IGF
Academy


Strengthening Internet Governance in the Global South

IGF Academy discontinued

Dear friends and colleagues,

the IGF Academy has been discontinued. It was a great ride. Thank you all so much!

Matthias

IGF Academy releases “IGF Academy Transfer Guide: Sharing Learning and Experience” to help create national Internet governance structures

Click on image to download the IGF Academy Transfer Guide as a PDF (10 MB)

Berlin, Colombo, Johannesburg, June 12th, 2017

Do you plan to establish Internet governance processes in your country, or do you want to enhance existing ones? They can be extremely helpful for strengthening multi-stakeholder cooperation and developing joint positions between government, businesses, civil society and others on how to manage Internet resources in your country. To give everyone involved a head start, IGF Academy has released the Transfer Guide, a toolkit that can be used by new National and Regional Initiatives (NRIs), as they are called by the UN IGF Secretariat.

The Transfer Guide (PDF, 10 MB) shares insights into the work done by the IGF Academy Fellows from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Congo (Brazzaville), Myanmar, Namibia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Togo, and makes the good practice experiences available to a wider public.

Strategic steps to create new NRIs

The Transfer Guide outlines first strategic steps to create new NRIs and explains organisational tools such as stakeholder mapping, SWOT analysis, communication and funding strategies, as well as roadmaps. It combines the experiences and challenges of IGF Academy Fellows in creating Internet governance structures in their countries with the strategies they have developed to deal with these issues.

IGF Academy partners with APC and LIRNEasia in providing support to 16 fellows from Africa and Asia for building or enhancing their nation’s IG infrastructures.

“The first year of the IGF Academy has pushed forward political engagement and Internet governance discussions in all our partner countries. We are happy to share our insights and offer these experiences to enhance new NRIs globally”, Matthias Spielkamp, IGF Academy founder, explains.

“The Transfer Guide offers a range of strategy tools to start up Internet governance dialogue and offers an honest perspective on the status quo for the upcoming national IGFs engaged in the IGF Academy. 2016 has been a rich experience in creating new IG initiatives and we are happy to continue our cooperation in 2017”, adds Lorena Jaume-Palasí, IGF Academy founder.

Free to copy, distribute, and build upon

The IGF Academy Toolkit is published under a Creative Commons license. Please feel free to copy, use, distribute and build upon this material. IGF Academy is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, ICANN and CIMA.

The IGF Academy will hold online meetings with the fellows as well as provide webinars to assist them with the development of their strategy roadmaps until the upcoming global IGF. It will support all fellows to attend the IGF, to be held in Geneva, Switzerland, and will organise a meeting on-site prior to the global IGF to prepare the fellows to participate in the forum.

About IGF Academy

IGF Academy was initiated by iRights in March 2016. It aims to foster freedom of  expression on the Internet and inclusive and transparent national Internet governance and policy processes. Fellows from four African and four Asian countries will be supported in the creation and/or consolidation of multistakeholder, national Internet governance structures.

The IGF Academy is run by iRights in cooperation with APC and LIRNEasia and funded by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

About iRights

iRights is a non-governmental organisation based in Berlin. Consisting of iRights e.V., a charitable non-profit, and the independent think tank iRights.international, we have been active at the intersection of digitisation and society for more than ten years. Since 2005 we have been running the iRights.info online platform, one of Germany’s premier resources for information and discussions on copyright, privacy, media freedom and Internet governance issues. We develop joint projects and provide research and consultancy for a wide range of stakeholders: foundations and other NGOs, government and public entities, private companies, academic institutions and individuals. Our mission: To harness theopportunities of digitisation for the promotion of democracy and the public good. Our approach: We offer our expertise and create spaces for the cooperative development of practical outcomes and solutions.

For inquiries regarding IGF Academy please email office (at) igf (dot) academy

 

The IGF Academy Toolkit

roadmap-1Setting up a national Internet Governance Forum is a challenge in all countries; it can be especially difficult in countries with little experience in Internet governance processes. IGF Academy’s fellows have been working to set up these structures in their respective countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, Congo (Brazzaville), Myanmar, Namibia, Sri Lanka, South Africa, and Togo – for the last six months.

