Pacific Report to the Dynamic Coalition of Small Island Developing States in the Internet Economy.
Global IGF Berlin, 28 November 2019
By Maureen Hilyard: Chair, At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC, ICANN); Board Secretary, DotAsia Board of Directors; Board Secretary, Pacific Islands Chapter of the Internet Society; Member of the Public Interest Registry (.org) Advisory Committee (PIRAC); President, Cook Islands Internet Action Group
2019 has been an active year for Pacific involvement in the internet economy from the perspective of the organisations in which I and my Pacific colleagues are involved. What we first demonstrated is that originating from small island communities in the Pacific does not restrict one’s opportunity to become a leader within large international organisations like ICANN which manages and allocates domain names and IP addresses globally. I was very honoured that my ALAC colleagues elected me to be their Chair for 2019, and again for the upcoming year. It has enabled me to use my organisational management skills which I did by distance learning from Rarotonga through Massey University in New Zealand.
My Cook Islands colleague, Pua Hunter, was also elected at the recent ICANN meeting to be a regional co-Chair for the Government Advisory Committee (GAC). She is already the Chair of the GAC’s Underserved Regions Committee. Such leadership roles have also been achieved by others from SIDS in other internet-related organisations to show that being from small islands mean does not necessarily mean that we will go un-noticed if we are prepared to be active in our commitment and passion for what we are attempting within and for our regions.
The Pacific Islands Chapter of the Internet Society got a boost at the elections last year, when 4 former PICISOC Board leaders returned to the Board, to try to rejuvenate and boost its membership to become more active within their Pacific communities. The Board has re-established its website and started populating it with local articles about successful IT related activity on the more active islands — particularly in Fiji where many leading Pacific organisations hold their events. The greatest success for us has come about through successful women in IT who have written about their achievements and put them on our website.
One notable success has been a NZ Unitech graduate from Nauru , Branicia Itsimaera who is the only woman working in the area of IT on her small island of Nauru. She now has a Bachelor of Computing Systems degree. This is not an easy achievement in anyone’s world but when you come from a small island developing state and you are a woman, this is particularly significant.
During the Asia Pacific Regional IGF which was held in July in Vladivostok, Russia, PICISOC was represented by two Board members, Maureen Hilyard of the Cook Islands and Anju Mangal of Fiji. We picked up a new recruit, James Ah Wai from Samoa, who although a first time attendee of any IGF event, took to his speaking tasks like a duck to water. He came from a background of general interest in internet governance, and soon after his return to Samoa took on the role of President of their newly formed Samoan Information Technology Association.
One significant event for Pacific Islands school students this year was the participation of 11 countries from the Pacific region in the FIRST Global Challenge, an international Olympics-style robotics event established three years ago to encourage children to pursue science and engineering careers. FIRST stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology”. Samoa finished first of the Pacific Islands contingent with a ranking of 26 out of 193 countries, Cook Islands came second of the Pacific participants in a very creditable 30th place for their first time in the competition.
Another development that has happened for the Cook Islands is the establishment of a Centre of Excellence in information technology. This is a joint collaboration project of Government of India and the Government of Cook Islands to offer specialized training programmes in the field of ICT to the citizens of Cook Islands, where each programme is customised to meet the needs of the local business community. This is a major move forward for international collaboration where the outcomes of the donorship are specifically beneficiary-country-centric.
