Yes2dotAfrica Campaign

Type:	Non-Profit, Trust Program
Industry:	DNS, ICT, Domain, Branding
Founded:	2006
Founder(s):	Sophia Bekele
Headquarters:	Mauritius
Country:	Kenya
Key People
Sophia Bekele, Founder Shanil Ramtohul, Chief Finance Officer Kim Gueho, Trust Fund Manager

The Yes2dotAfrica is part of the Trust program of DotConnectAfrica's (DCA) established in 2007, as an on-going effort to create awareness of the benefits of a dotAfrica gTLD internet domain name and do a public outreach.

Other Trust programs identified by DCA include Miss.africa, Generation.africa and driving the capacity of the African ccTLDs.

The Yes2dotafrica campaign is a multi-lingual advocacy campaign that was set up as part of the trust program of DotConnectAfrica's (DCA) established in 2007 and has gained global recognition and been given credence as a platform for advocacy of the benefits of DotAfrica gTLD and technology transfer to Africa. As a result, the campaign has received a huge amount of positive feedback and global media coverage since its inception

DCA has been invited to share its knowledge and experiences at major Universities in the U.S , Heads of States forums in Africa , United Nations and other large economic forums in US and Europe and globally, including Web 2.0, TV & Radio programs, IGF and ICANN forums, allowing it to become a highly visible applicant and advocate for the African gTLD. DCA plans to continue to use the Yes2DotAfrica campaign to promote the DotAfrica domain.

First Multilingual Social Media based Campaign

The Yes2dotAfrica campaign is the first ever multilingual (English, French, Arabic) social media based outreach platform implemented at the time. It used Facebook and Twitter platforms and numerous other Social media platforms in these languages to create the awareness and advocacy for the .africa domain. The successful social media outreach in combination with road shows in major African countries allowed it to gain recognition over mainstream media.

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Launch of Yes2dotafrica campaign

The Yes2dotAfrica campaign was first launched in East Africa during the 2010 AITEC East Africa ICT Summit held from 7-8 September 2010 in Nairobi, Kenya. The initiative is meant to give Africa a regional identity and global presence. Sophia Bekele, executive director, DotConnectAfrica made the announcement during the summit in her Keynote speech, in the presence of hundreds who attended and a panel of other advisory board and interests discussants.

Global Campaign Outreach, Advocacy and Sponsorships

The first African TLD to sponsor an ICANN Events Notably in Brussels in 2008 and in Dakar, Senegal in 2011. Since, the Yes2dotAfrica campaign has mounted a global campaign that has also been featured in the media widely and also invited to the global forums and universities. This was a major advocacy avenue for the benefits of the campaign and how it would bring significant initiative to empower the Youth,and women to initiate ground breaking innovations and leadership roles to catalyze internet growth in Africa.

Early Recorded Championship of Yes2dotAfrica campaign

DCA through the Yes2dotAfrica campaign has been an active supporter of the ICANN new gTLD process, and is a global stakeholder in actively promoting and campaigning for the introduction of the new gTLDs and Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs). The “generation.africa” thus is an established a theme, to empower the youth to adapt the powers of the internet and its use, thus enjoying a great following thus far. Some of the early recorded activities to champion the campaign include:

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Yes2dotAfrica Campaign Triumphs at ICANN 42 Dakar

DotConnectAfrica (DCA) was one of the principal participants and silver-level sponsor of the ICANN-42 international gathering, and was involved in various activities that took place throughout the week-long meeting in Dakar. DCA also mounted a well-attended exhibition on DotAfrica, and its Yes2DotAfrica campaign, which was visited by the Senegalese President and Head of State, H.E. Monsieur Abdoulaye Wade, and the Senegalese Minister for Telecommunications and Information/Communications Technologies, Monsieur Moustapha Guirassy. ICANN-42 was a great opportunity to focus positive attentions on DCA's Yes2DotAfrica Campaign, and we are pleased to present a summary of the main activities and important accomplishments for the benefit of our Pan-African constituency.

Yes2dotAfrica successful at ICANN 40 in San Francisco, California

The Yes2dotAfrica campaign also participated in several ICANN meetings such as the March 2011, ICANN 40 San Francisco, California also home to DCA, where ".africa" was first initiated as an African Diaspora project. The vision of a 'New African generation' was born here.

