Global: Africans top Internet Governance participants in 3 years

Highway Africa News Agency

The Maltese-based international non-profit organisation, the DiploFoundation has trained a total of 265 persons on its Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme (IGCBP) from developing countries since 2003 with 45.5 per cent coming from Africa.

This shows that Africa is on top of the beneficiaries, leaving the rest of the developing countries with a total figure of 182, about 55 per cent.

Diplo, an independent foundation established in November 2002 by the governments of Malta and Switzerland as a joint project, focuses on assisting all countries of the world, particularly those with limited human and financial resources to use Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) for diplomatic activities.

Head, Internet Governance Projects at DiploFoundation, Ms Yasmeen Ariff, while making this known to Highway Africa News Agency (HANA), noted that ICT tools have become an integral part of everyday work for diplomats and others involved in international relations in developed countries.

She said that IGCB programme has been streamlined with resources to develop the skills and knowledge required to participate meaningfully in the global debate on Internet Governance (IG). Ms Ariff also said that the programme, which began in 2005, embodies support from partner institutions and individuals with expertise in Internet Governance-related issues.

According to her, the 2005 IGCBP was an innovative pilot programme, which provided a timely low cost-effective training as the first of its kind and consisted of an online training phase, a research phase and fellowships awarded to the top participants.

HANA checks at the time of filing this report revealed that Nigeria topped the number of beneficiaries from the continent, since the programme commenced with nine (9) participants, followed by Kenya 8, Malawi, Ethiopia, Uganda and Tunisia 5 respectively, while South Africa got, Egypt, Gambia 4 in that order.

The West African countries of Ghana, and Cameroon led those with three (3) participants in addition to Congo, Congo DRC, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, while Morocco, Sudan, Togo and Tanzania got 2 each, even as Somalia, Guinea, Mali, Liberia, Burkina Faso and Benin as well as Botswana had 1 respectively.

This year alone, a total of 120 participants were selected with 48 coming from Africa, Asia 16, Europe 15, Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) 15, Spanish LAC 15, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) 14, and South-Eastern Asia Pacific (SEAP) 15.

Meanwhile, a virtual graduation ceremony has been slated to hold on Wednesday, July 4 after completing a 16-week of online training.