31Aug

CIPESA Announces USD 150,000 in New ADRF Grants

CIPESA August 31, 2021February 12, 2023

By Ashnah Kalemera |

The Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) is pleased to announce that a total of USD 150,000 has been awarded to 13 entities under the fifth round of the Africa Digital Rights Fund (ADRF). Now in its second year, the latest round brings to USD 564,000, the total amount awarded by ADRF to 45 initiatives working to advance digital rights across the continent.

The winning entities will undertake research, capacity building, awareness raising, advocacy and stakeholder engagements in 25 countries – Algeria, Benin, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Morocco, Rwanda, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Senegal, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Togo, and Uganda.

While Artificial Intelligence (AI) is gaining prominence, the field and its intersection with the rights to freedom of expression, privacy and equality remain understudied in Africa. Alt Advisory will map private and public sector AI applications in South Africa and develop a framework for a rights-based assessment of such applications across the region. The research findings will feed into the development of an accessible web-based resource. Further, a series of consultative workshops will be hosted to raise awareness and engage stakeholders on safeguarding human rights in the context of AI, so as to inform future interventions such as a complaints mechanism, best practice guidelines, a model law, or strategic litigation.

Building on work around visualisation of the state of the Covid-19 pandemic in Africa, including lockdown restrictions, monetary policy responses and vaccine roll out, Covid Watch Africa will document the digital threats faced by civil society organisations and independent media in Africa and responses in the context of the pandemic. The analysis will inform campaigns and interactive media resources on operational capacity for digital resilience of Covid Watch Africa’s partner organisations and press corps members in 16 countries.

In the DR Congo, second time grantee Rudi International will continue to foster digital rights among key actors, this time targeting the National Assembly. Under the umbrella of the Association of Young Parliamentarians, Rudi International will engage members of the assembly on the Telecommunications and Technology Committee on the prevailing ICT policy landscape, how to champion positive reforms and ally with digital rights organisations. The engagements will also build the legislators’ digital security knowledge and skills.

With a new president in Tanzania, Zaina Foundation will convene a multi-stakeholder dialogue on internet rights and governance to seek the government’s commitments not to entrench digital repression but to promote progressive legislative and practical reforms instead.

Tunis-based Digitally Yours will study civic technology initiatives by governments and civil society in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, and Sudan to establish the reality beyond the hype. Through interviews with relevant actors and use-case analysis, Digitally Yours will explore the civic tech platforms’ utility, extent to which they uphold or undermine human rights, and potential for replication. Among the initiatives to be studied are open data portals, eGovernment services, Covid-19 vaccination portals, and online child abuse reporting channels. The findings will be published as multilingual commentaries, videos and podcasts.

Still on civic tech, and in line with the objectives of Somalia’s ICT Policy and Strategy 2019-2024, the Bareedo Platform will engage local government authorities in Garowe and Mogadishu on digital transformation for efficient service delivery, citizen empowerment and government-citizen interactions through hosting of roundtables and advocacy campaigns.

In Kenya’s largest informal settlement, Kibera, work by Tunapanda will provide grassroots women human rights defenders and feminist organisations with training on digital literacy, digital safety, content creation, digital rights, anti-censorship technologies, and civic participation online. These efforts will be complemented with the production of podcast series and comic strips to advance knowledge and sustainability in human rights advocacy.

Through digital security capacity building and advocacy, the Gender Tech Initiative will work to counter online gender-based violence against women journalists, bloggers, community leaders, feminists and activists in the northern Uganda districts of Kitgum, Lira, Pader and Nwoya. It will build these actors’ knowledge on the intersection between online gender-based violence and human rights work, and the appropriate response strategies against digital security challenges. Similarly, Girl Up Vine Club will train women, youth and journalists on women’s inclusion and safety online in Sierra Leone, alongside conducting nationwide television and radio campaigns against online sexual harassment.

Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) will raise awareness of Real411 – an independent digital platform for combating digital harms in South Africa through the production of multilingual animation videos on how to spot disinformation, and how to report to Real411. As the Secretariat of Real411, MMA will also develop a communications strategy to ensure wider audience reach, review the platform’s user experience and refresh the format of publication of outcomes of complaints assessments. Established in 2019, Real411 is run in partnership with the South African National Editors Forum (SANEF), the Press Council and it is endorsed by the South African government as the mechanism to help combat Covid-19 disinformation.

Still on combating online harms, Youth Net and Counselling will address growing misinformation and disinformation in Malawi through bulk SMS dissemination, radio talk shows, social media campaigns, performing arts and capacity building of journalists in fact checking.

Meanwhile, Sierra Leone youth advocacy and leadership organisation Chozen Generation will work to strengthen the capacity of youth activists and journalists in engagement and advocacy around the Access to Information law, 2013 and the recently passed Cybersecurity Act, 2021. Chozen Generation will also explore regulatory gaps in data protection and privacy, as well as consumer protection.

Lastly, PolicyLab Africa will develop digital literacy multi-media content and training modules and host digital literacy cafés targeting journalists, media and activists from Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria.

As with the first and second round of grantees, the fifth round grantees will be eligible for technical and institutional capacity building, including on data literacy and advocacy skills through the Data4Change initiative.

In the inaugural round of ADRF, initiatives with activities spanning 16 African countries received a total of USD 65,000. The second call for applications saw a total of USD 152,000 awarded to 14 initiatives to advance digital rights through various projects in 18 African countries. In its third round, the ADRF awarded USD 138,000 to 11 initiatives responding to the digital rights fallout from the fight against Covid-19. The fourth round awarded USD 63,000 to eight current or previous grantees to deploy six-months policy advocacy campaigns that further the conversation on internet freedom in Africa.

The ADRF’s supporters have included the Centre for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), the Ford Foundation, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the German Society for International Cooperation Agency (GIZ), and the Omidyar Network.

25Aug

Profiter de L’espace Numérique pour Combattre la Traite des êtres Mumains en RD Congo, en Gambie et en Mauritanie

CIPESA August 25, 2021August 27, 2021

Par Ashnah Kalemera et Simone Toussi |

L’utilisation croissante des technologies numériques en Afrique est entrain de faciliter les activités de traite de personnes dans la région. Cependant, ces mêmes technologies peuvent être mises à profit pour lutter contre ce fléau qui sévit sur le continent.

Avec le soutien du Fonds Africain pour les Droits Numériques (ADRF), le think tank juridique africain sur les droits des femmes (ALTOWR : African Legal Think Tank on Women’s Rights ) a étudié le rôle que joue l’internet pour faciliter la traite des êtres humains notamment dans les volets recrutement et publicité en ligne en République démocratique du Congo (RDC), en Gambie et en Mauritanie. En plus de résultats instructifs, le projet a produit un programme de renforcement de capacités sur la façon dont l’internet peut être utilisé pour faciliter ou mieux combattre la traite des êtres humains.

Selon le rapport annuel sur la traite des personnes (annual Trafficking in Persons Report), diverses formes de traite d’êtres humains sont pratiquées dans plusieurs pays africains. En 2020, pour 10 victimes de la traite, cinq étaient des femmes adultes et deux des filles. La RD Congo, la Gambie et la Mauritanie font partie des pays du continent où sévit ce fléau.

L’indice mondial de l’esclavage (Global Slavery Index), qui fait des statistiques à propos des lieux où l’esclavage moderne est pratiqué (travail forcé, traite des êtres humains et mariages forcés) et les réponses gouvernementale à ce phénomène a classé les trois pays au 12^ème, au 58^ème et au 6^ème rangs respectivement, sur un total de 167 pays étudiés au niveau mondial. Avec des taux de pénétration de l’internet de 19,2 % en RD Congo, de 63 % en Mauritanie et de 19 % en Gambie, les réseaux de traite des êtres humains dans ces pays s’appuient de plus en plus sur l’internet et les plateformes de médias sociaux pour recruter leurs victimes.

