1. Gender and Internet Governance Exchanges

Each exchange will take place over 2 days prior to the regional Internet Governance Forum in Africa, Asia and Latin America. 10-15 participants from each region will be selected based on a set of criteria defined by the regional coordination team made up of APC staff and members.  The two days will focus on:

  • Day 1: What does gender and women’s rights have to do with Internet Governance: (What is IG? a) History, impetus including cross-jurisdictional issues b) Ecology: principle institutions (incl regional and national), actors, processes c) Current debates in IG: multistakeholder, role of the state, fracture of civil society, geopolitical issues
  • Day 2: Thematic discussions from a gender / women’s rights perspective informed by regional context eg privacy, security, intellectual property, technology-related  violence against women, intermediary liability, net neutrality, data protection, sexual rights, access, freedom of expression and association etc

The methodology will be a mix of inputs by resource people and interactive, peer-to-peer discussions / learning processes drawing on participants existing knowledge and experience. Additional reading and resource material will be provided beforehand.
2. Capacity building / knowledge wiki

As part of a process to update the second edition of the APC Policy Toolkit (published 2011) as well as APCs Internet Rights are Human Rights curriculum, and APCs overall approach to capacity building, we will develop a platform to house the training material developed for these events. The format will allow modules to be updated, new ones developed, and for trainers and participants to be able to access different kinds of material eg training agendas and exercises, thematic resource etc.
3. Networking & Advocacy

Participants attending the schools will put their learning in practice by attending, participating and influencing the discussions at their respective regional IGFs. The capacity building program of each regional gigX will include a component where participants will be invited to strategise and establish advocacy goals and talking points. In the course of the regional forums, APC will provide support and mentorship for participants by organising daily check-ins and strategy meetings with the participants as well as meetings with key stakeholders present at the forums. In addition, participants will contribute to the development of a set of international standards on preventing and responding to technology-based VAW with the objective of informing the elaboration of protocols and policies from a women’s rights perspective.

The project will aim to create and build on existing networks of women’s rights organisations working on internet governance and to give the opportunity to participants to build a support network in their advocacy as well as a space to share ideas and identify possible points of convergence, trends and gaps. To support those networks APC will create and maintain regional and global email lists to allow participants to network beyond the schools and sustain links and synergies between regions and activists from different parts of the world.

4. Communications

The project communications a set of media products by participants and experts in the field with the aims of influencing public discourse and decision-makers on gender and internet governance and of contributing to a growing body of knowledge on the issue. The communications activities entail:

  • Developing an identity and a space that links the regional schools together, as well as to identify common points between the 3 regions and global issues in terms of gender and internet governance: A common visual identity as well as a online platform presenting the curriculum, curated content on Gender & IG as well as resources for women’s rights organisations and activist who are doing advocacy on the issues.
  • Producing and publishing information articulating and unpacking issues at the intersection of women’s rights, sexual rights and internet governance: In addition to the capacity building material and resources, an infographic mapping the environment on gender and internet governance as well as an issue paper framing the issues will be produced and published. 3 GenderIT.org mini-editions for each regional school will also be published and syndicated on the gigX online platform.
  • Promoting the efforts of women’s rights and sexual rights activist in regional and international internet governance spaces: Each Gender and Internet Governance Exchange will have a rapporteur who will produce 4 blog posts relating the discussions and the learnings of the participants. In addition, participants will be ask to produce 1 small blog post on their impressions and learnings, or their analysis of a particular regional issue in the form of a blog post, a video or an audio recording that can be published online. These stories, as well relevant resources and analyses will be package in GenderIT.org editions.

Leave a Reply