The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) - Internet and ICTs for Social Justice and Development

The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is an international network of civil society organisations dedicated to empowering and supporting groups and individuals working for peace, human rights, development and protection of the environment, through the strategic use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), including the Internet.

Technology: Practice and Policy

APC’s members were often the first providers of Internet in their countries. Today, we continue to pioneer practical and relevant uses of ICTs for civil society, especially in developing countries. APC is an international facilitator of civil society's engagement with ICTs and related concerns, in both policy and practice. 

World-wide Membership

APC's value and uniqueness comes from the local perspectives and contact with grassroots organisations that we gain through contact with, and between, our members. 

Our network of members includes organisations from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Curacao, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Romania, Senegal, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Ukraine, the UK, Uruguay, and the USA.

APC’S ACTION AREAS 

To remain a powerful and efficient advocate for civil society networking, APC needs to continually analyse and react to the changes in the global landscape of access to communication technologies. At the APC Council meeting in Hungary, May 2000, APC member and partner organisations adopted three action areas as the basis of APC’s efforts to mobilise the potential of information and communication technologies to promote development and social justice. 

Action Area: BUILDING INFORMATION COMMUNITIES

Knowledge is only powerful if it is linked to practice and action, and if it is locally generated. The APC aims to build new information communities, and to link and support the many that already exist and are successfully using and promoting new technologies. 

“Building Information Communities” is a key activity area in APC’s Action Plan that emerged in response to a strong interest expressed by APC member organisations for the APC to work with them to develop information resources that will serve the special needs of civil society organisations.

APC’s long-term goal is to create a worldwide learning and practitioner community to support the strategic use of ICTs by civil society. 

Action Area: INTERNET RIGHTS for civil society

APC Civil Society Internet Rights Initiative – taking place in Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa and most recently Asia - promotes and defends civil society access and use of the Internet for critical information exchange. 

The primary goal of this work varies from region to region. In Europe, it is to provide the resources and tools needed to defend and expand the opportunities for social campaigning work online. In Latin America, it is to ensure that civil society needs are taken into account in ICT policy-making - especially regarding access and the appropriation of ICTs as a basic human right. 

To find out more visit: http://rights.apc.org

Action Area: MOBILISING PARTICIPATION

It is important for people and organisations in civil society who mobilise the power of information and communication technologies for development and democracy to join forces. They need to learn from one another, and together advocate for policies and practice that will extend Internet access to the many people that are being left by the wayside of the so-called ‘Information Highway’.  

APC wants to build the number and capacity of its membership because the stronger APC’s membership, the more meaningful will be the support of the APC to the local communities and organisations that we interact with locally, regionally and internationally.   

APC has a strong Latin American and Central and Eastern European presence. We encourage new membership from Asia, the Middle East and Africa. As part of our effort to build capacity, APC recently released a free collaborative Web publishing software for not-for-profits (see “Special Projects” below).

To find out more about members, visit: www.apc.org/english/about/members

APC WNSP - The Women’s Networking Support Programme

The APC WNSP facilitates the strategic use of ICTs in support of women's actions and agendas, to bring more attention to issues of concern to women, reinforce solidarity campaigns, enhance traditional women's networking activities and defend the rights of women to participate equally in civil and public life. 

APC WNSP is also developing evaluation methodologies to determine if ICTs have really improved women's lives. APC WNSP has members in over twenty countries. 
APC Women: www.apcwomen.org.

A SELECTION OF APC INITIATIVES

APC ActionApps: free Web publishing tools for NGOs

APC ActionApps provide individual NGO Websites with a high-impact / low-cost way to automate the publishing of press releases, job listings, events and other types of information.

But the real power of APC ActionApps comes at the level of collective publishing and aggregation. Each news item or resource added to an individual organisation’s site can be automatically fed to a 'community-wide' portal. Spread-out coalitions can quickly put together a campaign site. The result is greater outreach, more speedily, to a wider audience.  To find out more, visit: www.apc.org/actionapps

ItrainOnline.org

An Online Resource for Learners and Trainers in the Development Community

Although the World Wide Web offers many Internet and ICTs-related training materials, it is often difficult to find relevant, high-quality resources targeted at NGOs, development organizations, and other civil society groups. 

Drawing on the extensive training experience of APC members and the other ItrainOnline partners, this site offers materials and annotated links to high-quality resources on topics ranging from computer and Internet basics to highly technical areas and the ways that civil society and development organizations can increase their impact using these tools. ItrainOnline has English and Spanish sites, and includes a section on other languages. 

ItrainOnline: www.itrainonline.org

The APC Herbet de Souza “Betinho” Communications Prize - to recognise the use of the Internet for social justice

The $7,500 USD Betinho Prize is designed to recognise and document outstanding examples of how the Internet can make a real difference for the world’s communities today.  

The prize was offered for the first time in 2000, and over 160 inspiring projects were nominated. The inaugural winner, the Max Foundation, is a life-saving online support network functioning in English, Spanish and Portuguese for the families of children suffering from leukaemia and host of Latin America’s first online bone marrow tissue registry.  In 2001, the events of September 11 coincided with the nomination deadline, however, despite this, over 80 inspiring projects were documented. Finalists included initiatives from Brazil, Cuba, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Colombia, Zimbabwe, Peru, the USA and South Africa.  

The winner - “Women’s Voices”, a project of the Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) – is a Kenyan video initiative which gives women living in poverty a voice in public policy making. 

APC Betinho Prize: www.apc.org/english/betinho

HOW DOES THE APC FUNCTION?

APC has been operating as an international, membership-based organisation since 1990. Our strong mixture of Southern and Northern organisations, and their combined knowledge and experience of promoting and using ICTs at local, national and regional levels, differentiates our network and our work from many others. 

Governed by our members
APC members define APC direction, policies and agendas. APC Council is the governing body that establishes APC's policy and work area priorities. Each APC member organisation appoints a representative to Council.  Council meets regularly online, and periodically, APC Council members meet for a face-to-face conference in one of the member countries. 

The Council elects an Executive Board that provides financial and operational oversight, and works with the Executive Director and staff to implement APC action plans.  

Empowered working groups
Working Groups of people from the APC community who share an active interest or expertise in a particular issue or project (e.g., Internet Rights in Latin America), are set up as needed and have the power to make recommendations to APC council.

A virtual office
APC has a small core staff and project team who develop APC programs and projects and run the organization from day-to-day. Each team member lives in a different country and communicates daily via email.  

FINDING OUT MORE ABOUT APC

All APC Websites are in at least English and Spanish and provide detailed, regularly updated information about the work of APC and our members and the use of Internet for social justice. 

APCNews: NGOs, development workers, the media and the general public can learn more about strategic uses of the Internet and ICTs through our monthly newsletter – APCNews, and in Spanish, APCNoticias.  To receive the news direct, write to: webeditor@apc.org or visit: http://www.apc.org/english/news

Press: Journalists may also sign up to our press lists in English and Spanish. Recent press releases and special announcements have covered the Betinho Communications and Africa Hafkin Prizes to recognise the strategic use of the Internet, APC’s protection of the Internet for social justice work, and the launch of the APC ActionApps (a free software for building portal websites).  To join the press list, please contact APC’s Communications Manager, Karen Higgs khiggs@apc.org.

APC’s Press section includes releases and frequently updated primers: http://www.apc.org/english/press

The Association for Progressive Communications (APC): http://www.apc.org