4th Internet Governance Forum Meeting, Sharm El Sheikh, 14 – 18 November, 2009

I arrived in Sharm El Sheikh on the 14th November around 1am and checked in my hotel about an hour later. The morning of the 14th saw me in the scheduled ISOC ambassadors briefing. I wished I had more sleep the night before. Well, Thanks to ISOC for making it possible for me to participate in this important event. The briefing brought together all ambassadors in addition to ISOC staff with the exception of Veaceslav and Ceren who got incapacitated. Bill, Connie, Constance from ISOC took turns to address the gathering on various issues. Ranging from disseminating ISOC objectives, leveraging and promoting its activities as well as explaining ISOC policy issues at the IGF, also discussed was participation of ambassadors in the ISOC ambassador alumni programme, outreach activities, the Next Generation Leaders Programme. Ambassadors were encouraged to press regional concerns. For the archives, ambassadors had photo sessions with our mentors and a group photo with the ISOC team present at the IGF. Each ambassador gave a presentation on his/her focus and expectations for the IGF. My main areas of attention were and continue to be Capacity building in Internet Governance and Cyber security. These happen to be my focus areas because coming from sub Saharan Africa; we do not have greater participation and involvement in the Internet Governance process because of capacity. It has been found out that most developing countries have limited understanding and awareness of the intricacies of Internet governance issues and do not have sufficient capacity to effectively participate in global Internet governance. Making issues relating to the developmental aspects of Internet Governance, in particular capacity-building in developing countries one of the four key areas established by the working group on Internet Governance.