APC Impact Report 2016-2019 and highlights from 2020

Visit the report here: https://2016-2019report.apc.org/

This report is not our usual annual one. It encapsulates the APC network's high level impact over the four years of our strategic cycle, which ended in 2019. While the report looks back at our work, it also brings us forward through the strategic direction that we set for ourselves in the next four years.

Looking back, we appreciate the outstanding impact to which the APC network has contributed from 2016 to 2019. The sections in the impact report are brimming with stories of how the APC network has collectively contributed to change in the last four years – from enabling the emergence and growth of community connectivity initiatives in the global South, to reframing feminist organising and movement building in the digital age, and reinforcing the exercise of human rights online through policy advocacy that contributed to international norms and standards. A separate chapter outlines the remarkable work done by APC member organisations in catalysing change at the grassroots level through APC member grants in the last four years.

Looking to 2020 and the future, we start with our new mission and vision, our current 2020-2023 strategic plan, and our network's vision of APC in 10 years' time.

Our impact from 2016 to 2019: What have we accomplished in the last four years?

Access

• Implementation of new community-driven autonomous broadband wireless network projects

• Uptake of policies and programmes that promote innovative and people-centred approaches to access

• Strengthened participation and advocacy for women’s meaningful access

Rights

• Advocated for policies and resolutions that reinforced the exercise of human rights online

• Contributed to international standards and frameworks

• Held governments accountable

• Advocated for a free and open internet and freedom of expression

• Strengthened advocacy capacity of civil society organisations and networks

• Expanded and monitored internet rights advocacy

Feminist internet

• Promoted uptake and adaptation of the Feminist Principles of the Internet

• Built and strengthened inter-movement alliances on women’s rights, internet and ICT policy

Internet governance

• Increased capacity of civil society actors to influence internet governance processes

• Increased participation of diverse civil society actors in national, regional and international internet governance processes

Use and development

• Fostered use of sustainable, collaborative and privacy-enabling technology

• Increased safety of human rights defenders and use of technology to end violence against women

• Promoted cross-movement exchanges across the wider APC community

APC community

• Growing diverse and engaged APC membership

• Active member involvement and collaboration in developing and implementing APC’s theory of change and strategic plan

Member grants from 2016 to 2019 

Since 2016, APC has run a subgranting programme funded by the Swedish International Development and Cooperation Agency (Sida), disbursing over USD 1.2 million to 35 organisations as of 2019. These subgrants are aimed at enabling our member organisations to contribute towards achieving APC’s vision. Subgranting is a way for APC members to contribute to the strategic plan, which defines the basis of unity of the members, while allowing broadness and flexibility. It is a creative and powerful tool to strengthen and grow APC’s advocacy networks.

The range of initiatives funded by APC's subgranting programme is impressive, and even pushed the organisation outside of its usual focus on “the internet”. Grant recipients have held feminist festivals with poetry, theatre, storytelling, exhibitions and film screenings; they have developed radio programmes on online gender-based violence, produced documentaries and worked with writers and film-makers.

What all these projects suggest is that for APC, subgranting is a creative and powerful way to catalyse change at the grassroots level, to raise the profiles of an organisation's work, and to help it break new ground on issues that are often left unattended. Read some of the stories from our grantee members from the period 2016-2019 here.

Don't forget to check the publications, members, governance, staff and finances sections from 2019.

What is next?

Introducing our new strategic plan 2020-2023

APC’s mission, formulated 30 years ago, has been the starting point of APC’s strategic priorities and plans throughout the years. In the consultations to develop APC’s strategic plan for 2020-2023, APC members, staff and partners affirmed the continuing relevance of this mission. At the same time, we realise the need to refocus APC’s vision and mission to leverage our network’s strength to contribute to transforming the systems of oppression and inequality that are being perpetuated and deepened by the ways in which digital technologies and spaces are being used, deployed, developed and governed.

This new strategic plan was developed as part of long-term reflection and visioning discussions within the APC network as it is turning 30 in 2020. The outcome areas are prioritised areas of focus, for the period of the strategic plan, that represent the key achievements required to move closer to realising APC’s vision in consideration of the current and expected context.

APC's 10 year vision

In 2020, APC is turning 30 years old, and to commemorate this special date we have asked the members of our network about their vision for APC in the next 10 years to come. This section features the messages with congratulations, love and hope that our members sent, which also point to what we need to be mindful of to remain a creative and powerful force for change.

Epilogue from our Chair, Bishakha Datta: These are all clappable things: Looking back in wonder

Epilogue from our Executive Director, Chat Garcia Ramilo: The APC network: A force for change for 30 years