Membership in the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is open to organisations and individuals anywhere in the world that share APC’s mission: to build strategic communities and initiatives in order to make meaningful contributions to equitable human development, social justice, participatory political processes and environmental sustainability.
For more information, you might consider reading frequently asked questions (FAQs) on APC membership first.
Please note that since July 2022, only organisations with a solid long track of previous collaboration and partnership with APC network (APC and/or APC members) are invited to apply for membership. Also note that APC currently deals with a long cue of unprocessed membership applications. This means that it can take up to one year before new applications get reviewed.
Why become part of the APC community?
Solidarity and community: Using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for development and social equality
Community: APC is a facilitated community of like-minded individuals and organisations, based in over 40 countries, in five regions of the world. We are a community of people who share the same vision and use the APC network and our own communication channels as trusted spaces to discuss, collaborate and make connections. As the majority of APC’s members are from the global South, we facilitate ICT activities from the developing world.
Direction: APC members define our direction and focus. The APC Council, a governing body that establishes the organisation’s strategic priorities every four years, is comprised of member representatives. Each APC member organisation appoints a representative to the council, which meets regularly online and every two or three years for a face-to-face conference. Working groups are comprised of people from the APC community who share an active interest or expertise in a particular issue or project (e.g. ICT policy) and are set up as needed to make recommendations to APC.
Every year, APC conducts member survey focusing on the their experiences of, and participation in, activities related to the Strategic Plan implementation. Results of the survey is used for planning both implementation of the strategic plan and membership outreach in future.
Impact: APC’s members have been creating and using computer networks to fight for social justice since the early 1980s and were among the first in the world to provide transatlantic electronic communications for social justice groups. Since then many of our members have been at the forefront of watershed technology projects and have driven key policy changes in their own countries. The APC network has been an active participant in high-level international ICT policy discussions and was granted Category 1 Consultative Status to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in 1995.
Members work together under the APC umbrella, at regional and international levels, to influence ICT policy for the benefit of civil society and other groups using technology for social justice. Membership in APC expands the network’s collective reach and amplifies the promotion of country and regional issues internationally.
Solidarity: APC members work actively to encourage civil society’s adoption of ICTs for development, social justice, internet rights, gender equality, women’s empowerment and environmental protection. Members also support one another in their local campaigns and strengthen the capacity of groups and individuals that face violations of their rights. By joining APC, you are adding your voice to an international network of like-minded people using ICTs to fight social injustice all over the world.
An international profile: As a network, we strive to actively promote our members’ work. Our trilingual website and bi-weekly newsletters, which focus on the use of ICTs for social justice, human rights and development work by civil society, are widely circulated among development specialists, the NGO community and its financial supporters. Our members’ work is also presented at public events internationally.
As well, our publications reach a worldwide audience that uses and promotes ICTs for social equality and development. Stories about APC and its members are regularly picked up by portals of APC members around the world, as well as other publications (such as BBC Online, the Digital Opportunity Channel, and others). We can work with your organisation to produce news articles about your activities in English, French and Spanish.
Independence: APC members join the network because it provides them with new opportunities to complement their existing activities. However, they remain fully independent organisations in terms of status, financing, alliances and political messages beyond APC’s shared mission.
Building capacity
Peer support and information exchange: APC members have been offering ICT services to the NGO community since the early 1990s and perhaps earlier. Members learn from one another’s experiences at face-to-face meetings and online, particularly in the areas of technical support, campaigning and policy advocacy.
Our workspaces function in English, the shared language of our member representatives. We encourage the set-up of workspaces in other shared languages and have technical and information sharing lists in Spanish too. When possible, we provide simultaneous translation in English and Spanish at meetings.
Collaboration: APC offers its members the chance to work collectively with other members and partners on joint projects. We facilitate networking and assist in matching and developing partnerships for project implementation.
- APC facilitates international projects for its members.
- APC’s workspaces can be used to find a project implementation partner, offer collaboration to member individuals and organisations in other regions and for collaborative project development.
- APC helps members to facilitate collaboration, planning and learning through its Membership Learning and Exchange Fund.
Capacity-building services: APC facilitates face-to-face training opportunities for civil society organisations, technologists, advocates and policy makers, in areas of ICT policy, internet rights, action research and ICT, gender evaluation of ICT initiatives, digital storytelling and secure online communications.
- APC organises online and face-to-face workshops designed to help members become more effective advocates in national and global ICT policy processes.
- APC offers gender evaluation training through face-to-face workshops, as well as mentoring to organisations and individuals, to ensure that ICT initiatives improve women’s lives and contribute to gender equality.
- APC works in collaboration with partners in facilitating internet rights training and support for at-risk human rights activists.
Creating Resources for Civil Society: APC members create and collect resources to help in making the internet accessible and open to everyone.
- APC facilitates the development of materials for activists who want to use the internet strategically.
- APC members share workshops, trainings, materials, access to APC tools, online meeting platforms and mailing lists.
Becoming a member
Are you or your organisation interested in becoming a member of the Association for Progressive Communications?
New APC member organisation
Read about the membership criteria and steps to becoming an APC member organisation.
Write to membership@apc.org with all questions.