Promoting Effective and Inclusive ICT Policy in Africa

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21Oct

African Civic Tech and COVID-19: Five Emerging Trends

Author CIPESA Writer Posted on

By Melissa Zisengwe |

Africa has a growing civic tech community that focuses on issues such as accountability and transparency, data journalism, citizen participation, and public services monitoring. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, various technologies have been deployed by citizens, civil society organisation, start-ups, private companies, universities and governments to aid the fight against COVID-19.  Specifically, the civic tech community has created several innovations or adapted and repurposed existing resources to confront the COVID-19 pandemic.

The findings resulting from interviews conducted with civic tech innovations from Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda indicate that the potential for technology to facilitate the fight against COVID-19 is clear. Across the continent, the emerging trends include contact tracing, instant messaging, digital governance, information dashboards and predictions and debunking misinformation.

For instance, platforms leveraging instant messaging applications such as GovChat and Grassroot in South Africa, as well as Uganda’s Ministry of Health Chatbot have supported remote government-citizen interactions, community organising and access to information, respectively in compliance with national COVID-19 standard operating procedures. Similarly, there has been a shift in governments’ adoption and use of technology, with many operations such as  the judiciary in Kenya and emergency services in Uganda moving online.

Further, the use of data mining and spatial analysis techniques to aid analysis into  the spread of the virus at provincial level in South Africa, and functioning of health centres in Burkina Faso indicates that the civic tech community, along with the private sector and the government, appreciate the importance of access to information in a pandemic.

While dashboards are keeping citizens updated on Coronavirus related news, some organisations are taking it a step further to ensure that citizens receive the accurate information and stop the spread of the disinfodemic, which is the spread of unverified, untrue information about the disease. This is being achieved through virtual games in Uganda and live guides among others.

 In several countries, organisations, governments and companies are reported to have employed digital contact tracing measures. Although the extent of this trend is unknown, common practices include contact tracing apps, CCTV surveillance, and cell phone location data tracking.

While these contact tracing apps and efforts could indeed aid the countries in their fight against COVID-19, they present some concerns over data privacy and surveillance. Tracking via mobile technology means personal information such as an individual’s location and movements, and their COVID-19 status could be disclosed without consent and oversight mechanisms for protection and accountability.

The trends above show that the civic tech community in Africa is willing to do their part in society and that innovation is not always a shiny new app or product; rather, sometimes it is existing tools and methodologies which can be repurposed to respond to  emerging needs. While these tools have been instrumental in shaping the fight against COVID-19, user sensitisation towards increased adoption during and in the aftermath of the pandemic remains crucial.

Read the full brief here.

Melissa Zisengwe is a 2020 CIPESA Fellow focussing on the area of civic technology in Africa.

05Oct

Extension: Apply To Participate in Disinformation and Human Rights Online Training Series

Author CIPESA Writer Posted on

Call for Applications |

To allow for interactive discussion about specific cases and in-country contexts, we are limiting participant numbers to 20. Please see below for eligibility criteria and details about how to apply.
Details:

This online training series is aimed at expert and non-expert members of civil society with an interest in tackling misinformation and disinformation using a rights-respecting approach.

The training series will consist of two interactive workshops to be held via Zoom on:

Thursday 5 November, 2-4pm EAT and Wednesday 11 November, 2-3pm EAT;

OR

Wednesday 18 November 2-4pm EAT and Wednesday 25 November, 2-3pm EAT.

Participants will also be invited to participate in a one hour follow up call during December.

The series will be delivered by international, regional and local experts on disinformation and human rights and seeks to:

      1. Increase participants’ understanding of human rights issues relating to disinformation and misinformation.
      2. Increase participants’ understanding of policy and legal responses to disinformation in their region.
      3. Introduce participants to basic tools and methodologies to detect mis/disinformation
      4. Increase participants’ capacity to engage with representatives from government, business and journalism on disinformation and human rights (particularly the right to freedom of expression and the right to privacy) in policymaking processes and debates relating to disinformation and misinformation.

Please note that sessions will be delivered in English.

Eligibility criteria:

Applicants from the following countries are eligible to apply: Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone Somalia, Somaliland, Tanzania, Uganda.

Applicants affiliated to NGOs, social enterprise companies and think tanks are eligible to apply. Media, academic and non-affiliated applicants will also be considered.

