Our latest annual report highlights the impact of APC’s community throughout 2024, which marked our first year of implementing a new strategic plan guiding our work through to 2027.
In a context of heightened global distress, "we need to dare, as the poet [Joan Manuel Serrat] says, to let our collective dreams drive our actions in our waking hours, through a reality that is at times fragile, turbulent and oppressive," says Leandro Navarro, the chair of the APC board of directors, in his introduction.
Our annual report shows that together, we have continued to raise our voices and push for intersectional common agendas, as well as amplifying rights and justice perspectives in digital tech and rights discourses. We collectively shaped digital standards, policies, processes and norms, while also building our collective capacity for safety, care and resilience.
But how does all this translate into practice? This is the last in a series of news pieces where we shared some concrete examples, organised according to the four outcome areas of our strategic plan, which focuses on creating impact on ourselves and the world. Here you will find out more about how we are building our collective capacity for safety, care and resilience in such challenging times.
As we wrap up our series, we also invite you to explore our annual report and join us in taking action towards our vision of a future in which all people, particularly the marginalised, are able to use and shape the internet and digital technologies to create a just and sustainable world.
We helped women human rights defenders (WHRDs) work safely online, strengthened their networks, and centred their concerns in policy spaces. Through our work with the Safety for Voices consortium, we impacted nearly 1,000 women across 48 countries in Asia-Pacific, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East and North Africa through grants, capacity building and convenings. Together we also argued that defenders are no longer peripheral to digital governance debates but central voices shaping state obligations through Universal Periodic Review submissions. This APC-led consortium also co-developed and scaled feminist early warning systems to proactively identify and mitigate risks through knowledge hubs and research on patterns of gendered digital repression and systemic exclusion.
Grassroots defenders, technologists, healers and policy advocates in three regions co-developed a priority agenda for feminist digital safety. Women human rights defenders, technologists, healers and policy advocates across Africa, Latin America and Asia-Pacific co-developed a Global Feminist Digital Safety Agenda that defined four thematic priorities: tech-facilitated gender-based violence, disinformation, impunity and authoritarian tech abuse. APC facilitated convenings in each region to address the demand for advocacy rooted in local realities and holistic protection.
Feminist funders increased funding for collaborative tech infrastructure for community resilience due to advocacy by the APC network and our allies. This ecosystem shift, which can be attributed to APC’s multi-year donor advocacy efforts throughout 2023 and 2024, demonstrated increased interest in supportive collaborative technology infrastructure projects that move beyond reactive crisis funding to support community resilience and crisis preparedness.
After four years of collaboration co-designing feminist tech gatherings, the LGBTQI philanthropic organisation Astraea chose to continue using the open source infrastructure introduced by APC. Astraea formalised its adoption of the infrastructure and methodologies for activist-led gatherings developed through years of collaboration with APC through the CommsLabs initiative, which prioritises regional grounding, participatory design and open source tools.
Developing shared ability and resources to learn, grow, thrive
In order for APC to enable and support the contributions of the network to our four long-term outcomes, we are also committed to ensuring that APC has a shared vision and purpose, and has the capacity, skills and financial resources to deliver on its mission in a working environment in which all members and staff can learn, grow and thrive.
One highlight last year was our first in-person APC Community Gathering since 2017 - a unique opportunity to strengthen our network's cohesion and capacity for collective action through. It took place in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and was attended by 225 people from 46 countries. The theme of the gathering was “More Together” and we celebrated being able to be, to do, to plan and to dream “more together”, while we also acknowledged and missed those unable to join us in person.
This gathering was a powerful catalyst: members reported significant changes to their work at regional, national and grassroots levels, which led to increased collaborative activity and new project ideas that secured funding and formalised partnerships. Members expressed the significant impact of the gathering on their work at regional, national and grassroots levels, and some partners who attended the gathering have since become members of the APC network. Additionally, in a key governance step ahead of the event, a new APC Board was elected.
Read APC’s Annual Report 2024 here and discover more highlights in the video below.