International Development Research Centre (IDRC)

IDRC was one of our earliest supporters, providing funds needed to launch the APC Women’s Networking Support Programme (APC WNSP) activities around the world during the lead-up to the 1995 UN World Conference on Women. IDRC also provided support to some of the earliest work promoting connectivity through a network of store-and-forward notes in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe. IDRC continued to support initiatives of the APC WNSP, as well as the development of our Mission-Driven Business Planning Toolkit. IDRC also provided start-up support to our internet rights work through the Global ICT Policy Monitor project, with a focus on activities in Latin America and Africa. In addition, APC’s Betinho Communications Prize to recognise socially meaningful uses of the internet was funded by IDRC for the first two years, along with partial support for the APC Africa Hafkin Prize and, in 1995, for the APC Council Meeting in Brazil.

Work supported:

  • Feminist Internet Research Network (2018-2022)

  • Local Access Networks: Can the unconnected connect themselves? (2017-2018)

  • Mapping Gender and the Information Society (2016-2017)

  • A Rights-Based Approach to Internet Policy and Governance for the Advancement of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (2013-2016)

  • Building research and communications capacity for an open, fair and sustainable networked society: The APC Action Network (2010-2012)

  • Implementation of a Business Development Strategy for the Gender Evaluation Methodology (GEM business model) (2010-2011)

  • Capacity Building and Institutional Support Project (INSPRO I and II) (2005-2010)

  • Communication for Influence in Central, East and West Africa (CICEWA) (2008-2010)

  • D-Island – online spaces for ICT4D practitioners (2010) Towards Détente in Media Piracy (2008-2010)

  • Gender and ICT Evaluation Methodology (GEM II) (2006-2009)

  • Communication for Influence in Latin America (CILAC) (2008-2009)

  • GenARDIS project (2005-2009) Feminist Tech Exchange (FTX) (2008)

  • Institutional strengthening and assessment of KICTANet (2007)

  • Harambee (2006-2007) GEM workshop in Asia (2006)

  • GenARDIS project evaluation (2006)

  • Making EASSy Easy (2006)

  • Capacity Building for Community Wireless Connectivity in Africa (2004-2006)

  • Gender Research in Africa into ICTs for Empowerment (GRACE) (2005-2006)

  • Media and ICT policy meeting (2006) Meeting of all wireless partners (2006)

  • Wireless Going Forward (2006)

  • Wireless Training workshop at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) (2005)

  • Global Gender and ICT Forum (2004)

  • Africa ICT Policy Monitor project (2004-2005) Africa Hafkin Prize (2003-2005)

  • Betinho Prize (2003 and 2005)

  • Gender and ICT Evaluation Methodology (GEM) (2003-2004)

  • LAC and Africa ICT Policy Monitor Projects (2003)

Link: https://www.idrc.ca/

Bottom-up Connectivity Strategies: Meet the community networks studied during the research
Bottom-up Connectivity Strategies: Meet the community networks studied during the research 26 March 2020

The research report "Bottom-up Connectivity Strategies: Community-led small-scale telecommunication infrastructure networks in the global South" explores the benefits of, and challenges facing, small-scale, community-based connectivity projects. Here we look at the initiatives studied.

Bottom-up Connectivity Strategies: Why is research on community networks necessary?
Bottom-up Connectivity Strategies: Why is research on community networks necessary? 18 March 2020

The research report "Bottom-up Connectivity Strategies: Community-led small-scale telecommunication infrastructure networks in the global South" explores the benefits of, and challenges facing, small-scale, community-based connectivity projects. Here we look at the motivations behind the research.

APC Annual Report 2018
APC Annual Report 2018 22 October 2019

APC's 2018 Annual Report offers an engaging dive into one year in the network's life. All the 67 stories are clustered under the six priority areas that have informed APC's work from 2016 until 2019: Access, rights, a feminist internet, governance, use and development and APC community. 

A look into one year of APC's impact: About roots, flowers and moving tiles
A look into one year of APC's impact: About roots, flowers and moving tiles 19 October 2019 Flavia Fascendini

APC's 2018 Annual Report is a deep dive into one year of our network's life. It is a compendium of stories about how APC collectively strives for change, from a year when so many deeply rooted initiatives blossomed.

Access in 2018: From in-depth research and movement building on community networks, to policy advocacy and regulatory frameworks for alternative connectivity initiatives
Access in 2018: From in-depth research and movement building on community networks, to policy advocacy and regulatory frameworks for alternative connectivity initiatives 19 September 2019

People who are digitally excluded on the basis of where they live, gender, class, disability or identity have affordable and sustainable connectivity that allows them to share and communicate. This is a compendium of the highlights from APC's Annual Report for 2018.

"All that you walk on to get there": New GenderIT.org edition shares feminist reflections on methodology, ethics and access in research
"All that you walk on to get there": New GenderIT.org edition shares feminist reflections on methodology, ethics and access in research 02 September 2019

This edition is a collection of essays and reflexive writings on feminist ways of knowing, and practices and priorities in feminist internet research. The focus is particularly on how there are added dimensions to all these questions when doing research on the internet and digital technology.

Bottom-up Connectivity Strategies: Community-led small-scale telecommunication infrastructure networks in the global South
Bottom-up Connectivity Strategies: Community-led small-scale telecommunication infrastructure networks in the global South 26 June 2019 Research conducted by Nicola Bidwell and Michael Jensen

To document the benefits of, and challenges facing, small-scale, community-based connectivity projects, APC researchers visited 12 rural community networks in the global South in 2018 and studied a number of others through desk research and interviews. 

Feminist Internet Research Domains of Change: Planning and assessment
Feminist Internet Research Domains of Change: Planning and assessment 20 June 2019 This document was compiled and created by Jac sm Kee, with inputs from Tigist S. Hussen, Namita Aavriti, and Katerina Fialova

The Feminist Internet Research Domains of Change diagram created and explored through the FIRN inception meeting is designed to provide a framework for research project planning that can identify and prioritise specific fields where impact can be made; identify strategies towards that impact by specifying which domain of change the strategy aims to engage with; and to plot pathways for strategi...

Feminist internet ethical research practices
Feminist internet ethical research practices 20 June 2019

This practices document builds on feminist politics and values, and existing or conventional ethical requirements and frameworks for researchers. It draws from decades of feminist work in relation to ethics, care, intersectionality, positionality and standpoint, and also more recently on work in relation to internet-related and data-driven research.

The shift from connecting people to connecting things: Why 5G will not reduce the digital divide
The shift from connecting people to connecting things: Why 5G will not reduce the digital divide 19 June 2019 Peter Bloom for Rhizomatica

In a series of articles exploring the implications of 5G roll-out, Peter Bloom of Rhizomatica concludes that "the imperative to ensure everyone has the right to communicate and access information is being supplanted by this new drive to connect the already connected even further.”

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