[Ncuc-af] NCSG and NCUC elections

Thu Jul 19 12:13:51 CEST 2018

Hi Benjamin,

Thanks for your comments. I am adding few comments in line to some of
the statements you made bellow. And sorry again for what happened to
you as you were going to Panama. That was very rude from that
government.

2018-07-19 2:47 UTC+02:00, Benjamin Akinmoyeje <benakin at gmail.com>:
>
> My concern is how committed are we to the general African cause within the
> space, it appears it suits some of us to go solo. Since this conversation
> is coming up again, I will encourage everyone to look at the landscape and
> engage with the mindset of a commonwealth of all rather than individual
> benefits.

I would like to understand what you mean by "it appears it suits some
of us to go solo" because i don't think I see your point here. Can you
share more on how this has happened and who are those people who are
happy to work in solo? I don't agree with this sentiment as it is not
uniting but has the potential to divide instead. I don't think there
is a way one can work in silo in this space or to advance "individual
benefits" as you put it. Maybe i am wrong or did not get your point?

> With that said, my suggestion is for us to look holistically at the
> different scenarios and identify the agenda we Africans want to push; and
> let us agreed on the route to go.

Though I agree with the spirit behind this but again, I don't think
there is any specific agenda that we need to push within the NCSG as
Africans rather than encouraging our fellows to be engaged and take
time to work on policies or governance. We can start by looking at
issues under discussion in PDPs and see if there is anything that has
an impact on Africa as a region. But until there is nothing specific,
then, i would strongly suggest we unite, support each other to be
engaged. We have only few from our region who are into the real work
and without naming anyone, i would like to thank those few and
encourage the rest to follow.

I have seen some of our fellows doing their best in bringing back the
Finance Committee despite all the concerns and sometimes personal
attacks that are directed to them. Remy and Thato are doing a very
good job in trying to conciliate different views from the community
and come up with the Operating Procedures that will be accepted by the
majority of NCSG members. And I think we should unite and work
alongside them, if we have experience in this area of finances. This
is just one example.

> In terms of capacity building, I have always advocated that we do some form
> of peer to peer learning amongst ourselves to boost confidence instead of
> canceling out each others.

This is a very good point you are making here and I would like to
encourage us to work this out in a different thread and see how we can
make it possible. We have resources within this group that we can tap
into in terms of mentoring (and many of us took the policy writing
course as well as the recent NCSG course in Panama). And if there is
an area where we lack expertise, we can still seek mentorship from
experts from other regions. Peter is another example of being mentored
by someone from another region. So, it works as well.

> My question is what is our strategy? What is the common cause?
We can work on this together but for now, I believe we need to
encourage more participation from Africa and consider this as our
strategy for the few years ahead. I recently was at the Africa
Strategy meeting with the Africa GES team and the thing is, we are
still not visible within ICANN in terms of Africans doing the job. And
i think this is what we can do for now.

>
> On Wed, Jul 18, 2018 at 5:30 PM Akinremi Peter Taiwo
> <compsoftnet at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Thanks Thato for raising the need for more involvement of Africans in
>> NCSG
>> and NCUC. The same point was raised by Arsene weeks ago and Rafik clearly
>> suggested a strategy that could help us achieved a more desirable
>> outcome.
>> In addition with Rafik suggestion, I would also like to suggest that we
>> need to put on the hat of nominate ourselves for strategically
>> positioning.
>> While we are actively participating, Rafik, Poncelet, Farell, Anriette,
>> Arsene among others should use their influence to nominate African
>> colleagues . This would clearly shows that there is potential African
>> candidates on the list.
>>
>> Regards.
>> Peter
>>
>> On Wed, Jul 18, 2018 at 4:05 PM, Thato Mfikwe <thatomfikwe at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi members,
>>>
>>> I just wanted to highlight something that maybe some of you might have
>>> been thinking about.
>>>
>>> As you might have received notices about elections and nominations
>>> taking
>>> place, I think it would be fruitful to think about how the region gains
>>> representation in the coming elections of NCSG and NCUC.
>>>
>>> It would not cause harm to have candidated standing for leadership at C
>>> or SG level and the African seat can also be discussed before
>>> contentions
>>> start and nomination periods close. Supporting 2 or 3 candidates at most
>>> would be a good start.
>>>
>>> Our passive approach will always give us a back seat with our voices not
>>> well represented, unless we collectively take a firm approach to agree
>>> or
>>> disagree on who we should rally behind or push ahead.
>>>
>>> It would also be wise to know who will be the volunteers or candidates
>>> so
>>> that we can support them, any thoughts?
>>>
>>> If members are not confident enough to stand,it means that we need to
>>> strengthen capacity building initiatives focusing on under-serviced
>>> regions
>>> in order to encourage meaningfull participation in ICANN PDP and related
>>> activities.
>>>
>>> Apologies that I might not finish this communication threat, just trying
>>> to spark communication and collaboration with and among fellow members,
>>> thanks.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Thato Mfikwe.
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Ncuc-af mailing list
>>> Ncuc-af at lists.ncuc.org
>>> https://lists.ncuc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ncuc-af
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> *Akinremi Peter Taiwo*
>> [ West Africa Coordinator ]
>> African Civil Society on Information Society (*ACSIS*)
>> *Website: *www.acsis-scasi.org
>>
>> *Chief E*xecutive Consultant.
>> [ Compsoftnet Enterprise ]
>> www.compsoftnet.com.ng
>> Nigeria
>>
>> *T*echnical Consultant
>> [ RetailPoint ]
>> Lagos
>> Website: www.retailpos.com.ng
>>
>> *Phone:* +2347-0638-30177, +2348-1874-76292
>> *twitter:* @compsoftnet
>> *Skype:* akinremi.peter
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Ncuc-af mailing list
>> Ncuc-af at lists.ncuc.org
>> https://lists.ncuc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ncuc-af
>>
>

-- 
------------------------
**Arsène Tungali* <http://about.me/ArseneTungali>*
Co-Founder & Executive Director, *Rudi international
<http://www.rudiinternational.org>*,
CEO,* Smart Services Sarl <https://www.smart-kitoko.com/>*, *Mabingwa Forum
<http://www.mabingwa-forum.com>*
Tel: +243 993810967
GPG: 523644A0
*Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo*

2015 Mandela Washington Felllow
<http://tungali.blogspot.com/2015/06/selected-for-2015-mandela-washington.html>
(YALI) - ISOC Ambassador (IGF Brazil
<http://www.internetsociety.org/what-we-do/education-and-leadership-programmes/next-generation-leaders/igf-ambassadors-programme/Past-Ambassadors>
& Mexico
<http://www.internetsociety.org/what-we-do/education-and-leadership-programmes/next-generation-leaders/Current-Ambassadors>)
- AFRISIG 2016 <http://afrisig.org/afrisig-2016/class-of-2016/> - Blogger
<http://tungali.blogspot.com> - ICANN's GNSO Council
<https://gnso.icann.org/en/about/gnso-council.htm> Member. AFRINIC Fellow (
Mauritius
<http://www.afrinic.net/en/library/news/1907-afrinic-25-fellowship-winners>)*
- *IGFSA Member <http://www.igfsa.org/> - Internet Governance - Internet
Freedom.

Check the *2016 State of Internet Freedom in DRC* report (English
<http://cipesa.org/?wpfb_dl=234>) and (French
<http://cipesa.org/?wpfb_dl=242>)