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19Mar

Webinar: Advancing Platform Accountability for Women’s Online Safety in Africa

Author CIPESA Posted on

By CIPESA Writer |

The right to freedom of information, access to information, and democratic engagement belongs equally to all citizens. Yet across Africa, women and girls continue to face significant barriers that prevent them from exercising these foundational rights in digital spaces. This calls for urgent legal and enforcement mechanisms to ensure that women and girls can safely access, contribute to, and participate in information ecosystems. Furthermore, social media and Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms must address the gendered concerns that impact women’s experiences in online spaces, including disproportionate online harassment, algorithmic discrimination, and digital exclusion. See more here.

In support of this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD) commemoration, the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) is hosting a webinar titled “Advancing Platform Accountability for Women’s Online Safety in Africa” on Thursday, 19 March 2026 (14:00–15:30 EAT). The webinar resonates with this year’s IWD theme: “Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls.”

Register for the webinar here.

The webinar brings together experts to discuss what efforts are being made to enhance the safety of women in online spaces and to hold platforms accountable. It supports the sentiments of United Nations (UN) General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock, who last week, in her opening remarks at the 70th UN Commission on the Status of Women, noted that the gaps in legal rights afforded to women are deliberate. She stated that “these are not oversights but deliberate choices — choices that violate the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and 70 years of commitments made in this Commission.”

This webinar serves as a platform for discussion and insight into the various efforts needed to address these gaps. The discussion is open to all and features expert panelists from diverse backgrounds with a vested interest in advancing the safety of women in online spaces.

Meet the Panelists

Barbra Okafor | Founder and Lead Strategist, The Agency Lab

Barbra is the Founder of The Agency Lab, an initiative empowering African creatives and organisations to secure data ownership, protect Intellectual Property (IP), and navigate fair compensation in the AI economy. Drawing on her previous roles as Content Programming Lead at TikTok Sub-Saharan Africa and Senior Producer at BBC Media Action, Barbra translates complex digital transitions into actionable strategies. Her work sits at the critical intersection of the African creator economy, technology, and governance.

Marie-Simone Kadurira | Feminist researcher and communications strategist

Marie-Simone works at the intersection of gender, technology, and social justice. Her work focuses on technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV), digital rights, and the ways in which online platforms shape access, safety, and agency for women and marginalised communities. She has contributed to research and advocacy efforts examining how online harms disproportionately affect women, particularly in the Global South, and has worked with international organisations to develop policy and communications strategies aimed at strengthening platform accountability and advancing safer digital environments. Her work engages with questions of governance, content moderation, and the structural inequalities embedded within digital ecosystems. She is currently engaged in research on gender-based violence prevention and supports initiatives that centre community-led approaches to justice, safety, and digital inclusion.

Mercy Mutemi | Executive Director, The Oversight Lab Africa

Mercy’s work advocates for fair regulation and deployment of technology across Africa. She focuses on restorative and retributive justice solutions for those who have been harmed by technology. This includes workers who have been exploited to build and maintain technological systems and those who have been harmed by algorithms.  She has worked on several cases and initiatives focused on addressing inequality and the unconsidered consequences of tech algorithms for African communities and societies. She currently represents a cohort of content moderators based throughout Africa in a suit over workplace human rights violations.

Abdul Waiswa | Head of Litigation, Prosecution and Legal Advisory, Uganda Communications Commission

Waiswa works as the Head of Litigation, Prosecution and Legal Advice at the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), which is the statutory regulator of the converged communications sector in Uganda, with a mandate to license, supervise, and facilitate the development of a robust communication sector in Uganda. He oversees the legal advisory, licensing, and enforcement functions of UCC and supports the implementation of the Government of Uganda’s policies on ICT. Waiswa is a regular participant in national, regional, and international engagements on internet jurisdiction, data, and other ICT-related policy matters.

Lilian Nalwoga | Programme Manager, CIPESA

Lillian has several years of ICT policy research and advocacy experience, having joined the CIPESA as a Policy Officer in 2007. She has facilitated and coordinated ICT policy workshops – including coordinating the East African Internet Governance Forum. Lillian has a Bachelors of Development Studies (Makerere University, Uganda) with a Postgraduate Diploma in Project Management as well as advanced training in Internet studies. She holds a Master’s in Digital Media and Society from Uppsala University, Sweden. She is also the former President of the Internet Society (ISOC) Uganda.

