LOS ANGELES - The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Board announced that Rodrigue Guiguemde is the recipient of the 2024 Dr. Tarek Kamel Award for Capacity Building, according to the official website of ICANN.

Tripti Sinha, ICANN Board Chair, announced the Board's selection during the ICANN81 welcome ceremony. The ICANN Board recognizes Guiguemde's significant efforts in capacity building on a local and regional scale. Particularly notable is Guiguemde's key role in the development of a new Coalition for Digital Africa capacity-building track for governments which earned the ICANN Board's deep appreciation.

Guiguemde participated in the award ceremony and thanked the ICANN Board for the recognition. A video of the award ceremony will be published later.

Rodrigue Guiguemde is a Regional Advisor for the development of content and communities of practice under the Smart Africa Initiative as part of a World Bank program on digital integration in West Africa. During his tenure with the Burkina Faso government, Guiguemde collaborated with stakeholders including the Africa Network Information Centre (AFRINIC), ICANN, the Internet Society, and the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications and Post of Burkina Faso. Guiguemde coordinated the groundwork for the implementation of Internet Protocol version 6 in Burkina Faso through a Memorandum of Understanding between the Burkina Faso government and AFRINIC.

During his tenure as the General Secretary of the Information and Communications Technology Initiative for Citizens in Burkina Faso (Initiative TIC et Citoyenneté), he facilitated the operationalization of the "train the trainers" effort on Internet governance and information systems.

Rodrigue Guiguemde is a long-time member of the ICANN community. He served as the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) Vice-Chair between March 2020 and March 2022 and has been an active member of the GAC Underserved Regions Working Group.

The Dr. Tarek Kamel Award for Capacity Building was established in honor of the late Dr. Tarek Kamel, an Internet pioneer known for his contributions to global Internet governance. The award recognizes members of the ICANN community who have made significant contributions to national, regional, or global capacity development programs related to ICANN's mission.