The following are the outputs of the captioning taken during an IGF intervention. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
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>> JUNE PARRIS: Good morning. Good morning, everyone, my name is June Parris and welcome to The Launch of the Women in Internet Governance Initiative. I am a member of in Women in Internet Governance representing Latin America and the Caribbean. And I'm a member of the civil society, future centre trust Barbados. And ISOC globally and ISOC Barbados. I'm a former IC member. And further ado I'll introduce the first speaker. That's Raymond. He will explain a little bit about the initiative. Raymond, are you there?
Hello, Raymond.
You can speak.
Raymond.
>> RAYMOND MAMATTAH: Hi. Good morning, everyone. My name is Raymond Mamattah from Ghana. On behalf of the leadership team of the women in internet governance, I welcome you to this important launch of The Launch of the Women in Internet Governance Initiative.
Here, we are happy to have Maureen one of our well established leaders when it comes to internet governance who is our delighted guest for the event. And we hope to learn more from her as we engage in this launch together.
This initiative is put forward to we will encourage more women all over the world to interact all over the country. And it is our hope this initiative will get more women all over to come on board and bring ideas on the various ways they think is necessary for us to engage. We would like to work together and ensure the internet remains one world and one internet. And thank you and welcome again.
>> JUNE PARRIS: Thank you, Raymond. We next have Gloria one of our leads organizers, she will say something to you. Gloria, can you introduce yourself, please?
>> GLORIA AMOFAH-ADJEKUM: I'm Gloria Amofah‑Adjekum the programmer officer for women in internet governance. Today I'll do a presentation on the overview of women in internet governance and I'll do this with Harisa and Mary Rose. So I have shared my screen for everyone to see.
About women in internet governance. When we talk about women in internet governance or WIG it's a global initiative created to increase the active participation of women in internet governance spaces. So we ensure ‑‑ we want to ensure that women are not just present. It's the policy that is a govern the internet space. We want to do this at all levels locally, regionally and globally.
Why internet governance? So we created to respond to the internet governance space. First we want to help close the gap in participation of women. That are understood represented in the space. And secondly we want to force the increased representation and involvement of women in the decision maker later in the internet governance. So we want to support women in taking more active roles in decision making, whether at international, regional or local level
And three, encourage women in decision making in the internet governance space. We want to encourage women to step forward and speak up and lead how the interpret is governed.
Our focus areas. The heart of the Women in Internet Governance our focus is key to 6 keys. The areas are leadership development. Mentoring and support. Capacity building. Regional and global networking. Policy engagement. And dedicated fellowship program. Each of these areas will be designed to help women gain the skills the confidence and the connections they need to take part in internet governance in an meaningful way. Thank you all for your attention. I'll hand over to Harisa to continue with the presentation. Harisa.
>> HARISA SHAHID: Thank you so much. Am I audible?
>> Yes.
>> HARISA SHAHID: Thank you. So hi from Pakistan and thank you so much Gloria for introducing our initiative for Women in Internet Governance. Moving forward as we work to create a more inclusive and representative governance system we are work around tangible actions.
We have first the WIG advanced fellowship which allows structured learning and hands on experience in the policy spaces where the decisions are made being made.
Alongside that we are actively supporting research and policy development to allow women to lead the discourse to evidence‑based contributions.
Thirdly we have awards and recognition. In this part, we empower women and we honour those who made a marked contribution in the field and inspired others to follow.
Fourth, we have a mentorship program which is close to our heart because it emerges the gap between the voices of women and leaders and sharing experiences.
And lastly and very important perspective of our program is the community engagement. Because the real change begins with dialogue with collaboration. And billing trust across regions. So those five our goals of this wonderful initiative, which we plan to work on in the future with all of the great women ahead.
Moving forward together, we have we have three major areas. First is collaboration and teamwork. Because change doesn't happen alone. We believe in billing together across communities and countries and across borders. And second, we have empowerment and innovation. When women are empowered innovation becomes more inclusive. And more creative and more human.
Women are a core part of our society and we aim to empower them by engaging them in the platforms and in digital technology. Finally we have excellence and global impact. Because we are not here just to be included. They are here to lead. We are here to help. We are here to speak. And we are here to shape the future of the internet in the way that is a reflect everyone.
We are really excited about the world ahead and to invite more women to join our initiative and become part of this space to empower more women. And to shape a very stronger society ahead. So thank you so much everyone. Now I hand over to Miss Mary Rose, so over to you.