The webinar forms part of the #BeSafeByDesign campaign, which calls for improved platform accountability in Africa. The campaign is part of a project supported by the Irene M. Staehelin Foundation. Since December 2025, the project has pursued a series of collaborative activities aimed at improving online safety and governance. These included a convening in Nairobi, Kenya, which served as the launch of the #BeSafeByDesign campaign. The convening assembled human rights defenders and activists from eight African countries for upskilling in digital resilience. In February 2026, a meeting held in Port Louis, Mauritius brought together 30 participants — including judges, magistrates, law enforcement officers, communications regulators, data protection authorities, and National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs). Participants recommended that African governments strengthen their engagement with big tech companies through regional mechanisms, such as the African Union, to present a more coordinated voice on issues of platform accountability.

11Mar

CIPESA Builds the Capacity of State Actors to Address Online Harms

Author CIPESA Posted on

By CIPESA Writer |

Digital platforms serve as vital spaces for civic participation, political expression, and social mobilisation throughout Africa, including for women, youths, and human rights advocates. However, there has been a rise in digital hams that threaten online rights, safety, and democratic engagement. Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based violence (TFGBV), disinformation, digital surveillance, and increasingly complex attacks made possible by Artificial Intelligence (AI) are all on the rise in African online spaces. The majority of those harmed are journalists, activists, women and girls.

To address these challenges, the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) last month convened a two-day regional engagement in Mauritius to explore trends in digital harms and equip state actors with practical tools and guidance to monitor, prevent, and respond to online rights violations. It drew 30 participants from seven countries (Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe). They included judges, magistrates, law enforcement officers, communications regulators, and representatives of data protection authorities and National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs).

Although the internet and digital technologies have enhanced civic participation and broadened the enjoyment of human rights, they have also brought about new risks for individuals and organisations. Accordingly, the discussion addressed the evolving nature of online harms and their impact on digital rights and democratic engagement.

Across all countries in the region, TFGBV is a major concern. Women in public roles, such as politicians, journalists, and activists, face a rising wave of online harassment, sexualised threats, and disinformation campaigns aimed at intimidating and silencing them. In countries like Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, these attacks increase significantly during elections, compelling numerous women to withdraw from public engagement.

Disinformation and AI-driven manipulation present another concern. Coordinated disinformation campaigns, often amplified by bots and increasingly reliant on synthetic media like deepfakes, influence public opinion and target independent and critical voices. In countries where laws are enacted to address these ills, they often fail to target harmful manipulation and are instead weaponised to suppress legitimate expression.

For instance, laws on cybercrime and “false information”in countries like Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Kenya, and Uganda are often broadly framed, with ambiguous provisions and overly broad definitions and excessive penalties. These laws are frequently applied to detain and prosecute individuals, primarily journalists, bloggers and social accountability activists. Even where prosecutions are rare, the chilling effect on civic engagement is significant.

The engagement also heard that, in several countries, surveillance-enabling measures, from SIM card registration linked to national IDs, to biometric voter databases and interception technologies, have expanded without proper independent oversight.

Speaking at the engagement, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) Commissioner and Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa, Ourveena Geereesha Topsy-Sonoo, discussed how her mandate was addressing digital harms and promoting rights. She highlighted the commission’s resolution against internet disruptions and Resolution 591, which addresses the growing issue of violence against women on digital platforms across the continent.

In 2019, the ACHPR adopted the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa and has more recently issued resolutions addressing digital violence against women. However, most governments are yet to domesticate and implement these key instruments.

The meeting also underscored how democratic backsliding, shrinking civic space, and the expansion of executive power, as witnessed in several countries, create an environment in which digital harms flourish. While instruments such as the African Charter, the Malabo Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) provide safeguards, their impact depends on independent courts, empowered regulators, and capable NHRIs.

Participants noted that limited capacity, resources, and coordination across government institutions often undermine enforcement, monitoring, and accountability. The Mauritius engagement therefore, recommended establishing stronger institutional capacity, such as inter-ministerial committees on digital rights, to foster collaboration among key actors responsible for protecting digital rights.

Participants further explored practical approaches to monitoring digital rights violations, supporting survivors of online abuse, and ensuring accountability for harmful online behaviour. These discussions also drew from a handbook developed by the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) and CIPESA, which provides guidance for NHRIs on monitoring and promoting digital rights.

