2024 Board of Directors Elections Nominees

My motivation to serve on the board of the Association of Progressive Communication (APC) (www.apc.org) stems from my strong believe in contributing to the growth of APC Network whose vision “is for all people, particularly the marginalised, to use and shape the internet and digital technologies to create a just and sustainable world.” The vision of the APC is what made me join first as an individual member over a decade ago and later guiding my organisation Jokkolabs Banjul to join APC as a member of the network. APC work and overall programs has always aligned with what I do in my continent of Africa and that of my organisation. The APC strategic plan over the years has been a guiding principle of what Jokkolabs Banjul does within addressing digital rights issues in what we do.

I see APC as a network that impacts policy development on Digital rights, feminist rights, and community initiatives on various issues from rights of marginalized individuals who are LGBTQI, Internet Governance Forum dialogues, community networks to environmental issues to name a few. Based on my strong believe in the work of APC and how it impacts various communities I see myself been on the board of APC will help amplifier APC global outreach more especially to marginalized communities anywhere they may be in line with APC vision and mission. I love serving and volunteering for any APC initiative based on my passion as I learn, collaborate from the vast network of APC members and network in promoting the agenda APC stands for. I will use my voice as a member of APC board to contribute to global policy discuss, impactful programs that aligns with APC vision and Mission. Above all as a dedicated practitioner in what I do, I am also willingly to volunteer for APC in any capacity as a board member and promote the ideals of this great network that has been very beneficial to my career and that of my organisation in all we do.

Serving APC as a board member will be an honour for me knowing am committed to a network whose ideals have driven my work and career and make a huge impact for various communities globally. Its always a joy for me and my organisation in working on APC programs through APC grants or our own work which we always align to APC vision and mission.

PROTEGE QV joined the Association of Progressive Communication since 2005 after a general meeting of Global Knowledge Partnership where I met Anriette Esthurveysen (Executive Director). Since that time, our organization has benefited a lot from the network in terms of capacities building, information sharing and visibility. We are now a well-known organization working on ICT promotion and digital rights in Cameroon.

Since we joined APC, we’ve always tried to contribute to the growth of the network by:

• Promoting collaborative projects with other members (the most three recent are with Rudi International in DRC, with CIPESA in Uganda and Azur Developpement in Congo);
• Being a member of the Membership Working Group that analyzes new candidates an give an advice on their request to join the network;
• Using APC grants to contribute to the implementation of the network strategy;
• Being host organization for the African regional meeting; Working for the network as board member for the last three years has been on my opinion, one of the best way to serve it. Being able to contribute at a strategic level to the future of the network was amazing. I even had the chance to represent the board during the African School of Internet Governance at Abuja (Nigeria). I strongly want to join the board of directors once more. By becoming a board member, I intent to contribute in:
• Improving the language diversity within the network (my first language is French);
• Promoting collaborative projects among members;
• Continuing to participate to the growth of the network.

If I’m elected, I’ll handle and honor my responsibilities as board member (reviewing and approving reports and documents, attending board meetings, contributing efficiently to strategic decisions for the network). Being president of PROTEGE QV and with my experience as board member and Coordinator of many projects, I’m sure to have the leadership skills and capacities needed to contribute efficiently to APC board of Directors if I’m elected. I’ll give my best to serve the network. Yours faithfully.

As a dedicated advocate for digital rights and inclusion, and a staunch believer in the power of technology to foster positive social change, I am thrilled to have this opportunity to present my intent to join the board of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC). My personal and professional journey, underscored by a commitment to leveraging art and technology for improved life experiences and community empowerment, aligns with the APC's mission to ensure the internet is a global public good that upholds human rights at its core. I am deeply inspired by the APCs' commitment to fostering an inclusive, accessible, and rights-respecting digital future.

Professional Journey

My professional journey began in eHealth and mHealth then moved on to large-scale, multi-country mobile-based projects across Africa and most recently, I founded and successfully grew Pollicy, a feminist collective working on pressing issues of data and digital rights and inclusion. Our work at Pollicy resonates deeply with the APC's vision, particularly in building resilient communities through digital empowerment, advocating for feminist digital policy, and pioneering in gender data and emerging technologies. Some notable projects include working with women political leaders across 3 countries on building digital resilience, working with communities in Uganda on data artistry together with local governments, global research on the push and pull factors to understand career pathways and success in the digital rights ecosystem, developing interactive games to provide an accessible format to lead digital security for women, training women on data science skills and hosting Africa’s largest gathering celebrating data for 4 years - DataFest Africa.

