Communications and Information Policy Programme

CIPP responds to access, governance and rights problems in a consistent, systematic and integrated way, addressing national and regional particularities in Asia, Africa and Latin America and ensuring a multi-directional dynamic between the national, global and the regional levels. This is achieved by providing research/analysis-based substantive insights and framings; facilitating movement building and cross-movement interaction; enhancing the individual and collective agency of people to defend human rights online and to transform lives at local levels; addressing the transforming effect of technology through alternate viewpoints and approaches; developing and building the capacity of civil society and other stakeholders to engage with internet issues and processes, including those related to policy; and advocating for favourable policy options and solutions at global, regional and national levels.

Open access in Africa: FibreForAfrica.net
Open access in Africa: FibreForAfrica.net 13 December 2007

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.

LAC Monitor: Research on broadcasting as a digital inclusion strategy
LAC Monitor: Research on broadcasting as a digital inclusion strategy 30 October 2007

The research: “Effective access of rural communities to broadcasting in equal opportunities: A key strategy for digital inclusion in Latin America and the Caribbean” aimed at answering the question: “How can broadcasting be used as a digital inclusion strategy?”.

Open access in Africa: EASSy, SAT-3/WASC research
Open access in Africa: EASSy, SAT-3/WASC research 30 October 2007

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.

« Go back