[NPOC-EC] Ghana School on Internet Governance/EGIGFA

Tue Sep 15 22:07:51 UTC 2020

Hello Raoul and the other NPOC leadership,

It has become necessary for me to write on behalf of the EGIGFA team about
the below email that Wisdom sent, which is currently circulating all over
in the ecosystem. EGIGFA is a member of the NPOC. I am sure it would have
come to the attention of the NPOC EC by now.  We responded to the
allegations made by Wisdom in his email and it will interest you to know
that Wisdom has not reacted to our response ever since.

I have copied Wisdom again in this email, and all the people he copied. I
have also copied our board members' mailing list. All our board members are
very active in the ecosystem (ICANN and IGF).

Please see below the email from Wisdom and our response.  We hope the
erroneous impression Wisdom wants to create about me personally, the EGIGFA
team and our organisation will be cleared after reading our explanation. We
are on standby for your response, if any.

Regards,

.......

*Raymond S. Mamattah*
*Founder and President*
E-Governance and Internet Governance Foundation for Africa (EGIGFA) |
www.egigfa.org

EGIGFA is the convener of Ghana School on Internet Governance (GhanaSIG) |
www.ghanasig.org

rmamattah at egigfa.org | (+233) 244124625

P. O. Box AN18189, Accra, Ghana

[image: twitter] <https://twitter.com/egigfa> [image: facebook]
<https://www.facebook.com/egigfa/> [image: linkedin]
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---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Raymond Mamattah <mamattah.raymond at gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Jul 20, 2020 at 2:21 PM
Subject: Fwd: Ghana School on Internet Governance/EGIGFA
To: <Nyamburam at africa-union.org>, Wisdom Donkor <wisdom.dk at gmail.com>
Cc: Kofi A <kofiaidoo at gmail.com>, Francis Amaning <frankwesia at yahoo.com>,
Eric Akumiah <eric.akumiah at gmail.com>, Kwaku Antwi <okantwi at gmail.com>,
Marcus Adomey <marcus.adomey at gmail.com>, Ivy Hoetu <ivy.hoetu at nca.org.gh>,
Felicia Anthonio <felicia at accessnow.org>, Sarata Omane <amasarata at gmail.com>,
<ssedem at gmail.com>, Jacob Odame-Baiden <odamyte at gmail.com>, Bram Fudzulani <
beatblam at hotmail.com>, <vanda at etges.com.br>, <suhaidi.hassan.my at gmail.com>,
ABDULKARIM AYOPO OLOYEDE <oloyede.aa at unilorin.edu.ng>, Fatimata Sylla <
fsylla at gmail.com>, Joan katambi <joanhopek at gmail.com>, Glenn McKnight <
mcknight.glenn at gmail.com>

Hello madam Margrete,

My attention and that of the EGIGFA management has been drawn to the below
email sent by Mr Wisdom Donkor on the subject “Unapproved: EGIGFA/Ghana
School on Internet Governance '' and I would like to give clarity on the
issue.

*EGIGFA*

Our organisation is called E-Governance and Internet Governance Foundation
for Africa (EGIGFA) based in Accra, Ghana. EGIGFA is made up of and managed
by a team that have participated and continue to engage in the internet
governance ecosystem. We are active in ICANN and most of us are ICANN
Fellows.

We are non-profit organisation that among other undertakings have outreach,
research and capacity building in e-governance and Internet Governance (IG)
as part of our objectives to help people participate meaningfully in the IG
discourse.

EGIGFA has collaborations with some international entities that are helping
us in our activities.  One of these entities is the e-Governance Academy
(eGA) located in Estonia which we will have a webinar with in August on the
topic “What is e-Governance”.  Registration for this event is presently
on-going and can be found in this url:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/webinar-on-understanding-what-e-governance-is-all-about-tickets-113105726272

*GhanaSIG *

EGIGFA has Ghana School on Internet Governance (GhanaSIG) as one of our
initiatives. To achieve our objectives we (EGIGFA) have decided to run this
school annually.  GhanaSIG was started in December 2019.  It must be noted
that we actually initiated the GhanaSIG because we realized Ghana did not
have an Internet Governance School and upon further research with other IG
schools, we thought it wise to start one, as part of our contribution to
the ecosystem. Our website is www.ghanasig.org.

GhanaSIG is a recognized registered member of the Dynamic Coalition on
Internet Governance Schools (DC-SIG). The DC-SIG is a worldwide body of
some Internet Governance Schools that have come together to share best
practices on schools on Internet Governance.

We opened the GhanaSIG fellowship application which ended on 30th June
2020.  We had quite a good number of applicants and out of this we have
selected 30 Fellows. The list of the pioneer Fellows can be found in this
url: http://ghanasig.org/sig2020-fellows.html.  It is heart-warming to see
the excitement displayed by our Fellows when they were notified.

This year, the school will be organised as a 3-day event and will be
preceded with one month online learning sessions to immerse the selected
Fellows into topical issues on Internet Governance (IG) as well as give
them foundational steps to engage meaningfully in IG discourse at the
community, national, regional and global levels.