Today, at Day 0 of IGF 2016 in Guadalajara, Mexico, they are presenting their experiences. (In case you would like to follow the presentation, join the livestream starting at 1600 CST / UTC-6.) They come in form of the IGF Academy Toolkit, a publication consisting of two parts:

  • The road to a local IGF: Strategies and experiences, a collection of tools useful to kickstart an IGF – a template for a SWOT, ideas and strategy for a fundraising plan, a communication strategy, and a roadmap template. (download PDF, 3,6 MB)
  • The road to a local IGF: Country profiles, A condensed collection of the experiences fellows made (and are making) setting up a national IGF. (download PDF, 1,7 MB)

What we would like to achieve with this is to offer a repository of shared knowledge that people in other countries can benefit from setting up their own national IGF process.

Please note that this is a work in process. After IGF 2016 we will consolidate these documents into a Transfer Guide that will contain sections on how to employ different techniques, i.e. a SWOT analysis, or designing a communication strategy, and will share more of the experiences that IGF Academy fellows made on their way creating a national IGF. The document also needs copy editing; please bear with us.

About IGF Academy

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IGF Academy was initiated by Matthias Spielkamp in March 2016. It aims to foster freedom of expression on the Internet and inclusive and transparent national Internet governance and policy processes. Fellows from four African and four Asian countries were supported in the creation and/or consolidation of multistakeholder, national Internet governance structures.

The academy offered its fellows mentoring from internationally renowned experts in the Internet governance process and a platform for peer-learning and networking among experts locally, regionally and at a global level. Fellows took part in regional workshops with peers from other countries, as well as in the global Internet Governance Forum (IGF). The IGF Academy thus contributed to a (cross)regional and UN global dialogue on freedom of expression and information preparing for the UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF).

The IGF Academy was run by iRights e.V. in cooperation with APC and LIRNEasia and was funded by the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development.

Fellows

Emmanuel Elolo Agbenonwossi

Africa Fellow IGF Academy

DSC_0240Emmanuel Elolo Agbenonwossi has more than 5 years of work experience in various fields of online journalism and web content management. After several years of practice in Togo working for the government official website www.republicoftogo.com, the Moroccan websites www.northafricapost.com and www.medafricatimes.com, and several other media in West Africa, Emmanuel has won many awards, including the prestigious Young African Leaders Initiative of the U.S. government.

Based in Accra since 2014 and travelling extensively through Africa, he has been working for www.ghanaweb.com – the most popular African website in the world (Alexa Ranking). He is a Veteran blogger and columnist of Radio France International, Emmanuel has realized many interviews with Africa’s heads of government, entrepreneurs, political and economic leaders. He is also one of the most promising continental web-journalists and social entrepreneur according to the Tony Elumelu Foundation which ranks him among the Top 1000 young African entrepreneurs.

Emmanuel holds a Master Degree in Journalism and a post-graduate diploma in Leadership and Entrepreneurship.

Komi Abel Elitcha

Africa Fellow IGF Academy

Komi Elitcha has more than 7 years of work experience as an IT Engineer based in Lomé.
He previously worked as a Network Technician for an IT security & Solutions Company and helped develop an e-Banking project for a state-run Bank, BTCI, based in Lomé.
Well known for his abundant energy, Elitcha is currently working as a System & Network Engineer.at the biggest breweries in Togo, B.B Lomé.
In the last four years, he has shown a great interest for ICT policies and internet governance, participating intensively both locally and internationally into building sustainable policies for the future of Internet in Africa.
Fellow of Internet society (ISOC)   and AFRINIC (AFRIca Network Information Center), Komi is a co-author of two policies of the Mauritius-based institution.
As Internet activist and IETF enthusiast, Komi believes in Open Source philosophy and freedom of expression.
He is currently leading the Education Committee of Internet society (ISOC) local chapter in Togo.

 

Serge-Parfait Goma

Africa Fellow IGF Academy

DSC_0253Serge-Parfait Goma is from the Republic of Congo, he holds a master’s degree in Tele-Information and is currently completing another master’s degree in E-Service International, he is working as an IT-manager at Campus Numérique in Brazzaville, and as a substitute teacher at Marien Ngouabi University.

He is also very active in the ICT community in Congo, indeed, he has participated in building the Congolese code country top level domain .CG as a coordinator in the project of the Association Congolaise de Nommage Internet en Coopération (ACNIC ). At the same time he is working on building the Congo exchange point as an ISCO member.

In 2008 he was a president of the youth chamber international Brazzaville leader; as a civil society activist he is leading the project “Peace is Possible”.

