Community networks newsletter: Meaningful steps for an inclusive and sustainable community-centred connectivity movement

As the year draws to a close, a sense of balance emerges, inviting reflection on both persistent challenges and meaningful achievements. The challenges remain significant. As highlighted in a report featured in this edition, 2.2 billion people remain unconnected. Among those who do have access, many lack access to meaningful connectivity, which is grassroots-driven and centred on community needs. 

Yet the achievements have been substantial. In 2025, a diversity of strategies pursued complementary approaches aimed to narrow the digital divide. These efforts included measuring the local benefits of CCCIs; advocating for access to policies, regulations and financing that enable them; strengthening local multistakeholder networks; leading capacity-building programmes to consolidate regional collaborations; focusing on gender to better understand the gender gaps that still limit women’s access to technology; and also addressing the environmental impact of technology while ensuring communities can access the tools they need for environmental care. 

In this edition you will find stories and reports that illustrate these advances. Looking back, the view features the road travelled. The challenges invite us to keep moving forward, while the learnings and achievements will nourish each step ahead.

Welcome to the 87th monthly round-up of developments impacting your local access networks and community-based initiatives.

Routing for Communities podcast

The Routing for Communities podcast also attained a significant achievement this year: the launch of its second season. Following the 12 episodes of season one, which featured the stories of communities all around the world, accompanied by the reflections of different voices from the digital inclusion ecosystem, this year we shared four new episodes that focused on key questions that invite us to review the work carried out and to find new ways to move forward.

What changes when the internet connection is centred in communities? How are women changing networks, and networks changing women? What makes connectivity really meaningful to people? How can we strengthen the community-centred connectivity movement?

If you have not listened to these new episodes yet, don't miss this opportunity that will allow you not only to revisit the stories of season one, but also to reflect on this strategic focus for bridging the digital divide.

Remember that you can find all the episodes of the Routing for Communities podcast here and that they are also available on Apple Podcasts, YouTube and Spotify. Enjoy the journey and share this great experience. 

Community networks news and stories

• In the framework of COP30, the main United Nations event on climate change, held this year in Belem do Para, Brazil, Thiane Neves-Barros reflects on the connection between digital infrastructures and racism in traditional communities. She focuses on the current methods used to implement digital infrastructure, its relation to what has been termed environmental racism and its potential to worsen climatic events. Available in Portuguese and in English.
• From Colombia, “Transformative Environmental Alert Systems: Improving Sensor Design and Community Involvement” is a project led by Colnodo with support from APC’s Environmental Sustainability grant. The initiative brought together the Jxa'h Wejxa Casil and RedINC communities from the Cauca region to work on improving the kits for environmental monitoring from a community perspective. Available in English and in Spanish.
• On the eve of the COP30, Rede Comunitária Floresta Digital, an initiative promoted by DW Akademie in partnership with Projeto Saúde e Alegria, brought together different representatives from the organisations involved to conduct a workshop on social technologies and community communication. Read more. [Available in Portuguese.]
• With the acceleration of climate change and multiple environmental disasters related to it, the Local Networks (LocNet) initiative and partners want to gather knowledge on how community networks can contribute to environmental justice. A call for narratives is open to share individual and/or collective reflections, case studies and stories about CCCIs and environmental justice, in different formats and creative ways. Read more.
• “A mesh of connections, care and community tech” is how Rebecca Ryakitimbo from the Local Networks (LocNet) Initiative team described this year's edition of the Global Gathering. An event with no plenaries, no keynotes, no panels, but a constellation of people, conversations and ideas connecting in self-organising ways and linked by the belief that technology should serve people and communities, not corporations or markets. Read more.
• From Indonesia, Common Room is leading a baseline study for a needs assessment of communities in the regions of Sumba and Maros, initiated with a Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) workshop in collaboration with the Padjadjaran University. This approach involves the active participation of local communities, allowing villagers to share knowledge, analyse their own living conditions, and create plans for development. Read more.
• TIC A.C. from Mexico celebrates its 10th anniversary by sharing the milestones of these years of growth that led them to obtain the first Indigenous social concession for telecommunications, and the reflections of its main protagonists. Available in Spanish and now also in English.

Gendered experiences

• In the article “From silence to signal”, Harira Wakili from the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) reflects on how gender justice and digital justice are deeply intertwined, against the backdrop of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence. “How can we ensure that our expanding digital landscape uplifts women and girls, instead of reinforcing old inequalities?” she asks, revisiting the women’s circles she has accompanied in Nigeria. Read more.
• The Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET), supported by the Internet Society Foundation under the BOLT Project, recently conducted a technical site survey and the first digital literacy training in Oyam District, Northern Uganda. This project aims to establish an affordable model that delivers free, reliable internet access to communities, unlocking new opportunities for education, entrepreneurship, communication and digital empowerment. Read more.
• The Nivaclé are Indigenous people living in the South American Chaco region, which spreads across Paraguay, northern Argentina and southern Bolivia. Funded by the Internet Society, the NANUM Connected Women Project is a transnational and multi-organisation initiative developed to connect Indigenous women living in the Chaco. Read more.

