Travel Bursaries

Commonwealth Internet Governance Forum seeks to encourage greater participation from Commonwealth member states on issues and discussions related to Internet Governance, with a view to coming up with informed solutions or the pooling of good practice to address their needs more directly.As part of this strategy for more engagement, the Commonwealth Internet Governance Forum have set up a modest travel fund to offer young professionals who are active in Internet Governance in their countries or field, the opportunity to participate at the IGF meetings held each year.

The following were awarded the 2009 Travel Bursaries, and each participant detailed their experience at the Internet Governance Forum 2009 in Sharm el Sheikh, sadly 2 of our awardees could not attend the event and therefore no report figures from their part. Please note that the views and opinions expressed in the reports are those of the individuals and do not necessarily reflect the position of the CIGF.

Aminou Ndala, Cameroon

Aminou Ndala TITA is from Cameroon, he has recently completed a Masters Degree Study in Intellectual Property jointly organised by the World Intellectual Property Organisation(WIPO), African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation(ARIPO), and Africa University(AU). He has also completed the Internet Governance Capacity Building Program IGCBP ( Foundation Course, Advanced Course specialising in Intellectual Property, and Research Policy phases) offered by Diplofoundation. Currently Mr. Tita is carrying out research with the Diplofoundation specifically in the are of " Access to Knowledge: The case of Digital Rights Management (DRM) and Cultural Industries."

Babatope Soremi, Nigeria

Babatope Soremi is an ICT4D Researcher actively involved in IGF process as a contributor & participant in local workshops in Nigeria and other global forums engaging in issues such as cyber security, access, youth engagement & capacity building. Since 2002, he has been promoting ICTs for social change through diverse projects and/or programs while influencing the enacting & implementing of relevant policies that will accelerate development in his country. He is a seasoned trainer & facilitator and has worked with a number of public, private and non-profit organisations within & outside Nigeria seeking to create varied ICT4D solution platforms that are sustainable and aid social development. Mr. Soremi holds a Project Management Professional Credential, a Bachelor of Science Degree & is a Diplo Alumnus. He has undertaken offline & online courses focused on Internet Governance, Project & Program Management, and Search Engine Optimization amongst others.

Barrack Ong’ondo Otieno, Kenya

Barrack Otieno has almost ten years of Information and Communications Technology and administrative experience. His main interest is in the role of ICT in Community development, in which he is the founder and Project Manager of Project Discovery www.projectdiscovery.or.ke, a community based organization that conducts awareness campaigns. The main aim of this activity is to promote the adoption of Information and Communication Technologies and contribute to bridging the digital divide in Kenya. Currently Project Discovery focuses on the role of the Internet as a tool for Social and Economic advancement. Mr Otieno has participated in Policy development in Kenya as a member of the Kenya ICT Action Network, and as Secretary General of the Linux Professional Association of Kenya www.lpa.org a business management organization that lobbies the government and private sector to embrace free and open source software. He is also a resource-person for the Computer Society of Kenya.

Dalsie Baniala, Vanuatu

Until now Vanuatu has had only one Internet Service Provider (the former telecom monopoly). This ISP has also, by default, been the Country Code Top Level Domain administrator, national registry, registrar and international bandwidth provider. The Government has now declared an open market for Internet service provision and has so far issued 7 additional licences. Dalsie was recruited by the Telecom Regulator in Vanuatu in April 2008 and has been in training for the role of the Regulator’s Operations Manager, while at the same time serving in the role of Administration Manager. As part of the training Dalsie has been studying an Internet governance course run by the ITU, and assisting the Regulator in working out the arrangements that will apply for competitive markets in all aspects of Internet service provision in Vanuatu (except for the national registry, and policy functions, which are to be separated from the operator roles).

Deirdre Williams, St Lucia

Deirdre Williams has made her home on the island state of St Lucia in the West Indies since January, 1972. She is currently a lecturer in English Literature at Sir Arthur Lewis Community College. Since 1993 she has been involved as a volunteer with online networking initiatives, like MISTICA, CIVIC and CARDICIS, in the Caribbean and Latin America. Her interest is the human face of the internet as it can be seen in issues like identity, diversity of languages and culture, and privacy. In 2008 she successfully completed a series of online courses in Internet Governance with DiploFoundation, Malta. She is now trying, with some success, to share her concern about internet governance issues with the students at the College where she teaches. She would like to help to create an internet that will be a safe and rewarding place for people like her five year old multi-lingual, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic grand-daughter, Gabriela.

