[NCUC-DISCUSS] Yolanda Mlonzi SOI - NCUC African Representative

[Yolanda Mlonzi]

Hi all,

Please find my statement of interest, thank you once again Bonface and
those supporting me for the NCUC Africa Representative Position.

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Name:Yolanda,
Region: Africa,
Gender: Female

Organisations/Affiliations:  Internet Society Gauteng Chapter (ISOC GP)
and Southern African Emerging Leaders on Internet Governance (SAELIG)

Title: Marketing and Communications Officer (ISOC GP) and Co-founder
(SAELIG)

*no conflict of interest*

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*About me and my current projects:*

I am a vibrant and motivated young woman in the field of Internet
governance (IG) and communications. I hold a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in
International Relations and Media Studies from Witwatersrand University
(Wits). While at Wits I conducted a short research study which focused on
the growing politicization of intelligence services in constitutional
democracies like South Africa, the paper sought to explore the intersection
between new media, privacy, surveillance and politics in modern democratic
states. I started off my career in IG as a Google Policy Fellow for a year
where I was hosted at the Association for Progressive Communications (APC).
At APC I worked extensively on the African School on Internet Governance as
resource person for 2 consecutive years and on the African Declaration on
Internet Rights and Freedoms. I am a member of the Internet Society Gauteng
chapter where I am currently serving as an executive board member, leading
the communications and marketing office. I am also the co-founder of
Southern African Emerging Leaders on Internet Governance (SAELIG) which is
an online youth community interested in providing a platform for young
people to participate in IG through a youth perspective. I am also a
project manager at Kantar Added Value.

Some of my Internet Governance Fellowships and awards:

Internet society Ambassador 2016

Communications Research Policy Scholar South

African School on Internet Governance Graduate

Google Policy Felow

Youth at IGF Internet Society Online

I have attended numerous African meetings and spoke a various panels
locally and regionally.



 The current projects I currently co-manage at ISOC GP and SAELIG are:

*1.      **Digital Schools – Online Youth Content Development in Rural
South Africa*

The digital schools project partners with 8 rural high schools in South
Africa where young people will be taught and encouraged to upload content
in their vernacular languages online. The aim of the project is to build
capacity at a young age to truly make the internet accessible and diverse
for all.

2.      *ICANNWiki translation project in collaboration with ICANNWiki, the
South African Central Registry (**ZACR* <https://www.registry.net.za/>*)
and 2 local SA Universities*.

This project will span for 12 months where young people from rural South
African with assistance from local Universities will translate ICANN
policy/IG into their local language. Some of the aims of this project is to:

a.      Build communities of non-commercial users to start a dialogue
around internet policy and ICANN

b.      Activate awareness and interest around ICANN Policy and internet
governance through a human rights lens

c.       Build capacity and empower end users to use the internet for
personal and community growth.


*3.      **South African Internet Governance Forum 2017 Planning
Committee *(Internet
Society Gauteng Chapter and South African Domain Name Authority ZADNA).


*4.      **Research Report for the Global Information Society Watch (GISW)
on the South African Internet Governance Landscape *to be published at the
global IGF 2017.


I believe that the work that I do is a perfect fit to serve on the EC as an
African representative. My roots are deeply entrenched in Africa and I have
so much hope and vision for my continent. Moreover, I believe that the work
the NCUC and the EC hopes to achieve are relate to the work I currently do.
To me, the most important thing is for the voice of the people to be heard
and the only way that can be achieved is through creating enabling
environments.

*Why I would like to serve on the EC as the Africa rep*

Africa’s active and meaningful participation in all fronts of global
internet policy is important to me. ICANN in particular is a complex matrix
and an intimidating space for non-commercial users to meaningfully
participate and contribute to its policies. NCUC has provided a platform
for civil society and ordinary users of the internet to be part of the
ICANN conversation and in recent years African involvement at ICANN has
grown to be increasingly important especially with the release of .Africa.
The 2016 Africa DNS Market study showed that there are only 1.4 million
registrations of gTLDs by African entities, with approx. 1% of gTLD domains
being registered by Africans. While these statistics may depict an
unfavorable story for Africa, it also represents a window of opportunity
for NCUC to play a key role alongside ICANN in outreach and advocating for
a robust and open DNS culture in Africa.

