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11Sep

Uganda to Namibia: Biking for Digital Security and Internet Freedom in Africa

Author Brian Posted on

By FIFAfrica |

On Friday September 12, 2025, digital security expert and biker, Andrew Gole will set off on a solo motorbike journey spreading awareness about safety and security online. This will be the third time that Gole will travel across various countries on the continent ahead of the annual Forum on Internet in Africa (FIFAfrica). The effort is supported by the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA), Defend Defenders and Access Now.

Gole will commence his trip in Kampala, Uganda and over a round trip distance of 13,000 kilometers (km) traverse through Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Botswana,  culminating in  Windhoek, Namibia, where the 2025 edition of FIFAfrica will convene this September 24-26, 2025. On his return journey to Uganda, Gole will also ride through Zambia and Rwanda, making it a total of 10 countries travelled through over the course of the journey. 

“I am truly excited to be hitting the road once again as part of the upcoming Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa. On my previous trips, I had the privilege of witnessing firsthand how diverse communities warmly embrace digital security as a key practice that empowers and protects their daily lives online and offline. These communities are often those left on the margins of mainstream efforts to enhance digital security, yet their eagerness to adopt these measures have been inspiring. I look forward to engaging with new communities on this trip and to  continuing this important work and deepening these connections as we move forward together.” – Andrew Gole, Digital Security Expert

Gole notes that traveling on his motorbike allowed him the mobility to connect directly with grassroots organisations. His “Digital Security on Wheels” initiative started in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic to address urgent digital security concerns beyond urban centers in Uganda and grew into a regional effort across East and Southern Africa through FIFAfrica.

In September 2022, ahead of the Forum which was held in Lusaka, Zambia and also served as the return to in-person meetings following a two year hiatus due to Covid-19, Gole pioneered the the #RoadToFiFAfrica Digital Security campaign. Gole embarked on the ambitious solo motorbike journey traversing approximately 3,300 kilometers.

The following year in 2023, ahead of the Tanzania edition of FIFAfrica, Gole led a major expedition that involved a team doing a round trip covering almost 10,000 km from Uganda through Kenya to Tanzania (and into the Indian Ocean island of Zanzibar via ferry). Gole was once again on his motorbike, supported by a team of digital rights experts from the Defenders Protection Initiative (DPI) in a passenger van.

“We applaud Gole’s effort and celebrate the spirit he carries every mile to Windhoek. Andrew’s ride is a testament to the ongoing effort of building Africa’s internet freedom community. It embodies the practical, peer-led approach to digital safety that empowers often-overlooked communities. His journey to Windhoek mirrors CIPESA’s core mission of promoting the inclusive and effective use of ICT for improved governance and livelihoods in Africa. Gole’s remarkable endurance underscores that protecting our digital spaces demands mobility, resilience, and solidarity. We applaud his effort as he carries this message all the way from Kampala to Windhoek.”
– Brian Byaruhanga, Technology Officer, CIPESA

In all instances, Gole’s efforts culminated in the Digital Security Hub that has become a staple at FIFAfrica and serves as a one-stop-shop for attendees online and offline to secure their devices while also attaining practical skills and information on how to navigate online spaces safely. 

The Digital Security Hub convened by CIPESA has featured experts from across the world and this year will include experts from Africa Interactive Media, Base Iota, Co-creation HUB, Defenders Protection Initiative (DPI), Digital Society Africa, Greenhost/Frontline Defenders and Defend Defenders alongside SocialTic, and Foundacion Accesso bringing learnings and expertise from South America.

About the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa: Now in its 12th year, the annual Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (#FIFAfrica25) is the continent’s leading platform for shaping digital rights, inclusion, and governance conversations. This year, the Forum will be held in Windhoek, Namibia, a beacon of press freedom, gender equity, and progressive jurisprudence, and is set to take place on September 24–26, 2025. 

FIFAfrica offers a unique, multi-stakeholder platform where key stakeholders, including policymakers, journalists, global platform operators, telecommunications companies, regulators, human rights defenders, academia, and law enforcement representatives convene to deliberate and craft rights-based responses for a resilient and inclusive digital society for Africans. 

FIFAfrica25 will be the third edition to be hosted in Southern Africa. Previous editions have been hosted in Uganda, South Africa, Ghana, Ethiopia, Zambia, Tanzania and Senegal. Namibia, with its strong democratic credentials and progressive stance on digital transformation, provides a fitting host for FIFAfrica25.

