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.

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.

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.

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.