Agenda

Mike Jensen is a specialist in the deployment of digital infrastructure in developing countries at the Association for Progressive Communications. After growing up in South Africa, Mike did his post graduate research in Canada where he co-founded The Web, Canada's first non-profit Internet provider for environmental and social justice organisations. With the end of Apartheid, Mike moved back to South Africa where, with support from development agencies, he helped many organisations across Africa gain access to the internet for the first time. In recognition of Mike’s contributions to the extension of the Internet, he was inducted into the Internet Society’s Internet Hall of Fame in 2017. Mike continues to work with the APC on community-led digital infrastructure.

Dawit Bekele is a Regional Vice President for Africa at the Internet Society. He has more than two decades of experience in Internet development in Africa and around the world. At the Internet Society, he worked at various positions to support Africa around Internet policy and technology. Before joining the Internet Society in 2006, he worked at Addis Ababa University as an assistant professor. He also has extensive experience as a consultant for major international organizations and in the private sector. He received my undergraduate, Masters, and Ph.D. degrees from Université Paul Sabatier in France, all degrees in Computer Science. He also holds a Masters in Business Leadership from the University of South Africa.

Social Scientist and researcher with over 23 years of experience, currently Coordinator of Sectoral Studies and Qualitative Methods at the Regional Center for Studies on the Development of the Information Society (Cetic.br), a department of the Brazilian Network Information Center (NIC.br). From 2017 to 2022, she served as Managing Director of CEBRAP (Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning), where she also coordinated the Development Research Center. Her earlier roles include Senior Manager at Ipsos Public Affairs Brazil (2010–2015) and Researcher at CEBRAP (2001–2010). She was a Visiting Researcher at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex, UK, in 2004 and 2008. In 2015, she lectured in Research Methodology for Market and Public Opinion at the postgraduate program in Marketing and Communication at Mackenzie Presbyterian University in São Paulo.

Irene Kaggwa is the Programme Manager at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for Giga, a joint ITU-UNICEF initiative that seeks to connect all schools to the Internet by 2030. 

Prior to that, she worked in different roles within Uganda Communications Commission - the regulator in the communications sector in Uganda, for a period of more than 23 years. Her experience spans policy development, research, strategy, communications regulation, radio spectrum management, cyber security and implementation of the various aspects of fostering ICT and ICT enabled socio-economic development.

A registered engineer, Irene holds a Master of Science in Communications Systems and Signal Processing from the University of Bristol and a Master of Science in Economic Management and Policy (Business Economic Pathway) from the University of Strathclyde in the United Kingdom. She did a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering at Makerere University in Uganda.

Anriette Esterhuysen served as the chairperson of the Multistakeholder Advisory Committee of the United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) 
from 2019 to 2021. She was executive director of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) from 2000 to 2017 and continues to work with APC as Senior Advisor on Internet Governance and convenes the annual African School on Internet Governance, a project of APC, Research ICT Africa at the University of Cape Town, and the African Union Commission. She serves on the governing bodies of the IGF Support Association, Connect Humanity, Digital Empowerment Foundation, and the South African Tertiary Education Network (TENET). Anriette was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame as a Global Connecter in 2013 for her work in extending internet connectivity in Africa and received the Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award in 2015 for her work on defending and promoting human rights online.