[bestbits] Call for nominations for civil society representatives for the IGF Multistakeholder Advisory group (MAG)

Mon Sep 29 18:46:54 EDT 2014

Dear Jeremy, all,

Thanks all for the endorsements and more especially from the young people
and those from the global south as this are two constituencies that I am
blessed to be part of.

Please find my somewhat long and detailed statement below.

Name: Ephraim Percy Kenyanito

Region of residence: Africa

Nationality:
Kenyan

Gender: Male

Personal statement and IG-related work:

I am a Policy Fellow working with the Policy team for Access (
https://www.accessnow.org/ ), where I focus on the connection between
internet policy and human rights and specifically works on Internet
Governance Reforms. Since joining Access, I have extensively supported
Access in analyzing and contributing to international and national African
policy positions at major internet governance fora, including the recent
NetMundial meeting, the International Telecommunication Union, and the
African Union Convention on Cybersecurity, among others and have assisted
to extend and defend rights of users through  ICANN Civil Society related
events.

I a member of the interim steering committee for the Youth Coalition on
Internet Governance (a Dynamic Coalition of the IGF). I am also an
affiliate at the Internet Policy Observatory (IPO) (
http://globalnetpolicy.org/about/ipo-affiliates/ ) (created by the Center
for Global Communication Studies at the Annenberg School for Communication
at the University of Pennsylvania).

Being only 21 years in July 2013, I was the youngest fellow of the African
School on Internet Governance, held in South Africa and run by Association
for Progressive Communications (APC) and NEPAD (the technical body of the
African Union). In the mean time, I am scheduled to graduate from Law
School in 2015 and I am also a Global Civics Student at the Global Civics
Academy (www.globalcivics.net )

Prior to Access and Internet Policy Observatory, I have worked with
Transparency International (Kenya Chapter) in the Advocacy and Legal
Advisory Centre (ALAC Eldoret Office) programme as a Law Student Intern for
two years. The programme offers free legal advice to victims and witnesses
of corruption and at the same time empower members of the Kenyan public to
advocate for transparency and accountability in management of public
affairs and is active in advocating for Freedom of Information and Data
Protection Laws in Kenya.

Post IGF 2011 in Nairobi Kenya, Transparency International-Kenya has
played active role in using ICTs in human rights, to the point of
organizing a hack-a-thon which brings developers together to through a
weekend marathon of developing apps that can be used in human rights work.
The programme also uses a toll free call centre, social media and FM radio
programmes to empower and promote community participation in monitoring
public service delivery.

I am a previous attendee at IGF at (as an on-site participant and remotely)
both at the global and African regional level and more recently in the last
IGF 2014 Istanbul, I engaged assertively as an on-site panellist on the
following sessions:

Developing countries participation in global IG-
http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/wks2014/index.php/proposal/view_public/114

Youth Coalition on Internet Governance-
www.intgovforum.org/cms/147-igf-2014/1861-igf-2014-youth-coalition-on-internet-governance-meeting

Net Neutrality Main Session-
https://igf2014.sched.org/event/11c53224e232d7f3298247f3ec624e44 I am a
member of a number of academic, end-user and activist mailing lists, and I
plan to feed to consult report back about MAG discussions regularly.  I
plan to also write regular blog posts in assisting with this purpose.

As a 22 year old youth, I believe that the youth are not leaders of
tomorrow but of today and involving youth in IG processes ensures that
there is no generational gap as regards to Internet Policy advancement. I
have often believe that young people ought to be at the forefront in
advancing democratic and positive institutional reform. My position is
consistent with Civil Society views such as BestBits on the need for
diversity in terms of age (bestbits.net/2014-mag-nominations/ ) and
Internet Governance Caucus that “..Targeting youth groups or the younger
generation of professionals will have, in the long run, an effective
impact..” (
http://igcaucus.org/answers-cstd-questionnaire-improvements-igf-19-november-2010
)

This gap on youth involvement in IG has repeatedly been identified during
subsequent, IGFs and more recently in IGF 2014, attendees pointed out that
youth are about 3% minority in the IGF community (September 5th 2014 11.00
Taking Stock/ Emerging issues), which is consistent with 23 November 2010
IGF MAG Meeting (http://igf.wgig.org/cms/mag/102-igf-2010/transcripts2010 )
where it was stated, “...I think that we should have an opportunity to
provide it -- to provide opportunities for youth representation from
African countries, Asian, former USSR, other countries, to make it the
IGF's better mandate...”

My views for IGF reform are that Civil Society needs to take a more
prominent role in the IGF decision making and this is outlined at this
BestBits statement:  <http://bestbits.net/igf-2014-submission/>
<http://bestbits.net/igf-2014-submission/> and in this IG- Caucus 2010
statement that is still relevant to-date:
http://www.unctad.info/upload/CSTD-IGF/Contributions/M1/CSIGC.pdf

Bio

Ephraim is a Policy Fellow working with the Policy team for Access (
https://www.accessnow.org/ ), where he focuses on the connection between
internet policy and human rights and specifically works on Internet
Governance Reforms. At Access, Ephraim has enthusiastically and extensively
supported Access in analyzing and contributing to international and
national African policy positions at major internet governance fora,
including the recent NetMundial meeting, the International
Telecommunication Union, and the African Union Convention on Cybersecurity,
among others.

