Let’s Hear from the Experts
This part of the session introduces you to some expert content to help you understand digital divides in a global society with greater depth. A case study highlights how an organization in Kenya is confronting digital divides head on. The expert content that follows helps you take your own action and advocacy to the next level.
Case Study
Angaza (Mathare) Community Network Project
Who: Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet), a multistakeholder organization focused on ICT policy and regulation in Kenya, in collaboration with the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), a global network empowering communities through digital technologies.
What: The Angaza (Mathare) Community Network project, part of KICTANet’s Digital Justice Programme, aims to provide reliable and affordable internet services to residents of Mathare Valley, Kenya, addressing the digital divide and promoting digital inclusion and accessibility. They are doing so through community networks, which is infrastructure set up and run by a local community to meet their own needs.
When: The project started on September 1st, 2023, with ongoing efforts to improve connectivity, digital literacy, and community empowerment.
Where: Mathare Valley, Kenya, covering three densely populated wards with approximately 350,000 residents living in challenging economic conditions.
Why: The majority of Mathare residents face economic disadvantages, prioritizing basic needs over internet access. Through the Angaza project, KICTANet seeks to bridge the digital divide by providing internet access, capacity building, and digital literacy training, empowering marginalized communities.
How: By establishing a community network with points of presence (POPs) and wifi antennas, providing reliable connectivity, and offering capacity building and digital literacy training, KICTANet aims to improve network reliability, enhance user experience, and extend internet access to community-based organizations, schools, and centers in Mathare Valley. This project supports the Sustainable Development Goal 16, which focuses in part on public access to information and protection fundamental freedoms.
Find out more: KICTA Net Community Networks
Expert Input
[title of something]
The Association of Progressive Communications has published an article on how to build ecological justice into the development and use of digitial technologies.
Recommendations include engaging with existing and dierse communities and networkes; advocating through coalitions, organizing events to explore the connection between ecological and digital justice, develop specific demands and goals.
Read the full article here, including examples of these strategies in action.
Source: Association for Progressive Communications is an international network of civil society organisations founded in 1990. WACC Global is a member.
Circumventing Internet Shutdowns
In this short presentation, Gustaf Bjorksten, Chief Technologist at Access Now explains how not all internet shutdowns are created equal and what steps you can take to work around them.
Internet shutdowns are government-imposed disruptions of online connectivity, which can severely impact economic activities, restrict access to information, and hinder freedom of expression, including around election campaigns.
Source: Access Now, a non-profit organization that defends and extends the digital rights of users at risk around the world, advocating for internet freedom and providing support during internet shutdowns and other crises.
Break Time
[something about the break time] Time for a well-deserved break! Are you feeling empowered and ready to advocate for ecological justice in our digitalized world? Or do you feel a bit overwhelemed by the scale and complexity of the problems? Either way, let’s tak a break and think about what we have just learned. Here are some questions to guide your reflections:
- How are marginalized communities in your context disproportionately affected by the environmental impact of digital technologies? How can you find out more?
- How can international policies be shaped to ensure that digitalization aligns with ecological justice principles?
- How can digital rights activists collaborate with environmental justice movements to promote sustainable technologies? What coalitions or networks are active in your context?
Have you gathered your thoughts? Noted your questions? Ready to go futher?
Great! Then let’s keep going. Click on “Complete Lesson” to head toward the final part of this session.