A holistic integration of feminist values in CCCIs

Community Centered Connectivity Initiatives (CCCI) are diverse in their models. They are usually designed by members of the community or by technical advisors who are looking for technical solutions to community connectivity needs. The models of building CCCIs which are successful rely on the community's willingness and interest in upholding and maintaining these initiatives. they require time, resources technical skills and know-how. They can exacerbate or decrease inequalities in a certain community depending on who they end up centring in their services.
Feminists have been articulating the need to centre intersecting social and political issues in digital technology in various fields and areas. CCCIs are also a reflection of their social and communal ecosystem. The work that women, queer, gender-diverse folks have been doing in CCCI over the years clearly indicates the need for CCCIs to hold a different approach to centre women’s lived experiences and realities.

Exclusion of women and other marginalized groups from CCCIs often start at the inception stages when community participatory practices fall short due to an array of reasons: at times the lack of women techies discourages women from learning, other times women have reported that these spaces do not give them space to talk about the issues that are present in a community or issues that matter to them. Often, tech trainings take place at times and spaces which are not accessible to women who are tending to other work.

At LocNet, we value that CCCIs rely on the interconnectedness of the infrastructure of the community itself and the relationships between community members. We acknowledge the power dynamics and the way that community members engage with one another. We also respect relational dynamics of the trust or mistrust that exist and the ability of a community to make decisions that are beneficial for everyone.

Therefore, we propose a gender integration programme which holds intersectional feminist principles whereby we are proposing a model of integration which relies on handing over and the expansion of knowledge. We also have noticed that tech is secondary and that the primary focus of gender engagement and integration must center the community itself in all its complexity.