Applicants from governments and private companies (except social enterprises) are not eligible for this training series. 

Selection criteria:

Eligible applicants will be assessed by the quality of their motivation to participate in the training, as set out in answer to their application.

We particularly welcome applications from individuals and organisations that are interested in engaging in this policy area within the region and/or their countries in the longer term.

29Sep

Three Days of Digital Rights at #FIFAfrica20! Two Day Down, One to Go!

Author admin Posted on

#FIFAfrica20 |

Day two of the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa 2020 (FIFAfrica20) has wound down, with yet more engagement, experience sharing, skills building, assembly of thought leadership, insights and opinions on digital rights from across the continent and beyond.

The third and final day will be just as inspiring, kicking off with a dialogue on internet accessibility for persons with disability during Covid-19 at the remote hub in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Virtually, discussions on inclusion of persons with disability in the digital society will see GSMA host a talk on digital assistive technologies in low and middle income countries in Africa and Asia. Based on a landscape study, GSMA’s session will highlight the characteristics of the digital inclusion of women with disabilities including opportunities for innovators, the mobile industry and other stakeholders. On the first day of FIFAfrica, CIPESA explored how the telecommunications sector has largely excluded persons with disabilities from their service offerings in many African states.

Further on non-discrimination online, a collaborative session exploring where African women are placed – or left out of – on the internet will navigate a series of issues including imagining inclusive gender connectivity, the implications of Covid-19 on online African feminist movement building through to feminist research and the roles these are playing in the digital rights movement.

Internet users that are able to overcome discrimination and access barriers are faced with more challenges – among them the spread of false and misleading information online. Indeed, disinformation has come to play a concerning role on the internet, often fuelled by limited digital literacy and/or increasingly sinister motives. Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) will host a session on exploring how disinformation causes harm, undermines democracy, spreads fear, anxiety and deepens exclusion. In particular, MMA’s session will focus on the role that platforms should play in ensuring that public interest is maintained in efforts to combat disinformation online.

Meanwhile, Global Partners Digital (GPD) will highlight government responses to  disinformation in Africa over the past decade including during the heightened context of the Covid-19 pandemic. Drawing on expertise from Africa-based civil society groups that have jointly developed a disinformation policy tracker to track and analyse disinformation laws, policies and patterns of enforcement across Sub-Saharan Africa, the GPD session, which will also feature academia and private sector representatives, will advocate for a shift towards a more rights-respecting and evidence-based approach to combating disinformation online.

As deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across the world gains momentum, its impacts are far-reaching. Yet still, conversations around responsible AI, have generally excluded the global south and in turn, this is likely to have consequences in the way in which AI technologies are designed, developed, and deployed for the region! The session will call for the decolonisation of AI in Africa and explore the need for inclusivity of more stakeholders in the development of AI in Africa.

The Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria will unpack the right to privacy within the revised Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa.  AccessNow, the #KeepItOn coalition lead will amplify the diverse strategies being employed  by activists, journalists, technologists, individuals among others to fight against the worrying trend of increased internet shutdowns  around the world. The session will build on day one and two of FIFAfrica20 engagements including catalysts for collaboration in digital rights strategic litigation.

Furthering the topic of strategic litigation, a Media Defence session will also outline experiences of strategic litigation in the context of digital rights.  The goal is to allow litigators to discuss with internet freedom and freedom of expression communities the practical realities of litigating digital rights, often against a hostile political backdrop. Media Defence will also use the session to develop relationships and widen its collaboration with other organisations that may benefit from legal expertise and/or financial support in these cases.

The tone for the close of FIFAfrica20 will be set by the presentation of the African Internet Rights Alliance (AIRA), a  coalition of civil society organisations working to advance digital rights in all aspects of life, governance and the economy on the continent. The AIRA session will share insights into the Alliance’s work over the past three years and discuss the need for transnational collaboration, partnerships and coalition-building to protect and expand digital rights across Africa.

Find the report here.

28Sep

Report Launch: How Telecom Operators in Africa Are Failing Persons With Disabilities

Author admin Posted on

#FIFAfrica20 |

Today, the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) has released a new report which shows that several telecom companies in Sub-Saharan Africa have failed to meet their obligations to provide information and services to persons with disabilities. The report assessed 10 telecom companies in five countries: Botswana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Uganda and was based on guidelines from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Model Accessibility Policy 2014, the  World Wide Web Consortium’s Web and Mobile Content Accessibility Guidelines, and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

Most of the companies assessed – despite being long-established operators with the majority market share in their respective countries – failed to prioritise the needs of telecom customers with disabilities in contravention of the companies’ obligations under national laws and the CRPD.

