[NCUC-DISCUSS] Nomination of Thato Mfikwe for NCUC EC Africa
Thato Mfikwe
thatomfikwe at gmail.com
Fri May 31 16:17:25 CEST 2019
Thanks again Tapani for the nomination,
Although this is my second nomination, it is really encouraging to see
support from members on the list, which *leads me to accepting this
nomination*. Apologies again for getting carried away with the long mail, I
really tried my best to be brief 😀
I just wanted to express my interest in representing Africa in the NCUC EC
for the coming term as I believe that the work currently underway needs to
be completed. I am already active in the Africa mailing list and the public
comment process, encouraging members to improve their participation within
NCUC and NCSG activities and ICANN64. I took time to attend a meeting with
Africa ICANN VP to discuss and understand the regional strategy, which NCUC
regional members are currently working on, planning to present it to the
community during the ICANN65 Africa strategy meeting.
Answers to questions as requested:
1.
*Why do you want to serve on the EC? *
I believe my participation in NCUC EC will create another alternative for
community members to participate and get more involved within NCUC and NCSG
activities and committees, especially newcomers and followers who are not
yet active.
Personally, I have participated and engaged the NCUC and ICANN Africa
regional strategy since 2016, during my first ICANN meeting in Hyderabad. I
hope the NCUC members will give me another opportunity to further
contribute to activities NCUC and serve the African region as I also intend
to intensify engagement with and among NCSG constituencies, committees and
NCUC itself in order to enable mainstreaming of regional members within
NCUC, NCSG and ICANN activities. I have always incorporated leadership and
administrative capabilities in every task I undertake.
I plan to contribute to enhancing up capacity building initiatives to also
encompass research and analysis with drafting skills, as there are
currently few penholders within NCUC who can see a public comment to
completion.
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 not conflicted and I have experience in financial administration,
policy development, research, analysis, project management and advocacy
skills and experienced acquired over 15 years of my professional span. I
have co-founded multiple organisations which are operational, worked with
global companies, civil society and collaborated with governments before
engaging the digital space, which started in 2010. My role as the current
ISOC South Africa Gauteng Chapter President and member of South African
Multistakeholder Committee on Internet Governance does not affect my plans
for NCUC as all is inline and complements the work of the Chapters and the
local IG fora.
*2.1 Other activities within ICANN*
In 2017, I also helped managed the NCUC stall during the Global IGF in
Geneva, over 2 days, at differentiated time slots. I was also involved in
the coordination and moderation of NCUC outreach in Johannesburg, pre
ICANN59, 2017, which was a success.
During 2018, I worked with NCSG FC and community members, to finalise the
FC Operational Procedures which was a serious exercise, especially with
limited number of volunteers. The work of the FC was faced with challenges
due to diverse views of community and committee members in regard to
functions, autonomy and purpose of the FC within NCSG and how it
collaborates and consults with constituencies. The FC during the said term,
worked on ABR analysis, ICANN and IANA/PTI comments, and started developing
reference document like action plans and summaries of ABRs. I have also
participated in outreach during ICANN meetings, specifically, ICANN 62 and
ICANN64.
Now in 2019, since ICANN64, I am currently coordinating with the current
NCUC EC Africa representative and the regional mailing list members and
volunteers to find a way to improve regional participation and contribution
within ICANN, NCSG and constituency activities. I started engaging the
ICANN Africa office as from early 2018 to figure or map out ways on how to
improve regional participation and contributions within ICANN and regional
activities before setting up a meeting during ICANN64.
I am also a member of CCWG on New gTLD AP proceeds and am currently
participating in a community comment on mainstreaming organisational
reviews next steps, I also continue following up on ICANN 5-year and annual
plans and budget sessions by ICANN finance online and onsite where possible.
*2.2 Other activities within the Internet Governance space*
I have participated and set on panel of different global, regional and
local events like the 2017 ION conference in Durban, South African IGF 2014
-2019, 2016 - 2017 Community Networks Summit and the 2016 African IGF, as a
member of the South African Multistakeholder Committee on Internet
Governance, representing civil society, we will also been facilitating
local IGFs in the past 2 years and this year will also be facilitating the 1
st South African School on Internet Governance. I am the South African
coordinator of ACSIS – African Civil Society on Information Society and
member of the Africa Community Network Summit Program Committee. I have
been active in the internet space since 2010 developing community networks
in South Africa’s townships and rural areas and promoting policies for an
open, affordable and stable internet.
