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Frequently Asked Questions: ICANN's Emergency Assistance Program for Continued Internet Access

Program Home Page

Expression of Interest

Why did ICANN launch this program?

The Board's decision to create the Emergency Funding Program upholds ICANN's mission of ensuring a stable, secure, and unified global Internet by providing support to address large-scale natural or man-made emergencies, new or protracted, that disrupt Internet access or pose an imminent threat to the continuity of Internet connectivity for affected populations.

Does ICANN have any previous experience in this space, and has it contributed to efforts to address continued Internet access issues?

Yes, in April 2022, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) contributed $1 million in emergency financial support to the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC) for continued Internet access during the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. In March 2026, ICANN contributed up to $300,000 to the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC) to support response activities in Jamaica following Hurricane Melissa.

Are proposals currently being accepted?

The ICANN organization (org) has selected three third-party emergency support organization(s) based on the outcome of an Expression of Interest process: Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC), NetHope, and Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF). These organizations can submit proposals that meet the program criteria at any time.

Can an organization submit more than one proposal to this program?

Yes. Though the program is limited to up to USD 1 million annually and is subject to the availability of funds.

Can I submit a proposal after the closing of the call for Expression of Interest?

No. Note of the submission deadline on the Emergency Assistance Program page.

Selection and Funding

How were organizations selected?

The ICANN organization (org) selected three third-party emergency support organization(s) with the required capabilities and a proven track record in addressing Internet access crises at the national, regional and global level. As emergencies arise where ICANN could provide support, and subject to availability of funds, the ICANN org will coordinate with the selected organization(s) to identify if a monetary contribution would be appropriate in the specific instance.

The program's total annual (ICANN's Fiscal Year cycle) contributions shall not exceed USD 1 million.

What is a qualifying emergency event under this program?

Qualifying events are large-scale natural or man-made disasters that have resulted in disruptions to Internet access. According to the U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction Relief, a large-scale disaster is a type of disaster affecting a society that requires national or international assistance. Eligible events may be new or protracted crises.

See answers to clarifying questions regarding the 2023 Expression of Interest process here.

Domain Name System
Internationalized Domain Name ,IDN,"IDNs are domain names that include characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet ""a-z"". An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. Many languages also use other types of digits than the European ""0-9"". The basic Latin alphabet together with the European-Arabic digits are, for the purpose of domain names, termed ""ASCII characters"" (ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange). These are also included in the broader range of ""Unicode characters"" that provides the basis for IDNs. The ""hostname rule"" requires that all domain names of the type under consideration here are stored in the DNS using only the ASCII characters listed above, with the one further addition of the hyphen ""-"". The Unicode form of an IDN therefore requires special encoding before it is entered into the DNS. The following terminology is used when distinguishing between these forms: A domain name consists of a series of ""labels"" (separated by ""dots""). The ASCII form of an IDN label is termed an ""A-label"". All operations defined in the DNS protocol use A-labels exclusively. The Unicode form, which a user expects to be displayed, is termed a ""U-label"". The difference may be illustrated with the Hindi word for ""test"" — परीका — appearing here as a U-label would (in the Devanagari script). A special form of ""ASCII compatible encoding"" (abbreviated ACE) is applied to this to produce the corresponding A-label: xn--11b5bs1di. A domain name that only includes ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens is termed an ""LDH label"". Although the definitions of A-labels and LDH-labels overlap, a name consisting exclusively of LDH labels, such as""icann.org"" is not an IDN."