Darcia Dieuveille Kandza

Africa Fellow IGF Academy

DSC_0263Darcia Dieuveille Kandz is a national ICT champion from the Republic of the Congo, a project assistant on new technologies for the NGO Azur Développement. She is also involved in communication as an administrator for the Facebook page of “Innovator Ladies English Club” and for the “Association Congolaise Accompagné (ACA)”. For her, the Internet is shaping the world and communication has shaped the world, so they are to be used together in a good way.

Frederico Links

Africa Fellow IGF Academy

DSC_0276Frederico Links is a Namibian journalist and the editor of Namibia’s award-winning current affairs monthly magazine Insight Namibia since mid-2011. He is also a freelance researcher with a long association with Namibia’s leading think-tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). In both, his journalism and research work, Frederico Links is primarily concerned with democracy and governance issues, particularly corruption and maladministration, both within the public and private spheres. He is also an ardent access-to-information advocate and a founding member of the Access to Information Namibia (ACTION) Coalition of civil society and media organisations and social activists. Mr Links is also a founding member of the #MyConstitutionMyDecision social movement that opposed undemocratically introduced changes to the Namibian constitution in 2014.

Gabriel Ramokotjo

Africa Fellow IGF Academy

DSC_0243Gabriel Ramokotjo is an Internet Activist, who currently serves as President of Internet Society Gauteng Chapter and Secretary of Soweto Wireless User Group (NPO). He is a fellow at the Nepad African School on Internet Governance and at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Name and Numbers (ICANN). Previously he was with the ZA Central Registry providing Technical Support to the .ZA ccTLD domain name and is currently pursuing his studies at the University of Witwatersrand in Telecommunications Policy, Regulation and Management.

Gabriella Razzano

Africa Fellow IGF Academy

DSC_0257Gabriella is a law graduate working at the Open Democracy Advice Centre as the head of research, and is a Founding Co-Director of Code for South Africa. She has a BA LLB from the University of Cape Town, graduating with distinction in Sociology. She formerly clerked with Justice Yacoob of the Constitutional Court and worked with University of Witwatersrand. She has a particular focus on access to information and freedom of expression issues. She is also the current Chair of the African Platform on Access to Information.

Natasha Tibinyane

Africa Fellow IGF Academy

NatashaNatasha Tibinyane is a Namibian feminist human rights defender, with a focus on freedom of expression, and the empowerment of women. A journalist by profession, she currently serves as the National Director of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Namibia Chapter. My work involves advocating and lobbying for a conductive environment for freedom of expression, as well as building the capacity of media practitioners, civil society actors and the youth.

Htaike Htaike Aung

Asia Fellow IGF Academy

DSC_0405Htaike Htaike Aung is co-founder and executive director of Myanmar ICT for Development Organization (MIDO), one of the very few ICT-focused non-governmental organizations in Myanmar/Burma. MIDO focuses on ICTs for development, Internet freedom and Internet policy advocacy works in Myanmar. Since the introduction of the Internet to the public in Myanmar, she has been involved in Myanmar’s Internet propagation events. She is also a digital security & privacy trainer/consultant for human rights defenders in Myanmar. Some of the notable initiatives that MIDO is involved in are Panzagar (anti-hate speech campaign), Kyeet election monitoring application, Myanmar Internet Freedom Forum, Peace Tech Exchange and Lighthouses (community information centres) etc. She is an award holder of Jemseti TaTa fellowship – ICT Champions, and also an alumnus of Deboer Fellowship.

Nalaka Gunawardene

Asia Fellow IGF Academy

DSC_0387Nalaka Gunawardene is a science writer and multimedia journalist in Sri Lanka.

Over the past 25 years, he has worked for national newspapers, international news magazines, business magazines, radio and TV channels, as well as global websites on science, development and media related issues.

From the early 1990s, Nalaka has been chronicling and critiquing the evolution of information society in Sri Lanka. He is considered a leading commentator and analyst on social, cultural and political impacts of information and communications technologies (ICTs) in South Asia. In numerous op-ed essays and radio/TV shows, Nalaka has consistently called for a measured response to the web, so as to optimize its potential for economic, social and cultural transformation of developing countries like Sri Lanka.

