East African member states are forging a common ground on Internet Governance ahead of the third international Internet Governance Forum (IGF) schedule for December 2008 in India.

A three-day conference, held in Nairobi (10^th – 12^th Nov 08) brought together technology stakeholders from East Africa to deliberate on Internet governance policies. The meeting also discussed how to increase connectivity and Internet affordability across the region.

The theme of the meeting was;

 Opening the Internet Governance Debate in East Africa

“Thinking Globally; Acting Locally”

 The EAIGF was a follow up to the national Internet Governance Forums that were held in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda in October 2008 and was aimed at identifying, exploring and building consensus around national level Internet Governance issues.

The main objectives of the EAIGF were:

• To raise awareness of Internet Governance issues among policy makers and stakeholders in the East Africa Region.
• To establish which Internet Governance issues were relevant to East Africans.
• To build consensus and national and regional positions around relevant Internet Governance issues and;
• To share the outcomes of the regional forum with IGF Hyderabad 2008 in India.

The National IGF meeting in Uganda was co-organised by WOUGNET, i-Network and CIPESA . It aimed at:

* Creating awareness,
* Instituting a consensus building process to develop a common understanding of Ugandan Internet governance issues and;
* Building policy capacity in order to enable meaningful participation in global Internet policy, governance and development.

The outcomes of the EAIGF will be submitted and presented at the third global Internet Governance Forum in India.

Details of the country meetings and the EAIGF can be found at the forum website