The 2021 African School on Internet Governance (AfriSIG) has brought together actors from digital ecosystems worldwide. It has been a golden opportunity for me and my community as I have learnt about several topics on internet governance. I applied for this opportunity to further increase my knowledge and skills to continue impacting positively on Senegalese internet users and non-internet users. The concept of the digital divide is becoming more and more complex as is access to digital tools in many African countries, particularly in Senegal where the internet connection is too expensive and often slow in the evenings.
This remains a challenge as the number of users increases day by day. There is a wide internet connectivity gap between individuals, organisations and businesses. Likewise non-consumers, territories, illiterate populations and people living in remote cities are under-equipped in terms of means of communication and are excluded from the network. Sometimes they also lack vital resources such as water and electricity. We can say that the internet offers a tool for accessing information and at the same time reinforces inequality and exclusion due to poor distribution of infrastructure in Senegalese cyberspace, subjugation of the telecommunications sector to political logic and political discourse on modernity without a shared understanding of contextual realities.
Read the full blog post on the AfriSIG website.
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