and administers core resources of the Internet globally. Africa is one of the five regions of ICANN and Africans have been active members of constituencies in ICANN since 1998. Africa is an emerging Internet economy and has the fastest growing networks but its participation in ICANN is not commensurate where the few number of African Registries and new gTLD applications is the popular example

1.2. The ministerial meeting held alongside the ICANN Dakar meeting in October 2011 issued a communique that called on ICANN to increase its presence in Africa and to be more relevant to needs of the region.

1.3. Towards the conclusion of the tenure of the outgoing CEO of ICANN there were new hires of Vice Presidents for some regions. A group of concerned Africans suggested in a public communication to ICANN that hiring of senior staff for Africa would be better guided by a strategic plan for Africa.

1.4. At the recently held ICANN meeting in Prague a section of African participants met with members of the board and the incoming CEO together with the acting CEO. The CEO requested that the group assist in developing a 3 year strategic plan with clear goals for Africa. The CEO also asked the group to nominate a special advisor for this assignment however the group decided to form a working group instead to lead a community process to develop the strategic plan. Click here to download the ICANN Strategic Plan 2012-2015