How did APC contribute to change in 2017? Our annual report is out!

2017 was a year of transition for APC. This is something that speaks very positively of the health and vibrancy of a nearly 30-year-old network. As Bishakha Datta, chair of APC's board of directors, puts it in her introduction: “Access. Rights. A Feminist Internet. Governance. Use and Development. Community. (Or FAIR and GUD-C, as I affectionately acronymised them for myself.) These are the pillars of APC’s strategic plan. (...) But there’s one key letter missing from this big picture – T. This was a year of Transitioning. This was a hugely significant moment of transition for APC as its leadership changed hands.”

In April 2017, APC’s former deputy executive director, Chat Garcia Ramilo, assumed the position of executive director, after Anriette Esterhuysen stepped down from the position she outstandingly led for 17 years and assumed a new role as director of advocacy.

In August 2017, APC also had a new elected board of directors for the period 2017-2019, with a configuration that is impressively gender and regionally balanced and that also enables continuity, with three board members from the previous board retaining their positions.

2017 came to an end with a flourishing and growing network, composed of a total of 86 organisational and individual members active in around 70 countries.

The impact of our network in 2017 in relation to APC's strategic priorities (access, rights, a feminist internet, governance, use and development, APC community) can be easily perceived by reading some of the featured stories in the Annual Report.

On access, APC has worked intensively to enable that people who are digitally excluded on the basis of where they live, gender, class, disability or identity have affordable and sustainable connectivity that allows them to share and communicate. Our highlighted stories include:

• ALIN promotes access to information in remote areas of Kenya

• Rhizomatica and AlterMundi train indigenous communicators in Mexico

• CITAD urges governments to equip female schools with ICT facilities and internet access in Nigeria

• Kéfir cooks up autonomous feminist networks

• Nupef Institute launches collaborative multilingual website on spectrum usage policies and practices

• Building and supporting community cellular networks in Brazil and Colombia

• Support to 11 community networks in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe

• Better-informed and more resilient community networks

• Engagement in key forums on access-related policy, regulatory and governance processes

• Highlighting the gender dimension in access policies and discussions

On rights, APC advocated in favour of human rights norms and standards that integrate gender and development, and that are respected and promoted in internet and ICT policy, governance, development and practice. Our highlighted stories include:

• Strengthening networks on sexual rights and the internet

• Developing Internet Universality Indicators with UNESCO

• Advocating for a rights-based approach to internet policy in Africa, Asia and LAC

• Collaboration with members and partners in international policy processes contributes to the integration of internet rights issues

• Policy impacts in the United Nations sphere reinforce human rights online and address emerging challenges

• Increased understanding of censorship and criminalisation of political, religious and sexual expression in Asia

• VOICE issues legal notice to protect the right to privacy in Bangladesh

• Digital skills to strengthen digital rights for local communities in Argentina

• Real or Not: News verification and fact checking Facebook page in Myanmar

• KICTANet elections observation mission

• Jinbonet opposes indiscriminate use of personal information based on big data in Korea

• Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa: A growing footprint

• 7amleh Center advances its work in freedom of expression and digital rights through research and Palestine Digital Activism Forum

• Protecting the Paraguayan Guasu Metropolitan park with the help of social media 

On a feminist internet, women’s rights and sexual rights activists engage with internet and ICT policy and development as feminist issues. Our highlighted stories include:

• Advocacy with women’s funds and donors on the importance of supporting work on feminism and technology

• Increased take-up of women’s rights and online gender-based violence in global and national policy spaces and debates

• City conversations on a feminist internet with women’s and sexual rights activists

• Take Back the Tech! campaign reaches wide range of activists

• Mapping research in gender and digital technology

• Point of View’s Skin Stories: Essays on sexuality, disability and gender

• From imagining to making a feminist internet

• WOUGNET highlights the importance of the Feminist Principles of the Internet to achieve women’s rights online in Uganda

• OWP builds online safety for Safe Houses in Bosnia and Herzegovina

• Latin America in a Glimpse 2017: Gender, feminism and the internet in Latin America

• Women shaping journalistic practice in Bulgaria

On governance, APC worked on internet-related and ICT policy processes to protect the publicness of the internet and ensure that they are accessible, democratic, transparent, accountable and inclusive. Our highlighted stories include:

• Building civil society capacities to meaningfully engage in internet governance processes

• Fruitful engagement in internet governance processes nationally, regionally and globally

• AfriSIG continues to reap success in 2017

• Advocating for a rights-based approach to cybersecurity

• Gender issues play a major role at the 2017 Internet Governance Forum

• Global Information Society Watch foregrounds National and Regional Internet Governance Forum Initiatives

• Foundation for Media Alternatives launches an Open e-Governance Index

On use and development, APC made efforts for civil society actors, women’s rights and sexual rights advocates to have the capacity to confidently use the internet and ICTs, and engage critically in their development. Our highlighted stories include:  

• Digital storytelling workshops on sexuality and the internet from a feminist practice of technology

• More sustainable, collaborative and open source technology at APC

• Hundreds of activists are safer online after engaging in digital security trainings

• DiscoTech 2017 promotes exchange of experiences around criminalisation of technical expertise

• eQualit.ie at work on Deflect Labs: Online attack forensics for civil society empowerment

• Building networks and relationships to strengthen the digital rights movement in Southeast Asia

• Colnodo strengthens digital skills and security in Colombia

The APC community of members, allies and partners was strengthened as a network and worked collaboratively to use the internet and ICTs for social and environmental justice, gender equality and sustainable development. Our highlighted stories include:     

• APC network’s triennial face-to-face meeting in South Africa

• APC members engaged in network-wide initiatives and member collaborations

• APC members receive highest ever support towards the implementation of our Theory of Change, with some highlights:

  • Mapping the after-effects of the promise to rid the Philippines of illegal drugs

  • New ways to fight online attacks on women in Pakistan

  • Cameroon through the lenses of the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms

  • Spreading hope for more Central American women in the IT sector

• Greater outreach to APC’s community

• Inside the Information Society: Two years now, evolving with the internet

• Record growth of the APC network

• A newly elected Board of Directors for the period 2017-2019

• Pangea has a brand new communication strategy

What we did in 2017 doesn't end there. You can check out highlights from our individual members, all the publications we produced, governance updates, detailed information about our membership, staff, financial statements, and more. We can't fit all the impact we have had in an entire year in just one publication, but this is a good start!