Community networks newsletter: Sharing women's voices and reflections

March is marked by International Women's Day, with amplified efforts to achieve gender equity and reflections on its impact across various spheres. In the realm of community-centred connectivity, women continue to make essential contributions to the development of initiatives worldwide, connecting communities in meaningful ways, but still face challenges that echo structural power imbalances and historical inequalities. In this edition we highlight some inspiring stories and voices, along with thoughts on how to overcome the barriers faced.

Welcome to the 79th monthly round-up of developments impacting your local access networks and community-based initiatives.

Routing for Communities podcast

• Do you want to hear the stories of women who are transforming the field of connectivity around the world? In the first season of our podcast, eight of the twelve episodes present women who are directly involved in community networks across several countries: South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Thailand and England. Their voices offer important reflections on the barriers they face – but also show how they overcome them for the benefit of their communities.
• The Routing for Communities podcast is available here, and also on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. The first season features 12 episodes, describing experiences of communities from around the world.

Community networks news and stories

• Seeding Change: Zenzeleni Networks NPC conducted an audit of six community networks in South Africa last year. The results offer valuable insights for community-centred initiatives. To amplify their learnings, we spoke with the three project leads – Nicholas Eppel, Yumna Panday and Neo Magoro – about how lessons from past actions can inform the future. Read more.
• Bringing digital inclusion to life: Project Isizwe is bringing much-needed internet connectivity to six schools and 120 homes in the rural Loskop area of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Read more.
• The Mamaila Solar Community Hub is providing residents, particularly students, from South Africa’s Limpopo region with access to technology, the internet and ICT skills training. In a place where mobile coverage is inconsistent and data costs are high, the hub has become an essential resource for those seeking educational and employment opportunities. Read more.
• What are the barriers to digital access in community networks for people with disabilities? Find out more on this important drive towards digital inclusion by KICTANet, based on their efforts in Kenya. Read more.
• Rural areas face environmental challenges that generate pollution and can affect communities’ quality of life. To tackle this problem, Colnodo has promoted the use of environmental monitoring sensors among the community networks it supports through the "Environmental Alerts" project. Read more. [Available in Spanish.]
• In the Amazon region of Brazil, the first connectivity installations are being made in territories belonging to the Digital Forest Community Network. Read more. [Available in Portuguese.]

Gendered experiences

• The project "Connecting opportunities for women entrepreneurs in rural areas of Colombia" concluded with important achievements, positively impacting more than 1,200 rural women. Read more.  [Available in Spanish.]
• APC has launched a timeline depicting thirty years of its evolution and commitment to gender justice, advocating for women’s rights, building a feminist internet and ensuring that gender is at the heart of our work and activism. Read more.
• The Digital Empowerment Foundation published a special series of articles on women’s roles in the digital development of India. One describes how, for many rural women, technology remains a gatekeeper, barring them from economic mobility. To overcome this challenge, a programme will train women entrepreneurs, strengthen women-led community development organisations and establish digital resource centres. Read more.

Enabling policy and regulation

• In the Philippines, the Konektadong Pinoy Act, a groundbreaking measure aimed at enhancing broadband infrastructure and internet connectivity across the country, is scheduled to be signed into law by July this year. To discuss its reforms and benefits, a conference titled “Konektadong Pinoy: A Pro-Filipino, Pro-Consumer, Pro-Competition Digital Connectivity Law” will bring together different stakeholders on 28 March. Find out more about the topic and event here and here.
• Brazil's national telecoms agency, Anatel, is studying measures to simplify and reduce the costs of certifying equipment used by community networks. It has reinforced its recommendation that this connectivity alternative should be included in the country’s universal services fund. These issues were recently discussed at a meeting of the working group on community networks. Read more. [Available in Portuguese.]
• A background paper on the progress made in the implementation of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) during the past 20 years highlights how innovative mechanisms such as community networks have helped fill infrastructure gaps through local initiative and enterprise. Read more.
• Think 20 (T20), a dynamic network of research institutes and experts from across the world who provide vital input into G20 processes, has announced the list of policy brief abstracts approved from their latest call. One of them focuses on how community-centred connectivity initiatives help reduce inequality. Read more.

Publications, research and toolkits

• The Gender-Just Co-Design Toolkit provides guidance on what to consider when planning gender-just co-design for community development. The toolkit focuses on process planning and designing engagement that is tailored to a particular community development issue. Read more.
• An article featuring India's BharatNet programme, is available online. Representing one of the world's largest rural connectivity initiatives, the programme aims to bridge the digital divide across the nation's vast territory. Read more.
• The 2024 report from the Red de Investigación en Comunicación Comunitaria, Alternativa y Participativa, which examines the state of community media in Europe and Latin America, includes community-centred initiatives such as community mobile virtual network operators, alongside other community and Indigenous communication alternatives. Read more. [Available in Spanish.]

Events

• The Africa Tech Policy Summit 2025 is set to take place from 12 to 16 May in Nairobi, Kenya, bringing together policy makers, private sector leaders, academia, civil society and tech innovators. There is a call for workshop proposals. Read more.
• Convening under the theme "Building Digital Governance Together", this year's Internet Governance Forum (IGF) will take place from 23 to 27 June in Norway. Read more.
• From 28 to 30 October, in France, this year’s Global Development Conference 2025 will explore the theme “Inclusive Digital Transformation: Social Impacts and Technological Innovations”. The call for papers and ideas is currently open. Read more.
• “How can infrastructure help resilience? Building with communities at risk” was the theme of the online discussion held by the Nupef Institute on 25 February, during this year’s RightsCon. Some of the highlights of this conversation have been summarised by the institute in this article. Read more. [Available in Portuguese].

Funding opportunities

• The Connecting the Unconnected funding programme supports communities and local organisations working to build and expand internet infrastructure to connect people living in rural, remote and low-income areas. The first application window for this year is now open until 31 March 2025. Read more.
• The Information Society Innovation Fund supports organisations in the Asia-Pacific region to develop internet-based solutions for digital development challenges. The fund is now accepting applications for its 2025 funding cycle, with a deadline of 4 April. Read more. 

Community networks learning repository

This repository is a collective online space to store and exchange resources that can be useful in training processes focused on materials made for and by community networks.

Here you can find materials about gender and community networks. You can also upload your on own materials and suggest resources to be shared with others engaged with community-centred connectivity initiatives.

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. 

Previous editions of this newsletter are available here.

Invite others to subscribe to this monthly newsletter here!

One more thing! If you have comments about the newsletter or information relevant to the topic that you would like us to include in the next edition, please share it with us here.