>> MARY ROSE OFIANGA: Thank you, Harisa. Everyone, good morning, good afternoon, good evening to each and we've one of you. We are excited to launch the Women in Internet Governance across the globe. So we are calling all our women who are advocates of internet governance to join us and get involved in this advocacy of bringing together more representation of women in the Women in Internet Governance ecosystem. So you can join and get involved by joining our mailing list.
So you can get the exclusive updates from us like the latest news and announcements and our event invitations and early access to our webinars and special events. You can also get in touch with us directly through our WhatsApp community. And dedicated WhatsApp groups for realtime updates and discussions, where you can just raise your questions, share whatever updates that is going on in your country or in your region.
And get instant notifications of any urgent matters and connect with our fellow members effortlessly. So we have here the QR code for our WhatsApp or we can share later on in the chat box. So you can connect with us. And we also have our social media platforms where you can follow and get in touch with us.
We have on LinkedIn, Women in Internet Governance. We also have on Facebook, which is Women in Internet Governance. Women in Internet Governance on X. And our website, of course, www.women in ig.org. So everyone we are really excited to have you on board and join us in this advocacy.
Turning over again to Gloria, and thank you very much for your attention.
>> GLORIA AMOFAH-ADJEKUM: Back to you, June, thank you very much.
>> JUNE PARRIS: And thank you very much my colleagues you did a great job of introducing Women in Internet Governance. Identify here next Betty, I'm not sure if Betty is online, Betty are you there? Can you introduce yourself if you are there.
>> BETTY FAUSTA: Hi everyone, next should be Natalie Tercova.
>> JUNE PARRIS: We can hear you.
>> BETTY FAUSTA: Firstly I have to introduce Maureen Hilyard. So it's an honour for me to introduce Maureen here. She's a big women in internet governance. She's starting in the Pacific. She joined the Pacific Island chapter of ISOC in 2006. And served on board from 2009 to 2017. She was a chair from 2011 to 2016.
She joined (?) in 2012 and as a active participant of the IGF. And she attend two ICANN fellowship and appointed to the ILAC and a speaker with us on occasion. And she was the chair for four years.
And this chair before she retired from ILAC. After attending her first IGF after finishing her first internet governance crews with the deeper foundation with 2008. And was a ISOC ambassador at IGF in 2009. From 2011, she is a Caribbean representative to small island developing state issue to the IGF. And to she performed that role since. We know she's also served on the advisory seat on public internet registry. And she was on the advisory consult of the (?).
In 2016 she joined the board and she was an interviewer chair in 2021. She was appointed to the internet society board by the ISOC chapter in 2023. And something I share with Maureen, she was one member of the committee in ICANN. So she's a really wonderful person and so active. And some people we want to follow as one of our leader in internet governance. Thank you.
>> JUNE PARRIS: Thank you, Betty, I will now hand over to the expert speaker, very expert, I agree with you, it's Maureen, I've known her a while, yes, I know she's an expert.
>> MAUREEN HILYARD: And thank you so much and a very kind invitation to speak with you all today and I'm really glad to see that the crowd is growing.
My journey through the internet governance ecosystem has been heavily influence and had impacted by the many very fortunate introductions of inspiring people along the way. And it was mentioned that I, you know, like was first joined the Internet Society chapter in my region, the Pacific. But I was introduced to and persuaded to join the committee to join this organization by none other than Cerv. I didn't believe it. And he said what you are doing in the Pacific is exactly what the Internet Society does. They are bringing the power of the internet to unconnected areas.
I thought, yeah, okay, I'll join. And I mean, I had no idea at that particular point in time what "internet governance" meant. And but then this major information gap was actually sort of addressed during my time with the diplo foundation and the amazing team with Ivan and his guys.
During those years, I sort of like one of the things that ‑‑ once you are with diplo, you are always with diplo and I was walking down corridor the other day and met up with Ginger Park. Ginger was the one person who actually did a lot of work with me. And she was the one who actually sort of like pointed me in the right direction with regards to how I could better support the work that sort of was like needed and in the Pacific. She's also further encouraged my determination to actually be a part of that development.
And it's sort of like it became a passion with me after that. In my own role as a leader, initially with the ISOC board and later with the ILAC it's been encouraging sew more women emerging and bringing their voices to the discussion tables. Not only in relation to issues impacting women and other marginalized groups but also in taking up leadership roles.
And I believe having women in leadership not only changes the dynamics of their working groups situations but it also helps to breakdown traditional barriers such as the gender gaps and schools and access. And the under representation in decision making spaces. An important introduction I made was via the Internet Society and ICANN. And where I found that women who may have experienced barriers often created by cultural or institution situations in their own home environments were to find that ICANN's modest stakeholder model was a lever. Participation is inclusive. And there's gender parity at every level.
