[Comments-africa-strategic-plan-30jul18] Africa Strategic Plan

[Lawrence Olawale-Roberts]

ICANN Africa Strategic Plan July 2016 – June 2020 Version 3.0 is a welcome
development as the DNS Industry in Africa is in its prime and offers ICANN
and the African community a host of opportunities. The plan is however
coming two (2) years after the last one, hence it is late but better than
having no focus to work with.

The report failed to list all the persons that participated in reviewing
and drafting the Strategic plan and their affiliations. There is need for
this information to validate that there was a balance in representation
amongst stakeholder groups and regions across Africa considering our
Diversity.  Sections of the plan highlighted that the Business community
and their views were limited. Owing to the fact that ICANN’s intervention
in Africa is primarily to build the DNS Industry this is a mis-normal as
more should have been done to invite key businesses across contracted and
Non-contracted entities active in ICANN for inputs to this strategic plan.
ccTLD’s require businesses to off-take domains and other services from
their registries.

The draft plan did not cater for entities interested in understudying dot
Brand business models and its evolving uniqueness within the ICANN space,
neither did it provide for capacity building in this regard. I propose
regular exchange programs to help interested businesses build capacity to
secure and operate their brand names and efficiently equip interested
parties to participate in the uptake of new gTLD’s when the next rounds
become open.

The proposed foundation should have as one of its mandate the ability to
help float and onboard new Registrars and Registries across the continent
asides empowering the resellers business chain and online payment
platforms suited for purpose across different regions of the continent.

The draft plan was also silent on IDN’s which offer huge opportunities
across every region of Africa. A special intervention to assist countries
across the African region in developing IDN’s for its use should be
encouraged.

ICANN needs to set up a unique desk under its global business engagement
with requisite staff that should start sensitizing the business community
on the inherent opportunities available in investing in the DNS Industry
on the continent. Highlighting investments made by ICANN in the region so
far, a call for matching efforts and an understanding of prevailing
challenges from businesses is bound to develop the industry further across
Africa.