APC’s “open spectrum” initiative aims to provide an understanding of spectrum regulation by examining the situation in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In this synthesis, the project’s consultant Carlos Afonso brings together the most important aspects of the studies in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.

The Take Back The Tech! campaign, run by APC WNSP, launched an interactive mapping platform which collected more than one hundred stories about gender violence online or through mobile phones. In this article by GenderIT.org, Sonia Randhawa outlines some of the tendencies that stand out when analizing the collected information.

In Colombia, several government initiatives aim at broadening telecommunications access for the whole population through spectrum. Colombian civil society should make the most of recent opportunities to lobby for the design of a management model that is more efficient and that emphasises the social value of the spectrum say Lilian Chamorro and Ariel Barbosa, authors of a new study for APC.

Opportunities are emerging in the Peruvian political scenario to liberalise spectrum frequencies for open and community use. However academic institutions and civil society must participate get more involved in the policy and project debates say Maicu Alvarado y Gabriela Perona in a new report for APC.

APC’s submission for Ecuador to the Universal Period Review process, with support from CIESPAL and Radialistas Apasionadas y Apasionados, highlights the critical importance of the Internet for human rights, as well as social and economic development.

Ecuador’s new constitution has created opportunities for democratising the spectrum based on a renewed vision of rights, and clearer definitions of the competencies required by the bodies that formulate policy and regulations. The priority now are civil society discussions on the legal reforms the new constitution demands says Marco Navas Alvear.

There is a lack of awareness in Mexico of the environmental harm caused by the present models of production, consumption and disposal of electronic waste. However, there is also a lack of awareness of the positive role that ICT can play in mitigating climate change.

Laws on climate change and waste management in Costa Rica have existed since 2009. However, despite appearing on paper, there has been little progress in putting them into practice. If the situation does not change, the country will not become carbon neutral by 2021.

Gender Centred, the GenderIT.org thematic bulletin from APC Women, focuses on topical gender and ICT policy themes. Our last newsletter edition highlights the gender peripheries of the Sixth Internet Governance Forum that took place in Nairobi, Kenya from 27-30 September 2011.