En RD Congo, on estime le nombre de victimes de la traite à plus d’un million, soumis . Dans la plupart du temps « au travail forcé dans les sites miniers artisanaux, à l’agriculture, à l’esclavage domestique, ou au recrutement d’enfants par des groupes armés pour le combat ou le soutien aux combattants, ainsi qu’au trafic sexuel ».

En effet, l’étude d’ALTOWR a révélé que les déplacements de populations causés par les conflits armés en RD Congo ont créé un environnement favorable à l’exploitation des communautés vulnérables. L’étude détaille des cas d’esclavage sexuel et de mariages forcés dans la capitale du pays, Kinshasa, ainsi qu’au Rwanda voisin ; des migrations clandestines vers l’Afrique du Sud via le Burundi et la Tanzanie ; et des enlèvements, ce qui entraine des maladies sexuellement transmissibles, notamment le VIH/SIDA, des grossesses non désirées et le paiement de lourdes rançons. Comme résultats de toutes les études de cas, il ressort que les auteurs de ces délits ont utilisé des plateformes de médias sociaux, notamment Facebook et WhatsApp, pour attirer leurs victimes.

Pour en savoir plus, lire : Le rôle de l’internet dans la croissance de la Traite des êtres humains en République Démocratique du Congo

En Gambie, on estime que 11 000 personnes sont victimes d’esclavage moderne, sur une population totale avoisinant deux millions d’habitants. Les femmes, les filles et, dans une certaine mesure, les garçons gambiens sont victimes du trafic sexuel et du travail forcé, et cela est favorisé par le fort dynamisme du secteur touristique dans ce pays.

La loi gambienne contre la traite des êtres humains a été adoptée en 2007 et le pays a créé l’agence nationale anti traite des personnes (National Agency Against Trafficking in Persons), dont les activités ont débuté en 2013 mais entravées par un manque ressources suffisantes. En conséquence, l’étude d’ALTOWR a révélé que les efforts pour poursuivre les auteurs de la traite des personnes s’avèrent «insignifiants ». Parmi les cas étudiés, notamment ceux de la traite des Gambiens vers le Moyen-Orient, il a été prouvé que la logistique du voyage est organisée en ligne.

Lisez plus de détails : Le rôle de l’Internet dans la croissance de la traite des êtres humains en Gambie

Entre-temps, les réformes contre la traite et le trafic de personnes en Mauritanie ne produisent pas les résultats escomptés. En effet, cette forme d’esclavage moderne «est ancrée dans la société, le statut d’esclave étant hérité et profondément ancré dans les castes sociales et le système social en général », dans un pays où l’on estime le nombre de victimes à 90 000 sur une population de quatre millions d’habitants. Située à cheval entre l’Afrique du Nord et l’Afrique subsaharienne, et dotée d’une frontière longue et poreuse, la Mauritanie constitue une voie de transit privilégiée pour les passeurs et les trafiquants entre l’Afrique, l’Europe et le Moyen-Orient.

Pour en savoir plus, lire : Le rôle de l’internet dans la croissance de la traite des êtres humains en Mauritanie

En Afrique, les trafiquants d’êtres humains utilisent internet pour identifier, recruter, contraindre et contrôler les victimes, ainsi que pour faire la publicité de services ou produits. Ils l’utilisent également pour blanchir les revenus illicites tirés de leurs activités. Les passeurs de migrants utilisent l’internet à des fins similaires. Le crime organisé en ligne en Afrique, du web visible au Dark web

Ces études recommandent aux gouvernements, à la société civile et aux autres parties prenantes des trois pays de recourir à ces mêmes plateformes de communication en ligne pour mener des campagnes de prévention et de protection ainsi que des actions de sensibilisation, notamment sur les risques, les services d’alerte disponibles et l’accès aux services d’aide (psychosociale, mentale, physique et juridique, y compris les services d’orientation). En ce qui concerne la répression, les recommandations insistent sur la nécessité de renforcer les compétences et les connaissances des autorités chargées de l’application de la loi afin de comprendre la traite des êtres humains faite via Internet. Ces études recommandent également de faire usage de la technologie pour protéger les témoins pendant les procédures pénales et de mettre en place un cadre légal spécifique relatif aux crimes sexuels en ligne et à la cyber-traite.

