Earlier this month, we successfully launched our second cohort for advanced digital policy practitioners. These Cohorts are designed to complement our Emerging Leader Cohorts and address more advanced practices and topics, designed to align with the goals of more experienced practitioners. As with all our cohorts, our overall objective is to create a space where we collectively explore policy leadership themes, share our experience and knowledge, and work through policy challenges.
In this cohort, we are pleased that participants come from different parts of the digital policy ecosystem, with practitioners focused on strategic litigation, media regulation, digital rights advocacy, research and analysis.
Meet our members:
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César Manso-Sayao is passionate about human rights-based, decolonial, open-source and social innovation approaches to address the digital age's emerging challenges, and is a Legal Officer at the Digital Freedom Fund.
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Gautam Kamath is an experienced public policy analyst, currently advising the Center on Regulation in Europe’s (CERRE) project “Global Governance for the Digital Ecosystems”.
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Sarah Simms is a dedicated, passionate human rights professional with investigative, policy and research experience, and a Policy Officer at Privacy International.
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Valery Oteino is passionate about culture and creating a caring internet for all, and is a Policy Advisor at Ofcom, the UK media regulator.
Our co-designed agenda will centre some of the following themes and outcomes, including:
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Building policy strategies that focus on driving systemic change in reformist environments;
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Developing frameworks to measure how we’re winning;
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Formulating best practices for setting and sticking to boundaries when engaging with key stakeholders, including politicians;
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Centering our narratives around value based communications, rather than “fight or flight” oriented framings that often serve the far right;
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Contextualising and changing power dynamics in the policy ecosystem, including tactics to subvert power from adversaries and share power with your allies;
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Refining advocacy techniques, including mastering non-verbal communication.
During our first session, we parsed the personal and the political in building sustainable relationships, focusing on how to maintain your personal integrity and safety while still being an effective policy leader. This is particularly relevant in the wake of the EU elections, and will continue to be one of the common themes we come back to throughout our sessions.
Next steps
We’ll be placing more Policy Leadership Cohorts in the Fall/Winter of this year. In parallel, we plan to host more virtual and in person gatherings, like our Policy Leadership Virtual Skillshare we hosted earlier in May.
Have questions, feedback, or want to learn more? Find us on LinkedIn, or reach out by email at: policyleadership@aspirationtech.org