In particular, the convening challenged NHRIs to play a greater role in addressing digital harms through investigating violations, providing remedies to victims, advising on legislation and standards, and conducting public education.

Another focus of the discussions was the role of technology companies in moderating harmful content. Participants highlighted concerns that major platforms such as Meta and X do not allocate sufficient resources to content moderation in Africa. In many cases, moderation systems rely heavily on automated tools that are poorly adapted to local languages and socio-political contexts, while the number of human moderators covering African content remains limited.

Participants recommended that African governments strengthen their engagement with big tech companies through regional mechanisms such as the African Union, to present a more coordinated voice on issues of platform accountability.

Through this engagement, CIPESA strengthened the capacity of state actors to safeguard digital rights, highlighting that protecting these rights is both their legal mandate and central to growing democratic resilience and inclusion across Africa. The engagement was supported by the Irene M. Staehelin Foundation.

31Oct

Applications are Open for a New Round of Africa Digital Rights Funding!

Author CIPESA Posted on

Announcement |

The Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) is calling for proposals to support digital rights work across Africa.

This call for proposals is the 10th under the CIPESA-run Africa Digital Rights Fund (ADRF) initiative that provides rapid response and flexible grants to organisations and networks to implement activities that promote digital rights and digital democracy, including advocacy, litigation, research, policy analysis, skills development, and movement building.

 The current call is particularly interested in proposals for work related to:

  • Data governance including aspects of data localisation, cross-border data flows, biometric databases, and digital ID.
  • Digital resilience for human rights defenders, other activists and journalists.
  • Censorship and network disruptions.
  • Digital economy.
  • Digital inclusion, including aspects of accessibility for persons with disabilities.
  • Disinformation and related digital harms.
  • Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV).
  • Platform accountability and content moderation.
  • Implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
  • Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI).

Grant amounts available range between USD 5,000 and USD 25,000 per applicant, depending on the need and scope of the proposed intervention. Cost-sharing is strongly encouraged, and the grant period should not exceed eight months. Applications will be accepted until November 17, 2025. 

Since its launch in April 2019, the ADRF has provided initiatives across Africa with more than one million US Dollars and contributed to building capacity and traction for digital rights advocacy on the continent.  

Application Guidelines

Geographical Coverage

The ADRF is open to organisations/networks based or operational in Africa and with interventions covering any country on the continent.

Size of Grants

Grant size shall range from USD 5,000 to USD 25,000. Cost sharing is strongly encouraged.

Eligible Activities

The activities that are eligible for funding are those that protect and advance digital rights and digital democracy. These may include but are not limited to research, advocacy, engagement in policy processes, litigation, digital literacy and digital security skills building. 

Duration

The grant funding shall be for a period not exceeding eight months.

Eligibility Requirements

  • The Fund is open to organisations and coalitions working to advance digital rights and digital democracy in Africa. This includes but is not limited to human rights defenders, media, activists, think tanks, legal aid groups, and tech hubs. Entities working on women’s rights, or with youth, refugees, persons with disabilities, and other marginalised groups are strongly encouraged to apply.
  • The initiatives to be funded will preferably have formal registration in an African country, but in some circumstances, organisations and coalitions that do not have formal registration may be considered. Such organisations need to show evidence that they are operational in a particular African country or countries.
  • The activities to be funded must be in/on an African country or countries.

Ineligible Activities

  • The Fund shall not fund any activity that does not directly advance digital rights or digital democracy.
  • The Fund will not support travel to attend conferences or workshops, except in exceptional circumstances where such travel is directly linked to an activity that is eligible.
  • Costs that have already been incurred are ineligible.
  • The Fund shall not provide scholarships.
  • The Fund shall not support equipment or asset acquisition.

Administration

The Fund is administered by CIPESA. An internal and external panel of experts will make decisions on beneficiaries based on the following criteria:

  • If the proposed intervention fits within the Fund’s digital rights priorities.
  • The relevance to the given context/country.
  • Commitment and experience of the applicant in advancing digital rights and digital democracy.
  • Potential impact of the intervention on digital rights and digital democracy policies or practices.

The deadline for submissions is Monday, November 17, 2025. The application form can be accessed here.