ICT policy Archives – Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA)

30Aug

Job Opportunity: Finance and Grants Manager

CIPESA August 30, 2023November 7, 2023

Announcement |

We are searching for a Finance and Grants Manager who will be responsible for overseeing financial transactions, maintaining accurate financial records, and ensuring compliance with financial policies and regulations.

Job Description

Position: Finance and Grants Manager

Organisation: Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA)

Location: Kampala, Uganda

Duration: Three years (renewable)

About Us: Established in 2004, CIPESA is a leading centre for research and analysis of information aimed to enable policy makers in the region to understand ICT policy issues, and for various multi-stakeholders to effectively use ICT to improve governance and livelihoods. Our work responds to shortage of information, resources and actors consistently working at the nexus of technology, human rights and society in Africa. We conduct our work mostly through research, advocacy, capacity development, and convenings.

Main Purpose of Job:

The Finance and Grants Manager is responsible for overseeing financial transactions, maintaining accurate financial records, and ensuring compliance with financial policies and regulations. This role plays a vital part in the organisation’s financial management and supports decision-making processes by providing accurate and timely financial information. Furthermore, the Manager will support the CIPESA management in donor compliance, timely reporting, project document filing, and project management.

Key responsibilities

Financial Transactions:
- Process and record financial transactions, including payments, invoices, receipts, and expenses.
- Ensure accuracy and completeness of financial data and documentation.
- Review and verify financial documents for compliance with organisational policies and procedures.
Budget Management:
- Assist in budget preparation, monitoring, and control.
- Track budget expenditures and report on variances.
- Collaborate with relevant departments to ensure adherence to budgetary guidelines.
Financial Reporting:
- Prepare and generate financial reports, including balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements.
- Provide regular financial reports to management, highlighting key financial metrics and trends.
Bank and Cash Management:
- Manage bank accounts and perform bank reconciliations.
- Monitor cash flows and ensure adequate liquidity to meet organisational needs.
- Facilitate cash and fund transfers as required.
Audit and Compliance:
- Assist in the preparation for internal and external audits.
- Ensure compliance with financial regulations and reporting requirements.
- Implement and maintain internal controls to safeguard assets and prevent fraud.
Financial Analysis:
- Conduct financial analysis to support decision-making and long-term financial planning.
- Provide insights and recommendations based on financial data.
Payroll Processing:
- Administer payroll processes, including salary calculations, deductions, and tax compliance.
- Ensure accurate and timely disbursement of employee salaries and salary slips.
Vendor and Supplier Management:
- Manage relationships with vendors and suppliers.
- Review and process supplier invoices and payments.

9. Grant Management:

Oversee the implementation of grant-funded programs and projects.
Monitor grant progress, track expenses, and ensure compliance with grant requirements.
Prepare and submit required grant reports and documentation in a timely manner.
Maintain accurate records of grant-related activities

10. Relationship Building:

Cultivate and maintain positive relationships with donors, funding agencies and programme partners.
Attend meetings, conferences, and networking events to stay informed about grant opportunities and trends.

11. Compliance and Risk Management:

Ensure that the organisation complies with grant requirements and regulations.
Identify and mitigate risks associated with grant-funded projects.

Qualifications and Skills:

Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, or a related field.
Professional certification (e.g., CPA, CFA) is a plus.
Proven experience in finance or accounting roles and grants management .
Familiarity with financial regulations, accounting principles, and best practices.
Proficiency in financial software e.g. QuickBooks and Microsoft Office applications, especially Excel.
Knowledge of donor compliance regulations
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
Excellent attention to detail and organisational skills.
Effective communication and interpersonal skills.
Ability to work independently and as part of a team.

Standards of Professional Conduct:

CIPESA staff and partners must adhere to the values and principles outlined in the Code of Conduct, Equal Opportunity Policy, and Safeguarding against Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and Sexual Harassment (SEAH) Policy. In accordance with these CIPESA operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Harassment-Free Workplace, Fiscal Integrity, Anti-Retaliation, and several others.

Application Process:

Refer to the application procedures here.

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.

07Oct

ICT in Governance in Kenya – Policies and Practice

admin October 7, 2015

“In November 2014, internet statistics source Socialbakers estimated that there were 3.6 million Kenyans on Facebook, with 64% of them male and 36% female. The majority of Facebook users (75%) were aged 18-34 years. As of September 2015, the Kenyan Twitter account with the highest number of followers was @UKenyatta, the Kenyan President’s account that had over one million followers, followed by @ntvkenya with 979,838 followers.”

