International Development Research Centre (IDRC)

IDRC was one of our earliest supporters, providing funds needed to launch the APC Women’s Networking Support Programme (APC WNSP) activities around the world during the lead-up to the 1995 UN World Conference on Women. IDRC also provided support to some of the earliest work promoting connectivity through a network of store-and-forward notes in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe. IDRC continued to support initiatives of the APC WNSP, as well as the development of our Mission-Driven Business Planning Toolkit. IDRC also provided start-up support to our internet rights work through the Global ICT Policy Monitor project, with a focus on activities in Latin America and Africa. In addition, APC’s Betinho Communications Prize to recognise socially meaningful uses of the internet was funded by IDRC for the first two years, along with partial support for the APC Africa Hafkin Prize and, in 1995, for the APC Council Meeting in Brazil.

Work supported:

  • Feminist Internet Research Network (2018-2022)

  • Local Access Networks: Can the unconnected connect themselves? (2017-2018)

  • Mapping Gender and the Information Society (2016-2017)

  • A Rights-Based Approach to Internet Policy and Governance for the Advancement of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (2013-2016)

  • Building research and communications capacity for an open, fair and sustainable networked society: The APC Action Network (2010-2012)

  • Implementation of a Business Development Strategy for the Gender Evaluation Methodology (GEM business model) (2010-2011)

  • Capacity Building and Institutional Support Project (INSPRO I and II) (2005-2010)

  • Communication for Influence in Central, East and West Africa (CICEWA) (2008-2010)

  • D-Island – online spaces for ICT4D practitioners (2010) Towards Détente in Media Piracy (2008-2010)

  • Gender and ICT Evaluation Methodology (GEM II) (2006-2009)

  • Communication for Influence in Latin America (CILAC) (2008-2009)

  • GenARDIS project (2005-2009) Feminist Tech Exchange (FTX) (2008)

  • Institutional strengthening and assessment of KICTANet (2007)

  • Harambee (2006-2007) GEM workshop in Asia (2006)

  • GenARDIS project evaluation (2006)

  • Making EASSy Easy (2006)

  • Capacity Building for Community Wireless Connectivity in Africa (2004-2006)

  • Gender Research in Africa into ICTs for Empowerment (GRACE) (2005-2006)

  • Media and ICT policy meeting (2006) Meeting of all wireless partners (2006)

  • Wireless Going Forward (2006)

  • Wireless Training workshop at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) (2005)

  • Global Gender and ICT Forum (2004)

  • Africa ICT Policy Monitor project (2004-2005) Africa Hafkin Prize (2003-2005)

  • Betinho Prize (2003 and 2005)

  • Gender and ICT Evaluation Methodology (GEM) (2003-2004)

  • LAC and Africa ICT Policy Monitor Projects (2003)

Link: https://www.idrc.ca/

Resistance and Resilience: Collaborative responses to online attacks on environmental defenders
Resistance and Resilience: Collaborative responses to online attacks on environmental defenders 25 January 2024

This three-year initiative will support in-depth research into the scope and impacts of online disinformation and attacks against environmental defenders in Brazil, Kenya, Mexico and the Philippines.

The Hidden Codes that Shape Our Expression: Understanding How Social Media Algorithms Obstruct Feminist Expression and How Malaysian Women Navigate the Challenges
The Hidden Codes that Shape Our Expression: Understanding How Social Media Algorithms Obstruct Feminist Expression and How Malaysian Women Navigate the Challenges 01 December 2022 Serene Lim

This research intends to better understand the barriers and biases resulting from algorithms in women’s access to freedom of opinion and expression, and to examine how they navigate these algorithms to create the much-needed space to speak out, to be heard, and to occupy digital spaces.

Brazilian feminist responses to online hate speech: Seeing online violence through an intersectional lens
Brazilian feminist responses to online hate speech: Seeing online violence through an intersectional lens 22 November 2022 Horacio Sívori and Lorena Mochel

This paper looks at current struggles and transformations on the meanings of online violence in Brazil. It interrogates how feminist research and interventions in digital technologies respond to online violence against LGBTIQA+ people in the contemporary political scenario. 

Cultivating a feminist community network: Reflections of practices in the quilombo of Ribeirão Grande/Terra Seca
Cultivating a feminist community network: Reflections of practices in the quilombo of Ribeirão Grande/Terra Seca 16 October 2022 Bruna Zanolli and Bruna Vasconcellos

This report is an outcome of an action-research project that gathered community members, women farmers, technologists, agro-ecologists and community network practitioners to create a community network in the quilombola community of Ribeirão Grande/Terra Seca, Brazil.

Designing domestic work platforms: A case study of Urban Company
Designing domestic work platforms: A case study of Urban Company 30 August 2022 Divyansha Sehgal and Yatharth

This report explores how workers and customers navigate the introduction of technology into the domestic and personal services work sector in India, which has historically functioned through informal word-of-mouth networks and employs people largely belonging to marginalised communities.

Feminist by Design: Feminist internet research is messy
Feminist by Design: Feminist internet research is messy 06 May 2022 Nyx McLean

Feminist internet research is messy and conducting meta-research on feminist internet research is even messier. This critically reflective article argues that the messiness of research is not something to shy away from but rather to embrace.

Feminist by Design: How to build a feminist internet and why it matters
Feminist by Design: How to build a feminist internet and why it matters 05 May 2022 Namita Aavriti Malhotra, Tigist Shewarega Hussen and Mariana Fossatti

"Feminist by Design", an edition of the APRIA journal, is ambitious in its title and aims. It showcases research journeys, findings and feminist intentions, bringing together a diverse group of researchers from around the world who were part of the Feminist Internet Research Network.

Feminist Internet Research Network: Meta-research project report
Feminist Internet Research Network: Meta-research project report 12 April 2022 Nyx McLean

The meta-research project formed part of the broader Feminist Internet Research Network (FIRN) project led by APC and created a feminist space for dialogue to explore the complexities of doing internet research.

White paper on feminist internet research
White paper on feminist internet research 24 March 2022 Sachini Perera

APC has been working towards imagining and making a feminist internet by building and strengthening networks of researchers, activists and others. This paper aims to assess feminist internet research on internet governance and policy, with a particular focus on scholarship in the global South.

Encounters, coffees and conflicts: Reflections from action-research on a feminist autonomous network
Encounters, coffees and conflicts: Reflections from action-research on a feminist autonomous network 11 March 2022 Bruna Zanolli and Débora Prado

A group of women set up a community network in an area without internet connectivity in Brazil – the Terra Seca quilombo community. These are their reflections while conducting a participatory research process on community networks through an intersectional feminist lens.

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