Enabling policy and regulation

• A multistakeholder dialogue on “The Geopolitics of Digital Connectivity” was held in the recent Global Gateway Forum, a space for strategic conversations on investments from the European Union in infrastructure projects worldwide. Chat Garcia Ramilo, executive director of APC, brought the perspective of civil society and community-centred connectivity to the conversation. Read more.
• The document of the high-level meeting of the General Assembly that reviewed the implementation of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) recognised community networks as a legitimate mechanism for expanding connectivity alongside traditional public and private sector approaches. Read more.
• One year after the launch of Nigeria’s National Strategy on Community-Centred Connectivity Initiatives (CCCIs), which was viewed as a major milestone, the LocNet Initiative convened a webinar that brought together regulators, social enterprises and civil society organisations to share progress and chart next steps for last-mile connectivity. Read more.
• The Kenya Community-Centred Connectivity Initiatives (CCCIs) Strategic Plan for 2025-2027 was recently developed by a multistakeholder group. This strategy marks a decisive shift in Kenya’s approach to digital inclusion: from top-down connectivity to bottom-up empowerment. Read more.
• The Department of Information and Communications Technology of the Philippines issued ahead of schedule the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) for the Konektadong Pinoy Act – intended to expand affordable services nationwide, empowering local initiatives, including community-based networks. The initiative convened voices from government, industry and the community-centred connectivity initiatives to express both support and caution. Read more.
• At the 7th Digital Citizen Summit at T-Hub Hyderabad, the UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Envoy for Digital and Emerging Technologies Amandeep Singh Gill dialogued with Osama Manzar from Digital Empowerment Foundation in a session that emphasised the need for bottom-up participation, regional collaboration and inclusive engagement models to ensure that digital platforms remain accountable and that communities actively shape an equitable digital ecosystem. Read more.

Publications, research and toolkits

• The ITU Development Sector (ITU-D) brings together experts from governments, industry, telecom organisations and academia to create practical tools, resources and recommendations, within the overall scope of “Enabling an environment for meaningful connectivity.” The ITU-D recently released two reports on Strategies and policies for the deployment of broadband in developing countries and Telecommunications/ICTs for rural and remote areas.
• Also from the ITU-D, the “Measuring digital development: Facts and Figures” series presents key connectivity indicators. The latest edition shows that of the 2.2 billion people who remain offline, most are from low- and middle-income countries. Gender and urban-rural divides continue to narrow but endure, and broadband services remain out of reach for many. The series includes infographics and statistics among other data resources. Read more.
• The IGF 2025 Policy Network on Meaningful Access launched its annual report reflecting the outputs of the collaborative work of many. The report concluded that if the internet signal is so widely available, the reason why more than one third of the world’s population still has no access is that the current modus of connectivity offered is not adapted to the conditions of that part of the population. Read more.
• The Núcleo de Tecnologia do Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Teto (MTST) presents the book “Tecnologia Sem-Teto: For Sovereign Digital Territories”. The edition is a proposal for action: using technology to strengthen popular organisations and build digital sovereignty from within communities. Read more. [Available in Portuguese].
• “Closing the gaps: Wiki Katat, the first social and community mobile virtual network operator in Mexico” is a study written by Vladimir Cortés Roshdestvensky and published by LACNIC that recounts this foundational experience. The research analysed the pivotal role that strategic litigation has played in recognising Indigenous rights, empowering communities and contributing to a multistakeholder approach to bridge the digital divide in Mexico. Read more. 

Events

• The COP30 climate conference took place from 10 to 21 November in Belem, Brazil. The event was covered by an alliance between the LocNet Initiative and Red Wayuri, focusing on the agenda of technology and connectivity related to environmental justice. Resources that reflect the connectivity agenda of the event are available in English and in Portuguese. The coverage carried out by Red Wayuri on social media is available here.
• The National Convening on Meaningful Community-Centred Connectivity Initiatives in the Philippines will be held on 3 and 4 December in Quezon City. A call for expression of interest for advocates is open. Read more.
• The Mapeo de Tecnologías Libres en América Latina y el Caribe (Free Technologies Mapping Project in Latin America and the Caribbean), called Katalib, will hold its launch celebration on 12 December in a hybrid event. Read more. [Available in Spanish.]
• RightsCon 2026 will be held in Lusaka, Zambia and online on 5-8 May 2026. Read more. 

Funding opportunities

• The NGI Zero Commons Fund is still open to individuals, SMEs, institutions and collectives for projects aimed at helping to deliver, mature and scale new internet commons across the whole technology spectrum, involving libre silicon, middleware, P2P infrastructure or end-user applications. The application, administration and reporting processes are simple and straightforward. The deadline for applications is 1 December. Read more.
• The FREE STEM Fund aims to narrow the gender gap in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Registered and unregistered initiatives and organisations based in Asia, Africa and Latin America focused on the rights of girls, women and transgender and non-binary people can apply. This round offers two-year grants with a special focus on education and training. The application webinar is available in English, Spanish, French, Arabic or Russian. Applications will be accepted until 1 December. Read more.
• Urgent Action Fund Africa provides financial support for strategic interventions that take advantage of opportunities to advance women’s human rights. Such opportunities arise when an unexpected event – positive or negative – creates a situation in which rapid intervention can significantly impact. The fund offers three types of grants: a Rapid Response Grant, a Protection Grant, and an Advocacy and Alliance Building Grant. Read more.

Community networks learning repository

This repository is a collective online space for storing and exchanging resources useful in training processes, with a focus on materials made for and by community networks. 

The platform brings together manuals, research papers, reports and publications that feature a wide variety of experiences, technologies and methodologies. We invite you to explore the platform and discover this rich diversity of resources.

Do you have materials to share? If you or your organisation has developed resources devoted to community-centered connectivity, we encourage you to upload them to the learning repository and help us expand it. Contributions in all languages are welcome.

Find out more!

This newsletter is part of the Local Networks initiative (LocNet), a collective effort led by APC and Rhizomatica in partnership with grassroots communities and support organisations in Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean. It aims to directly support meaningful community-centred connectivity initiatives, while contributing to an enabling ecosystem for their emergence and growth. 

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