The event saw various stakeholders across all sectors converging at Monomotapa Hotel to adjudicate on issues of building an enabling that promote affordable Internet access across the country.
Issues discussed included ZIGF’s main objectives outlined below:
To advance Internet Governance issues in Zimbabwe through a multi-stakeholder framework as well as facilitating partnerships and coalitions that deliver coordinated domestic responses, initiatives, and synergies that best promote and protect the nation’s position on the Internet ecosystem.
To increase awareness and build capacity on Internet Governance issues in Zim so as to ensure informed dialogue on policy and related matters between all stakeholders.
To establish a coordinated and coherent framework for dealing with Internet Governance issues in Zimbabwe.
To facilitate the participation of a broad range of stakeholders in Internet Governance issues.
To ensure Zimbabwe’s views are represented in the SAIGF, African Internet Governance Forum (AIGF), ICANN and Global IGF.
The ZIGF has an equal number of representation among stakeholders which include the Government holding 20%, Private Sector 20%, Civil Society 20%, Academia 20% and Technical Communities 20%.
The composition of the Multi-stakeholder group leading the Zimbabwe Internet Governance Forum consists of government representatives which are drawn from the government ministries, regulatory authorities, legislature, Defense & Security and law enforcement agencies.
The private sector representation will come from the ICT Industry Groups, Commerce, Manufacturing Industry Groups, Banker Associations and SMEs.
The Civil Society representation will come from Consumer Groups, Representatives of the Disabled, Youths, Women, Religious organizations, legal, media, children and human rights groups etc.
The Academia representation will come from Scholars and Research Scientists.
Technical representation will come from Mobile Network Operators, Fixed Network Operators, Internet Access Providers, Internet Service Providers, Domain Name Systems (DNS) Managers and Internet Exchange Point (IXP) Operators.
The data and views gathered from yesterday’s breakfast meeting will be compiled and submitted to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for final evaluation and analysis.
Technomag