APC input for the CSTD WSIS Progress Report 2016

With over 50 member NGOs in more than 35 countries working for the last 25 years in most of the areas related to the WSIS goals, APC’s activities in support of the WSIS action lines and themes are many and diverse. They can be summarised as: a) promoting universal access to ICTs, and b) supporting rights-based, inclusive ICT-related policies, particularly where they affect women, the poor and other marginalised communities in the developing world.

In this respect, APC’s post-WSIS related activities are focused on: affordable internet access for all; defending human rights in the internet sphere, particularly in support of freedom of expression and protection of privacy; securing gender equality and women’s rights, particularly in relation to ending violence against women; ICT use which sustains the environment; use of emerging technologies for social change; building the “information commons”; and improving governance, especially internet governance.

To support these goals, APC engages over five interrelated areas: research, advocacy, network building, capacity development, and strategic communications and outreach. This approach, combined with our longstanding prioritisation of linking “practice” to policy advocacy, and linking local to regional and global activities through our network of national and programme members and partners, puts APC in a unique position to provide inputs for the development of the post-WSIS agenda.