Name: Ken Lohento
Profession: Information and Communication Technology Specialist
Location: Dakar, Senegal

“My involvement in the programme is certainly one of the significant elements that facilitated my appointment to the Internet Governance Forum Advisory Group.”

Ken Lohento participated in Diplo’s Internet Governance Capacity Building programme (IGCBP) in 2005, in order to broaden his understanding of the issue of Internet Governance. When he signed up for the programme, he was in the midst of organising regional activities on IG issues (e-debates on IPR issues and Internet exchange points), within the framework of the CIPACO project (Center for ICT policies for Central and West Africa) he was coordinating. The course materials he read, the original research he produced, and the mentorship provided by his IGCBP tutor helped him to better plan and organise some of the activities. Some of his fellow trainees at Diplo even participated in the debates! Ken has also found the network of contacts developed during the IGCBP valuable in his work.
 

The IGCBP not only had a positive impact on the policy work that Ken was already involved in, but presented him with new opportunities for immersion. Ken’s outstanding academic work in the programme earned him one of Diplo’s scholarships to become involved in international Internet Governance initiatives, as an intern with the Secretariat of the Working Group on Internet Governance in autumn 2005. During this time, he attended the World Summit on the Information Society Prepcom 3 in Geneva where he collaborated in what would become the Internet Governance Forum Secretariat. He also contributed to African comments on negotiated documents.
 

Ken currently works for the Panos Institute West Africa (PIWA), as coordinator of its programme dubbed “Uses and Policies of Digital Technology” (or ICT Programme). PIWA is a regional non-governmental organisation based in Senegal, which works to promote citizenship, democracy, and change through the communication sector. In May 2006, he was appointed by the UN to the Multistakeholder Advisory Group of the Internet Governance Forum, as a civil society stakeholder.