During my career and professional span, I have received various
distinctions, fellowships and awards, the most recent:
a. August 2015: Nunnovation African Innovator of the month accolade
b. 2015 IVLP (International Visitors Leadership Program) by the US
Government focussing on innovation, entrepreneurship and small business
development in 4 states
c. ICANN57, 62 and 64 Fellowship
d. 2016 AFRISIG (African School on Internet Governance) fellowship
e. *2018 Eduweek award <http://www.educationweek.co.za/AwardWinners>*
Inspiration award
I have actively participated in national, regional and international
levels also worked with local registries, registrars, working groups
formed by ISOC, local state Department of Postal Services and
Telecommunications, World Economic Forum and other local businesses,
foundations and institutions.
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? Describe any concerns or limitations on your
ability to attend online meetings of the Executive Committee and ICANN
Meetings in person.*
I normally have time for attending meetings online and onsite and I am
already spending 10 -20 hours per week on working groups, community
comments, NCUC, NCSG and communities’ regional activities.
*4. Communication with the membership is critical. How would
you keep members apprised of your EC-related activities?*
I normally share reports and updates as I have previously done while
engaged in NCSG FC, I provided NCUC EC and NCUC Africa webinars with
reports on Financial activities, plans and updates. I also learned the
community communication practice within ICANN communities and plan to
improve or sustain my communication with the mailing list. With the help of
the NCSG FC, I have also coordinated online meetings with NCSG FC committee
members, started to develop the FC document repository, attended NCSG and
NCUC monthly calls and normally giving report on the FC activities,
although the last 4 months have been challenging due other reasons.
ICANN as a global policy driven institution with community-driven
processes, it is expected that internal politics will arise from time to
time since we all come from different backgrounds with different
challenges, not all views will be agreed upon all the time but I believe
that in an environment of enhanced accountability, impartiality, trust, and
transparency, it is less likely to encounter significant disagreements and
clash of views. The politics that take place within ICANN and communities
cannot be given a blind-eye because those who are denied opportunity and
support will never participate and contribute at expected levels. So, it is
my goal to understand the decision-making process that takes place at NCUC
EC as it is good to have battles on principles and avoid personal fights,
for instance, I believe opportunities should be shared not amongst
membership not earmarked for specific few members or committees, for
whatever reasons, community ABRs should be more open for regional and
membership applications and so should CROP.
I normally discuss issues and collaborate and normally avoid conflicts and
confrontations but I feel that an environment needs to be created for
newcomers and inactive members to anticipate without fear of being judged
for lacking skills, experience or fluent in a particular language since
there is a thin line, IMO, based on personal perception between being
assertive and being disrespectful and being weak against being humble.
Threading around this dynamic will lead to effectiveness and tolerance of
diversity within the community.
Improvement in communication methods at all levels to facilitate more
dialogue between the constituencies, NCSG and the GNSO is paramount, so I
look forward to promoting the bottom-up approach to policy development and
community consultation and engagement to ensure that pertinent issues are
tabled before the NCUC EC.
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? Incumbent candidates should answer in a manner that is both backward
and forward-looking, i.e. taking note of their contributions and work in
the previous year.*
Within NCUC, I have also mentored newcomers in order to fast track their
participation within ICANN and constituency activities, through the NCUC
buddy program, which I believe, need to be revived as it was a very good
program that gets members active and broadens participation.
Now with a change in my role within the FC, now being an observer member,
my participation in NCUC EC will provide me another opportunity to serve
NCUC in a different capacity, especially when it comes to exploring how
AFRALO is organised to work with ICANN AFRICA GSE office collaborating on
regional events and activities. I believe that NCUC must consider ways of
ow to strengthen its regional efforts by exploring feasibility of adopting
regional structures to steer qualitative growth of community and membership
efforts.
Besides my administration, financial and project management background, I
am also experienced in research, analyses and policy development, I intend
to use all this to contribute to community activities and ensure that
voices of the global south and underrepresented regions are brought to the
table during discussions. I believe that the ground needs to be leveled and
the use of degrading, intimidating comments and language needs to be
guarded against with vigor in order for inactive members and newcomers to
start participating and contributing to activities because it seems
currently like voices from developed countries/global north normally
dominate the ICANN and community policy discourse within ICANN communities,
activities and related decision-making processes, IMO, leaving the affected
at the mercy of the empowered, so cross-regional community collaborations
can also be a link to such issues and for addressing capacity shortages,
challenges in certain secluded regions or members.
