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

Mon Oct 16 19:16:43 CEST 2017

Hi Yolanda,

I love the thought and care that went into your Statement of Interest.

Sala

On 17 Oct 2017 05:06, "Yolanda Mlonzi" <mamiyaomhle at gmail.com> wrote:

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