Milestones

DCA has championed .africa for Africa anchored on 3 key principles:

1- To brand the Continent‘s product and services so people will know what Africa does and the positives that Africa has to offer. While Africa’s image has suffered through war, famine and governance issues, there is also another image that the world does not know about Africa, and that can be told through its people when they engage in promoting their products & services for trade and investment in the new .africa gTLD.

2- DotConnectAfrica has created programs under the DCA Academy that include “Generation.africa”, a theme, to empower the youth to adapt the powers of the internet and its use, thus enjoying a great following thus far, Miss.Africa 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.

3- A shift in industry from US market of .com and .org to Africa empowered by the dotafrica registry to Africa, which is to be housed locally in the continent. This will mean development of new industry and market for Africa empowering African jobs and wealth creation.

DCA’s increasing levels of success achieved/accomplishments

Some of our MAJOR accomplishments include:

  1. First credible organization to make an EOI to operate & manage the DotAfrica registry from ICANN
  2. Non Profit, Non Partisan Organization: DCA is a trust registered in a neutral country, Mauritius.
  3. Multi-stakeholder governance model: Best Practice.
  4. Brought awareness of ‘DotAfrica’ to the African ICT constituency, leaders and policymakers.
  5. Early endorsements from the continental policy makers.
  6. Early endorsements from other stakeholders.
  7. Diaspora Africans committed to the continent bringing knowledge and technology transfer.
  8. An Open Transparent Initiative: over 56 Press Releases and over 80 other newsletters, campaign letters, key communications, messages and other news items relevant to DotConnectAfrica. since February 2010 disclosing our activities in just 2 years.
  9. A successful Yes2dotAfrica campaign with over 79 global and 21 foreign language media coverage in just 2 years time
  10. Founder of the generation.africa, a theme and continental initiative to empower the young people in Africa to adapt the powers of the internet for their use.
  11. Inclusive cross marketing opportunity for country code Top Level Domains ccTLDs.
  12. Support for new Africa based generic Top Level Domains(gTLD):
  13. DCA presents an African common position for ICANN support for new gTLDs .
  14. DCA sponsors delegations from Africa to shape the policy debate, in support of the new gTLD based initiatives and others.
  15. DCA will support all international and African languages and IDN registries.
  16. Team committed to branding Africa to give the continent a positive image.
  17. Built a PanAfrican multi-lingual social media infrastructure based on dotafrica , dotafrique and dotafriqya for collaboration and network. Link here
  18. Launch of Miss.Africa program at the historic ICANN gTLD announcement in Singapore
  19. The Successful “Yes2dotAfrica Campaign” invited to the Historic New TLD Domain Conference in Munich Germany
  20. The Successful Yes2dotAfrica Campaign at ICANN-42 meeting in Dakar Senegal, the first ever ICANN meeting in a Francophone country
  21. DCA announced it successfully appliedfor the dotAfrica (.africa) gTLD at ICANN.
  22. DCAannounces the Establishment of a World Class Registry system in Kenya
  23. DCA wrote an Open Letter to United States Congress to Express Support in Defense of the Status Quo on Global Internet Governance Model and Reaffirmation of the Multistakeholder Process.
  24. DCA announced A Moral Victory: ICANN’s Official Response to African Union on Request to Reserve DotAfrica Name- A Strong Vindication for DCA and a sign of things to come!
  25. DCA reported a Successful ICANN 44 at the Panoramic and Historic City of Prague
  26. Official sponsors at:

The Successful Yes2dotAfrica Campaign at ICANN-42 meeting in Dakar Senegal, the first ever ICANN meeting in a Francophone country

