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Caleb has been guiding me on all the policy issues, and I have been active on the NPOC Policy team for some time. One of my goals has been to get more people involved in Policy issues. Many of the policy issues are technical and for that reason many people shy away from it even after they have taken the policy writing course. Many people already are working on policy issues, except they do not realize they are writing policy. Whenever a person posts a public comment on a policy document, review of a program or working group, or any document they are writing policy. Besides the traditional policy issues so as the Transfer review policy, Domain policy, subsequent Procedures, or IPN, there is also operational policy. Some examples are the Strategic Plan, the Travel Policy, work on the multi-stakeholder policy and reviews such as the NomCom Review that is currently out.  These are all Operational Policy and are a very easy way for NPOCers to get involved and in drafting policy comments.   I hope to copy what was so successful in At Large these past few years and bring these innovations to NPOC. We should have monthly or bi-monthly policy calls for the community. We need to increase engagement in Policy areas and some of the best way of doing that is a renewed focus on Operational Policy and a careful picking of other Policy issues that are pertinent to the non-profit user such as the Transfer review policy. 

As you can see I am passionate about ICANN policy issues and also in raising the profile of NPOC both with in the NCSG but also with in the GNSO and other areas.  To do that, we need more involvement of NPOC participants in policy issues.  If you vote for me as Policy Chair.  I hope to do just that.

I have gone through the ICANN Leadership Academy and also the ICANN Intercultural Awareness program. Moreover, I have gone through On conscious bias, Governance, leadership, chairing and other training these past two years as  NomCom representative and can bring this knowledge to NPOC.

Here is my GNSO SOI  https://community.icann.org/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=64064480

for your review and I hope to have your vote for Policy Chair.  I look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions as we work to have an active and participatory NPOC

Name: Emmanuel Vitus Agbenonwossi

Biography & CV: 

A Digital Policy researcher bridging humanity and technology through social sciences, media  and Public Policy. My interests span from Internet governance & Public policy to journalism and platforms’ democracy.

I have been instrumental in implementing a couple of National and Regional Internet governance Initiatives including, the Togo Internet Governance Forum and the West Africa Internet Governance Forum. I am  the coordinator of the West African School on Internet Governance and faculty member of the Ghana and Benin School on Internet Governance. I have  also served within Internet governance bodies, including Internet Society and ICANN's NPOC as General Secretary. I am the representative of  the NCSG at the EPDP on Internationalised Domain Names. 

In the last few years, I was a consultant on projects to organizations, including Association for Progressive Communications, the Web Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Paradigm Initiative, Local Development Research Institute (LDRI), Alliance for Affordable Internet, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), UNESCO, The Humboldt Institute for the Internet and Digitalisation, Berlin's Digital Society Institute, 

etc.  I authored and co-authored a number of articles and a book chapter on Internet governance, IT policy, AI  and Internet governance. My interest topics include AI, Data Governance, IT policy, Internet Governance, Digital Rights and Privacy.  I am  a certified Scrum Master and member of the Project Management Institute of France. I speak French, English and over 9 African languages. 

Affiliations:  Sciences Po School of Public Affairs (France), University of Central Lancashire – UCLan, Afrotribune

Position applied for: Policy Chair for NPOC 

Why I applied for this position:

As you are all aware, the Policy Chair Role is one of the important roles within NPOC Leadership because most of what we do is policy and for the last few years we have not been doing great in that regard.  During the last year meeting in The Hague, I accepted the EC’s mission to join the available EPDPs. I first joined the GNSO Expedited Policy Development Process on Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs EPDP) where I have so far dedicated over 1200 hours in 11 months to bring the constituency’s perspective to the conversation. This EPDP will run till 2025 with more demands and engagements and I’m happy enough to continue this work. 

I also joined the ICANN Leadership program recently in Cancun and the ICANN Policy Transition Program. Both programs were designed to equip us as leaders within our various constituencies.  It’s time for me to give back to the community. 

As an experienced Tech Policy  and Internet Governance Expert with over 11  years of experience, I see myself as having new and fresh ideas that can be very useful for the EC and the community. I would like to improve on what we ought to be doing and what we have done in NPOC especially at the EC level to get members involved in Policy work. Currently our constituency is one of the few who don’t have a proper Policy Team. I brought the idea out recently to support Juan, our current policy chair in that regard and I hope when elected it will be one of my first priorities to get our old and new members involved. As someone who speaks both French and English and understands most policy contexts in Africa (having worked in 5 countries and traveled over 26 of them) and Europe where I currently stay, I can easily rally many members to join NPOC policy engagements.

My focus, when elected, is to work closely with the NCSG, especially the policy committee to increase capacity building webinars for members, policy engagement, strengthen them and notify them of possible funding or support opportunities to also participate on site at such meetings through the use of CROP or remotely. 

Also, I want the Policy team to be a great liaison between the EC and the community members. This I believe will help them participate more actively without feeling left out when it comes to decision-making and documenting policy thoughts without the necessary incentives and motivation. 

It is my belief that there is a better option in diversity and youthfulness which stands as a major rally point for my supercharged energy to do and perform better to fill the big shoes left by Juan. 

With your voices behind me, I can use the knowledge I have gained in working with CSOs to best represent and implement your ideas. So, if you like what I hope to achieve, I would be most appreciative of your support. Together, we must get engaged, to ensure that this community remains open, pluralistic and democratic.

Do you have any conflict(s) of interest?: Noconflict to the best of my knowledge 

How many hours per week are you able to dedicate to the position?

8 - 10 hours or more as the demand for responsibility brings.

Are you involved in any working Groups or PDP efforts if so please state?

 Over the last year, I have been an active in the GNSO Expedited Policy Development Process on Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs EPDP), contributor to the policies have been discussed at the level of NCSG and NCUC ICANN public meetings and remotely in between. I have participated actively at my regional RALO in the at-large structure and led the creation of ICANNWIKI.