Les conclusions et recommandations de ces études ont servi à l’élaboration de supports de formation adaptés aux réalités dans chacun des trois pays, ciblant les survivants à ce genre de crime et les réseaux de lutte contre la traite des êtres humains. L’objectif des formations était de leur fournir des compétences techniques afin qu’ils puissent plaider pour la mise en place de stratégies de prévention et de protection. Ces formations ont touché un total de 63 bénéficiaires, comprenant des groupes de jeunes, des organisations de défense des droits des femmes et des organisations de la société civile. Elles ont été chaque fois précédées par une formation de formateurs dans chaque pays.

Les sujets de discussion qui ont émergé lors des formations ont servi d’agenda à deux tables rondes régionales [une en Français, l’autre en Anglais]. Elles ont exploré les moyens d’améliorer et de mettre en œuvre les cadres juridiques existants, de renforcer les contrôles aux frontières et de mettre en place des initiatives multiparti-prenantes visant à éradiquer les contraintes et pratiques socioculturelles qui nuisent aux droits des victimes. Les participants aux tables rondes étaient issus de l’Union africaine, du Centre Nord-Sud du Conseil de l’Europe, de l’unité de lutte contre la traite des êtres humains de l’Organisation Internationale pour les Migrations, ainsi que de plusieurs groupes de réflexion, réseaux et organisations de la société civile.

Comme résolutions, les participants se sont engagés à créer des groupes de travail nationaux pour la mise en place de plans d’action multi parties prenantes visant à mieux utiliser l’internet dans la lutte contre la traite des êtres humains. Les résultats de l’étude continueront à servir de référence pour le travail de l’ALTOWR et de CIPESA pour une meilleure utilisation des technologies numériques dans la lutte contre la traite des êtres humains en Afrique.

20Aug

A Partnership to Advance Digital Rights and Internet Development in Africa

CIPESA August 20, 2021February 12, 2023

By Israel Nyoh |

The Internet Society and the Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) recently signed an agreement to work together for an open, secure, and trustworthy Internet for Africa.

A digital revolution is transforming markets and societies across Africa. Digitalization is helping governments to generate more income, while enabling e-commerce, e-health, and automation, which is strengthening African economies. But, as is often the case, with each technological promise there is also a threat. Because many African countries grapple with digital literacy and security challenges, digital technologies are being used to foster cyber criminality and cyber surveillance, while governments sometimes deny citizens their digital rights.

The agreement commits the Internet Society and CIPESA to advancing progressive Internet policy, advocating for the Internet way of networking, encryption, and measuring the health of digital infrastructure in the region.

Actions that promote a “trustworthy Internet to every African are of critical importance for the digital transformation plans that many African countries are implementing,” says Dawit Bekele, Regional Vice President for Africa, Internet Society.

The two organizations have further committed to:

Share knowledge, ideas, and lessons learned in Internet policy, encryption, and the Internet way of networking in Africa.
Pool efforts and expertise in responding to Internet policy issues in Africa.
Undertake joint research and stakeholder engagements, and lead advocacy on critical Internet policy and Internet development issues in the region.

CIPESA has a history of advocating for digital rights and building capacity on digital security in Africa, mostly through research, stakeholder engagements, and knowledge sharing. This agreement with the Internet Society will strengthen CIPESA’s efforts while enabling it to also reach new constituencies in Africa.