Personal Journey

On a personal level, I am particularly drawn to APC's emphasis on harnessing digital technologies for social and environmental justice. I love the use of art, creativity and alternate modes of framing and thinking of critical issues that permeate across APC’s work. I enjoy combining creative design into all the projects that I work on - illustrating, designing and developing several of the outputs at Pollicy (and other organisations) such as digital art, games, chatbots, murals, microsites and more. I currently serve on Meta’s Global Women’s Safety Advisory Board. I was also recently a Practitioner Fellow at Stanford’s Digital Civil Society Lab and Senior Fellow in Trustworthy AI at Mozilla Foundation. I am also an advisor for APC’s Feminist Internet Research Network as well as the Women in the Digital Economy Fund.

What’s Next?

I envision my role on the APC board as an opportunity to amplify our collective efforts towards a just and equitable digital future. By integrating my insights on digital inclusion, resilience, and policy with APC's strategies, I aim to advance our shared agenda for a globally accessible and rights-based internet.

We started working on community software in 2002 when I realised that after working in academia for 2 decades it makes sense to jump into making software. First it was the hype of making software for the Web and the silicon valley needs. Later as we started working in Bangalore and realised the different worlds we are faced with, we naturally started working with the communities' needs. We had not realised we had a long way to go!

Our first work started with an ISIF grant which changed the way we were looking at what might be the right software for our 'clients' which basically extended the idea of how we can start including people who are not very literate.

Over time, we are part of APC communities: "blog.janastu.org/apc-narrative-report/

dWebcamp introduced us to another world of several dWebers. blog.janastu.org is an update of things as it happens when we have time and people to do the update :) Yes, our team has many people but only some of them can read and a lot less can write as we visit the way the villages work and are represented.

If you took a look at my resume at j.mp/tbdineshcv then the craft center crafts.janastu.org and anthillhacks.in might be interesting as our ongoing efforts. Our current development activity is focused on "Stories" and "Sweets" frameworks. A lot of our work has been involved with getting wifi networks connected to communities.

I look forward to serving the APC community the best way I can and I do hope to bring some voice from the issues that we have been busy with in a way that other communities can relate. And do what is best for APC by being on the board.

These are tough times for human and environmental rights defenders, and for anyone committed to human dignity, freedom, equality and social justice – in Europe and across the world. Our values and work are challenged not by greed and consumerism, hatred and mistrust, but also by primitive old-times armed aggression, violence, terror and brutality. The Internet has been turned into a weapon or warfare before our very eyes. To be able to engage with these, we need to stand united, connected, and in solidarity. This is where I see APC’s major role.

With my great respect for the work done by APC’s team and experts, I wish to see more of classical and horizontal networking among APC’s members – facilitated and encouraged in good faith by APC’s powerful team. APC (the organisation) is now much more knowledgeable resourceful and powerful than most of its members. It can not only benefit from their local knowledge and perspectives, but also integrate them into its operations more effectively. An internet enthusiast by default, I remain committed in the value of personal face-to-face communication, which has proven to be much more effective for movement and trust building than virtual ones. Looking forward to seeing you all and hearing your stories, concerns, victories and singing voices!

My name is Kemly Camacho and I am a Central American woman who believes in the capacity of social and popular movements to transform local and global contexts. I have been working in local development for 24 years and have focused my efforts on strengthening the organizational capacity and resilience of local organizations, women, youth, indigenous and rural territories, urban movements, among others in Costa Rica and the Central American region.

I put care and care, as well as planetary solidarity, inter-species life and the rights of nature and community resistance, at the center of the construction of possible ways of life in the context of the digital society.

I am an action-research and solidarity economy activist and I am currently passionate about issues such as climate justice, the transformation of labor, the construction of a science and technology from women's proposals, non-extractivist digital-based economic alternatives such as platform cooperatives and other associative and solidarity initiatives, all within the framework of the digital society.

I am convinced of the power of networking and collective construction as an engine for the construction of other possible ways of life. It is for this reason that 20 years ago I founded with other people the cooperative Sulá Batsú. I see reflected what I believe in, what I fight for and what I work with as central in the APC network, both among its members and in its work team. I am convinced of the urgent need to strengthen diverse spaces with people and organizations that share great principles as an alternative to make a harmonious, loving and solidary life on the planet possible.

I would like to dedicate part of my time to strengthen APC because I believe that, although we work in different contexts and with different themes, the organizations and people that make up APC are united by a strong commitment and a tireless dedication that seeks to create other worlds. And that is what we need at this moment.

Over the years, APC has proven to be a highly resilient organization, an effective global advocacy platform with an unambiguous focus and expertise on technology that is internally coherent and democratically ran. Its voice is well respected at global and international fora.

My contribution to the board would, among other things, seek to find ways and means to consolidate on these while working to ensure that APC, working through its members, is as a network able to effectively contribution to seeding changes at the country level. We need to build the capacity of our members build effective and purposeful coalitions that will see their countries not only subscribe to global advocacy canvassed just positions but also to implement them at the national spaces. It is only when this happens that advocacy results in substantive change.

