* Name: Remmy Nweke
* Affiliation: DigitalSENSE Africa Media.
* Position applied for: NPOC Policy Chair
* Why you are running for the position?:
I would like to improve on what we ought to be doing in NPOC Policy
Committee, of course, with the warm support of all NPOC members when
elected, especially with the Executive Committee and to support our
Councilors actively as well as collaborate with other members of Exco
and largely the non-commercial stakeholders group by ensuring that our
Policy Development Process (PDP) witness a new turn of events with
timeliness, trends, dedication and mentorship for new and upcoming
members and work towards getting NPOC to take its rightful place in
comity of NomCom stakeholders, among others.
* Do you have any conflict(s) of interest?: NO
* How many Hours a week you are able to dedicate to the position:
Not less than dedicated 5 hours per week.
* Are you involved in any working Groups or PDP efforts, if
so please state:
Of course yes, I am involved in a number of working groups including
currently being the NPOC Representative to the NCSG Finance Committee,
where I was the pen holder for the first-ever draft Operating
Procedure (OP) which is undergoing review among other initiatives as
the vice chairman of the (NCSG-FC) in charge of the Secretariat until
recently.
As a member of NPOC Policy Committee, I have tried often to encourage
participation in our Policy Development Processes (PDP).
Equally, I am an active individual member of ICANN’s Generic Name
Supporting Organisations (GNSO) like Non-Commercial Users Stakeholder
Group (NCSG), Non-Commercial Users Constituency (NCUC) and
Not-for-Profit Operational Concerns Constituency (NPOC) respectively
and a forerunner of all-inclusive diversity advocacy, accountability
and transparency. I recently served as one of the by-lawyers for the
NPOC charter review working group and currently member of NPOC team
reviewing response for the NomCom Implementation Working Group request
for constituencies feedbacks, among others.
In liaison with Raoul Plommer our current Vice Chair, I have
consistently raised issues of concern to NPOC at the ongoing NomCom
Implementation Working Group for adequate inclusion and balanced
representation of communities including NPOC in the NomCom.
At the African regional level, I am a reliable member of At-Large
Advisory Committee of ICANN under AFRALO - African Regional At-Large
Organisation; member of the ALAC Subcommittee on Outreach and
Engagement; Fellow, Cyber Security Policy on Human Rights Defenders;
Chairman, Communication & Advocacy Committee (CAC), IPv6 Council
Nigeria and promoter of the Nigeria IPv6 Roundtable since 2011.
Lately, I served as an elected Executive board member, Nigeria
Internet Registration Association (NIRA), the managers of .NG country
code Top Level Domain and extended my services to several committees
including Communications and Publicity, Accreditation, Finance and
Establishment, as well as an elected Vice President of the African
Civil Society on the Information Society (ACSIS), pioneer Lagos branch
Secretary, Cyber Security Expert Association of Nigeria (CSEAN) and
former publicity secretary, Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) cum chairman,
International Relations of NIG; pioneer Secretary, ICT Media
Initiative; BARK Foundation – a knowledge-based advocacy group;
Internet Governance Caucus (IGC), chief advocate, ICTMedia TinkTank,
to name a few.
Additionally in Nigeria, DigitalSENSE Africa, an ICANN certified
At-Large Structure; where I serve as Lead Strategist, saw efforts at
building multistakeholderism which gave rise to nurturing of today’s
Nigeria Internet Governance Forum (NIGF) of which I am equally serving
as a member of the NIGF-Multistakeholder Advisory Group (NIGF-MAG).
Just as I preside over the Protocol, Security and Exhibition Committee
for the Civil Society Coalition on Sustainable Development Goals
(CSCSDG-2019) in Nigeria and served as a member of the Civil Society
Selection Group for the recently concluded WSIS+10 Stakeholder
Selection Committee for the United Nations (UN) President of the
General Assembly, among others.
Therefore, I crave your support to enable us move NPOC and the Policy
Committee precisely to the next level as anticipated.
So, vote for Remmy Nweke for the chair, Policy Committee.
Thank you and God bless our efforts.
Remmy Nweke
Dear all,
I would like to thank Martin for this nomination and I am willing to accept it for run as a Membership Chair once again. From this position we have updated all database from our members and we are planning to have many surprises for all of you, that we hope will be improving members knowledge about what NPOC EC is doing and what are relevant topics inside ICANN for us as members.
Our last year work was related to update our database and clean it up, we have also have asked information about your own experiences in DNS abuse or any other related with NPOC topics, and we are wiling to receive your feedback, even if you don't understand what are we talking about. We are planning to solve that, precisely.
Now is time to moving forward and to get all of you our members involved and engage with what we are doing. That's we are seeking, that our memberships grow up but also being more active members, and we know that all of you are experts in your fields that can add value to our Constituency!