Wairagala Wakabi, Executive Director of CIPESA, says, “The key to meaningfully promoting digital rights and Internet development in Africa lies in multi-sector partnerships that leverage varied expertise, address the critical and emerging issues, and steadily reach wider constituencies of multiple stakeholders.”

History of Collaboration

The Internet Society and CIPESA have been working together for close to a decade to advance digital rights in Africa.

Their work has focused on strengthening the development of personal data protection guidelines for Africa, fighting against Internet shutdown and restrictions, and growing the community of people advancing digital rights and Internet development in Africa, through the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica).

This article was first published by the Internet Society on August 19, 2021.

20Aug

Leveraging the Digital Space to Combat Human Trafficking in DR Congo, The Gambia and Mauritania

CIPESA August 20, 2021February 12, 2023

By Ashnah Kalemera and Simone Toussi |

The growth in usage of digital technologies in Africa is fuelling technology-enabled human trafficking activities in the region. But these very technologies can be leveraged to fight the vice that is sweeping across the continent..

With support from the Africa Digital Rights Fund (ADRF), the African Legal Think Tank on Women’s Rights (ALTOWR) has studied the role of the internet in fuelling human trafficking, including online recruitment and advertisement in Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), The Gambia and Mauritania. Besides the results being enlightening, the project has produced a curriculum for skills and knowledge building on how the internet can be used to fuel or to combat human trafficking.

According to the annual Trafficking in Persons Report, many African countries experience diverse forms of human trafficking. In 2020, for every 10 victims of trafficking, five were adult women and two were girls. DR Congo, The Gambia and Mauritania are among the countries on the continent where the vice is rife.

The Global Slavery Index, which measures where modern slavery (forced labour, human trafficking and forced marriages) occurs and how governments are responding, ranked the three countries 12th, 58th and 6th respectively, out of 167 globally. With national internet penetration rates of 19.2% in DR Congo, 63% in Mauritania and 19% in The Gambia, human trafficking networks in these countries are increasing relying on the internet and social media platforms to recruit victims.

In the DR Congo, there are over one million estimated victims, with most trafficking involving “forced labour in artisanal mining sites, agriculture, domestic servitude, or armed groups recruiting children in combat and support roles, as well as sex trafficking.”

Indeed, ALTOWR’s study found that population displacement due to the conflict in the DR Congo had created a favourable environment for exploitation of vulnerable communities. The study details cases of sexual slavery and forced marriages in the country’s capital Kinshasa, as well as in neighbouring Rwanda; illegal migration to South Africa via Burundi and Tanzania; and abductions, resulting in sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/ AIDS, unwanted pregnancies, and hefty ransom payments. In all case studies, the perpetrators used social media platforms including Facebook and Whatsapp to lure victims.

In The Gambia, an estimated 11,000 individuals are victims of modern slavery, out of a total population of just under two million. Gambian women, girls and to some extent boys are subjected to sex trafficking and forced labour fuelled by the country’s thriving tourism sector.

Gambia’s law against human trafficking was passed in 2007 and the country established the National Agency Against Trafficking in Persons, whose operations commenced in 2013 but are restricted by limited resources. As such, According to the ALTOWR study, efforts to prosecute perpetrators of human trafficking are “minimal.” Among the cases investigated, particularly for Gambians trafficked to the Middle East, travel logistics are arranged online.

Read more: The Role of the Internet in Fueling the Growth of Human Trafficking in The Gambia

Meanwhile, despite reforms against trafficking and smuggling of persons in Mauritania, modern slavery “is entrenched in society with slave status being inherited and deeply rooted in social castes and wider social system” in the country where there are an estimated 90,000 victims, out of a population of four million. Located between North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa, with a long and porous border, Mauritania is a transit route for smugglers and traffickers between Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

Read more: Le Rôle de l’internet dans la Croissance de la Traite des Etres Humains en Mauritanie