He is a member of the interim steering committee for the Youth Coalition on
Internet Governance (a Dynamic Coalition of the IGF) and is a global member
of ISOC and served as a member of 2014's Kenya Internet Governance Forum
Steering committee (http://kenyaigf.or.ke/index.php/about-kigf/kigf-team).
He is also an affiliate at the Internet Policy Observatory (IPO) (
http://globalnetpolicy.org/about/ipo-affiliates/ ) (created by the Center
for Global Communication Studies at the Annenberg School for Communication
at the University of Pennsylvania).

Being only 21 years in July 2013, he was the youngest graduate of the
African School on Internet Governance, held in South Africa. He also has
training in Internet Policy and Media Law from University of Oxford and
University of Pennsylvania. In the mean time, he is scheduled to graduate
from Law School in 2015 and is also a Global Civics Student at the Global
Civics Academy (www.globalcivics.net )

Ephraim has participated in ICANN as a member of Non Commercial Users
Constituency (NCUC) (www.ncuc.org/about/members/ ) and as a member of the
ICANN Fellowship alumni network. He has participated in all the 2014 ICANN
Civil Society related events and has been volunteering part of his free
time as an Independent expert at ICANN's Implementation Advisory Group for
Competition, Consumer Trust and Consumer Choice (IAG-CCT) (
https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2013-10-24-en ) and as a member of
the Translation and Transliteration PDP Working group (
https://community.icann.org/display/tatcipdp/6+Membership+and+Mailing+List+Archive
)

Since 2012, Ephraim is also been an Author and Translator through various
online publications such as Global Voices Online (
http://globalvoicesonline.org/author/ephraim-kenyanito/ ), (an
international network of bloggers, translators, and citizen journalists
that follow, report, and summarize what is going on in the blogosphere in
every corner of the world.) Ephraim also write through The Daily Journalist
(http://thedailyjournalist.com/author/ephraimkenyanito/ ) and through a
personal blog, “The Diary of a Global Citizen
<http://thediaryofaglobalcitizen.wordpress.com/>” (
http://thediaryofaglobalcitizen.wordpress.com/ ). Previously he was a
Reporter and Multimedia Team member at European Journalism Centre’s
“ThinkBrigade
Project.” (http://www.thinkbrigade.org/author/ephraim.k/ )

Ephraim has also been carrying out various African Regional Integration
projects with the East African Community Secretariat (Arusha, United
Republic of Tanzania) and was an Intern at the Kenyan Ministry of Foreign
Affairs & International Trade. He also has a passion for Democratic
Governance Issues and has been involved in research and promotion of
Governance Issues through projects facilitated by Transparency
International, MercyCorps (International) and Centre for Law and Research
International (CLARION) among other diverse-range of social development
organizations.

--

Best Regards,

*Ephraim Percy Kenyanito*
Website: http://about.me/ekenyanito
@ekenyanito
PGP: E6BA8DC1

On 27 September 2014 12:03, Jeremy Malcolm <jmalcolm at eff.org> wrote:

> So far I believe we have these candidates to put forward into the process:
>
> * Avri Doria
> * Lea Kaspar
> * John Dada
> * Matthew Shears
> * Ephraim Percy Kenyanito
>
> Before we close on September 30 this is a last call for any final
> nominations.  Can I also please ask those who haven't already done so to
> send (me, or the list) a statement addressing the criteria?
>
> Thanks.
>
> On Sep 18, 2014, at 8:21 PM, Jeremy Malcolm <jmalcolm at eff.org> wrote:
>
>  This is a call for nominations for civil society representatives for the
> IGF Multistakeholder Advisory group (MAG).
>
> This nomination process in 2014 will be run across several civil society
> coalitions, including Best Bits, IGC, APC, Diplo, NCSG, and Just Net
> Coalition. You are welcome to nominate through any of the above groups.
> Nominations close on Tuesday, September 30
>
> If you wish to nominate via Best Bits, or you have been nominated and wish
> to accept, please do so either on list or by email to jmalcolm at eff.org.
>
> Please include in your nomination, the nominee's name, country of
> residence and nationality, and gender. Please also specifically address
> each of the selection criteria below, giving us examples and evidence of
> how the nominee meets each of the individual selection criteria.
>
> CRITERIA
>
>    - Past record of active engagement as part of civil society groups
>    working on internet governance issues, acting or speaking out assertively
>    on behalf of public interest concerns.
>    - Willingness and commitment to consult with and report back to CS
>    networks (including beyond those focused on internet governance where
>    appropriate) on MAG discussions.
>    - Previous attendee at IGF at a global or regional level.
>    - Willing, available and able to participate effectively and
>    constructively in the MAG deliberations.
>
> Existing MAG members seeking CSCG endorsement should also follow this
> process.
>
>
> Nominations must close on Tuesday, September 30. The list of candidates
> endorsed by CSCG will be published no later than October 16.
>
>  --
> Jeremy Malcolm
> Senior Global Policy Analyst
> Electronic Frontier Foundationhttps://eff.orgjmalcolm@eff.org
>
> Tel: 415.436.9333 ext 161
>
> :: Defending Your Rights in the Digital World ::
>
>
> --
> Jeremy Malcolm
> Senior Global Policy Analyst
> Electronic Frontier Foundation
> https://eff.org
> jmalcolm at eff.org
>
> Tel: 415.436.9333 ext 161
>
> :: Defending Your Rights in the Digital World ::
>
>
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