The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) was invited to deliver a call-to-action statement at the First Africa Symposium on Technology-facilitated Gender-based Violence, held on 5 and 6 November 2025 under the theme “TFGBV in sub-Saharan Africa: From Context to Collective Action”. It reads as below:
Good afternoon, everyone, government representatives, colleagues, civil society and partners. It’s an honour to be here and to join this important conversation. Allow me to begin by appreciating UNFPA Kenya and Benin Country Offices, the Governments of Kenya and Benin, Global Affairs Canada, and all partners involved in convening this inaugural symposium.
This gathering is not just timely; it is necessary. It brings together the people and institutions that must work hand in hand to ensure every space, online and offline, is truly safe for women and girls in all their diversity.
I speak on behalf of the Association for Progressive Communications APC, an international network of 73 civil society organisations that use information and communication technologies to advance social justice, human rights and environmental sustainability.
At APC, and particularly through our Women’s Rights Programme, we have worked at the intersection of digital rights and women’s rights for almost 30 years. Over the past decade, technology-facilitated gender-based violence has become a key area of our advocacy because we recognise that the same technologies that connect and empower us can also be used to harm and silence. Through the Local Networks (LocNet) initiative, we are exploring how community-centred connectivity models can strengthen digital inclusion and safety, ensuring that expanding access also means expanding protection, agency and resilience for women and girls in all their diversity.
Before centring on TFGBV, let us acknowledge how, over the past decades, ICTs have become powerful tools for women and girls in all their diversity across our continent, tools that open doors to education, income and information that enable access to social services, platforms for expression and resources on sexual and reproductive health and rights. These technologies have enhanced women’s agency, autonomy and safety, helping to address inequality, discrimination and barriers to justice.
Yet as much as technology can empower, it can also harm. Taking action to end TFGBV cannot stand apart from our broader efforts to eliminate gender-based violence. It must be embedded within them as part of a holistic, inclusive, cross-sectoral response that connects health, education, legal and justice systems.
Understanding how TFGBV manifests in our local contexts is a shared responsibility. We must recognise TFGBV as part of the structural problem of gender-based violence itself. Failing to do so means overlooking decades of struggle and ignoring how deeply TFGBV is rooted in the same inequalities that fuel all forms of GBV.
Spaces like this are essential; they remind us that real progress comes through collaboration and collective action.
We at APC greatly value UNFPA’s leadership in creating spaces for collaboration among governments, regulators, civil society and survivor networks, and we encourage the continuation of these partnerships to build a truly coordinated African response to TFGBV.
There is also a vital role for governments and policy makers to make TFGBV a national priority by fostering inter-ministerial collaboration across gender, ICT, justice, and education sectors, and by integrating TFGBV into national GBV strategies and budget lines.
Yesterday, representatives from the Kenyan government highlighted the need to localise TFGBV responses by linking national policies to county-level structures, such as gender desks and community policing frameworks. Benin underscored the need for capacity building in law enforcement and the judiciary, and for stronger coordination among the digital, communication and gender ministries. Across both countries, the call was clear: strengthen access to justice, psychosocial support, and accountability through coordinated, community-rooted action.
At the same time, regional and national laws must move toward harmonisation frameworks that both prevent and mitigate TFGBV while upholding digital rights and freedoms. Protection and freedom must always go hand in hand.
We also need continued capacity building across the ecosystem among law enforcement, the judiciary, policy makers, educators, civil society, and platform providers to ensure that all actors contribute to safer, more inclusive digital environments.
Finally, our response must evolve from reaction to prevention. States and partners must invest in digital literacy, gender-sensitive safety design, and survivor-centred reporting mechanisms. Closing access gaps in connectivity, literacy, and language strengthens not only survivors' capacity to seek justice, but also the ability of all women and girls, in their diversity, to exercise agency, claim digital rights, and drive inclusive development.
Thank you, and please count on APC to remain a committed partner in advancing collaborative, inclusive, and rights-based responses that make all spaces safe for women and girls in all their diversity.
The symposium was co-organised by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), United Nations Populated Fund (UNFPA) Kenya and Benin, Global Affairs Canada, the Governments of Kenya and Benin, and Réseau pour l'Intégration des Femmes des ONG et Associations Africaines (RIFONGA) Benin.