Thank you very much, Martin for nominating me and to everyone who seconded the nomination.
It has been a productive year working as NPOC Secretariat and we have put a lot of stucture in place and are ready to launch NPOC into a higher level of membership and policy engagement. I look forward to being part of this process.
Kindly find my statement below and I look forward to providing additional information in the candidates call on Thursday.
Best regards,
Ore
***************
Name: Oreoluwa Lesi
Affiliation: Women's Technology Empowerment Centre - W.TEC
Position applied for: Secretariat
Why you are running for the position?: I believe that the work that ICANN does is deeply important and my professional experience and interests place me in an excellent position to contribute meaningfully to achieving its goals.
Many nonprofit organisations do not fully understand what ICANN does and its relevance to their work. This means that they do not have the opportunity to get involved in shaping policies, which affects them. NPOC’s role in educating and galvanising nonprofits to greater participation in internet governance in general and domain name policy, more specifically, is crucial in maintaining a vibrant community that includes diverse perspectives and contributions – especially one where nonprofit concerns are valued as much as those of other stakeholders.
I bring with me deep experience in the nonprofit sector and understand their concerns, especially as it relates to technology and specifically Internet-related issues.
I have worked in the nonprofit space for 17 years and lead a nonprofit (the Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre – W.TEC), which works to build an inclusive technology ecosystem, with more women technology creators, entrepreneurs and leaders. I also ensure that women and women-focused nonprofits are represented on the Internet, own and can manage their domains effectively, and understand how to address issues like domain name abuse, cybersecurity and privacy challenges. My work centers on increasing digital inclusivity in who can use the Internet safely and effectively to enhance their educational, professional and civic activities.
This means that I need to stay abreast of the changing domain name and wider technology policy landscape, especially as related to data security and privacy issues and their intersections with gender. Through ICANN, I have had the opportunity to be at the forefront of learning about the latest domain name systems and related policy and understanding how they affect the communities I work with.
Over the last year, I have served as NPOC’s Secretariat and together, the Executive Committee and NPOC community have developed a strategic outreach plan to recruit new members, developed informational materials to educate the wider community about what NPOC does (which includes a booklet, flier and slide deck), rebuilt and launched a more informative and engaging website, organised well-attended sessions at ICANN64 and ICANN63, completed the revision of the new Charter document and renewed its commitment to policy development by successfully submitting a comment to the dot org registry agreement call for public comments.
Personally, I coordinated the documenting and monitoring of the EC’s huge workload, helping to keep team members on track with their respective action items. I provided administrative support, making available information about NPOC meetings and action plans to the EC and NPOC community. Recruitment and engagement of new members is very important to me and I co-organised and moderated a panel discussion at the Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum, a leading African internet governance forum in April 2019, which also served as outreach for NPOC.
Working as Secretariat has also provided me with a unique overview of and the opportunity to work across the broader NPOC landscape from finance to membership, policy, communications and administration. I believe that this experience will strengthen my ability to coordinate NPOC’s administrative tasks and provide more support where needed.
In my professional capacity outside of ICANN, I have led and worked as part of teams and have developed the project management and collaborative skills that are valuable for working in the Secretariat role. I am also a member of the Nigerian chapter of ISOC and Alliance for Affordable Internet, as well as ISOC SIG Women. I am also a member of the Best Practices Forum on Gender and Access of the IGF and have contributed comments over the last year.
I am a Vital Voices Lead Fellow (awarded to emerging and established women leaders across the world) and an Ashoka Fellow (a network of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs). I speak frequently at Nigerian and international conferences and other fora on the intersection of technology and gender. I sit on several boards, including the FAS Foundation, which builds the capacities of Nigerian engineers and supports engineering research.
Within ICANN, I am also a member of the African Regional At-Large Organisation (AFRALO) and NCSG.
You can learn more about me and my work on my:
LinkedIn profile: https://bit.ly/2ke8u78
Organisation W.TEC’s website: https://wtec.org.ng
ICANN Wiki page: https://icannwiki.org/
Oreoluwa_Somolu_Lesi
Do you have any conflict(s) of interest?: No
How many hours per week you are able to dedicate to the position: At least 5 hours (As the current Secretariat, some weeks I devote up to 10 hours or more to NPOC work)
Are you involved in any working Groups or PDP efforts, if so please state:Over the last year, I have been an active contributor to the rewriting of the NPOC Charter, working with the rest of the Charter Review team at public meetings and remotely in-between meetings.
I was part of the team that worked on NPOC’s comment to the dot org registry agreement call for public comments.
Prior to that, I was a mentee on the Community Onboarding programme and helped to refine the processes to integrate new members to NPOC. I also participated in an NCSG Policy course Advisory Group, where I contributed scenarios for the development of a NCSG Policy course.
-- Oreoluwa Lesi - Women's Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) Executive Director +234.803.621.1307, +234.813.339.9999 | www.wtec.org.ng | @wteconline