I am certain that the work of NCUC will have a strong impact on the
development and evolution of DNS space and respective PDPs, which is the
reason why representation in this role will require collaboration and
taking into account your proposals and contributions of members.
IMO, policy areas needing attention include:
- Organisational reviews
- Right Protection Mechanisms
- Expedited Policy Development Process
- Open Data Initiative
- Universal Acceptance
- New TLD subsequent procedures
*Conclusion*
As much as I am a direct person, sometimes mistaken as being disrespectful,
I am normally expressive and vocal on critical issues, I believe the policy
development environment needs vocal members who can represent the interest
of the underrepresented in a meaningful way since a regions such as Africa
is still lagging behind in terms of representation in ICANN meetings and
organising itself, furthermore in our region we do not yet have
collaborative spaces like Internet Houses where RALOs, RIR and other
communities can collaborate on ICANN topical issues unlike other regions
like LACNIC.
I appreciate and have worked and collaborated well with different members
of NCUC in the past, like Farzaneh and Ayden during plenary of NCUC before
ICANN 59, with Renata, Remmy and Joan of NPOC on NCSG FC activities during
FY18. Renata has also been my mentor and I still respect her contributions
for making NCUC more inclusive and enabling newcomers using innovative
programs, her contributions have been very helpful to date.
Regionally, I am currently working with NCUC regional members to improve
participation and contribution to the ICANN regional strategy. I intend to
represent the African region within the NCUC EC to present her concerns
during discussion and deliberation in the Committee meetings. I want to be
a voice that stands for what is important and just right for NCUC and
Africa.
I believe Africa’s NCUC quantitative membership growth will impact on
regional contributions within ICANN and hard decisions must be made to
enhance transparency, fairness and equitable and consistent decision
making. I intend to attempt changing the narrative that Africans cannot do
anything by themselves because I do not and will never subscribe to that
notion. I intend to continue collaborating and working with regional
members to tackle regional issues and challenges, irrespective of the
outcome of NCUC elections because only a few regional members are able to
contribute and participate in community activities. Your vote will be
appreciated to enabling development and execution of alternative strategies
for the benefit of NCUC and the African region, including respective
community and regional demands, thank you.
Thato Mfikwe
Linked in: https://www.linkedin.com/in/royden-thato-mfikwe-97498746
On Wed, May 29, 2019 at 3:50 PM Cláudio Lucena <claudiokilla at gmail.com>
wrote:
> Also supporting Thato so he can keep bringing his availability, knowledge
> and commitment into NCUC.
>
> --
> Cláudio S. de Lucena Neto
>
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> Visiting Research Fellow
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> PhD Candidate, Research Centre for the Future of Law
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> Em sáb, 25 de mai de 2019 às 15:21, Liz Orembo <lizorembo at gmail.com>
> escreveu:
>
>> I also support Thato's nomination. His commitment to NCUC and to the
>> region speaks for itself.
>>
>> On Sat, May 25, 2019, 18:57 Joash Moitui <joash.moitui at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I support Thato nomination. He's commitment is unrelenting and has vast
>>> knowledge of NCUC activities .
>>>
>>> Best,
>>> Joash
>>>
>>> On Sat, 25 May 2019, 15:20 Joan katambi, <joanhopek at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> A +1 to Thato Mfikwe for NCUC EC committee, i have worked with him and
>>>> he is very knowledgeable with the NCUC activities.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Regards
>>>> Joan
>>>>
>>>> On Sat, May 25, 2019 at 2:19 AM Claire C. Craig <claireccraig at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I support the nomination of Thato Mfikwe for NCUC EC committee. He is
>>>>> no stranger to leadership serving as Chair of the Finance Committee of the
>>>>> NCSG. He will serve the NCUC well.
>>>>>
>>>>> CCC
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 24 May 2019, at 2:13 AM, Zuri Wa Aluta <kdmagoro at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> I also would like to endorse the nomination of Thato Mfikwe for NCUC
>>>>> EC Africa position.
>>>>>
>>>>> Regards
>>>>> Kgopotso Ditshego Magoro (Kgošikgadi Zuri Wa Aluta
>>>>> <https://www.zuri.africa>)
>>>>> Self-declared Telecommunications Analyst & Blogger
>>>>> <http://zurispeaks.zuri.africa>
>>>>> *Founder of Imani Stokvel - Learning from Sankofa !
