The panel on the IANA Transition discussed the current status of the transition of the IANA Stewardship Oversight Transition, which is in full swing, as well as general Internet Governance.
Tijani Ben Jemaa (AFRALO) explained the existing mechanisms of IANA Transition and their implications to the governance of unique Internet identifiers. Tijani gave an explanation on what ICANN does and gave an overview of the IANA Stwardship Transition oversight mechanism explaining the transition plan and the accountability mechanisms that will be necessary for the transition.
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Mwendwa Kivuva, one of AFRINIC's Consolidated RIR IANA Stewardship Proposal (CRISP) Team representatives, spoke about the CRISP Team's work and the progress made on the IANA Transition so far. He reiterated the commitment of the NRO and the CRISP Team in ensuring the success of the proposal, transparency through the discussion process, and that the principles in the CRISP proposal are maintained. He indicated that two RIRs, RIPE NCC and AFRINIC have set up an IANA Review Committee. He also gave updates on the development of the Service Level Agreement (SLA), which is to be signed between the RIRs and the IANA functions operator. The SLA is in its third draft and ICANN is now reviewing it. The CRISP Team also reviewed the SLA and did not observe any inconsistencies. Mwendwa also indicated that the three ICANN operational communities (names, numbers and protocols) are collaborating in finalising the IPR framework before the submission of the full proposal to NTIA.
From the floor there were questions about the work of the CRISP Team, the mechanisms for the review committee, the delay of the transition and why the numbering community could not go on with the transition on their own without waiting for the other ICANN communities, the existing difficulties in coordinating different review panels for each community, vested interests of the US in IANA, African participation, and the sensitisation of the African community. It was observed that a lot has been done to ensure the community is informed on the IANA transition. Initiatives like local and regional IGFs, the CTO forums, and AFRALO teleconferences were identified as avenues that were used to inform the local communities on the transition.
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