Emily Nyarko, Ghana

Emily Nyarko is an ICT journalist and a head with the Current Affairs Department of TV3 Network Limited in Ghana. She produces one of the most watched current affairs programme, AGENDA, and also contributes to a weekly, hour-long update of economic and business activities in Ghana. Emily holds a B. Sc. certificate in Marketing and a diploma in journalism and is undertaking a group research on Critical Internet Resources under the DiploFoundation Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme for 2009. She has participated in the Highway Africa Conference in South Africa for Journalists for 4 years and attended the Africa regional prepcom for WSIS phase two in Accra and the Tunis summit. She writes for the IDG News Agency in the US, HANA in South Africa and PIWA in Senegal. She is married with a five-year old daughter and likes to read, watch movies and sew.

Emmanuel Edet, NigeriaEmmanuel Edet, Nigeria

Mr. Emmanuel Edet is a lawyer currently the head of the Legal Unit of the National Information Technology Development Agency in Nigeria. He has been involved in pioneering activities in the development of legal and institutional framework for Information Technology in Nigeria. He has participated in various technology initiatives in the areas of cybercrime, banking, policy, development and governance. Born in the South Eastern part of Nigeria, Mr. Edet holds a bachelor’s degree in law and has additional qualifications in Internet Governance, e-Government Policy and Strategy Development and Cybercrime Investigations and Prosecution. His interests include technology contracting, outsourcing, Internet Governance, Information Technology policy and strategy development and electronic commerce issues with a specific pull towards the areas of cyber security and policy development. Mr. Edet completed the Capacity Building Program carried out on Internet with Diplo Foundation with whom he is currently working on capacity development in Internet Governance.

Gbenga Sesan, Nigeria

Gbenga Sesan, an Ashoka Fellow, is the Executive Director of Paradigm Initiative Nigeria. An Electronic/Electrical Engineer graduate of Obafemi Awolowo University, he has completed training programs at Lagos Business School, New York Group for Technology Transfer, Oxford, Harvard and Stanford. His consulting experience includes assignments completed for Microsoft, Harvard, UN Economic Commission for Africa, Res Publica, Heinrich Boll Foundation and the ITU. ‘Gbenga is a member of the UN Committee of eLeaders on Youth and ICT, Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellow, and was Nigeria's IT Youth Ambassador and Vice Chair of UN Economic Commission for Africa’s African Technical Advisory Committee. His book, In My Own Words, was published by Imprimata in September 2009 and he has been profiled as one of the 35 Icons of ICT in Nigeria. ‘Gbenga’s personal website is www.gbengasesan.com and he is married to Temilade, a PhD scholar with research interests in Renewable Energy Policy and Implementation.

Grace Mutung’u, Kenya

Grace Mutung’u (Bomu) works with two theatre companies in Kenya-Heartstrings Kenya and Fanartics Theatre- as a manager, actor and in cultural policy advocacy. She has been following the Kenya ICT policy debate since 2005 when she was a student at University of Nairobi School of Law. Through this process she has developed a keen interest for ICT and culture and has been participating in various initiatives on the same. She is a member of the ICT Consumers Association of Kenya and the Non Commercial Users Group at ICANN. Grace is currently taking a course in Intellectual Property Law and the Internet at Diplo Online Campus and is also awaiting admission as an advocate of the High Court of Kenya.

Marsha Guthrie, Jamaica

Marsha Guthrie is a tutor with DiploFoundation’s Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme. She is also a graduate of the DiploFoundation’s first Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme and Research Phase. She has presented at various conferences on Internet Governance issues such as IPv6 and assisted with the development of a course module and wiki on e-Commerce. Her areas of interest include e-Commerce, access in developing countries , human rights and the use of technology for sustainable development. Marsha is a graduate of the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados and the University of Westminster, London. She has also completed a short course on Intellectual Property with the World Intellectual Property Organization.

Mwende Njiraini, Kenya

Mwende Njiraini, a Commonwealth Scholar, currently works as a telecommunication engineer at the Communications Commission of Kenya responsible for research in new and emerging technologies and their impact on the regulatory framework. She has since 2003 been involved in Internet Governance discussions through her involvement in the establishment of the Kenyan country code Top Level Domain Name (ccTLD) Manager – the Kenya Network Information Centre (KENIC)- a public private partnership project. In 2005, she was awarded a fellowship to undertake the Diplo Foundation Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme (IGCBP) and on the basis of her exemplary performance has since been engaged as an IGCBP Tutor for the African Region. Mwende has been a moderator of the Kenyan Internet Governance Forum online discussions, which have fed into the East African Governance Forums in 2008 and 2009. Her research interests include policy and regulatory aspects relating to internet infrastructure and cybersecurity.