>>>>> <https://goo.gl/RccH5x>*
>>>>> PhD candidate in Interdisciplinary Digital Knowledge Economy Studies
>>>>> *065 9962738*
>>>>> http://zuri.africa
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Fri, 24 May 2019 at 06:11, Bram Fudzulani <
>>>>> bram.fudzulani at angledimension.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> I also would like to endorse the nomination for Thato, he’s a
>>>>>> committed person and would make a great candidate for the position.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks
>>>>>> Bram
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On 23 May 2019, at 10:37 PM, Remmy Nweke <remmyn at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> May I also second the nomination of Thato for the NCIC EC Africa.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Your efforts speaks for you.
>>>>>> Regards
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Thu, 23 May 2019 15:16 Tapani Tarvainen, <
>>>>>> ncuc at tapani.tarvainen.info> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Dear all,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I would like to nominate Thato Mfikwe for NCUC EC Africa position.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>> Tapani Tarvainen
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On May 23 12:44, Maryam Bakoshi (maryam.bakoshi at icann.org) wrote:
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > Dear all,
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > This is a reminder that Nomination starts today Thursday 23 May
>>>>>>> 2019 through to Thursday 06 June 2019.
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > The positions to be filled are:
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > 1. Chair [held by Bruna Martins dos Santos - eligible for
>>>>>>> re-election]
>>>>>>> > 2. EC – Europe [currently held by Louise Marie Hurel, eligible for
>>>>>>> re-election]
>>>>>>> > 3. EC - Africa [currently held by Ines Hfaideh, ineligible for
>>>>>>> re-election]
>>>>>>> > 4. EC – Asia/Australia/Pacific [currently held by David Cake,
>>>>>>> eligible for re-election]
>>>>>>> > 5. EC – North America [currently held by Michael Karanicolas,
>>>>>>> eligible for re-election]
>>>>>>> > 6. EC – Latin America/Caribbean [currently held by Antonella
>>>>>>> Perini, eligible for re-election]
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > *Nomination Process:*
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > · Any member of the NCUC may nominate any NCUC active
>>>>>>> member for any positions.
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > · Once nominated, the nominee is responsible for public
>>>>>>> acceptance of the nomination and for making a *public statement* that
>>>>>>> includes:
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > · Name, declared region of residence, gender and
>>>>>>> employment;
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > · Any conflicts of interest;
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > · Questions:
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > 1. Why do you want to serve on the EC?
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > 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.
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > 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? Describe any concerns or limitations
>>>>>>> on your ability to attend online meetings of the Executive Committee and
>>>>>>> ICANN Meetings in person.
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > 4. Communication with the membership is critical. How
>>>>>>> would you keep members apprised of your EC-related activities?
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > 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? Incumbent candidates should answer in a manner that is
>>>>>>> both backward and forward-looking, i.e. taking note of their contributions
>>>>>>> and work in the previous year.
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > The statements should be relatively concise, e.g. a couple
>>>>>>> paragraphs per question
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > ** These terms all commence on 07 November 2019 (at the
>>>>>>> conclusion of the 2019 Annual ICANN Meeting in Montreal).
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > Please note: NCUC EC really needs committed volunteers who are
>>>>>>> willing to donate a few hours a week to collaboration in order to help
>>>>>>> ensure that civil society's voice is heard in ICANN. The EC’s
>>>>>>> responsibilities are administrative management, in-reach and outreach, and
>>>>>>> interfacing with ICANN’s staff and community as needed. NCUC Chair has also
>>>>>>> several duties and roles to fulfil. If you think that you or someone you
>>>>>>> know would be well suited to the tasks involved, then please consider
>>>>>>> nominating accordingly.
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > Elections page:
>>>>>>> https://community.icann.org/display/gnsononcomuserconst/Elections+2019
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > Please send questions or concerns offlist.
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > Many thanks,
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > Maryam Bakoshi | SO/AC Collaboration Services Sr. Coordinator
>>>>>>> > ICANN | Internet Corporation got Assigned Names and Numbers
>>>>>>> > S: Maryam.bakoshi.icann | T: +44 7846 471777
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>> Ncuc-discuss mailing list
>>>>>>> Ncuc-discuss at lists.ncuc.org
>>>>>>> https://lists.ncuc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ncuc-discuss
>>>>>>>
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