And the thing is that personal effort and commitment are the required attributes. Otherwise, how else could I with no real technical experience or knowledge and from an underdeveloped region get to lead the ILAC and the larger community within ICANN?
I believe that ICANN helped to highlight that women make successful leaders. But across the board, women's heightened participation at this level signals a broader commitment to gender equality. And we as women can support this development by continuing to connect aspiring female leaders with established mentors to provide invaluable guidance and support, particularly when it comes to navigating the come complexities of international policy spaces of which we are all involved like we are here at the IGF.
So we need to support training initiatives that can help women build the digital to diplomatic skills necessary for them to compete for and excel in top roles. At the same time, we need to highlight and celebrate achievements of our women leaders in digital governance to help support their roles and inspire others to follow
By champions the leadership of women in governance we could have a more inclusive world where people regardless of their gender and shape and thrive from the information society of building a better digital future for us a for us all. Thank you.
>> JUNE PARRIS: Thank you, as you can see she's an expert and she's given some valuable input into what women do and what the entire IGF community is involved with. We are on time. So therefore, we have ‑‑ we have our online moderator. And we also have the audience. And we want to put any ‑‑ we want to ask any audience members with any questions or any input into this discussion.
I'm going to put someone on the spot. And that's Mary. (Laughter). Mary. I know she wants to talk.
>> MARY ROSE OFIANGA: Hey, June. Is that me?
>> JUNE PARRIS: No, Mary Uduma [sounds like] she's going to give her input.
>> MARY ROSE OFIANGA: Hi, Mary, thank you, June.
>> JUNE PARRIS: Okay, when Mary is finished we can invite other people to speak. Mary Uduma.
>> MARY ROSE OFIANGA: Not Mary Rose.
>> JUNE PARRIS: She's having microphone problems. I can ‑‑ is it on?
>> Not me.
>> Good morning, good afternoon, good evening wherever you are joining us. I know many of us are online. And a quick one, I'm excited to be here. Through my former life, I got to know about the IG. And as I tell people that the internet governance whether you are in ICANN or Internet Governance Forum or you are in another forum that speak or speak about internet governance it's addictive when you get to know it you get to know it. It's when you are passionate over it and get engaged then you see that you meet women, great women like Maureen. And like June. And like the young lady that is a we saw online.
That are upcoming. But I want to ask, because there are initiatives that got to do with women in IG. Where is the meeting point?
So that it will not be fragmented. We have to be on one spot, one page, and speak the same language because I know of another ‑‑ other women in IG. I am part of the women in IG. My country, any country, I'm in Nigeria, did I say my name? Mary Uduma. I'm part of many women in IG in my country. When we run our national IG we run the women in IG in Nigeria, we run youth and we run the ‑‑ now we are going to start the parliamentarian track. And I want to support the women here you could start a women IG in your own country initiative. The Internet Governance Forum has a track for women and we meet and discuss issues that got to do with women and how to engage in the internet governance space.
And how we can lead because I coordinate the West Africa governance forum. And I started a Nigerian governance forum and I've part of the African governance forum and been in the mark of the IGF. So there's no limitation for us. We can always make a difference. We can mentor. What I am doing now is to mentor the younger ones to come up and take over as I'm a grandmother.
>> JUNE PARRIS: Thank you, Mary, another expert another valuable person within the IG community. Before the audience, can I go back to Rose the other Rose is it Rose? Did I say Mary or Rose, Rose, do you have something to say? Are you there?
>> MARY ROSE OFIANGA: Hey, June, no.
>> JUNE PARRIS: Do you have something to add to it?
>> MARY ROSE OFIANGA: Hay, here in the Philippines women are in technology and entrepreneurship but there's only a few women involved in the internet governance so it's part of our policy to bring more women. And this is a good collaboration because we are bringing women experts in IG from across the globe. And it's my interest to bring them and share their expertise and insights to Asia, particularly in southeast Asia and the Philippines to we can encourage more women from my country, which is a relatively small country, compared to yours.
And multiply myself so there'll be more Rose and women not just in IGF but also in ICANN and also in Internet Society. And thanks a lot June for this opportunity to speak and share
>> JUNE PARRIS: Thank you, Rose, I've known you a for a while and you do great work. You are really busy. Does anyone else on the panel, does anyone else want to add to what was said before I turn it over to the audience and any online questions?
We have our online ‑‑ what's the name, um, ‑‑ sorry, I forgotten their name. Is anyone online, does anyone want to speak at this time?