About the Digital Security Hub: At the heart of FIFAfrica has been a Digital Security Hub designed to equip participants with practical knowledge and tools for staying safe in an increasingly digital environment. The Hub offers practical demonstrations and expert guidance on how to strengthen digital safety and resilience practices.

The Hub serves as a meeting for digital security trainers, technologists, and frontline users from across Africa and this year, Latin America as well. Digital security practices shared by the teams include advice on encryption and secure communications, through to countering online harassment and building safer digital infrastructures. 

The Digital Security hub is a vital feature of FIFAfrica25 and continues to serve as a space where communities can tangibly build their capacity to navigate the  constantly evolving digital ecosystem.

About the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA): CIPESA works to promote inclusive and effective use of Information and Communication Technology. (ICT) in Africa for improved governance and livelihoods. CIPESA was established in 2004 in response to the findings of the Louder Voices Report for the UK’s then Department for International Development (DFID), which cited the lack of easy, affordable and timely access to information about ICT-related issues and processes as a key barrier to effective and inclusive ICT policy making in Africa. CIPESA’s work continues to respond to a shortage of information, resources and actors consistently working at the nexus of technology, human rights and society.

Initially set up with a focus on research in East and Southern African countries, CIPESA has since expanded its work to include advocacy, capacity development and movement building across the African continent.

Today CIPESA is a leading ICT policy and governance think tank in Africa. CIPESA has strongly exhibited its passion about raising the capacity of African stakeholders in effective ICT policy making and in engendering ICT in development and poverty reduction, as per its mandate. 

For Queries about CIPESA and the Digital Resilience Hub

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Child online protection and safety
18Jul

Elevating Children’s Voices and Rights in AI Design and Online Spaces in Africa

Author CIPESA Posted on

By Patricia Ainembabazi

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) reshapes digital ecosystems across the globe, one group remains consistently overlooked in discussions around AI design and governance: Children. This gap was keenly highlighted at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) held in June 2025 in Oslo, Norway, where experts, policymakers, and child-focused organisations called for more inclusive AI systems that protect and empower young users.

Children today are not just passive users of digital technologies; they are among the most active and most vulnerable user groups. In Africa, internet use among youths aged 15 to 24 was partly fuelled by the Covid-19 pandemic, hence their growing reliance on digital platforms for learning, play, and social interaction. New research by the Digital Rights Alliance Africa (DRAA), a consortium hosted by the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA), shows that this rapid connectivity has amplified exposure to risks such as harmful content, data misuse, and algorithmic manipulation that are especially pronounced for children.

The research notes that AI systems have become deeply embedded in the platforms that children engage with daily, including educational software, entertainment platforms, health tools, and social media. Nonetheless, Africa’s emerging AI strategies remain overwhelmingly adult-centric, often ignoring the distinct risks these technologies pose to minors. At the 2025 IGF, the urgency of integrating children’s voices into AI policy frameworks was made clear through a session supported by the LEGO Group, the Walt Disney Company, the Alan Turing Institute, and the Family Online Safety Institute. Their message was simple but powerful: “If AI is to support children’s creativity, learning, and safety, then children must be included in the conversation from the very beginning”.

The forum drew insights from recent global engagements such as the Children’s AI Summit of February 2025 held in the UK and the Paris AI Action Summit 2025. These events demonstrated that while children are excited about AI’s potential to enhance learning and play, they are equally concerned about losing creative autonomy, being manipulated online, and having their privacy compromised. A key outcome of these discussions was the need to develop AI systems that children can trust; systems that are safe by design, transparent, and governed with accountability.

This global momentum offers important lessons for Africa as countries across the continent begin to draft national AI strategies. While many such strategies aim to spur innovation and digital transformation, they often lack specific protections for children. According to DRAA’s 2025 study on child privacy in online spaces, only a handful of African countries have enacted child-specific privacy laws in the digital realm. Although instruments like the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child recognise the right to privacy, regional frameworks such as the Malabo Convention, and even national data protection laws, rarely offer enforceable safeguards against AI systems that profile or influence children.

Failure to address these gaps will leave African children vulnerable to a host of AI-driven harms ranging from exploitative data collection and algorithmic profiling to exposure to biased or inappropriate content. These harms can deprive children of autonomy and increase their risk of online abuse, particularly when AI-powered systems are deployed in schools, healthcare, or entertainment without adequate oversight.

To counter these risks and ensure AI becomes a tool of empowerment rather than exploitation, African governments, policymakers, and developers must adopt child-centric approaches to AI governance. This could start with mainstreaming children’s rights such as privacy, protection, education, and participation, into AI policies. International instruments like the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and General Comment No. 25 provide a solid foundation upon which African governments can build desirable policies.