In Africa, human traffickers use the Internet to identify, recruit, coerce and control victims as well as to advertise the services or products resulting from their exploitation. They also use it to launder the illicit revenue earned from their activities. Migrant smugglers use the Internet for similar purposes. Online African Organized Crime from Surface to Darkweb, 2020

The studies recommend that government, civil society and other stakeholders in the three countries leverage online platforms for prevention and protection campaigns as well as outreach, including on risks, avenues for reporting and access to support services (psychosocial, mental, physical and legal including referrals). On prosecution, recommendations include the need for skills and knowledge building for enforcement authorities to understand human trafficking via the internet. The studies also recommend leveraging technology for witness protection during criminal proceedings and the enactment of specific legislation on online sex crimes and cyber trafficking.

The findings and recommendations of the studies fed into the development of country-specific curriculums that informed three in-country trainings targeted at survivors and networks working to combat human trafficking. The aim was to equip them with tools to influence prevention and protection strategies. The trainings reached a total of 63 beneficiaries including youth groups, women’s rights organisations, and civil society organisations, and were preceded by a Trainings of Trainers (ToT) in each country.

The discussions at the trainings fed into two regional roundtables [French and English] which explored ways to improve and implement the existing legal frameworks, strengthen border controls, and multi-stakeholder efforts to eradicate socio-cultural constraints and practices that undermine victims’ rights. Representatives in the roundtables were drawn from the African Union, the North-South Center Council of Europe, the Counter Trafficking Unit of the International Organization for Migration, alongside several think-tanks, networks, and civil society organisations.

The engagements resulted in the establishment of country task forces to support the development of collaborative action plans that leverage the internet to push back against human trafficking. The study results will continue to inform the work by ALTOWR and CIPESA in understanding how digital technologies can best be leveraged to combat human trafficking in Africa.

19Aug

A Call on TECNO to Uphold Users Privacy and Security

CIPESA August 19, 2021February 11, 2023

Open Letter |

Strengthening the digital security of at-risk groups and organisations amidst growing digital rights attacks in Africa has become increasingly crucial. However, inadequate device security is undermining such efforts.

Investigations by Privacy International have revealed that TECNO – a phone manufacturer with an estimated 47% market share in East Africa and widely used across other regions on the continent – is putting users’ privacy and security at risk.

Based on testing of a TECNO device – the Y2 – purchased in Uganda, the investigations reveal that the phone’s operating system was outdated, having not received updates since 2013. Further, pre-installed applications that users can not uninstall were using up space on the device. Whereas the specific model of phone with the vulnerabilities was discontinued from production by TECNO back in November 2019, it remained on sale as recently as 2020.

In response to the revelations, Privacy International, the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA), together with nine other civil society organisations have submitted a letter to TECNO calling on the Chinese manufacturer to make changes to their practices and protect users’ privacy and security.

The letter urges TECNO to make three key changes to significantly improve their users’ privacy and security:

TECNO should ship phones with a supported version of the Android operating system.
TECNO should do their best to support the longevity of their devices and therefore combat e-waste. They must tell consumers, at the point of sale, how long their device will be supported, provide regular updates to the device, and notify users when continuing to use a device poses a risk to their privacy or security.
TECNO should minimise the amount of bloatware, superfluous apps and other extras that come pre-installed on their phones. Whenever bloatware is included, it should exist in the user partition and therefore be removable by the user.

“It’s vital that TECNO listen to civil society and make these small changes to protect their users. TECNO users across Africa and the world deserve to know what they’re buying, especially when their phone will no longer receive security support,” said Caitlin Bishop, Privacy International’s project lead on work around low-cost technology.

“Skills in digital security and safety are lacking among some of the most at-risk groups in many African countries. Surveillance schemes by state and non-state actors leverage this skills and knowledge gap. It is important therefore that leading device manufacturers, such as TECNO, guarantee privacy and security by design in order to ensure the safety of users,” said Ashnah Kalemera, CIPESA’s Programme Manager.

A copy of the letter can be accessed here.

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