Press Releases of achievements

  • April 12, 2016: Court order grants Plaintiff DCA Trust’s Motion for Preliminary Injunction [PDF] Read more
  • March 15, 2016: DCA Trust Announces eMobilis as the Winner of its Inaugural USD 5000 Miss.Africa Seed Fund Read more
  • March 4, 2016: Court order grants Plaintiff DCA Trust’s Ex Parte Application for TRO [PDF] Read more
  • July 9, 2015: Independent Review Process (ICDR No. 50 117 T 1083 13) DCA Vs. ICANN Win Read more
  • July 2015: Miss.Africa announces 2015 Seed Funding Tech Initiative for women in Africa Read more
  • May 20, 2014: DotConnectAfrica Update – Independent Panel Grants Interim Relief on .africa gTLD Read more
  • January 22, 2014: DotConnectAfrica Trust takes its case with ICANN to Independent Review Process (IRP) Panel Read more
  • October 26 2013: The Reporter Daily revealed: DCA Trust raises ethical questions, writes to newly elected African Union Leaders Read more
  • March 10, 2013 DCA Registry Services makes its voice heard at the ICANN Africa Strategy, Addis Read more
  • November 2, 2012: Good Bye .DOTAFRICA :A significant landmark Victory in the battle for .Africa gTLD Read More
  • October 23, 2012: DotConnectAfrica Participates in ICANN 45 Toronto Unveils new IBCA Initiative at ICANN Public Forum Read More
  • July 3, 2012: DCA Reported a Successful ICANN 44 at the Panoramic and Historic City of Prague Read More
  • June 12, 2012: DCA announced A Moral Victory: ICANN’s Official Response to African Union on Request to Reserve DotAfrica Name- A Strong Vindication for DCA and a sign of things to come! Read more
  • June 13, 2012: DCA wrote an Open Letter to United States Congress to Express Support in Defense of the Status Quo on Global Internet Governance Model and Reaffirmation of the Multistakeholder Process. Read More
  • June 12, 2012: DCA Announces the Establishment of a World Class Registry System, Read more
  • June 5, 2012: DCA announced it successfully applied for the dotAfrica (.africa) gTLD at ICANN.Read more
  • November 14, 2011: Yes2dotAfrica Campaign Triumphs at ICANN-42 meeting in Dakar Senegal! at ICANN-42 meeting in Dakar Senegal, the first ever ICANN meeting in a Francophone country. Read More
  • October 6, 2011: Generation.africa on their high at the 6th IGF held in Nairobi, Kenya The most successful IGF meeting ever, over 2000 delegates and over 300 remote participants from across the globe, including our generation.africa team and volunteers. Read More
  • October 02,2011: DotConnectAfrica at the Munich Conference of new gTLDs in Munich Germany The Successful Yes2dotAfrica Campaign invited to Munich, Germany Read More
  • DotAfrica (.africa) made History with ICANN in Singapore! DotConnectAfrica, a leading campaigner for the dotafrica TLD, was present at ICANN’s recent event in Singapore and made history with the announcement for the approval to launch new gTLDs. Read More
  • June 21, 2011: Enterprise Technology(ET) magazine names Sophia Bekele as .africa Champion. Sophia Bekele: Ethiopian champion of the .africa initiative Read More
  • June 20, 2011: DotConnectAfrica, a leading campaigner for the dotafrica TLD, was present at ICANN’s recent event in Singapore and made history with the announcement for the approval to launch new gTLDs Read More
  • May 9, 2011: DCA served notice that it will frontally challenge any acts of illegality that are orchestrated by any affiliated AU Task Force members who use insider privileges and access to facilitate an illegal scheme that would grant AfTLD an AU endorsement to run dotAfrica. Read More
  • February 2011: DCA issues expression of Interest for the .africa Registry
    DCA issues an EOI for a registry partner for technical and operational services for the planned .AFRICA Top Level Domain, that is consistent with the road-map of ICANN’s requirements Read More
  • January 2011: DCA made the case to US Department of Commerce for the .africa gTLD.
    DotConnectAfrica has sent an open letter to the NTIA making a preliminary case for the .africa gTLD Read More
  • December 2010: DCA endorsed by IDRU
    DotConnectAfrica is endorsed by IDRU – the Internationalized Domain Resolution Union, an organization that is represented by the original IDN Top Level Domain pioneers. Read More
