Tanda is a Swahili word for “to spread”, and that is what Tanda CBO is determined to do. With the aim of strengthening the community networks movement, this Kenya-based organisation developed a project to coordinate actions and stakeholders to promote community-centred connectivity initiatives and digital inclusion in the country.
The project focuses on training communities in Kenya who are interested in deploying their own networks to access the internet, enabling an environment for community networks to flourish, amplifying their voices and promoting gender inclusion. Through their journey, we learn that building resilient movements to ensure rights requires commitment to navigating community-driven dynamics, fostering collaborative engagement, and evaluating challenges and opportunities within a particular context.
A journey of growth, transformation and spread
Tanda CBO was originally created to complement the local education system by providing connectivity and training to community schools and centres focusing on youth professional inclusion. Along the way, however, they expanded this scope to advocate for regulatory reforms and accompany the deployment of local networks in the country.
Based in Nairobi, in the heart of Kibera – the largest informal settlement in Africa, where the internet is an absent essential service – Tanda CBO developed TandaNet (formerly Tunapanda Net), the first urban community network in the country, to enable the community to access better local services and use them to improve their livelihoods.
In 2023, the organisation undertook a project for their institutional strengthening with support from the “Connecting the Unconnected: Supporting community networks and other community-based connectivity initiatives” project, led by APC and Rhizomatica. Among its goals, this project aims to foster an enabling policy and regulatory environment for community-based initiatives, and also support gender-aware practices among them.
“The project enhanced the sustainability of our organisation and built cross-country synergies,” explained John Gitonga, Risper Arose and Alphonce Odhiambo in the project’s narrative report. “We held a retreat in this period to reflect on the current practices and strategies in supporting community networks in Kenya, reevaluating our approach and identifying areas for improvement, involving the co-creation of a strategic plan from 2023 to 2025 that better aligns with our mission and vision.”
Building capacities and evaluating methodologies
Tanda’s work focused on the Kenya National Schools of Community Networks (KNSCN), a training process that seeks to multiply community-led initiatives, bringing together people from different communities and fostering collaboration with other organisations. In 2023, during the second iteration of this school, Tanda mapped out organisations interested in developing community networks, and ultimately trained and mentored 11 organisations. This time around, four new local organisations who were not part of the first school iteration joined the initiative: Ngikeyokok CBO, Global Innovation Valley Centre, Siaya Community Resource Library and Kijiji Yeetu Society. Given this growing demand, they issued another call for a five-week virtual training programme. “We received 31 registrations, with an average of 14 participants at every gathering. This demonstrated the impact of the programme, as well as the growing recognition of the importance of community networks in Kenya,” the report notes.
In the framework of this project, the Tanda team developed an evaluation process of the methodologies they follow, which resulted in the highlighting of three key elements. First, the importance of in-person meetings and one-on-one dialogues during the onboarding process, to “provide the opportunity to meet and understand the goals and values of the programme, positively impacting on participation.” Second, the value of communities of practice (CoPs) as a platform that extended the learning process beyond the duration of the programme. “We created three CoPs on networks and infrastructure, sustainability, and local content creation, led by the beneficiaries of the training programme themselves, which strengthened their sense of ownership and engagement in the process.” Finally, the report emphasised the participation of regulators and government entities in the training programmes. “This provided them with a deeper understanding of community networks and their potential impact, helping to build relationships, to foster dialogue, and to allow for support in licensing and spectrum-related matters.” These efforts have yielded tangible results: 13 community networks have applied for licences, and four have already obtained them, overcoming the regulatory barriers they faced.
As Risper Arose explained in a Routing for Communities podcast episode, “with the support of APC we curated our mentorship and training programme that looked into the different pillars of what it takes to start, what it takes to operate, what it takes to sustain a community network. For the past two years, we have worked with 11 organisations that now are community networks, just making sure that they understand what a network and infrastructure look like, what sustainability will look like for their community network, but also how connectivity can act as an enabler to create value for the community.”
In this period, Tanda also participated in other evaluation processes that enabled them “to express recommendations and outline key priorities, leveraging our experience to contribute to the evolution of community networks.” For instance, they participated in a process convened by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), sharing the learnings from their experience with the broader community network movement.
Community voices that strengthen the movement
“Our work is to engage the community to see how they utilise the internet to create capacity building for the community, to understand the benefits of the internet, to make sure that our work is very gender-sensitive,” Risper Arose explained in the Routing for Communities podcast. She is Tanda’s coordinator of gender and community engagement, working with the community-led networks. As highlighted in the report on the project supported by APC, Tanda’s participation in the podcast “provided a powerful platform to amplify the voices and stories of the community and the individuals involved, shedding light on their struggles and achievements.”
In this period Tanda also actively participated in the creation of the Association of Community Networks in Kenya (ASCNKe), a platform for collaboration, knowledge sharing and collective advocacy that also further amplified the voices and influence of community networks. “It is particularly gratifying to see individuals who participated in the training and mentorship programmes taking on key leadership positions within the Association. This progress is a testament to the capacity building and empowerment fostered by the project,” they underlined.
At the global level as well, Tanda was able to forge connections with the community of community-centred connectivity initiatives, contributing to the building of this movement and making the voices of communities heard. “Side events and workshops in global forums allowed us to explore ways to strengthen the community network movement collectively.”
Gender inclusion: Building a transformative movement
Community-centred connectivity initiatives essentially are committed to be inclusive and to respond to community needs. This involves a specific focus on the promotion of women’s participation in all the different strategies developed for their communities’ digital inclusion. In the framework of this project, Tanda also focused on gender inclusion.
One of the actions adopted was a workshop to celebrate International Women’s Day and to support women entrepreneurs, carried out in partnership with the Feminist for Peace, Rights and Justice Centre. Local women learned how to use digital marketing techniques to promote their businesses. Another of the activities undertaken was door-to-door visits in a community to encourage grassroots women to leverage online spaces.
Tanda’s gender commitment was further enriched by participation in learning spaces organised by the Local Networks initiative, which contributed to a broader understanding of the gender dynamics within the community networks movement. “We shared a training session where women in our team found a great opportunity for self-reflection. Through a collage exercise, we were able to visually capture and express our reflections, contributing to shape our next steps and guiding our future actions,” the authors of the evaluation report noted.
At a technical level, they identified challenges women are facing with the infrastructure elements of community networks. “During a workshop, one woman bravely expressed her struggle in understanding infrastructure components, stating that she may need to hire a technician to handle those aspects.” In response, Tanda proposed a women engineers programme for women to develop specialised technical skills, to bridge gender gaps in tech-focused roles.
These inclusive initiatives extended to participation in Community Network Summit webinars, where one of the peers had the opportunity to be a speaker in a session titled “Women in the Africa Community Network Movement”, shedding light on the pivotal role that women play in community networks, addressing both the challenges they face and the opportunities for transformative change.
Tanda’s initiatives to address communities’ connectivity needs stand out for their holistic and articulated approach. “We focused on creating an enabling environment for community networks and small-scale operator development through peer support, learning and capacity building. This approach enabled us to effectively support and nurture the growth of community networks in Kenya,” they noted.
Photos: Courtesy of Tanda Community Network
This piece draws on the information shared by Tanda CBO as part of the project "Connecting the Unconnected: Supporting community networks and other community-based connectivity initiatives" for the “Seeding change” column, which presents the experiences of APC members and partners who were recipients of funding through grants and subgrants offered through APC projects and initiatives.
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