[NCUC-DISCUSS] Candidate Statement

[Grace Githaiga]

Fellow NCUCersThanks Arsene and Benjamin for nominating me to serve for a final term. I promise I will not be like some Presidents from my Continent who start agitating for change of the Constitution to allow for one to stay in office perpetually:).
I am also grateful to all of you who supported this nomination, and requesting NCUCers to allow me serve the constituency for this final term.
Here is my statement. 1.      Why do you want to serve on the EC? My motivation to run for the final term stems from the fact that I continue to be  interested in civil society engagement in not only ICANN, but also in Internet governance Issues. The Internet is dynamic and continues to evolve, and with this dynamism, new issues continue to crop up.  Most of these issues call for concerted efforts in their management or governance. It is important for Civil Society (CS) to engage in these issues in order to shape them. It is also important for Africa to have a strong voice in concerns usually raised by civil society, and NCUC offers a platform to raise such concerns in ICANN. Toward this end, I will appreciate the opportunity to serve in NCUC as I have experience in civil society engagement and will continue to bring in enthusiasm and energy into NCUC.2.      Provide a brief biography of recent experience, associations, and affiliations relevant to serving on the Executive Committee. Describe the relevance of your personal and professional experience to serve on the NCUC Executive Committee, and identify any conflicts of interests you might have.I am Co-convening the Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet), a role that entails coordination  of the various Network debates and activities that touch on policy and regulation in Internet governance matters. In 2015, I was  involved in organizing the Kenya IGF, East Africa IGF and the Africa IGF, where KICTANet in conjunction with other partners held a side event to make input into the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) non-paper.  I facilitated the session, and the output was Africa's contribution to the non paper which submitted to the UN. Several of our contributions were reflected in the draft outcome paper. Further, I made a statement on behalf of civil society organisations present on Human rights and building confidence and security in the use of ICTs during the WSIS informal consultations in October. Let me also state that before becoming a member of NCUC, I was an   ICANN fellow twice.  Early in the year, I served as a member of the Advisory board on Global Conference on Cyberspace 2015, and was also the civil society speaker in the UNESCO connecting the dots conference, where I gave input in multistakeholderism. 
I have continued to encourage  potential members to ‘come home’ by joining NCUC. I have no conflict of interests.  3. The EC performs several functional responsibilities for the Constituency.  What level of time commitment can you bring to your EC role on a weekly and overall basis?    I will dedicate my time as required by the NCUC and in times when not available, I will endeavor to inform the rest of the EC members in good time. In other words, I am committing to be available.4. Communication with the membership is critical. How would you keep members apprised of your EC-related activities?I belong to multiple lists that discuss internet governance issues. I will continue to utilize them to share critical information as well as keep interested stakeholders apprised on the happenings of NCUC. I also interact with some NCUC members on social media and this is also another way of keeping them appraised.5. How do you foresee NCUC’s function, scale, or role changing in the future? What areas of ICANN policy, if any, need more attention and why? Be concise (200 words maximum).NCUC as a structure provides a platform where civil society in ICANN can articulate the voices and perspectives of no commercial users (a reason that draws me to NCUC). It offers representation to civil society or the non profits and humanizes the technical aspects in communicating users rights. NCUC should continue to articulate users rights in all aspects, and raise this voice in ICANN.I humbly request you NCUC members to endorce my candidature by giving me your vote,  and look forward to all of us reinforcing NCUC efforts in ICANN.RegardsGrace



                    
                
             		 	   		  
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