Safaricom in Kenya and Vodacom South Africa were found to be leading in improving accessibility of communication products and services for persons with disabilities. The good performance by Safaricom and Vodacom in comparison to other companies reviewed appears to be driven by the policies and culture of the Vodafone group to which both belong and not by regulations or regulators in Kenya and South Africa.

MTN’s operations in Nigeria, South Africa, and Uganda, as well as Airtel’s operations in Nigeria and Uganda seemed to give low consideration to accessibility of their services by persons with disabilities. This was evidenced by the consistent non-compliance with the accessibility indicators covered in the study across the countries where MTN and Airtel operated.

The report was launched at the Forum of Internet Freedom in Africa 2020 (FIFAfrica20) as part of commemorations of the International Day for Universal Access to Information (September 28). The findings  featured in panel discussions on how Covid-19 has accelerated the digital exclusion of persons with disabilities, which is undermining a key pillar of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – the pledge to leave no one behind.

Given the critical role the telecom industry plays in providing information and communication services, it is of utmost importance that it takes deliberate measures to promote accessibility of its products and services. The industry also needs to create awareness of accessible mobile communications among persons with disabilities, their caregivers, and organisations of persons with disabilities (DPOs).

Recommendations

  1. Telecom operators need to address concerns of persons with disabilities regarding their services and products, including through provision of information in accessible formats such as Braille, large print, visual and audio formats; understand the numbers and needs of their customers with disabilities so that they build focused products and services to suit these customers; ramp up sensitivity training for their staff, including in basic sign language.
  2. Government agencies such as communication regulators and consumer protection units should enforce legislation on accessible communication products and services. More vigilance is needed in enforcing implementation of national disability laws, Codes of Practice, consumer rights regulations, and ICT and disability policies.
  3. Safaricom and Vodacom South Africa provide learning examples for other operators on proactively improving digital accessibility and building partnerships that improve service provision to persons with disabilities. Regulators also need to learn from these examples to offer guidance to operators in their jurisdictions.
  4. Telecom companies should form partnerships with academia, civil society, DPOs, tech developers and innovators and device manufacturers to develop accessible mobile communication solutions.
  5. Governments should offer incentives for investment and innovation in accessible mobile devices and software solutions to encourage the development and availability of such technologies and solutions. Examples of such incentives are tax exemption on handsets/mobile devices tailored to the needs of persons with disabilities.

The full report can be found here.

06Aug

FIFAfrica20: Call For Proposals

Author admin Posted on

Announcement |

The Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) and Paradigm Initiative (PIN) are pleased to announce the 2020 edition of the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica20) and to invite session proposals. This landmark event convenes a spectrum of stakeholders from across the internet governance and digital rights arenas in Africa and beyond to deliberate on gaps, concerns and opportunities for advancing privacy, free expression, non-discrimination and the free flow of information online.

In light of the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic, FIFAfrica20 will adopt a hybrid approach which blends online and physical interactions.

As such, we welcome session proposal applications including but not limited to:

  • In-country physical convenings of no more than 25 people as permitted and guided by Covid-19 in-country regulations.
  • Virtual sessions such as webinars, panel discussions, presentations, lightning talks.
  • Live social media engagements (Facebook Live, Instagram Live, Twitter Chats etc).
  • Pre-recorded materials such as short documentaries and podcasts.
  • Virtual exhibitions e.g. photography, digital stories, illustrative art, etc.

FIFAfrica 2020 will aim to livestream the successful sessions and to engage wider audiences via social media.

Subject to need and scope, limited funding is available to support coordination, technical and logistical aspects of successful session proposals. Cost-sharing and collaborative partnerships are strongly encouraged.

Please note the below important dates related to participation at the Forum:

  • Session proposals will be accepted till August 21, 2020
  • Successful session proposals will be directly notified by August 31, 2020.
  • Registration for participation will open August 31, 2020

Submit Your Session Proposal For #FIFAfrica20

For questions, please email [email protected]

 

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