[APCPress] No embargo: African ICT policy advocacy workshop in Nairobi

[Karen Higgs]

NO EMBARGO

PRESS RELEASE


Association for Progressive Communications (APC) To Hold ICT Policy 
Advocacy Workshop in Kenya


NAIROBI, KENYA -- The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 
will hold a five-day ICT (information and communication technology) 
policy advocacy workshop in Nairobi from July 19 to 23.  The workshop 
goal is to help build better ICT policy environments through promoting 
inclusive policy processes in which civil society together with the 
media and the private sector are active participants.

The Nairobi workshop intends to galvanise the growing interest there is 
in ICT policy into a network of policy advocates working at national 
level in their home countries. It will be the first of two regional ICT 
policy advocacy workshops, the second being held in Dakar, Senegal later 
this year. "Through the workshop process, we hope to kick start 
concerted policy actions at the national level," says APC executive 
director, Anriette Esterhuysen. "There's a lot of interest and concern 
and a lot of expertise out there but not enough collaborative action. We 
want to do more than just build capacity."

It will be an key step forward in the work being carried out as part of 
the APC Africa ICT Policy Monitor project -supported by the Canadian 
International Development Research Centre (IDRC/CRDI) and HIVOS- to 
build and support the engagement of civil society organisations in 
local, regional and international ICT policy initiatives and the 
Catalysing Access to ICTs in Africa (CATIA) initiative -a three-year 
project supported by the UK Department for International Development 
(DFID)- to enable Africans to gain maximum benefits from the opportunity 
offered by ICTs and to act as catalysts for policy reform.

"The workshop will be used to identify national policy 'animators' 
-activists from civil society, the media or even government- with the 
skills and verve to lead locally-driven advocacy campaigns and to 
network and share strategy regionally," Alice Wanjira Munyua, APC's 
CATIA project coordinator explains. "It's also an opportunity for 
participants to start developing action plans for possible advocacy 
interventions at national level that can result in greater and more 
affordable access to ICTs in their countries." Information and resources 
generated now and in the future will be made available from the APC 
Africa ICT Policy Monitor website.

Workshop participants will come from Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, 
Mozambique, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tanzania and South Africa. There are at 
least three participants from each country selected. Unusually, the 
workshop will bring together participants from three sectors who do not 
usually work together - the private sector, the media and civil society.

"The media is too often considered only as a tool to be taken advantage 
of by civil society and the private sector in advocacy work, but 
journalists are themselves vital actors in ICT policy," says Emmanuel 
Njenga Njuguna of APC. "They are impacted on by ICT policy like everyone 
else, but they are in a unique position to be able to influence public 
opinion and impact on ICT policy."

Tina James will be one of the advocacy trainers at the workshop. For 
her, the importance of the workshop is: "The chance to work with many 
different stakeholder groups, who may be coming from diverging points of 
view, and who will now explore common ground in finding joint solutions 
to developing ICT policy."

Heloise Emdon, Programme Officer of Acacia and Connectivity Africa at 
IDRC, adds: "Civil society, the media and well-informed consumers and 
service providers can liven up the policy environment and keep 
politicians on their toes. The knowledge society is global, and the 
strength of this society depends on dynamics between all of us. I have 
seen incredibly powerful civil movement and well-informed journalists 
achieve great gains in getting poor communities connected to the 
internet in Indonesia. I hope in Africa we are able to achieve the same 
voluntarism and ownership of our knowledge society."


Financial support

The workshop is supported by Catalysing Access to ICTs in Africa 
(CATIA), a programme of the UK Department for International Development 
(DFID) http://www.catia.ws and IDRC/CRDI (International Development 
Research Centre) http://www.idrc.ca.


ABOUT APC

The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is an international 
network of civil society organisations dedicated to empowering and 
supporting groups and individuals through the strategic use of 
information and communication technologies (ICTs), especially 
internet-related technologies. APC and its members in more than 30 
countries pioneer practical and relevant uses of ICTs for civil society. 
APC is an international facilitator of civil society's engagement with 
ICTs and related concerns, in both policy and practice.
APC: http://www.apc.org.

APC and ICT Policy Advocacy in Africa

APC's Communications and Information Policy Programme aims to contribute 
to more enabling ICT policy environments through promoting inclusive 
policy processes. In Africa APC is doing this through the Africa ICT 
Policy Monitor project and the Catalysing Access to ICTs in Africa 
(CATIA) initiative. In Kenya, APC together with the CRIS Campaign has 
started working on a global governance and communications rights initiative.

The Africa ICT Policy Monitor project aims to enable civil society 
organisations to engage in ICT policy development to promote an 
information society based on social justice and human rights. These aims 
are achieved through:

* The development of an information resource for civil society 
organisations (CSOs) that wish to be active in ICT policy.
* Raising awareness in CSOs on ICT policy issues.
* Empowering CSOs to develop ICT policy that meets their needs, and to 
encourage them to lobby for an information society that builds social 
justice and human rights, at national, regional and global level.
APC's Africa ICT Policy Monitor: http://africa.rights.apc.org

APC is implementing CATIA's "policy advocacy" component, which aims to 
promote increased and more effective advocacy to speed up changes in the 
ICT policy and regulatory frameworks of African countries, thereby 
allowing cheaper and wider access to telecommunications and the 
internet. It will develop measures that will catalyse policy and 
regulatory reform, by supporting informed advocacy groups (and 
individuals) from the private sector, consumer groups and civil society, 
and the media.
CATIA: http://www.catia.ws

About APC and ICT policy internationally: http://rights.apc.org


FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

Alice Wanjira Munyua
CATIA Project Coordinator
Association for Progressive Communications (APC)
Email: alice at apc.org
Tel/fax: +254 020 4443424 (KENYA)
Cell: +254 733 731074

Emmanuel Njenga Njuguna
Africa Policy Monitor Project Coordinator
Association for Progressive Communications (APC)
Email: Africa.rights at apc.org