Projects

The APC Africa ICT Policy Monitor’s primary goal is to enable African civil society organisations to engage in ICT policy development processes in order to promote an information society based on social justice and human rights.

The APC Chris Nicol FOSS Prize recognises initiatives that are making it easy for people to start using free and open source software (FOSS). The prize is awarded to a person or group doing extraordinary work to make FOSS accessible to ordinary computer users.

In 2008 APC launched the new multilingual APC website with an entirely revamped web platform. The new APC.org contains new and improved content in English and Spanish – and for the first time French and Portuguese. Powered by the content management system Drupal, visitors can sign up and post comments. The APC community of members around the world and staff can also access networking sections and internal information on projects and much more.

APC is part of the Building Communications Opportunities (BCO) alliance, which is a loose network of experienced organisations in information and communications for development who have made a commitment to learning and collaboration. BCO members, or ‘partners’ as they are referred to, include donor agencies from Canada, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK and international non-governmental organisations. The BCO has funded important APC projects.

APC and KICTANet draw on the experience of their successes in the Africa ICT Policy Monitor project and the CATIA project to bring an integrated approach to ICT policy research, dissemination and advocacy through the building of sub-regional networks. They operate using the principle of multi-stakeholder partnerships developed through the CATIA experience to engage in evidence-based policy change. The project seeks to identify the political obstacles to extending affordable access to ICT infrastructure in Africa and to advocate for their removal in order to create a sound platform for sub-regional connectivity in East, West and Central Africa that will provide a platform for the effective use of ICTs in development processes.

CILAC seek to integrate research, research communications, network-building and advocacy for affordable universal broadband. It’s a one year project that started on February 2008.

Oriented to influence national and regional ICT policy processes to ensure that demands and perspectives of civil society organisations are considered.

Oriented to develop and strengthen capacities in civil society organisations to effectively engage and influence global, regional and national ICT policy processes .

Oriented to learn, understand, discuss and analyse about the impact of ICT policy decisions on civil society as well as to offer inputs to inform advocacy in Latin America at regional and national levels.

The Gender, Agriculture and Rural Development in the Information Society (GenARDIS) small grants fund was developed in 2002 to support work on gender-related issues in ICTs for agricultural and rural development in the African, Caribbean and Pacific regions. In 2008, a third round of small grants will be issued.

GEM is an evaluation methodology that integrates a gender analysis into evaluations of initiatives that use information and communication technologies (ICTs) for social change. GEM provides a means for determining whether ICTs are worsening or really improving women’s lives and gender relations, as well as for promoting positive change at the individual, institutional, community and broader social levels.

GenderIT.org is a website for women’s movements, ICT advocates and policy makers who want to ensure that ICT policy meets women’s needs and does not infringe on their rights.

The global civil society community and other stakeholders have expressed their commitment to play their role as Global Information Society watchdog.

ItrainOnline is a partnership involving eight organisations with particular experience in capacity building in development contexts. It aims to assist civil society organizations (CSOs) and other development actors in developing countries to confront the challenges posed by new information and communications technologies (ICTs). In seeking to overcome skills gaps in development, it connects people and know-how with the needs of ICT learners and trainers.

The ItrainOnline Multimedia Training Kit (MMTK) is a collection of workshop kits to help trainers working with telecentres, NGOs, community media organisations and the development sector to present effective training courses on a wide range of ICTs and non-ICT topics.

Available since 2001, the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) ICT Policy Monitor website gathers essential news and documentation about policies relating to information and communication technologies (ICTs). Through the website, the only one of its kind across Latin America and the Caribbean, APC aims to demystify internet policies and regulations.

The APC Member Learning and Exchange Fund (APCMEF) aims to support member driven skills-sharing, internships, and planning for collaboration among APC members. The fund supports APC member staff travelling to visit one another when effective collaboration requires on site work or face-to-face meeting.

The APC Member Travel Fund MTF travel fund (formally known as the CIPP travel fund) was established in March 2005 to facilitate member participation in events that are relevent to the APC strategic priorities.

In Africa, APC’s main focus is on access to infrastructure. Africa currently has to pay for some of the most expensive bandwidth in the world and the hard currency paid leaves the continent. Because East Africa does not have international fibre connections it is paying even more than West African countries connected to the monopoly-controlled SAT3/WASC cable.

APC’s FibreForAfrica.net site provides basic information about international bandwidth in Africa, its costs and the existence of monopoly access to it. It focuses especially on the proposed East African cable projects and the ending of the monopoly of SAT-3.

“Take Back The Tech!” is a global campaign by APC WNSP during the 16 days of activism against gender violence each year. Starting in 2006, the campaign calls for everyone – especially women and grrls – to reclaim technology for the fight against violence against women – using cell phones, instant messengers, blogs, websites, digital cameras, email, podcasts and more. It creates awareness on how ICT are connected to violence against women, strengthens the ICT capacity of women’s rights advocates, creates original and varied content and is building a community to strategise around eliminating violence against women through digital platforms. Different groups, organisations, networks and individuals have also initiated local “Take Back The Tech!” campaigns to further advocacy and urgent issues on violence against women and ICT in their specific context.

The Rapid Response Network (RRN) is an initiative that is aimed towards ensuring that rights of expression, communication, association and protest on the Internet are protected. More specifically, to enable people and organisations to use information and communications technologies for social justice and equality. APC has long been concerned with trends that show that such rights are being violated. As one response, some APC members and partners, have decided to act as a “Rapid Response Network” (RRN). Members of this network have the ability to rapidly mirror a threatened website throughout the world, and raise awareness about the issues involved.

While the media sings the praises of Facebook and YouTube for social networking online, APC is concerned with what web2.0 tools can do for people who don’t have good internet access and equipment. In mid 2007, APC joined a partnership of like-minded organisations with which it organised a large conference around this preoccupation. At the same time, APC started working on several initiatives related to application of web2.0 tools for development work.

TRICALCAR focuses on developing a series of training workshops on wireless connectivity in three Latin American regions.

Women’s Electronic Network Training (WENT) Africa training workshops aim to build the capacities of women and their organisations in Africa to utilise information and communication technologies (ICTs) in women’s empowerment, social change work and policy advocacy.