Community networks meet in Nairobi to enhance learning across Latin America, Asia and Africa

By APCNews Nairobi,

Published on 24 June 2019
Page last updated on 20 September 2023

As part of our work connecting the unconnected, APC convened a community networks meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, between 30 April and 3 May 2019. Its purpose was to gather the twelve community networks that were selected for the community network learning grants and provide a platform for them to exchange their knowledge. The programme hopes to contribute to ongoing learning, acknowledging the diversity that exists and examining meaningful ways to support each other.

In the words of its organisers, this may be the first purposeful and structured gathering of community networks from different regions of the global South. "While there have been other peer-learning activities for community networks in a less structured approach, this programme is distinct as it provides specific activities, which intend to enhance learning across the community networks in Latin America, Asia and Africa," project coordinator Kathleen Diga highlighted.

Watch the highlights of the meeting in this video, by our member Altermundi:

Connecting the unconnected: Supporting community networks and other community-based connectivity initiatives” is a project by APC in partnership with Rhizomatica that aims to directly support the work of community networks, with the support of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). The initiative intends to contribute to an enabling ecosystem for the emergence and growth of community-based connectivity initiatives in developing countries. It is part of a multi-year, multi-donor strategy envisaged to address the human capacity and sustainability challenges, along with the policy and regulatory obstacles, that limit the growth of community-based connectivity initiatives.