UK Government’s Digital Access Programme (former Department for International Development-DFID)
The Prosperity Fund cross-HMG 'Digital Access Programme' is a DFID-led partnership with FCO and DCMS. It aims to catalyse more inclusive, affordable, safe and secure digital access for excluded and underserved communities in Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Brazil and Indonesia. Increased digital inclusion in the programme countries will form the basis for more thriving digital ecosystems that generate high-skilled jobs, opportunities for local digital entrepreneurship focused on country-specific development challenges, as well as potential partnerships with international and UK business aimed at mutual prosperity. The Digital Access programme will also focus on learning about sustainable models and enablers for digital inclusion. The learnings will be shared with key stakeholders and other partner countries, thereby amplifying the impact of the programme.
Work supported:
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Supporting Community-Led Approaches to Addressing the Digital Divide project (2020-2023)
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APC Mentorship Programme / Digital Access Programme (2019-2020)
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Building Communication Opportunities (BCO) Alliance (2005-2007)
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Catalysing Access to ICTs in Africa (CATIA) Component 1c (2004-2006)
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ItrainOnline (2005)
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Gender and ICT Evaluation Methodology (GEM) (2002-2004)
The Communications Authority of Kenya adopted a Licensing and Shared Spectrum Framework for Community Networks after holding a public consultation in the country and promoting a process that allowed the development of the framework in partnership with multiple stakeholders.
Welcome to the 41st monthly round-up of developments impacting your local access networks.
The online event "Building an enabling environment for community networks in Brazil" took place on 20 October, featuring the launch of the recommendations from a policy brief, a manual and a video introducing what community networks are and how people who are interested can start one.
This publication tells a story of collective adaptation and resilience, closeness and collaboration, care and connections, of a growing community navigating change.
This policy brief explores how to better build community network policies to facilitate their emergence and sustainability in Brazil. Its executive summary presents the main recommendations focused on regulation and formulation of public policies
This manual in Portuguese gathers information from concrete experiences of community networks in Brazil and Latin America to answer questions such as: What are community networks? What are the different kinds of community networks? How can you plan, implement, install and manage one yourself?
The online event "Building an enabling environment for community networks in Brazil" will take place on Wednesday, 20 October at 13:30 UTC. New materials related to the promotion of community networks in the country will be launched. Join us!
Internet connectivity is becoming part and parcel of humans’ lives all over the globe, but the story in underdeveloped countries is different and not encouraging. With persistent engagement and advocacy visits by CITAD, progress on setting up community networks in Nigeria has been made.
The COVID-19 pandemic and political setbacks posed multi-layered obstacles for the community network movement over the past year. Within this challenging scenario, numerous community networks took the time to reflect and take specific, locally driven actions within their communities.
The meeting, attended by over 40 organisations from different parts of the country, aimed to highlight the importance of community networks as a tool for addressing the digital divide and explore the possibility of joint advocacy for the government to develop an enabling policy framework.

Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2022
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