He has written and spoken widely on issues such as the digital divide, gender disparities in ICT use, rise of digital natives, social media proliferation, ICTs for good governance, online hate speech, political campaigning online, and Internet freedom. From 2003 to 2009, he was a contributing author to Digital Review of Asia Pacific, an Asian regional publication that surveyed the growth and impact of digital technologies. During 2003-5, he covered the UN World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) as a journalist and broadcaster, participating in both summits (Geneva & Tunis) and also being involved in regional consultations on Internet governance and digital inclusion.

He teaches new media as a visiting faculty member at the Colombo University, and the University of Sri Jayawardenapura, two leading universities in Sri Lanka.

Maheeshwara Kirindigoda

Asia Fellow IGF Academy

m fineMaheeshwara Kirindigoda is from Sri Lanka and considers himself a “Millennial” despite being born in year the 1980. He had the good fortune to receive his primary and secondary education at the Dharmaraja College Kandy. Further education he received at the National Institute of Business Management and System Designing. He is presently following a degree course in Mass Communication at the Open University of Sri Lanka.

The doors to the IGF were opened for him by the ISOC through a fellowship program, during which he attended a chapter workshop in 2013 in Bali, Indonesia. The experience made at UN IGF Bali lead him to organize the Local IGF in March 2016.

Being an activist in the ICT field, he is privileged to hold responsibilities as Secretary to the Internet Society Sri Lanka chapter, as the President of the Chamber of ICT, as Chairman of the IGF Sri Lanka organizing committee and as Secretary to the Central Province Export Chamber.

He has gained the knowledge and the required experience to take on the above responsibilities mainly through engagements in various positions such as Assistant Secretary Sri Lanka Computer Vendors Association, Vize President- ISOC Sri Lanka Chapter, Exco & Chairman Membership Committee – Isoc Sri Lanka Chapter.

While promoting the Internet to all generations, he was aware of people’s insecurity towards using the Internet because of safety-risks. He wanted to addressed that at large and therefore introduced two projects to increase awareness “Safer Internet” and “Be-Aware Beware” for school children in cooperation with ISOC – LK and Chamber of ICT.

He currently holds the position of Media Secretary to the Honorable Governor of Uva Province of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka where he could not only utilize but also promote the concept of multi-stakeholdership in his professional engagements, including media and governance.

Ireen Sultana

Asia Fellow IGF Academy

Ireen Sultana is a strong vocal activist in the Bangla blogosphere. As a columnist she writes in www.bdnews24.com, the first online citizen journalism based newspaper in Bangladesh, as well as in the daily Samakal and www.banglatribune.com.  Her articles center on war criminals of 1971 and women’s rights.  In the last five years,  Ireen has been contributing to let citizen journalism thrive in Bangladesh. She plays a leading role in capacity building conducting workshops and publishing books and multimedia on experiences in citizen journalism. She has also initiated ‘Nagar Nabya’, a regular printed publication of blog.bdnews24.com on selected blog posts on citizen journalism.
Ireen is a poet and her first book ‘Golito Jochhnae Plabito Nagare Ishwar’ was published 2014. She has illustrated numerous book covers published in ‘Amar Ekushey Book Fair’. She publishes her poetry also in Braille for which she is associated with ‘Sporsho Braille Prokashona’.
Ireen has an ICT academic background and more than ten years of experience working with ICT platforms.

Chencho 

Asia Fellow IGF Academy

Chencho is from Bhutan. He has a Bachelor Degree in Economics from Delhi University and Diploma in Project Appraisal and Management from Maastricht School of Management from Netherlands. Chencho has been working in the department of IT&Telecom of the Bhutanese government for the last 15 years and is currently the head of Promotion Division under the department. As a head of Promotion Division, his main responsibility is to plan and formulate programs and projects to promote and build ICT capacity in the country. Chencho is working on connecting the remote parts of Bhutan through the establishment of CC (Community centers) to provide equal opportunity to the rural communities. For this the Bhutanese government has established 200 CCs connected to high speed internet.

Chencho is also responsible for the development of the ICT industry in the country. The 1st IT Park was established in the country to attract FDI companies. Till date Bhutan has 5 FDI companies operating their business from IT Park. The IT Park is providing jobs for about 800 youths of Bhutan.

Mya Thwin

Asia Fellow IGF Academy

DSC_0402Mya Thwin is a passionate Entrepreneur & IT Professional who resides in Myanmar. Currently, he serves as the Managing Director for FMK Group, a Myanmar-based investment and ICT Consulting firm that offers various IT solutions. Mya is also the founder of the Myanmar E-Learning Institute.

