<div dir="ltr"><div>+1 Milton,</div><div><br></div><div>The questions Alice raised in her article are very necessary and timely.  Its high time such should be dealt with within ICANN own internal processes, if not it leads to "State political  embedded entities",  deciding the fate of Afrinic governance structure that really shouldn't be the case.</div><div><br></div><div>Kind Regards</div><div><br></div><div>Poncelet</div><div><br></div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><b><font face="monospace">Poncelet O. Ileleji<br></font></b></div><div><b><font face="monospace">Jokkolabs Banjul -  Lead / CEO<br></font></b></div><div><b><font face="monospace">Sait Matty Road, Bakau, Adjacent to Swedish Consulate</font></b></div><div><b><font face="monospace">KMC, The Gambia</font></b></div><div><b><font face="monospace">P O Box 4496 Bakau,KMC, The Gambia</font></b></div><div><b><font face="monospace">Skype: pons_utd</font></b></div><div><b><font face="monospace">Tel Direct Office: +220 4495115</font></b></div><div><b><font face="monospace">Tel Mobile/Whatsapp: +220 9912508<br></font></b></div><b><font face="monospace">LinkedIn: Jokkolabs Banjul<br></font></b><div><b><font face="monospace">Facebook: Jokkolabs Banjul</font></b></div><div><b><font face="monospace">Twitter: @jBanjul</font></b></div><div><b><font face="monospace"><br></font></b></div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Nov 10, 2025 at 7:59 PM Mueller, Milton L <<a href="mailto:milton@gatech.edu">milton@gatech.edu</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div class="msg5600496825388375506">




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I want to make sure that everyone in NCSG has read this substack article by Alice Munyua of Kenya. Although it deals with IP address policy not DNS policy, the issues it raises apply to the entire ICANN ecosystem. </div>
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The TL;DR is that ICANN has supported an African organization that is rooted in national governments and is proposing to set up an overlay governance structure for AFRINIC that disempowers the community members and gives governments veto power over policy decisions.
 As Alice writes in her post, </div>
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The RIR system; AFRINIC, APNIC, ARIN, LACNIC, RIPE NCC manages the internet’s addressing infrastructure globally. These organisations work because they are built on community trust and technical independence from governmental control. The system works because
 the same principles apply everywhere; bottom up policy development, community self governance, insulation from political direction. If those principles do not apply in Africa, if intergovernmental organisations can draft bylaws externally, coordinate electoral
 outcomes, and substitute political endorsement for member ratification then the precedent affects the global system.</div>
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Here is a link to the post: <a href="https://substack.com/home/post/p-177968365" target="_blank">
https://substack.com/home/post/p-177968365</a></div>
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Alice poses some useful questions that ICANN's management needs to answer: </div>
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We need</div>
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<div role="presentation" style="margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:1em">Transparency about ICANN’s full involvement in developing CAIGA [including] the scope of participation and financial support.</div>
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<div role="presentation" style="margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:1em">Explicit assessment of CAIGA’s compatibility with ICP-2 and the RIR governance principles that apply to RIPE NCC, ARIN, APNIC, and LACNIC.</div>
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<div role="presentation" style="margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:1em">Answer to the direct question: Would ICANN support similar governmental restructuring of RIRs in other regions? If not, justification for why different standards apply to African internet
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<div role="presentation" style="margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:1em">Commitment that any AFRINIC governance reforms will be developed through AFRINIC’s own community processes, not external drafting with political endorsement mechanisms.</div>
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<span style="font-family:"Aptos","Aptos_EmbeddedFont","Aptos_MSFontService","Calibri","Helvetica",sans-serif">Dr.</span>
<span style="font-family:"Aptos","Aptos_EmbeddedFont","Aptos_MSFontService","Calibri","Helvetica",sans-serif">
Milton L Mueller</span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Aptos","Aptos_EmbeddedFont","Aptos_MSFontService","Calibri","Helvetica",sans-serif">Georgia Institute of Technology</span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Aptos","Aptos_EmbeddedFont","Aptos_MSFontService","Calibri","Helvetica",sans-serif">School of Public Policy</span></p>
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<a style="text-decoration:none;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" title="https://internetgovernance.org" href="https://internetgovernance.org" target="_blank"><img height="79" width="320" style="width: 320px; height: 79px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" id="m_-3887439956870345865image_0" src="cid:ii_19a6f66b261d86c2a991"></a></p>
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