I am able to dedicate the hours that been necessary to do the job. As I am doing inside the WG that I am involved such as: NewGTLD WT5, Subsequent Procedures and GNSO Drafting Team to Further Develop Guidelines and Principles for the GNSO’s Roles and Obligations as a Decisional Participant in the Empowered Committee. I also have been working on writing comments for NPOC and NCSG.
Name: Juan Manuel Rojas
Organization: AGEIA DENSI Colombia
Name: Oreoluwa Lesi
Affiliation: Women's Technology Empowerment Centre - W.TEC
Position applied for: Secretariat
Why you are running for the position?: I believe that the work that ICANN does is deeply important and my professional experience and interests place me in an excellent position to contribute meaningfully to achieving its goals.
Many nonprofit organisations do not fully understand what ICANN does and its relevance to their work. This means that they do not have the opportunity to get involved in shaping policies, which affects them. NPOC’s role in educating and galvanising nonprofits to greater participation in internet governance in general and domain name policy, more specifically, is crucial in maintaining a vibrant community that includes diverse perspectives and contributions – especially one where nonprofit concerns are valued as much as those of other stakeholders.
I bring with me deep experience in the nonprofit sector and understand their concerns, especially as it relates to technology and specifically Internet-related issues.
I have worked in the nonprofit space for 17 years and lead a nonprofit (the Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre – W.TEC [wtec.org.ng]), which works to build an inclusive technology ecosystem, with more women technology creators, entrepreneurs and leaders. I also ensure that women and women-focused nonprofits are represented on the Internet, own and can manage their domains effectively, and understand how to address issues like domain name abuse, cybersecurity and privacy challenges. My work centers on increasing digital inclusivity in who can use the Internet safely and effectively to enhance their educational, professional and civic activities.
This means that I need to stay abreast of the changing domain name and wider technology policy landscape, especially as related to data security and privacy issues and their intersections withgender. Through ICANN, I have had the opportunity to be at the forefront of learning about the latestdomain name systems and related policy and understanding how they affect the communities I work with.
Over the last year, I have served as NPOC’s Secretariat and together, the Executive Committee and NPOC community have developed a strategic outreach plan to recruit new members, developed informational materials to educate the wider community about what NPOC does (which includes a booklet, flier and slide deck), rebuilt and launched a more informative and engaging website, organised well-attended sessions at ICANN64 and ICANN63, completed the revision of the new Charter document and renewed its commitment to policy development by successfully submitting a comment to the dot org registry agreement call for public comments.
Personally, I coordinated the documenting and monitoring of the EC’s huge workload, helping to keep team members on track with their respective action items. I provided administrative support, making available information about NPOC meetings and action plans to the EC and NPOC community. Recruitment and engagement of new members is very important to me and I co-organised and moderated a panel discussion at the Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum, a leadingAfrican internet governance forum in April 2019, which also served as outreach for NPOC.
Working as Secretariat has also provided me with a unique overview of and the opportunity to work across the broader NPOC landscape from finance to membership, policy, communications and administration. I believe that this experience will strengthen my ability to coordinate NPOC’s administrative tasks and provide more support where needed.
In my professional capacity outside of ICANN, I have led and worked as part of teams and have developed the project management and collaborative skills that are valuable for working in the Secretariat role. I am also a member of the Nigerian chapter of ISOC and Alliance for Affordable Internet, as well as ISOC SIG Women. I am also a member of the Best Practices Forum on Gender and Access of the IGF and have contributed comments over the last year.
I am a Vital Voices Lead Fellow (awarded to emerging and established women leaders across the world) and an Ashoka Fellow (a network of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs). I speak frequently at Nigerian and international conferences and other fora on the intersection of technology and gender. I sit on several boards, including the FAS Foundation, which builds the capacities of Nigerian engineers and supports engineering research.
Within ICANN, I am also a member of the African Regional At-Large Organisation (AFRALO) and NCSG.
You can learn more about me and my work on my:
LinkedIn profile: https://bit.ly/2ke8u78 [bit.ly]
Organisation W.TEC’s website: https://wtec.org.ng [wtec.org.ng]
ICANN Wiki page: https://icannwiki.org/Oreoluwa_Somolu_Lesi [icannwiki.org]
Do you have any conflict(s) of interest?: No
How many hours per week you are able to dedicate to the position: At least 5 hours (As the current Secretariat, some weeks I devote up to 10 hours or more to NPOC work)
Are you involved in any working Groups or PDP efforts, if so please state:
Over the last year, I have been an active contributor to the rewriting of the NPOC Charter, working with the rest of the Charter Review team at public meetings and remotely in-between meetings.
I was part of the team that worked on NPOC’s comment to the dot org registry agreement call for public comments.
Prior to that, I was a mentee on the Community Onboarding programme and helped to refine the processes to integrate new members to NPOC. I also participated in an NCSG Policy course Advisory Group, where I contributed scenarios for the development of a NCSG Policy course.
-- Oreoluwa Lesi - Women's Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) Executive Director +234.803.621.1307, +234.813.339.9999 | www.wtec.org.ng [wtec.org.ng] | @wteconline