The school will bring on board faculty/speakers made up of experts who will
impart knowledge and serve as mentors to the students. This initiative is
our own contribution to deepen IG engagements and get a lot more people
involved in global Internet policy development and engagement. This is
certainly our way of contributing to the multi-stakeholder engagements
within the internet governance ecosystem.

In our little way, we hope to get well equipped Fellows who will make a lot
of impacts and difference after their fellowship programme and make Ghana
and Africa proud.  Obviously, we hope by this initiative we will make
more *“Prof.
Nii Quaynors”* in the future.

*Conclusion *

EGIGFA and its sub-entities including GhanaSIG is managed by professionals
who are gainfully employed. We have made these initiatives out of our
passion to contribute in our small ways to the multi-stakeholder
engagements in the internet governance and e-governance ecosystem.

Contrary to what is being asserted by Wisdom, EGIGFA/GhanaSIG is not an
extension of the national IGF and we have never under any condition or
platform indicated that GhanaSIG, convened by EGIGFA is linked to the
national IGF.  EGIGFA is a private organization focused on capacity
building and research in Internet Governance. As indicated earlier,
GhanaSIG is our initiative hatched to introduce IG concepts and principles
to people with little to no knowledge in Internet governance to raise the
next generation of Internet leaders who can engage meaningfully in Internet
Governance discourse. If we have the chance to organize the GhanaSIG in
future with Ghana IGF and any other entity we will indicate so.  We are in
to complement what other institutions in the ecosystem are doing.

It is also right to address the issue raised by Wisdom which seeks to
suggest that we are operating on fraud. How does our intention to champion
an initiative that will help deepen the knowledge in Internet governance
constitute fraud? This is a baseless allegation not backed by any proof
whatsoever. It will interest you to know that we have a huge support base
with eminent advisors on our Board from the Internet Governance community
who have availed their time in helping us shape the curricula and to serve
as faculty for the GhanaSIG. We are not a profit oriented organization and
we have partnered with, and open to partner with any organization that sees
the value that our work brings to the community.

*I personally engaged Wisdom in a Whatsapp chat and asked him to come on
board so we could organize the GhanaSIG.  However, he informed me that he
had too many things on his hands so he could not come on board.  Later on,
he told me again on Whatsapp that he is against the GhanaSIG
initiative.*  Despite his
inability to bring his expertise on board, EGIGFA is going on with our
scheduled plans.

On this note, I would like to advise Wisdom to further desist from
tarnishing my image and that of EGIGFA. Despite the fact that he is not in
support of the GhanaSIG initiative does not make us enemies.  As we all
know, it is “One World and One Internet”.  We are all just trying to play
our various roles in our little ways and sharing our knowledge and
expertise in the ecosystem.

On behalf of team EGIGFA I thank you.

Raymond Mamattah

Founder and President

EGIGFA

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Wisdom Donkor <wisdom.dk at gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Jul 9, 2020 at 6:20 PM
Subject: UNAPPROVED: EGIGFA / Ghana School on Internet Governance
To: <Nyamburam at africa-union.org>
Cc: Kofi A <kofiaidoo at gmail.com>, Francis Amaning <frankwesia at yahoo.com>,
Eric Akumiah <eric.akumiah at gmail.com>, Kwaku Antwi <okantwi at gmail.com>,
Marcus Adomey <marcus.adomey at gmail.com>, Ivy Hoetu <ivy.hoetu at nca.org.gh>,
Felicia Anthonio <felicia at accessnow.org>

Dear Margrete Nyamburam,

I trust you are doing great and keeping safe?

On behalf of the Ghana IGF Steering Committee Chair, copied in this mail
together with other National IGF committee members, bring to your attention
the formation of an unapproved Ghana School on  Internet Governance by
e-Governance and internet-Governance development for All lead by one
Raymond Mamattah.

Kindly note that, this organisation, is a private individual organisation
trying to organise the school. Raymonds organisation EIGFA and school is
not a multistakeholder base organisation and as such does not have any
linkages with the National IGF (Ghana IGF), Ghana School of IG and Ghana
Youth IGF. It must also interest you to also know that the Ministry of
Communications through the Ghana Domain Name Registry hosts the Ghana IGF
Secretariat and as such the Ghana School of Internet Governance and Ghana
Youth IGF.

Raymonds organisation is portraying itself as a national initiative with
the intention of raising funds for its private activities and programs.

Kindly decline any form of financial request and support that might come
from this organisation in the name of Ghana IGF or School of Internet
Governance and any form of its activities that might be linked to the Ghana
IGF.

I have copied in this email the Ghana IGF Advisory Committee Chair and
other stakeholders members.

WISDOM DONKOR
President & CEO
Africa Open Data and Internet Research Foundation
P.O. Box CT 2439, Cantonments, Accra | www.aodirf.org  / www.afrigeocon.org
Tel: +233 20 812 8851
Skype: wisdom_dk | Facebook: kwasi wisdom |  Twitter: @wisdom_dk
________________________________________________________________
ICANN GNSO Council Member
_________________________________________________

Specialization:

E-government Network Infrastructure and E-application, Internet
Governance,  Open Data policies platforms & Community Development, Cyber
Security,  Domain Name Systems, Software Engineering, Event Planning &
Management,
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