Digital inclusion

Making change in support of community-centred connectivity

Many digital divides still persist today, to the point that a third of the world’s population is still offline. Different statistics also show that the divide can be worse depending on the countries where people live and if we look at differences in gender, race, age and income or between urban and rural areas, for example.

Across the globe, a growing number of communities are taking action to overcome the digital divides, while defending their fundamental rights and well-being. Community-centred connectivity initiatives are shaped by the communities themselves, in a manner that reflects their members’ different interests and relationships. They grow and operate in local contexts. They aim to be affordable and accessible in terms of the locally used languages, location and devices. And because these initiatives are undertaken for and by communities themselves, the use of the connectivity can meet people’s expressed needs and add value to their personal, social, cultural and/or economic lives.

The Local Networks initiative (LocNet) is a collective effort led by APC and Rhizomatica in partnership with grassroots communities and support organisations in Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean. It aims to directly support meaningful community-centred connectivity initiatives, while contributing to an enabling ecosystem for their emergence and growth. To support communities making change happen, our Theory of Change is organised around the following pillars: