💬 Documentation

October 4 | SESSION 1 — Why are we interested in policy, advocacy and governance?

The session was facilitated by Valeria Betancourt and Gayatri Khandhadai of APC, covering topics such as what is advocacy and policy advocacy, the approaches to advocacy, spaces for advocacy in local, regional, and international levels, the reasons to engage in advocacy, establishing stakeholders, and discussing what we need in order to engage in policy advocacy. The session was followed by discussions among resource persons and participants.

Key highlights from the discussion:

1. Policy advocacy in the telecom industry has always been to provide capacity to big corporations. By engaging in policy advocacy for community networks, we could provide research-based evidence to inform other understanding and put the possibility of different logics to coexist in this industry.
2. There are 3 approaches to advocacy: human rights-based approach, social justice, and feminist. All of these approaches share one common denominator — it is that they put people and their lived experiences in the centre, acknowledging that all of us live in broad contexts in our lives.
3. There is this myth that we need to have a certain level of expertise to enter advocacy spaces. This myth is designed to exclude the diversity that policy advocacy can benefit us. Every space that could impact us deserves our voice to be heard.
4. Policy advocacy is not always inclusive. Do not reject it, but challenge it. 
5. Decision makers do not always have the intention to shut us down. Most of the time, they also do not come with knowledge needed to pursue the policy. What we can do is to provide knowledge and expertise. 
6. On the rights mentioned to be people-centred, who is this ‘people’ we are speaking of? Rights would include ALL people. At the same time, there are some groups of people who need to be protected more so than others e.g. marginalised groups.
7. On the discussions of rights to be individual based, how do we apply to communities? This is by recognising that while we live in communities, we are also our own individuals. It’s a matter of finding this perspective in policy making.
8. Sometimes there are frictions in policy advocacy. Success in policy advocacy is not about compromising, it is about negotiation and making the best of the situation.
9. While stakeholders may come from the same groups, we need to remember they themselves are not homogenous. E.g. CSOs might have different perspectives depending on their frameworks.
10. We can enter advocacy spaces as ourselves, but there is much credibility in making way for the communities in these spaces themselves. As such, we need to be willing to take the policy discussions to make it relatable for communities to participate.
11. On the Q of being an introvert in advocacy spaces — the work requires preparation and internalisation briefed in the presentation. All of this work would prepare you better to counteract all the fears and to be able to sustain the process in a way that helps to contribute meaningfully to the processes. Not to mention, advocacy spaces are filled with all shades of people. Who’s to say the most outspoken people are not introverts as well?
12. Policy advocacy is a long-term process. Be humble, be willing to empathically listen. Consider some of our preconceived notions and motives. Sustain trust and relationships.

Memorable Quotes:

"Do not be afraid to elbow for your space in policy advocacy." — Gayatri.

"[...] feminism has confronted the relation between public freedom and private domination – which in itself implies the need for radicality, in the sense of thinking of democracy not only as a political system but also as an actual form of organising social life.” — Valeria, quoting Brazilian feminist Maria Betania.

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October 8 | SESSION 2 — Our gendered experiences in policy spaces, challenges and needs. The spaces we wish to create.

This session was facilitated by Marwa of APC and Adriana, an independent public interest lawyer and consumer rights expert. The session was oriented to build collective knowledge and share how we want to push for building an inclusive gendered ICT world. This is done by sharing the essential pillars of a gendered perspective, the feminist principles of the Internet (FPI), to learn from gendered experiences and the lack thereof in the policy and policy advocacy spaces, and to address the concerns and space of community networks. Finally, participants were also invited to share good, as well as bad practices, for feminist and gendered policy design and learn from each other.

Key highlights:

1. The path for ICT for good is gender responsive. We should start by recognising that tech development and use are both entrenched to patriarchal norms and gender discriminatory behaviours.
2. We need to recognise that tech is not neutral. They are more often designed by men with no gender responsive lens, and by normalising centuries of exclusion and violence.
3. We must also be aware of our own biases after centuries of being raised in a patriarchal discriminatory society. We women may have also normalised and replicated the behaviours.
4. We need to be aware of all forms of exclusion, violence, and discrimination in the physical world that has been reproduced in the digital world e.g shiny new disruptive tech like AI might be tempting, but it has the tendency to reproduce violence and exlcusion as it is built on historic data that includes discriminatory behaviour. As such, we have to embed gender perspectives so no matter the platforms or means, we are aware of how to design it that is respective and inclusive of human rights.
5. While we need to include women in all levels of processes, we need to be aware that women, in all their diversities, are heterogeneous. As such, we need to include women of all backgrounds, ethnicities, ages, professions, etc.
6. Most of the systems are designed for greater good, but sadly they were not designed to combat prejudice and to reproduce inequality. This is why gendered design is very important, because it's not just about having a blueprint as a policy framework, but it's also about how we can implement that policy.  
7. Effective multistakeholders remedy should not be limited to non legal measures. Nowadays, there are more punitive connotations to the current remedies. It goes down the line of criminalisation e.g. criminalise hate speech or to shrink the civil space. We need to look at remedies and prevention and non legal measures to build political voluntary willingness to mitigate the harm of ICT.
8. In ensuring gender and rights respecting all levels of community networks, it is the responsibility of all genders. This may include men taking up the household or caregiving responsibilities to let the women participate. If the community does not have the politics, governance, principles to ensure this, it will produce inequality of other levels.
9. Affirmative actions are necessary when there is such a great asymmetry in power to remedy the imbalance of power and eliminate discrimination, so that people with vulnerabilities, PWD, women etc. can also take part.
10. The concept of cognitive justice states that the design starts by who makes the narrative and how knowledge is gained and transmitted. For now knowledge is only acceptable if it comes from male white men, what about the others?
11. Sometimes women too or in women-led organisations can unconsciously replicate the power dynamics entrenched in the patriarchal systems. As such it is important to be mindful to unpack the power dynamics, create collaboration, and collective knowledge building, and also acknowledge our contribution to inequality. 
12. On the concern of representation of women in tech (normally seen as in boardrooms, white shirts, briefcase etc. instead of everyday women we see around us with different skills and capacities) brought up by a participant — it seems there are different levels of participation for women in tech and CN, which includes both in social related aspect of CNs and the technical and infrastructural aspect. APC is working towards ensuring participation of all women in all their diversities through initiatives such as community networks, strategic communications, languages and images oriented in human rights perspective, and working towards how to translate the representation in community networks, among others.
13. In ensuring this, the network must also be human centered and addressing the different groups of women, and giving them choice to participate or not, or in ways they want to do so (either through social capacities or technical and infrastructural aspects). Essentially, it is not about competition, but about how individuals can contribute with their own skills and preferences. 

Memorable quotes:

“[...] include all women. One woman in 25 men is not enough. Women are also a heterogeneous group. We need women of all backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, etc. We are not made of one mould.” — Adriana, calling for the inclusion of all women in all their diversities in policy design.

“We didn’t actually architect for prejudice, but we didn’t design the system to combat it either.” — Marwa.

“Something that colonialism and capitalism has brought forth is this hierarchy of roles and who is more worthy than the other, that is much prevalent in our spaces, including tech.” — Cynthia 

“Everyday we can be a changemaker in whatever small or big scenario and somehow inspire things and visibilise tremendous work of women and predecessors who have made life easier for quality and inclusion.” — Adriana