Throughout the span of nearly a decade, Mya has acquired extensive expertise in the IT world and beyond. Most notably, he established numerous successful ventures and effectively worked in a multitude of industries. He even worked for Fortune 500 companies and the United Nations.

Mya’s primary specialties lie in System Analysis, Project Management, Human Networking, ICT Localization, Program Management, International Relations, Business Strategy, Capacity Building, and many more.

Mya Thwin holds a Master of Science in Computer Engineering from Kyung Hee University in Korea and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Assumption University in Thailand. He is also multi-lingual and speaks English, Myanmar, Thai, Chinese and Korean fluently.

Mohammad Kawsar Uddin

Asia Fellow IGF Academy

DSC_0413Mohammad Kawsar Uddin has been in the ICT industry since 1999 and is well known in Bangladesh as an ICT journalist. Currently, he is General Secretary of the Internet Society Bangladesh Dhaka Chapter.

He is an executive member and former president of the Bangladesh ICT Journalist Forum (BIJF). BIJF is working for the development of science, for the ICT movement in Bangladesh and to stimulate and facilitate the growth structure of the sector. He is also Joint Secretary of the Bangladesh Science Writers and Journalists Forum (BSWJF), which is one of the members of the World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ). He is also a member of the Bangladesh Computer Society, the government-approved association for ICT professionals in Bangladesh. He is a member of the Bangladesh Open Source Network (BdOSN). He is one of the founding members of the Internet Society Bangladesh, Dhaka chapter and played an important role in rejuvenating it.

He also has several professional affiliations with international organizations like the International Institute for ICT Journalism and the Asia Media Forum. He played an important role in producing and publishing news and features that would give a general audience a better understanding of internet-related issues.

Mr Uddin participated in several conferences and workshops around the world to develop his leadership and technical skills; he always shares his experience and knowledge with the community.

Samten Yeshi

Asia Fellow IGF Academy

DSC_0390Samten Yeshi worked as a bilingual reporter with Bhutan’s national daily newspaper Kuensel prior to joining Shejun Agency for Bhutan’s Cultural Documentation and Research as a programme manager. He worked as a bilingual reporter for about seven years, covering a wide range of topics, mostly reporting on political, business and cultural beats, writing both for the English as well as the Dzongkha Kuensel issue. While with Kuensel, he served as bureau correspondent in Southern and Central parts of Bhutan. He also represented Bhutan in the SAARC media delegation to China in June 2009 and he was the first journalist from Bhutan to receive the Chevening scholarship for South Asia Journalism Program (SAJP) in 2013. While in London on his Chevening scholarship, he interned with BBC online for a week and another week with BBC’s world radio. He initiated and developed a website for Dzongkha Kuensel, which was a contribution for Bhutan’s oldest newspaper. Until then Kuensel did not have a website in Dzongkha. While working with Shejun since August 2013 towards preserving and promoting Bhutanese tradition and culture, he also continues to be a freelance journalist, active as social media enthusiast blogging at http://saamyspeaks.blogspot.com/ and tweets regularly at SumsSaamy. He also maintains Facebook pages and Groups that are of public interest, such as a group to promote Bhutan’s national language Dzongkha.

Team

iRights
Martin Fischer

Project Manager

Martin Fischer is a media educator and works as a freelancer as trainer and facilitator. His background is in online and youth activism, which involved him early on Internet Governance processes. With the Network of European Digital Youth he founded an innovative, new NGO to give young people a voice in digital spaces.

With his project European Youth IGFs Martin created a good practice example for youth involvement in multi-stakeholder processes. His initiative gameoverhate sets up safe spaces for gamers of marginalised groups in their respective communities.

Currently he is studying Media and Game Education in Krems and hosts courses for youth workers and educators on digital game-based learning.

Matthias Spielkamp

Founder

team-spielkamp

Matthias Spielkamp is co-founder and publisher of the online magazine iRights.info – about legal issues in the digital world, which in 2006 received the Grimme Online Award, Germany’s most prestigious award for online journalism. In 2011, Matthias co-founded the independent Berlin think tank iRights.Lab, where he develops solutions for dealing with the challenges of digitisation – for stakeholders from the public sector, civil society, politics, and business. He continues this work in his own consultancy iRights.international.

More recently, he co-founded the research and advocacy organisation AlgorithmWatch, aiming to increase accountability in algorithmic decision making and so-called artificial intelligence (AI).

