Forum national sur la gouvernance de l’internet au Sénégal (FGISN) 2015 — third edition — In-Depth Report: Minutes Digest & 3-Line Summary

The 3-Line Summary

On 17 September 2015 the third Senegal national IGF, FGISN 2015, met at UCAD II in Dakar under the theme 'Digital sovereignty: stakes and challenges', organised by the ISOC Senegal Chapter.
The agenda confronted mass electronic surveillance, dependence on foreign proprietary software, offshore data hosting via the cloud, and keeping traffic local through IXPs — the conditions for Africa to be more than a consumer of the digital economy.
Ten years on from WSIS, it also prepared Senegal's contribution to that November's global IGF in João Pessoa, Brazil, with the posts-and-telecoms minister and the university rector slated to open proceedings.

Welcome — this is the Japan IGF Support Organization. This in-depth report on Forum national sur la gouvernance de l'internet au Sénégal (FGISN) 2015 — third edition draws on official outputs, session records and on-site reporting. In a hurry? The three lines above and the diagrams carry the gist.

Conference at a Glance (from official records)

Item	Detail
Official name	Forum national sur la gouvernance de l'internet au Sénégal (FGISN) 2015 — third edition
Dates	17 September 2015
Venue	UCAD II conference centre, Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar (09:00–17:00)
Theme	'Souveraineté numérique : enjeux et défis' (Digital sovereignty: stakes and challenges)
Host	The ISOC Senegal Chapter (ISOC-SN); scientific-committee chair Prof. Olivier Sagna (secretary-general of OSIRIS)

(See the source list at the end of this article.)

Discussion Digest — from the Session Records

Key exchanges extracted from session records and transcripts.

1. Digital Sovereignty — Beyond a Consumer Africa

Sessions: Introductory lecture 'Globalisation and digital sovereignty' (Prof. Olivier Sagna) and three panels (per the announced programme)

Theme proposer Prof. Sagna argued (in the announcement) that the internet's border-erasing 'liberation' had been celebrated one-sidedly, while developing countries were being 'invaded' by internet multinationals imposing their own — and their home states' — rules [1][2]
Mass surveillance, bandwidth-hungry foreign apps, untaxed advertising revenue, offshore cloud hosting, proprietary-software dependence and IXP-based control of local traffic were listed as the rarely debated core of sovereignty [1][2]
The starting premise: producing neither technologies, equipment, software nor services, Africa is 'reduced to the status of consumer' in the digital economy [1][2]

2. WSIS+10 and Feeding the Global IGF — the Digital Economy in the PSE Era

Sessions: Closing panel 'Conditions for a digital economy in the context of the PSE' and others (per the announced programme)

The announcement framed the forum as both a WSIS+10 stocktake and preparation of Senegal's contribution to the global IGF in João Pessoa that November (10–13) [1][3]
A closing panel on the digital economy under the national PSE development plan was to be chaired by the posts-and-telecoms minister, with Minister Abdoul Yaya Kane and UCAD rector Ibrahima Thioub slated for the opening [1][3]
Two panels — the legal/policy environment (data-protection commission CNP, UN Women and others) and infrastructure/content (Orange-Sonatel, DakarLug, academia) — plus an open call-based panel completed the design, against a stated internet penetration of 53.72%, driven by mobile [1][3]

Three-Minute Short Talk — Your Questions Answered

Q. What did the meeting decide?

A. Nothing binding — the third Senegal national IGF debated 'digital sovereignty': offshore data, foreign-software dependence, local traffic — and prepared input for the global IGF.

Q. Digital sovereignty in 2015 — isn't that early?

A. Remarkably so. Before the term became fashionable in Europe, the agenda already listed surveillance, cloud hosting, IXPs and taxation — nearly today's full debate.

Q. How well is it documented?

A. Detailed programme announcements survive from three sources, but no post-event report has been found — so this entry is a lightweight one based on the announced plans.

What Is Senegal IGF? (for first-time readers)

Senegal IGF is a National or Regional IGF Initiative (NRI), aligning local internet governance discussion with global IGF principles.

Why It Matters to You

What was discussed here becomes the baseline for national digital policy, platform rules and AI regulation worldwide within a few years. The principles confirmed at the 2015 meeting are the foundation of the "next rules" for the phones, social platforms and AI services you use every day.