Furthermore, African countries should draw inspiration from emerging practices such as the “Age-Appropriate AI” frameworks discussed at IGF 2025. These practices propose clear standards for limiting AI profiling, nudging, and data collection among minors. Given that only 36 out 55 African countries currently have data protection laws, with few of them containing child-specific provisions, policymakers must take efforts to strengthen these frameworks. Such reforms should require AI tools targeting children to adhere to strict data minimisation, transparency, and parental consent requirements.

Importantly, digital literacy initiatives must evolve beyond basic internet safety to include AI awareness. Equipping children and caregivers with the knowledge to critically engage with AI systems will help them navigate and question the technology they encounter. At the same time, platforms similar to the Children’s AI Summit 2025 should be replicated at national and regional levels to ensure that African children’s lived experiences, hopes, and concerns shape the design and deployment of AI technologies.

Transparency and accountability must remain central to this vision. AI tools that affect children, whether through recommendation systems, automated decision-making, or learning algorithms, should be independently audited and publicly scrutinised. Upholding the values of openness, fairness, and inclusivity within AI systems is essential not only for protecting children’s rights but for cultivating a healthy, rights-respecting digital environment.

As the African continent’s digital infrastructure expands and AI becomes more pervasive, the choices made today will define the digital futures of generations to come. The IGF 2025 stressed that children must be central to these choices, not as an afterthought, but as active contributors to a safer and more equitable AI ecosystem. By elevating children’s voices in AI design and governance, African countries can lay the groundwork for an inclusive digital future that truly serves the best interests of all.

03Mar

Online Event: Combating Online Violence Against Women and Girls Towards a Digital Equal World (March 8, 2022)

Author CIPESA Posted on

Online Event |

Sustainable Development Goal five aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Target 5B calls for enhancing the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women. However, women in eastern Africa face various challenges that undermine their use of digital technologies, with these challenges tending to mirror the impediments that they face in the offline world, such as in access to education and economic opportunities, or participation in civic processes. There is also a wide gender digital divide in the region. For instance, in Uganda men are 43% more likely to be online than women. In Kenya, a study found that in the slums of the capital Nairobi, only 20% of women were connected to the internet, compared to 57% of men.

Despite a large gender disparity in digital access, more women face various forms of online violence than their male counterparts. The absence of laws designed to specifically address the various forms of digital violence (such as “revenge pornography”, trolling, and threats) and the lack of sufficient in-country reporting mechanisms, exacerbate these being forced to go offline or resorting to self-censorship. Research by CIPESA has found that cyberstalking, online sexual harassment, blackmail through non-consensual sharing of personal information, promotes and normalises violence against women and girls who use the internet in Uganda.

However, these digital threats and attacks remain difficult to quantify due to several inhibitions including the culture of silence and the absence of structured reporting mechanisms. Nonetheless, there have been various documented cases of online harassment and abuse. In a study conducted in Kenya, more than one in five women reported having experienced online harassment. Meanwhile, redress mechanisms were insufficient, as the national legal framework safeguarding security online is broad, “and does not pay special attention to women and girls.”

The true extent of online violence against women (OVAW) remains unknown, partly due to cultural inhibitions, lack of data and lower levels of internet access among women. However, as more women go online, the cases are increasing, yet there are insufficient safeguards to enable victims to protect and enhance their personal security, including the absence of laws prohibiting online violence against women. Moreover, such cases continue to go unreported, leaving victims with limited legal recourse or resources to seek justice. Further, many women are uninformed of their rights online and are not aware of the tools available to secure themselves online.

According to a 2020 UN Women report, women in politics and the media are at higher risk of online and ICT-facilitated violence due to their public personas.  Indeed, research related to Uganda’s 2021 elections found that men and women politicians experienced online violence differently: women, especially candidates in elections, were more likely to experience trolling, sexual remarks, and body shaming, while men were more likely to experience hate speech and satirical comments. This mirrored Previous findings in the region that also found that women who are more prominent online and in society appeared to be targeted more, with the women who advocated for gender equality, feminism, and sexual minority rights facing heightened levels of  OVAW. This undermines the ability of women to embrace and meaningfully use digital technologies.

The UN Women report also cites evidence  suggesting  that  women  with  multiple identities (such as the LBTQI community, ethnic minority, indigenous) are often targeted online through  discrimination and hate speech, which often forces them to  self-censor  and  withdraw  from  debates and online discussions. Similarly, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, has stated that some  groups  of  women,  including human  rights  defenders,  women  in  politics, journalists, bloggers, women belonging to ethnic minorities, indigenous women, lesbian, bisexual and transgender women, and women with disabilities are particularly targeted by ICT-facilitated violence.