Progress towards a ".africa" at ICANN 38, in Brussels the Capital of Europe

Brussels ICANN no. 38 held in June 2010 was a success for DotConnectAfrica as sponsor & presenting Africa's common position. In the forum was also expected that dotafrica will provide African languages with the same opportunities and allow the benefits of initiatives such as Yes2dotAfrica campaign to flourish.

Trust Programs

Aside from the "Yes2dotAfrica campaign" Trust program, which has been widely successful, DCA has already undertaken initiatives under its Trust program which include the following:

Miss.africa:

The miss.africa programme is a gender-focused initiative targeted mainly at female youth audiences in Africa to increase their personal involvement in early technology use and adoption with a view to improving their digital self-awareness and empowerment, and overall self-esteem. It was inspired mainly by the DNS Women’s group of ICANN. The "Miss.Africa" program is envisioned as one of the central pillars of DCA’s corporate social responsibility program and was first launched and publicized during the ICANN gala event in Singapore and continued in Dakar. It is aimed at attracting more young girls and women to the Internet platform to enable them form a sizable demographic of Internet users in Africa, thereby involving them in complementary gender development initiatives that improve the lives of young girls and women

Generation.africa:

Generation.africa is a youth focused program launched by DCA to empower a new generation of Internet users in Africa using its generation.africa theme. It is intended to target different youth audiences and encourage them to be involved in discussions that define and increase their common stake-holding in the development and evolution of the Internet and how this affects them. e.g

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African ccTLD’s:

DCA has noted that African ccTLDs are at a great disadvantage and have stagnated for a very long period of time. DCA’s DotAfrica initiative has strongly advocated for African ccTLDs and proposed to work with them based on a beneficial cross-marketing scheme that would help grow the base of user registrations and also improve the technologies and businesses of the African ccTLDs eg.

International Media Coverage

The organization has received extensive coverage, credits and recognition from local and global media including foreign language news media, ranging from over 80 diverse online and print global media coverage with readership over a billion combined and over 21 foreign media coverage nearing over 50 million readers, as well as on DotConnectAfrica championing the .africa initiative.

Throughout its campaign and has been featured on Yes2dotafrica has received a very high number of global media coverage throughout its campaign and has been featured on Bloomberg TV Africa program, CNN discussion of "Yes2dotAfrica" campaign in Dakar Senegal, Africa 7 TV Channel in Senegal and Nation Television (NTV) on "doing Business in Africa", as well as Kenya's leading TV station K24's Capital Talk "Movers and Shakers of Africa" KASS Media International, Radio Netherland and a DotAfrica generation soon to be born as well as Startup Success Radio in the US.Start-Up Success San Francisco-Web 2.0 meets "Yes2dotAfrica"</ref>

Selected media coverage

• DCA participated at the New TLDs conference in Munich, DirectRegister
• The Successful Yes2dotAfrica Campaign invited to Munich, Germany
• DotConnectAfrica, StartUp Success podcast, San Francisco
• Diplomat EastAfrica reports Brains behind .africa"
• Re-branding Africa, The Economist
• A dotafrica generation soon to be born, Radio Netherlands
• DotAfrica: Generation.Africa Thanks ICANN and DCA
• DCA and its “yes2DotAfrica” campaign:
• KASS Media Spoke to Sophia Bekele on the "Yes2dotAfrica" Campaign
• Africa domain attracts interest
• Dot Africa campaign to brand continent
• Heralding the birth of dot.africa generation
• Announcing the birth of the dot.africa generation
• Agency de Presse Sènègalaise, Dakar Senegal

Select Live Media

Movers & Shakers of Africa- Jeff Koinange first media presentation and interview with Sophia Bekele on the .Africa Domain name she introduced to Africa.

Dotafrica Launch Dance Video: The video was produced by DCA for the launch of the Yes2dotAfrica campaign at the AITEC East Africa ICT Summit held from 7-8 September 2010 in Nairobi, Kenya

The Yes2dotAfrica Campaign, Journey of .Africa by DotConnectAfrica. This video is a collection of films and media campaign efforts made by DotConnectAfrica to introduce the .Africa gTLD to the Peoples of Africa.

Bloomberg TV Features Sophia Bekele Founder and CEO of CBS International and DotConnectAfrica as,"African Women to Watch"