  • December 2010: Announcement of the initiation of the Pan-African Social Media Infrastructure
    DCA announced the setup of its Pan African social media profiles that provides content in English, French and Arabic to the Pan African Constituency on Facebook: DotAfrica ; DotAfrique ; DotAfriqya Twitter: DotAfrica ; DotAfrique, DotAfriqya ; Slideshare ; Youtube ; Wikispaces ; Flickr and Podcasts
  • 2010 : Yes campaign launched in Kenya
    DotConnectAfrica spoke on way-forward on the contribution of the “.africa” name to an ICT enabled environment, during the launch of the East Africa “.africa” campaign at the AITEC ICT summit held in Nairobi, Kenya. Read More: DCA Key note and .africa Panel; Read More Press Coverage on announcement here
  • June 2010: First African TLD applicant to sponsor European event
    DCA was one of ICANN event sponsors, the first African TLD to sponsor an ICANN International conference Read More
  • March 2010: DotConnectAfrica announced in Nairobi ICANN 37 in Endorsement of its initiative by AU and UNECA during the public forum Read the Transcript of ICANN forum
    DCA was one of ICANN event sponsors, the first African TLD to sponsor an ICANN International conference Read More
  • March 2010: The Making of .Africa in Nairobi: Announcement of endorsment at ICANN 37
  • August 2009: DCA endorsed by the African Union Commission(AUC)
    The 14th Ordinary Summit of the African Union heads of state and Government that took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, under the theme Information Communication Technology from 25 Jan to 2 Feb 2010 gave endorsement to the “.Africa” domain name. Read More
  • August 2008: DCA endorsed by the Economic Commission for Africa
    The Economic Commission for Africa, which coordinates activities of African Ministers within the continent, gave endorsement to DCA’s efforts and proposal Read More
  • June 2008: DCA announced its intentions in Paris
    Ms. Sophia Bekele, the Executive Director of dotafrica presented to the public forum the status of the project’s progress to the ICANN Board during the ICANN PARIS meeting. Read More
  • February 2008: DotAfrica posted its position in support of the mid-term review of the Joint Project Agreement (JPA ) to the Office of Internal Affairs, of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, in Washington DC ; read the Joint Project Agreement here, and the ICANN chairman Address to the public meeting read more.
  • February2008: Letter of Notification to ICANN for Applying for Delegation of DotAfrica (.africa) TLD .
    Request for Accreditation from ICANN for .Africa Read More
  • January 2008: DotAfrica was introduced and presented to ITU officials in Africa. ITU recommended to the AU commission the project on dotafrica. ITU admittedly stated they were pleased with DCA’s initiative and one they heard only from us.
  • January 2008: DotAfrica was introduced and presented to the leadership of the African Development Bank in Tunis.
  • December 2007: DotAfrica was introduced and presented to the leadership of World Bank in Washington DC and S.Africa offices.
  • December 2007: DotAfrica was introduced and presented to the leadership of the African Union Mission Washington DC, USA.
  • September2007: DotAfrica was introduced formally to ITU HQ office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
  • August 2007: DotAfrica was introduced and presented to the “Connect Africa” summit organized by ITU and hosted by Kigali Rwanda. It was introduced it formally to the top management of ITU and its Secretary General of ITU. The staff of ITU recommended we work with ITU HQ office for Africa, which is Addis Ababa. Read More
  • March 2007: DCA initiated DotAfrica with AfrICANN
    Ms Sophia Bekele presented and discussed the DotAfrica Initiative with the AfriICANN group during the ICANN meeting in Lisbon,Portugal in 2006 Presentation1, Presentation 2
  • June 2006: DCA presented the dotafrica TLD to ICANN African Board members
    Ms Sophia Bekele presented the dotAfrica proposal to the ICANN African Board members.
    View Presentation Here, Acknowledgement by Board Member
  • Letter of Notification for ICANN for Applying for Delegation of Dotafrica TLD to Chairman-ICANN