The extent to which cyber harassment affects women in marginalised communities in the region is not well known. However, interviews conducted in 2019 as part of digital literacy and security training for refugee rights defenders, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, South Sudan and Sudan, who are living in Uganda, showed that three in four of the respondents had experienced some form of cyber harassment including abuse, stalking, unwarranted sexual advances and hacking of social media accounts. The perpetrators included anonymous individuals, security agents in their home countries, known friends and ex-partners. These online affronts against the women refugees run in parallel to gender-based violence in refugee camps, at border crossings and resettlement communities. Urban refugees in the country face heightened gender-based violence risks due to unmet multiple and complex social, economic and medical needs as well as intersecting oppressions based on race, ethnicity, nationality, language, sexual orientation and gender identity.

On the occasion to mark the International Women’s Day, 2022 the Collaboration in International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) has organised a webinar to foster multi-stakeholder dialogue on OVAW towards promoting women’s ability to meaningfully participate in the information society, democratic and decision making processes. The webinar will also serve as an opportunity to promote engagement between platforms operator Meta, user communities and stakeholders, and to collect feedback and strategize on how to mitigate harm online.

Speakers

  • Nashilongo Gervasius, Researcher
  • Suzan Elsayed, Meta (Facebook)
  • Hon. Neema Lugangira, Member of Parliament Representing NGOs – Tanzania National Assembly
  • Hon. Sarah Opendi, Chairperson Uganda Women Parliamentary Association (UWOPA)
  • Justice David Batema, High Court of Uganda

Join the Conversation

  • Date: Tuesday March 8, 2022
  • Time: 15:00 – 16:45 East African Time EAT
  • Where: Online via Zoom. Register here
12Feb

Promoting Online Safety in Africa

Author admin Posted on

The global community on February 10 marked Safer Internet Day which promotes safe and responsible use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) mainly amongst children and young people across the world.
The day provided an opportunity to see what African stakeholders are doing in promoting access to the internet and ensuring that this access comes with a culture of digital safety habits.
Companies like Google Africa in partnership with local organisations marked the day by hosting a series of events across the continent targeting youth and advocating for better internet practices. This included a hangout session that brought together audiences from Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Kenya.
In East Africa, the OpenNet Africa initiative held a twitter chat, to explore internet safety and security while questioning how various organisations are addressing these issues.


The discussion noted that a number of challenges exist in the online sphere due to the increased internet exposure for youth and adults alike. While the internet is a useful educational resource, it has become home to online child predators and even sparked trends in online bullying and the sharing of sensitive information amongst youth unaware of the repercussions that this may have.

According to the State of Internet Freedom in East Africa 2014 report, increasing internet usage in the region particularly access to social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter, has led to an increment in democratic participation and the expansion of opinion expressed in the public domain. Mobile phones were indicated as the main tool used to access the internet and youth constituted the largest proportion of social media users.
Many governments in the region, however, keep trying to play catch up with the rapidly changing digital landscape and in many instances fall short on guaranteeing the human rights afforded in their constitutions. This has been seen in the policy and legislative environment of many East African countries which impede internet freedoms, including by granting excessive surveillance power to the police without sufficient oversight, and curbing freedom of expression and freedom of the press primarily against those critical of the state.
The Twitterthon participants shared that despite the existence of pan-African frameworks such as African Union Convention On Cyber Security And Personal Data Protection and the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa of 2002, few countries have adopted laws that safeguard privacy, protect data and guarantee freedom of expression in the online sphere.
Meanwhile, efforts to promote ICT access for the youth, including through ICT literacy curriculums, remained low. Consequently, incidents and concerns about cyber bullying, online abuse, data protection, surveillance and privacy have risen alongside the exponential growth that internet access has seen in Africa.  

For instance, chat participants from Tanzania expressed concern at not having adequate laws that protect the online rights of users, also pointing out the lack of a data protection law. In Kenya, a data protection Bill drafted back in 2013 has made little progress to date. While in Uganda, the review of the Data Protection and Privacy Bill drafted towards the end of 2014 is ongoing.


Other efforts towards safeguarding online safety shared included an online safety education toolkit  for Young People in Uganda developed by the Internet Society Uganda as part of its ongoing activities in the country.
See more of the Safer Internet Day Twitter chat on Promoting internet Safety in Africa on Storify.