>> RAYMOND MAMATTAH: Raymond, here.
>> JUNE PARRIS: Raymond, thank you, Raymond.
>> RAYMOND MAMATTAH: To react to Maureen, and Mary, we have the same image. So Women in Internet Governance this initiative a global initiative. And our intention is to have branches all over the world. In country and in regions. That is one of the way that is a we are ‑‑ that women groups come together and have one engagement.
As Mary Rose mentioned, we'll be having one in her country and we are going to encourage all to have a serious thought in various countries and also at a regional level so we can engage in that space. So from here, we are expecting that we will be having a series of Women in Internet Governance groups all over the country, which are part of this great initiative that we are launching today. Thank you.
>> JUNE PARRIS: So is there anything anyone else want to add to that discussion? We still have lots of time. Okay. I will now ask ‑‑ sorry, Mary we got Mary.
>> Sorry, coming back to the microphone. I still want to know because there are other initiative that is a women focus in IG. Are you just launching this one today? Is this starting today? Did you do research or search for other initiative that is already ongoing? So that we have ‑‑ maybe we have a DC on women in IG. That's what I want to proposal we have a DC on women in IG so all the initiatives will come together.
We have in our community in Africa there's women in IG in Africa. And there's one in the IG as well. I'm happy to be part of it. But let also look at all the initiatives that are already ongoing. And join it to make a bigger thing. Thank you.
>> JUNE PARRIS: Thank you, Mary. Maureen wants to say something.
>> MAUREEN HILYARD: To add onto what Mary said. For example in the Pacific we have several island nations that have women in technology. And this is sort of like including internet governance but more because we are trying to get more women engaged in the technical side of the industry as well. So, um , you know, I think ‑‑ but I like your idea of, you know, sort of like basically coordinating all these efforts.
And I think that even though we are launching today like the global Women in Internet Governance, which I think is an amazing sort like movement for us, we really need to also take acknowledgment of these other organizations that are currently operating. And bring them into ‑‑ bring them into our [off microphone]. I like the dynamic coalition that's, that's something that's all embracing. And it brings all the different sectors in. So yeah let's work on that
>> JUNE PARRIS: I agree. Is Betty still there? Betty, can you add to that? Because I believe you are trying to become a DC. Can you say something at this point in time?
>> BETTY FAUSTA: Yes, just many point. So first point is we have to [audio skipping] and we have to shape our future together. So one point is to keep away to build the leadership, the women leadership in the internet governance. With some models we have many way to build this. And to be confident that it's possible. Because some women before us do that.
three key points to share with you about the leadership we need for Women in Internet Governance. The first is the representation. Some women they are afraid to say okay, you know internet is too technical, too difficult. And it's too ‑‑ I have too much to learn. Something I learned in a few years in ICANN or internet governance is you have to take your time step‑by‑step to learn. And anyone in the world can become a member of the internet governance action.
We have many organization for women and for technical or for academic or for research to be commit in internet governance. But we need global representation. More people for small island. From the South. From some region. And underrepresented. This is really important that internet governance reflect the reality of the world. And we need the different experience who don't have internet who is conceptualized by the (?) for some people we have to take a more future desired.
Secondly, we have to build expertise for the background, cybersecurity is urgent pause we have many attacks and we have many problems about civil diplomacy. We know what is happening actually we have to become ambassador of peace on internet. Each of us. We don't have to think okay I'm for this part of the world or this country. No, we are part of the peace. And we can build a place together. And I am speaking about what is happening in Iran, Israel, Palestine or Sudan. I think everywhere, we can bring the peace with our diverse expertise.
And starting now, we don't have to wait to get an organization. We could have a lot of way to be on board. Okay? It's just for each of us to find the right organization. And like Maureen, we can after change if we feel our support of this organization we learn, we share and we be someone active and we are the expert.
So second part of the point I want to share. The leader the good leader has to have a collaborative expert. You could not be good woman leader in internet governance if you don't collaborate with other people. I know it's difficult. The language to work is English. And when some people native language is easier for them. But that couldn't stop us. Because we can learn. And many people, their English was really bad at the beginning. Don't be afraid of your accent. Or your difference.
You can be part of the change with collaboration is good to change. And to be a good leader. Together we can try to start a good leadership, good vibes, positive to shape the future of internet for all Women in Internet Governance. Thank you.
>> JUNE PARRIS: Thank you, are there any questions or inputs from the audience?
We still have 8 minutes left. Does anyone want to say anything? Any young person who wants to take over from us older people? We have a man, Raymond, do you want to say something?