This report reviews government and non-government Information and Communication Technology (ICT) initiatives in Kenya, and examines how ICT-related policies and other legislation affect citizen participation and democratic governance. Among others, the study covers the link between ICT and political participation, social accountability, public services delivery and citizen engagement. The report is based on policy analysis,
stakeholder interviews and literature review, and aims to inform awareness raising initiatives and advocacy for more progressive policies and practices regarding the use of ICT in governance and civic participation in Kenya.

14Mar

Towards an African Declaration on Internet Rights

admin March 14, 2014

As internet usage continues to grow in Africa, so does the interest by governments to monitor users’ online activities. This has led to a clash between internet rights promoters and governments in some African countries.
On February 12–13, 2014, participants from several African civil society organisations involved in promoting human rights and internet rights convened in Johannesburg, South Africa to draft an African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms. The meeting was organised by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and Global Partners Digital in collaboration with the Media Rights Agenda, Media Foundation for West Africa and the Kenya Human Rights Commission.
Many countries justify their tough stance on internet freedom as necessary to fight cybercrime, promote peace and maintain national security. Whereas some of these policies and practices have been adopted by authoritarian regimes to retain power, others were in response to national crisis contexts such as hate speech and terrorism. Ultimately, the measures have often had chilling effects on access to information, freedom of expression, privacy and data protection.
Participants in this meeting called for the promotion of an open, free and accessible internet. Issues identified as the most crucial and still hindering internet growth in Africa that need immediate action were: improving access to internet including the development and promotion of localised multi-lingual content; addressing internet infrastructure obstacles; capacity building for users; and the need to create a balance between freedom of expression and privacy of users.
Others identified were data protection, addressing gender inequalities and gender-based violence against women online, and adopting supportive ICT policies that promote freedom of expression online and equitable access to information.
Due to increased internet freedom violation incidents coupled with regressive policies being made in many countries, the need for a well-defined Internet Intermediary Liability (ILL) regime has also become increasingly apparent. Another meeting held on February 10-11, 2014 organised by the APC with support from Google Africa discussed the responsibility that may be placed on intermediaries in implementing monitoring and control mechanisms laid down by the laws.
At the regional level, there are legal and regulatory frameworks like the Africa Charter on Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa, which provide limited protection for internet rights and the liability of internet intermediaries. It was noted that such frameworks could act as building blocks for individual countries to draw up best practices on ILL regimes.
There was consensus that such existing frameworks should be the basis for adopting a general guide with definitions of terms on Internet intermediary liability. This guide would act as central referencing document on which individual countries would base their national IIL regimes.
During the discussions, participants charted their thoughts on a best practice guide for an IIL regime for Africa by asking the below questions:

While responding to these questions, participants recognised that intermediaries can play a crucial role in promoting Internet freedoms in Africa.
Meanwhile, the meeting also reviewed recent policy and practice developments in Uganda, Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria since the 2011 Intermediary Liability in Africa research. It identified a need to increase awareness among different stakeholder groups of the importance of clear regulatory frameworks for intermediary liability to secure rights on the internet; and for stronger collaboration to advocate for best practice internet intermediary regulatory measures in Africa.
The outcomes of both these meetings will form the basis for the draft civil society Africa Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms, which will be launched at the ninth global Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Istanbul, Turkey September 2-5, 2014. The declaration will be available for public input throughout the period leading up to IGF 2014.

28Nov

The 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT Opens

admin November 28, 2012

The 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT opened today, Wednesday November 28, 2012 in Lisbon, Portugal. Under the theme Teaming-up for a strengthened and coordinated approach to foster Euro-African innovative cooperation on ICT, the two day forum will bring together European and African stakeholders in the public and private sectors involved in collaborative ICT research and ICT for development to share knowledge and experiences. Furthermore, discuss policy related issues.
The ICT4Democracy in East Africa Network – of which CIPESA is a member – is participating in the forum under the eGovernment & eDemocracy track.
Session chair: Angela Crandall, iHub Research
Panellist: Ashnah Kalemera, CIPESA
The objectives of this session are to understand the different eGovernment/ eDemocracy initiatives being undertaken, discuss the progress being made in governance through the use of mobile tools, and identify the challenges that need to be overcome in order to scale and sustain eDemocracy/ eGovernment initiatives.
The 5^th in its series, the event is organised by the EuroAfrica-ICT initiative under the aegis of the European and the African Unions Commissions.
Read more about the forum here.

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