The Africa Union Commission Clarification on Dot Africa

Addis Ababa, 12 May 2011- It has come to the attention of the African Union Commission that an organization calling itself DCA is claiming that it has the support of the Commission to bid for the Dot Africa strings.

The African Union Commission would like to bring the following clarifications on the matter of the bid for authority and mandate over the use of dot Africa domain name.

The AU Commission was at some point approached by an organization now known as DCA seeking endorsement and support for in its bid to use of the domain name. The Commission, while appreciating all individual initiatives presented the matter to Member States, forguidance. The Member States meeting within the framework of the Conference of African Union Ministers in Charge of Communications and Information Technologies decided to allow competition from any African organization or entity that would be interested in bidding for the domain name on behalf of and for the use of the African organizations and citizens at large. This decision was endorsed by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government in 2010 and again reiterated in 2011.

The AU Commission would like to hereby categorically state that it is not supporting any one individual or organization in this bid.

The African Union position is that the bid in question should lead to the selection of a firm to represent the interests of Africa on the domain name space, in fulfillment of the decisions and declarations of the AU Policy Organs. These decisions charge the Commission with the responsibility to "Establish Dot Africa as a continental Top-Level Domain for use by organizations, businesses and individuals with guidance from African Internet agencies". The Heads of State and Government also requested the Commission to “Set up the structure and modalities for the Implementation of the Dot Africa project.''

The Commission is currently pursuing an open and transparent procedure to guarantee the selection of a registry to act on behalf of the African community. Parties interested in managing the Dot Africa registry are advised to apply to the AUC Call for Expression of Interest (EoI) which will be the sole mechanism for selecting and endorsing prospective companies, groups or individuals, prior to the launch of the ICANN new gTLD program. All relevant information and forms will be made available at (www.africa-union.org).

The deadline for submission of applications is set for June 3rd 2011.

The African Union Commission will release the names of the winners through appropriate channels

The African Union Commission takes this opportunity to again to assure the people and governments of Africa of its commitment to a transparent and accountable process in the selection of the winning candidate to act for and on behalf of the continent on the matter of dot Africa.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT
Background
The endorsement of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) in 2003 signified Africa's commitment at the highest level to take ownership of its development agenda. The Heads of State and Government pledged, in this commitment, to raise funding for the agriculture sector to at least 10% of the national budget by 2008. In addition, countries have committed to achieving other CAADP principles and targets which include: (i) adopting agriculture-led growth as the main strategy for achieving the first Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty and hunger by 2015; (ii) accelerating agricultural productivity growth to achieve a 6 % annual agricultural growth at the national level; and (iii) exploiting regional complementarities and spill-overs and enhancing cooperation to boost exports and growth.

Progress in CAADP implementation process was slower than anticipated due to technical and political bottlenecks. Recognizing the need to take immediate action if CAADP is to achieve its targets, the Africa Union Commission, NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA), Regional Economic Communities (RECs), Members States and CAADP Donors and Partners agreed on concrete actions required to expedite the implementation of the CAADP agenda. Beyond this, the July 2009 Heads of States and Government Summit in Sirte Libya under the Theme “Investing in Agriculture for Economic Growth and Food Security” re-energized the continent and to-date up 18 countries have signed CAADP compacts.

As part of this, and in response to the capacity needs assessment and capacity enhancement plan stipulated in the “AUC-DREA Strategic and Operational Plan (2010-2012)” AUC-DREA seeks to recruit dedicated experts in areas of CAADP Pillar II, III and IV as well as a CAADP Communication Officer to support the DREA play her role more effectively complementary to NPCA and RECs in enhancing country-level CAADP implementation.

Accordingly the African Union Commission invites suitably qualified citizens of its Member States to apply for the following position:

Post Title: CAADP Communications Officer
Department: Rural Economy and Agriculture
Supervisor: Director, Dept. of Rural Economy and Agriculture

Duty Station: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Under the supervision of the Director and in close collaboration with the Directorate of Communication of AUC, the Officer shall work to deliver the AUC mandate of CAADP in the area of communication.

Applications must be received not later than 26 May 2011 and should be addressed to: Director, Administration and Human Resource Management; [email protected]