I will like to see an APC that speaks globally but also acting effective locally. I will like to see members to strengthened with skills to engage broader social justice movements in their countries and contribute to the creation of an alternative order in which digital technology is deployed to address inequalities, promote democratic and accountable governance and addressing global and national power asymmetries.

I want an APC that is rooted in community movements, leading and contributing the campaigns for environmental justice, digital inclusion, promoting and rooting circularity not only in the technology sector but also in the broader economic and social discourses globally, enhance the capacity of citizens and their organizations to hold both governments and tech companies accountable and fending off digital infringements on privacy as well as AI-based citizens surveillance and manipulation that would reinforce negative global trends. We need to campaign against the implementation tech algorisms that are driven by money and for a click economy does not continue to promote the dissemination of harmful contents in the interest of profit. Without turning our members into techies, we need to be able to speak and advocate from a position of knowledge and authority on core issues that that are at the heart of technology design and deployment. This means that we need to significantly pay attention membership capacity building programming.

Overall, our voice must be clear and unequivocal on the demand for a just work where technology is deployed for its liberatary impulse and not in the in the service of profit as the driving motive

I have been engaged in creating, managing, evaluating Information and communication technologies (ICT) related initiatives for 3 decades now. I believe it was in 1995 that I launched a first pilot Website building internships project at Alternatives, a project so successful that it later culminated into a large Canadian coalition of NGOs sending thousands of interns - the NetCorps - all over the world for 14 years! Many of these interns actually worked with APC members.

After that, I was involved in various ICT initiatives for content propagation, research, Internet governance, online rights, digital security, etc... I am a founding member of both the Quebec and Canadian IGFs and my personal blog is about building the Internet we want.

I have been a member of the APC Board twice. Between 2005 and 2009 and more recently, between 2017-2020. Even now as I am working for a different member organization than in my early years, my approach has always been to not only work with APC partners in realizing the APC program, but also to concretely engage with APC partners into developing joint actions.

Recently, I was sending a message to every members, inviting them to join eQualitie new dComms program. For me, APC members are priority partners with whom I spontaneously seek to develop new initiatives to strengthen our movement and carry our voices further. I believe this is also an APC priority expressed in its recently adopted strategic plan (Outcome 1)

Speaking of movements, we are going through a particularly troubled period where strong social movements are more necessary than ever. Despite the extraordinary developments that we can see on the Internet, the network is every day, less and less what we were hoping for. A new digital divide is growing on the horizon as the promise of a global digital commons has given way to an increasingly fragmented collection of closed internets with their own separate infrastructures, controlled by Big Tech and nation states, including by autocratic states. The Internet’s inherent open architecture is increasingly weaponized as a tool for censorship and persecution. States have begun to shutdown or implement national networks or regulations isolating citizens from the global commons. Tech companies are separating users into corporate marketplaces and digital walled gardens. Outcome 3 of APC latest Strategy plan is collectively mobilize and strategize to counter that. We believe in the importance to engage in and influence priority national, regional and global processes to UN-breack the Internet and build it in full respects of human rights.

At eQualitie, we also know that Internet governance is a big and quite slow boat to move, so we develop technology to circumvent censorship and favouring global connectivity. We want to promote these decentralized technology and we hope to see the so called end-user not at the end of a service but at the core of the Internet. I believe the APC is the THE network to promote this and I hope to be able to to contribute to realize this vision in the coming year as a member of the Board.

My name is Arsene Tungali, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I am the Executive Director of Rudi International, a nonprofit, I have been privileged to be leading its field activities since 2012. We run a sponsorship program benefiting children in rural areas to access education as well as an ICT program that runs projects at the intersection of human rights and technology.

I have been around the Internet governance space since 2011 and have known APC since then, before my organization formally becomes a member in 2018, after a very challenging process in terms of timing. I would like to be considered for a seat on the APC board for the following reasons:

1. I am 33 years old and believe I have fresh blood that I would like to bring to the table. I understand priorities of young people as well as of young organizations and would be in a good position to advise the APC board on how to better serve this category of people/members.
I am fluent in both French and English which is a plus. This ability can help the APC Board be able to navigate Francophone spaces and cater for members operating in these specific language zones. I would like to support the membership process by providing suggestions on how this can be effectively conducted. Specifically, I would like to see the time be shortened to allow organizations who are willing to become APC members be notified of their status within reasonable time. I have proven experience working and/or collaborating with the leading organizations in the ICT field as well as those part of the internet governance processes (these include: ICANN, ISOC, AFRINIC, the IGF, Facebook, Twitter, etc). I would like to use this experience in supporting APC’s global advocacy work. APC as an organization has done tremendous work through its staff running the organization and supporting the network.

If elected to the Board, I intend to focus my action into supporting the network which is an important part of the APC as a whole. This means, making sure you, APC network members have a say and that your work is being supported through different available grants opportunities and support from other network members. I hope to count on your support. This is just a summary of the highlights and I look forward to interacting with you over email or at any other suitable moment.