>> RAYMOND MAMATTAH: Yes.
>> JUNE PARRIS: You are the only man.
>> RAYMOND MAMATTAH: Just a few minutes.
>> JUNE PARRIS: Yeah.
Are you going to speak?
>> RAYMOND MAMATTAH: Okay, sorry. With regard to the dynamic coalition formation we had a meeting with the IG secretariat on this. And we have followed up and submitted a proposal and document for the formation of the dynamic relations. So it's under consideration now. And we are hoping in the next few days or few weeks it could be approved and we can share the good news with the team to welcome them and make it work.
So Women in Internet Governance, we are thinking global and make all the efforts to bring all the women together to ensure they are actively engaged. Thank you.
>> JUNE PARRIS: Thank you, Raymond. As you can you can see we are speaking of WIG, but we do have a man on board. (Laughter) we are not going to be prejudice or anything like that. So men are also invited to join. We do take advice from men.
So Betty, any online questions?
>> BETTY FAUSTA: Yeah, I saw some online question I saw about ‑‑ let me see. About some comment. Sharman is Bangladesh welcome from IGF. And we started a forum in 2021 a question as we work to strengthen women's participation in internet governance, can we ensure that women from the group ourselves particularly from west (?) are not only represented symbolically but meaningful in shaping process and this is a making process at regional and national and global levels.
If I could say something about this question, June is it possible?
>> JUNE PARRIS: yes we have 6 minutes so you can speak for a minute, one minute.
>> BETTY FAUSTA: All right, very quickly. Something to understand. So the leadership team was created by man and women in different regions of the world, Africa, Pacific, Europe. Each person bring knowledge and experience can shape the direction for a good standards of internet. If we want that change, more people in policy forms for decision making or for the industry. I know sometimes in some region the internet industry the south is underrepresented or not really have a good organization. And it's not easy.
So I miss my cab so I'm between the airport and train station so it's not easy. (Laughter). But something that's important is we can bring our expertise and take a part of all the member. We have we are a collective of people. You are not alone.
So Sharman from Bangladesh, join us and we can change something for the internet governance.
>> JUNE PARRIS: Thank you. Anymore interjections? What about Maureen?
>> No.
>> JUNE PARRIS: Mary, are you finished Mary? Are you done? You sure? We still have a few minutes, we have 4 minutes. So anyone else can have a say something. Any young people? What about Mary, ‑‑ sorry, Mary Rose, not Mary, Rose, Rose, are you finished?
>> MARY ROSE OFIANGA: Yes, June, I'm good, updating thank you, June, and regards there in Norway. And Mary, I hope you are enjoying the weather there.
>> JUNE PARRIS: We were not enjoying the weather because it was raining but it's sunny today. So we have no more interjections so we are on time.
>> BETTY FAUSTA: Excuse me, June we have a question or comments online. It's not easy for me to see. Let me ‑‑ we have Iman making a comment and saying also organization have to be together under one umbrella. Just about that, maybe we can has all organization for internet governance can be standing under one umbrella.
>> RAYMOND MAMATTAH: Hi, Raymond again. We need to move on with the declaration of the launch. So let's move with the other agenda, where Maureen will read the declaration.
>> JUNE PARRIS: We'll hand it over to Maureen.
>> MARUEEN HILYARD: This is just the actual declaration. Just, you know, ‑‑ I mean, certainly an honour for me to ‑‑
>> JUNE PARRIS: You are going to break the bottle of wine smash it against the box.
>> MAUREEN HILYARD: Sure, right. But it does give me an absolute honour to be able to launch this global ‑‑ it's the global chart of the IGF Women in Internet Governance. As Mary mentioned too we also need to celebrate a lot of the organizations that already started that we actually need to, you know, bring together. And as, you know, Raymond mentioned before, if we can get a dynamic coalition that actually encourages all the women to sort of like join together in one group that would be fantastic.
Thank you.
>> JUNE PARRIS: Thank you. And we are on time. This is my first session that finished on time. (Laughter). So I'm happy to be here and to be part of it and thank you for the team and for the audience and your participation today. And thank you the to the secretariat and the IGF for the opportunity. And we are all looking forward to the future and look forward to collaborating with everyone, even men and the rest of the world.
So I'm going to wrap up now and be on time. Thank you ‑‑
>> Could we have a photo with everyone?
>> JUNE PARRIS: We could have a photo with everyone. If everyone will come up, we will have a photo. But I think we can go off air at this time.
>> RAYMOND MAMATTAH: Online participant, please put on your camera.