As a consultant and trainer Matthias has worked with journalists and activists in Germany, South-Eastern Europe, Asia and the Middle East for institutions like Deutsche Welle Akademie, the International Institute for Journalism of GIZ and others for more than 15 years.

Matthias testified before three committees of the German Bundestag on future developments of journalism, online journalism and copyright regulation. He is co chair for the academia and civil society groups in the German Internet Governance Forum (IGF-D).

From September 2015 to February 2016, Matthias was a Fellow of Stiftung Mercator and visiting researcher at the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG).

He serves on the governing board of the German section of Reporters Without Borders and the advisory council of the Whistleblower Network and is a member of the American Council on Germany as a former John J. McCloy Fellow.

Matthias has co-authored three books on journalism and copyright regulation and holds master’s degrees in Journalism from the University of Colorado at Boulder and Philosophy from the Free University of Berlin. Twitter: @spielkamp

 

Association for Progressive Communications
Anriette Esterhuysen

Anriette_photoAnriette Esterhuysen is the executive director of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), an international network of organizations working with Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) to support social justice and development.

Prior to joining APC Anriette was executive director of SANGONeT, an internet service provider and training institution for civil society, labour and community organizations. She was active in the struggle against Apartheid from 1980 onwards. From 1987 to 1992 she did information and communication work in development and human rights organizations in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Esterhuysen, with many others, helped establish email and internet connectivity in Southern Africa. SANGONeT hosted a Fidonet hub that provided universities and nongovernmental organizations in, among other places, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe, with email links to global networks as part of a collaboration between the APC and the United Nations Development Programme.

Anriette has served on the African Technical Advisory Committee of the UN’s Economic Commission for Africa’s African Information Society Initiative and was a member of the United Nations ICT Task Force from 2002 to 2005, the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Task Working Group on Financing Mechanisms, and the Commission for Science and Technology for Development Working Group on Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Improvements. She was a member of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group of the Internet Governance Forum from 2012-14.

Anriette was one of five finalists for IT Personality of the Year in South Africa in 2012, an award which recognises a person who has made an outstanding impact on the South African ICT industry. She was the only female and only civil society finalist. Esterhuysen was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame as a global connecter in 2013. Currently Anriette is a member of the Global Commission on Internet Governance and the Council of the NETmundial Initiative.

Esterhuysen has published extensively on ICTs for development and social justice. She holds a BA in social sciences and postgraduate qualifications in history of music and information sciences from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Sekoetlane Phamodi

Sekoetlane Phamodi is a Black feminist activist who has his training in journalism and law. He has been involved in freedom of expression and media advocacy for four years, leading public-interest interventions for the delivery of people-centred broadcasting services in South Africa with the Save our SABC Coalition. Phamodi has extended his work into the intersections of human rights and ICT policy in the global South, where his approach to ICT policy and practice has lain in grounding technical issues within a social justice framework that rights-bearers can meaningfully engage with to claim and secure their rights. He currently coordinates regional ICT policy advocacy for the African continent with the Association for Progressive Communications.

LIRNEasia
Helani Galpaya

Helani Galpaya is CEO of LIRNEasia, a pro-poor, pro-market think tank working across the emerging Asia Pacific on ICT policy and regulatory issues.  She assumed the CEO role in Jan 2013.  Prior to that she was LIRNEasia’s Chief Operating Officer.

She researches, does consulting work and engages in public discourse on issue related to net neutrality, policy and regulatory barriers in Internet access, e-Government, broadband quality of service, and how knowledge and information disseminated via ICTs can improve inclusiveness SMMEs (small, medium and micro enterprises) in agriculture and micro-work markets. She has been working in Myanmar since 2013, and is currently carrying out an impact analysis of the mobile phone roll-out that is taking place.

Prior to LIRNEasia, she worked on at the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka implementing e-Government projects.  She was a management consultant at Booz&Co.(now Strategy&) in New York and has also worked at Citibank and Merrill Lynch in USA.  She has a MS in Technology & Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA and a BA in Computer Science from Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts, USA.

Laleema Senanayake

LaleeLaleema is a researcher at LIRNEasia. Her  research interests are internet governance, urban development and public policy. Prior to joining LIRNEasia she worked at the International water management institute and the Project Consultancy Unit of the University of Moratuwa. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Town and Country Planning and is an Associate member of the Institute of Town Planners Sri Lanka.

Contact us

email: ms [at] igf [dot] academy