[AfrICANN-discuss] Nairobi Fellowship Program Reaches Successful Conclusion

[Anne-Rachel Inné]

Nairobi Fellowship Program Reaches Successful Conclusion

26 March 2010

Twenty-one fellows participated in the37th ICANN International Public
Meeting held March 7-12 in Nairobi, Kenya. There were 33 candidates who met
the program criteria, and of those 26 were originally selected to attend,
from a pool of 119 applications that were received for this meeting. Five
individuals were deferred to the Brussels meeting this June, 1 gentleman was
unable to attend at the last minute due to personal circumstances, and 2
alternates were able to fill available spots within the allotted timeframe.
Of the participating fellows, there were 7 alumni of the fellowship program,
1 first time fellowship who had attended at least 1 ICANN meeting
previously, and 13 first time ICANN meeting attendees.

All of the ICANN regions were represented, though per the Fellowship Program
specifications the emphasis for representation was on the Africa region, and
the following are the countries from which the fellows hail: Costa Rico,
Paraguay, Papa New Guinea, Pakistan, Egypt, Bulgaria, Senegal, Burkina Faso,
Zambia, Mali, Tanzania, Botswana, Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda and South
Africa.

The focused morning meeting workshops, which are a mainstay of the program
and mandatory for all participants to attend, covered the following topics:
ICANN 101-the Basics, overview of the ccNSO, AFTLD and .KE, with emphasis on
registry best practices, informational sessions on NomCom, ISOC and the
At-Large organization, Internet Governance and ICANN Global Partnerships. In
addition, there were 4 presentations from Fellowship Alumni covering IDN
Fast Track, the GAC, expectations for the week ahead and goals for the
participants when they return home in order to continue to promote the work
of ICANN and its constituent groups. The sessions are highly interactive, as
they provide a small group opportunity to get questions answered by
experienced members of staff and the community.

Two of the many highlights were the Sunday night social networking with the
AFRALO showcase, as well as the chance for 14 of the 21 Fellows to attend 2
roundtables with Rod Beckstrom, which provided the chance to ask one-on-one
questions regarding ICANN, as well as share current issues in their country.

As the Fellowship program matures, the community will see that many of the
participants are actually very active in their regions prior to coming to
their first ICANN meeting; all they have lacked is the opportunity and
funding to get to the meeting location. Members of the Fellowship Alumni are
currently working within the ccNSO (Gihan Dias, Dr. Paulos Nyirenda, Dr.
Alioune Traore, David Main, Denzil West, Eric Akumiah, Fahd Batayneh), gNSO
(Olga Cavalli,), GAC (Nelly Stoyanova, Aimal Marjan) ALAC (Tijani Ben Jemaa,
Fouad Bajwa) and NomCom (Yaovi Atohoun – also ALAC), to just name a few. We
can look forward to seeing many of these faces at the ICANN meetings in the
future, either as public forum participants, members of various AC’s and
SO’s and their working groups, and in the not too distant future, potential
members of the ICANN board.

By the conclusion of the meeting week, this diverse group of individuals had
already moved ahead with their next steps to become more inclusive in the
ICANN process: 1 alumni is considering his application for a NomCom
position, another applied to ALAC, a blog and facebook group were created to
allow continued communication and outreach, presentations were developed to
share the experience with those back home in their region, and the meeting
transcripts will reflect several names from the Program who were vocal and
interactive on councils, in meetings and forums.

We look forward to seeing these names and faces in the years ahead, with
stories in the ICANN monthly magazine, blogs, public comment, and as
community members taking more active roles in their chosen constituency.

For the complete list of Nairobi fellows and their photo, as well as
information on the Fellowship Program, please go to
http://www.icann.org/en/fellowships/.


*The 39th International Public ICANN meeting in Latin America 5-10 December
2010*

*Application Round opens: July 2010*

*Application Round closes: August 2010*

*Selected Fellows announced: October 2010*

Online Application
Form<https://forms.icann.org/fellowship/applications/icann38/>

*Documentation *
Terms and Conditions<http://www.icann.org/fellowships/terms-and-conditions.htm>

*Fellowship Committee *
Fellowships Committee<http://www.icann.org/fellowships/fellowship-committee.htm>

*Questions/Comments? *
Email: fellowships at icann.org
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