Firstly, I believe an NCUC outreach should be bigger than just an ICANN
Event in Africa. Secondly, an African representative should be one that
sees the work of NCUC to fit broadly within Internet Governance and not
just ICANN. By this I mean, outreach and educating members of the public
and interested civil society organizations should not only happen when
there is an ICANN meeting in Africa. I would like to spark a culture within
NCUC African members to feel like ambassadors of NCUC (breakdown of this in
my strategy for NCUC Africa). I want to serve on the EC so that I sensitize the
current work that the EC does to the real complexities of Africa such as
the real barriers caused by socio-economic conditions. Moreover, I want to
serve on the EC to represent a group of people who are committed in
spearheading the noncommerical voice in DNS policy in Africa and globally.
What is currently missing at this point is an African perspective to the
work that NCUC does and this is something I picked up on during the
Johannesburg Outreach Event which I assisted in planning. While I respect
that NCUC is a global constituency with a global perspective in mind, it is
equally important to embrace, celebrate and tie the global vision to a
local vision. This is a strategy and goal that I want to bring to the EC
(through the African constituency) as this will better assist in the way
NCUC engages in Africa and how Africa engages within NCUC and ICANN
broadly.


*My strategy if I were to be elected as the Africa NCUC Rep*

Continuing efforts to activate the African voice and participation in NCUC
discussion and policy developments is a must (both with existing members
and recruitment of new members). This will entail:

*a.      **In-reach*

                                                              i.      *The
current webinar initiative is a great one and I believe that should
continue. *It is a great way to discuss NCUC core value and mission with an
African perspective. The webinars also form a great way to inform best ways
to carry outreach events in the region

                                                            ii.
*Peer-to-peer
buddy system within NCUC Africa to help new African members engage and
participate effectively within NCUC largely will help in strengthening the
NCUC community and African participation within NCUC.* The number of new
Africans joining NCUC is increasing, and will increase even more. While
NCUC as a whole is running initiatives to onboard new members, I also think
there is a need to mentor or at least help new African members by Africans.
The spirit of Ubuntu must follow us everywhere we go, charity truly begins
at home!

*b.      **Outreach *

*                                                              i.      **NCUC
outreach events in Africa do not have to wait for an ICANN meeting. *As
NCUC African members we should try and map out Internet Governance events
that we will attending in the region and see how best can we (even if in a
small way) talk about the work that we do as NCUC. As the internet grows in
our region, all issues of internet policy is our interest and we should
make sure everyone is part of the conversation.

*                                                            ii.      **When
ICANN does come to Africa, carry robust and informative outreach events
that speak about DNS policy in such a way that is cognizant of African
issues. *Such as digital illiteracy, throttling internet freedom, lack of
infrastructure, cost to connect etc.… these issues are significant barriers
to a thriving DNS ecosystem in Africa*. *Read the blog post I wrote on
the Johannesburg
NCUC Outreach Event
<https://www.ncuc.org/2017/07/05/ncuc-outreach-23-24-june-two-days-in-johannesburg/>


*                                                          iii.      A**nchor
the conversation around DNS policy through Africa perspective which is
cognizant of our everyday realities. *The was my biggest learning from
assisting NCUC EC carry out an outreach in Africa (2017)




c.       *Communications strategy* - making use of the NCUC website to tell
our stories:

                                                              i.      *Blogging
and social media activations.* I believe sharing NCUC stories by Africans,
whether it is through commentary on local DNS policies or our work as NCUC
will assist in forming a much needed point of view on issues. Storytelling
a great way of attracting new members and revive the spirit and place of
NCUC in Africa.

                                                            ii.
*Linguistic
diversity during webinars. *Promote the use of the ICANN languages during
African meetings.

*d.      **Participation in ICANN Meetings – travel funding. *As much as
this may seem obvious, travel funding to ICANN meetings is still a
constraint and more needs to be done to ensure that each region has an NCUC
member (not just the EC reps) attending an ICANN meeting.

These are some of the ideas I have to propel the African community within
NCUC and broadly. The current projects I am involved show of a young person
who dedicated to the cause of bringing ordinary people onto the internet
policy conversation. NCUC is founded on this very principle of providing a
platform for civil society and individuals to have a say in global ICANN
policy and I believe Africa’s voice is a large component of that. The
internet is growing, and in Africa we have not even tipped the iceberg yet.
This presents an opportunity and huge responsible for us as the NCUC ICANN
community to make sure the Africa has a voice and I would be honoured to
spearhead that.


*Time Commitment*

I will be available to carry my duties and ready to do so!


In closing, serving as an Africa representative to me means really
propelling others forward so that our voice can be heard. I won't do it
alone, never planned to... but I believe I have what it takes to lead.

See attached my CV for additional information about me.


Feel free to ask me questions.

Sincerely,
Yolanda.
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