Philip Okubasu, KenyaPhilip Okubasu, Kenya

Mr kubasu' s interest in ICT began after being awarded a sponsorship by a local Pastor in Kenya, thanks to which he was able to accomplish his Higher education. He then joined a top local Internet Service Provider (ISP) where he worked as a Sales Technician. Account Manager and Network Support Engineer. By learning through first hand experience Mr. Okubasu focused on providing technical support to clients. His work was complemented by a series of skills training from top companies such Siebel. Through an analysis of his personal experience Mr Okubase came to attribute the various challenges encountered to certain identifiable causes: lack of resources poor governance and IT knowledge. One solution he promotes is to maintain local content and research across the ICT community for cohesion and improvement of standards. His major interest in Internet governance has been to explorer the ICT Sector by spearheading Internet governance across the common wealth community, stake and share holders through research and Training within civil society.

Pascal Bekono, Cameroon

Mr. Bekono is a Computer Science graduate at the University of Yaoundé I. Former IT assistant in the German Technical Cooperation, he was the Coordinator of the national WSIS2005 youth campaign in partnership with the Canadian Government and TakingITGlobal. In 2007 he was selected as a delegate to the Global Youth Forum on ICT and Development organized by ITU and UNGAID in Geneva, while also being awarded a scholarship to attend the ICTD2009 Conference in Qatar, which boasts the likes of Bill Gates of Microsoft as keynote speaker. In the area of Internet Governance 2007 saw his participated in the elaboration of Youth recommendations for IGF2007 together with DiploFoundation, with whom he also successfully completed the Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme in 2008. In the same year Mr Bekono was also a member of the organizing committee of the Youth & IG Team for IGF2008. At the upcoming IGF 2009 in Egypt Mr Bekono will be a participating in the Youth and Internet Governance panel.

Pranesh Prakash, IndiaPranesh Prakash, India

Pranesh Prakash manages the intellectual property rights reform programme at the Centre for Internet and Society, which promotes access to knowledge and consumer rights within the realm of IPR, and encourages ‘free’ and ‘open’ alternatives like free and open source software, open standards, open content, and open access to law and scholarly literature. He holds a degree in Arts and Law from the National Law School, Bangalore, and was part of the founding committee of the Indian Journal of Law and Technology, and served on its editorial board for two years. He is keenly interested in exploring the interstitial spaces between law, economics, culture, and technology, especially as revealed by contemporary discourses around IP, freedom of speech, privacy and the notion of rights.

Priyanthi Daluwatte, Sri Lanka

Priyanthi Daluwatte is from Sri Lanka and is currently employed in the higher education sector in university administrative/policy level capacity. Her basic degree is in Biological Sciences and she holds an MSc in Computer Science and Mphil from the University of Colombo. Her main interests are higher education policy, internet governance, e-learning, research on ICT4D and telecentre community. Besides her work in the higher education sector Ms. Daluwatte is also a tutor in the Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme for Diplo since 2007, embarking on this endeavour after completing Diplo Foundation’s Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme in 2006. She has also worked in the development field and in ICT4D projects aimed at bridging the digital divide. She works as a Volunteer in Sarvodaya Fusion, Sri Lanka. Ms Daluwatte was a speaker in various events; at the launch of telecentre.org in WSIS (2005) and on Capacity Building on IG at the IGF 2008. She has also participated in other conferences in ICT4D including GKP International Forum 2005, 2006, and eAsia 2007 and GK3 in 2007. In the same period Ms Daluwatte coordinated the activities for GKP South Asia Regional partnership in 2006/2007.

Sheba Mohammid, TrinidadSheba Mohammid, Trinidad

Sheba Mohammid is interested in multi-disciplinary and inclusive strategies for Sustainable Development Management. Her work is focused on Digital Inclusion in Small Island Developing States. She is a DiploFoundation Graduate in Internet Governance and continues research in that area. She works in Trinidad where she is the ICT Policy Analyst at the National ICT Company Ltd, the State Enterprise with the mandate for National ICT development in Trinidad and Tobago. Here she has responsibility for all major Policy considerations surrounding e-Legislative reform and creating an enabling Policy & Legislative Environment. She is Project Coordinator on a number of ICT initiatives deploying the meaningful application of ICT including Multi-Channel Service Delivery which aims at a more citizen-centric Government and the Computer Refurbishment Programme which addresses e-Waste. Sheba will be a panelist at the IGF 2009 at the workshop “The challenges of being literate to foster participatory cultures”.

Subhodeep Kundu, India

Subhodeep Kundu is a young MBA graduate, with an Electrical engineering degree and a prior work experience of 5 years across different industries. He is currently working with an IT organization in Pune, India in the business domain. He is passionate about different social & environmental issues & putting technology to use to address these issues. He successfully completed the foundation, advance course on Internet Governance from Diplo Foundation on e-voting and is now perusing the research phase of the IGCBP09, the topic chosen is e-democracy.