Dear Dr. Twomey:
The intent of this report is to provide you and the
ICANN Board of Directors a summary of the recent activities in regard
to the establishment of a Regional Internet Registry (RIR) in Africa.
Representatives from the NRO and AfriNIC continue to work closely together
and are pleased to report the following:
-
October 2003 through July 2004. The RIRs adopt
policies to be used only in Africa. These policies reflect the input
from the community and stakeholders in Africa. These policies will
greatly aid the transition of the policy process from that of three
(3) RIRs into that of one (1) RIR - AfriNIC.
-
May 2004. The AfriNIC policy development process
(PDP) was successfully used to develop policies for use when AfriNIC
commences operations. The PDP is an evolution of the bottom up process
that has been used to provide African input into the policy process
of the RIRs who currently administer number resources in Africa.
-
May 2004. AfriNIC I, (public policy meeting)
was conducted in Dakar. There were more than 85 participants from
35 different countries representing 30 ISP/LIRs. Actions accomplished
were:
a. Using the AfriNIC PDP, policies relating
to the assignment/allocation of number resources (IPv4, IPv6, and
ASN) were discussed and adopted.
b. The 2004-2005 budget was adopted.
c. The services fee schedule was adopted.
d. A new article to the AfriNIC constitution was adopted.
e. A new board of directors was elected following the established
AfriNIC election process.
f. The AfriNIC Chief Executive Officer was appointed.
-
June 2004. The transfer of the afrinic.net and
afrinic.org domains to the AfriNIC registry site began with the delivery
and installation of servers and networking equipment at the Johannesburg
site.
-
June 2004. ARIN conducted a sub-regional meeting
in Dar es Salaam to provide a venue for facilitating input into the
policy development process. The AfriNIC transition plan and an AfriNIC
activities report were also presented.
-
July 2004. An administrative assistant was added
to the Mauritius site.
-
July 2004. The RIPE NCC is to conduct a sub-regional
meeting with the same expectations as the sub-regional meeting conducted
by ARIN.
-
AfriNIC has developed a transition plan which
has been coordinated with the RIRs. It is ready to go.
-
The RIRs through the NRO have pledged monetary
support to assist in the transition activities. This support has already
begun to flow.
-
Workshops and training activities have been conducted
at both ARIN and the RIPE NCC.
-
A business plan has been developed which is in
the final stages of coordination and review.
-
Representatives from the NRO have been consulted
for expert input in the selection of the AfriNIC registry operations
site.
-
The AfriNIC technical staff has interacted with
the NRO Engineering Coordination Group to plan technical transition
activities such as the transfer of the reverse DNS administration
to AfriNIC.
-
IPv4 and IPv6 space has been identified by the
RIRs for use in Africa. Assignments and allocations are being made
by the RIRs for the ISP/LIR in Africa. This will greatly ease the
transition of registry operations from three RIRs to AfriNIC.
-
The application for recognition has been drafted
and is in final coordination and review by a team of representatives
from AfriNIC and the NRO. This application will be transmitted to
ICANN in the near future with an anticipated provisional approval
by the ICANN Board of Directors at the meeting scheduled in December
2004 in Capetown.
Besides submitting the formal application document,
we expect in the coming months to continue transition activities and begin
early implementation activities.
We would appreciate it if you could include reference
to this report and the major developments mentioned above, in your report
to the ICANN Public Forum on Thursday this week.
