The past year was a true test for anyone defending a digital future that serves social, gender and environmental justice. In a year marked by severe global funding cuts and the increasing use of technology in ways that harm marginalised communities and the planet, our latest annual report, which has just been released, reveals how our network is actively shaping technology for the common good.
During 2025, our staff and network of members and partners worked across 63 countries. In partnership with our financial supporters, through APC's subgranting we directly supported 206 initiatives in 48 of these countries, most of them in the Global South. Together, we built common agendas, while ensuring the presence of rights and justice perspectives in digital tech discourses. We act collectively to shape digital standards, policies, processes and norms, while nurturing our own collective capacity for safety, care and resilience. We shared resources and knowledge as a way to learn, grow and thrive.
But how does all this translate in practice? In a five-part series, throughout the month of October, we will be republishing the experiences gathered for the report’s impact section. They are organised according to our five outcome areas, which are the píllars of APC’s current strategic plan. Here you will find highlights from the report that illustrate how the APC community is taking action on the ground.
As pointed out by APC’s executive director, Chat Garcia Ramilo, the stories presented in this report are more than just a chronicle of our work. "They are part of our collective memory and a reminder of what we can achieve together, even in difficult times. As we look ahead, we carry these experiences with us as a foundation for strengthening collective organising in the coming years."
Read on for the first piece of the series, focusing on how our community is building common agendas for inclusion, rights, a feminist internet and environmental justice.
Building intersectional common agendas
A key area where APC built a common agenda involved better articulating the different kinds of community-centred connectivity initiatives that operate in the Global South, and shifting the understanding of their funding needs. Through research and consistent advocacy, the Local Networks (LocNet) initiative – run in partnership with Rhizomatica – persuaded key organisations to see community networks as enterprises with a social purpose, emphasising that blended financing was the most effective way to secure their sustainability. Among organisations and institutions that have shifted their strategic emphasis on funding community networks are the Global Gateway’s Digital for Development Hub, Smart Africa, the European Centre for Development Policy Management, the Internet Society, Connect Humanity, MCE Conseils and the Atlantic Council. At the World Summit on the Information Society 20-year review (WSIS+20), our advocacy on digital inclusion also helped ensure that the issue was not sidelined at the forum, contributing to the establishment of the UN Group on the Information Society (UNGIS) inter-agency task force on financing. Alongside this work, LocNet collaboratively developed a typology of community-centred connectivity initiatives, as well as principles for operating a community-run initiative. Both have been supported by partners and other stakeholders working on digital inclusion in underserved communities.
We convened activists to shape a collective future for digital justice. APC helped strengthen the digital justice movement working closely with our partner IT for Change and others in the Global Digital Justice Forum (GDJF), a coalition of civil society organisations from the Global Majority. One of the GDJF's main priorities in 2025 was to build a common agenda for the WSIS+20 process. We convened a strategy meeting in February 2025 in Johannesburg with organisations from across fields who participate in the forum, and launched the Digital Justice Now! campaign. Over 100 organisations participated in the campaign, including APC members such as Colnodo, the Institute for Social Entrepreneurship in Asia (ISEA), Rhizomatica, and REDES A.C. At WSIS+20 we worked with the GDJF, the Global Digital Rights Coalition, the Gender in Digital Coalition and other civil society networks to develop common positions, resulting in joint statements, submissions and co-organised events.
We opened up pathways for multistakeholder collaboration in regional and national events. With APC subgranting support, in November 2025 APC member Rudi International hosted the sixth edition of HakiConf in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Its annual flagship conference on human rights in the digital age attracted nearly 200 participants, including national policy makers and the telecoms regulatory agency in the DRC. This was the first time that national policy makers actively participated in the event, breaking a historic pattern of government disengagement. In September, APC member Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) also successfully hosted the annual Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica), which took place in Namibia. The forum convened many APC members and partners from the region that see FIFAfrica as an opportunity to nurture alliances that strengthen local struggles for digital justice. In October, APC member Pollicy from Uganda hosted DataFest Africa, an event focused on reclaiming Africa’s digital future, and in which several members and APC partners participated. Meanwhile in August, over 500 activists, policy makers, technologists, feminists, environmental and labour activists, journalists and lawyers participated in the Digital Rights Asia-Pacific Assembly (DRAPAC) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The hybrid event organised by APC member EngageMedia aimed to strengthen regional solidarity and innovation in advancing digital rights and internet freedom through multistakeholder collaboration, capacity building and identifying shared priorities to combat the region’s most pressing digital rights threats. The event was also an opportunity for our members in India, Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, South Korea and Taiwan to come together in an APC Asia Gathering to discuss the priorities for the region.
We strengthened feminist coordination and research. APC has built on its years of advocacy against technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) by strengthening the research and advocacy capacities of Global South practitioners through the Feminist Internet Research Network (FIRN). FIRN and its network of peer support helped 10 partners develop their capacities to challenge dominant discourses on their experiences through their own research, and even to engage local governments to shape policy on TFGBV. Organisations we worked with included O.Tra.S Organización de Trabajadoras Sexuales in Uruguay, the Women's Center Gulrukhsor in Tajikistan, The Hub for Decolonial Feminist Psychologies in Africa in South Africa, Sangath in India, Minas Programam in Brazil, and Kohl in Lebanon and Palestine. A symposium organised by FIRN also demonstrated the power of cross-movement solidarity and collective knowledge building. Meanwhile, through APC subgrant support, women’s human rights organisations in Tanzania formed a permanent national working group that is emerging as a key platform for feminist digital rights coordination. Through support from an APC subgrant, Burmese women human rights defenders (WHRDs) in exile were also formally certified as Community Connectors, establishing a peer-led protection network for displaced defenders and the communities they serve.
We raised awareness of the importance of free/libre and open source software (FLOSS) for digital rights organisations. APC raised awareness of FLOSS funding opportunities and projects in the Global South through the NGI Zero initiative. The initiative fostered greater collaboration among grantees, the FLOSS community in Europe and civil society organisations including APC members. Our member Sursiendo also updated their directory of individuals and collectives working with free software design and launched an interview series called "The People Behind the Technologies We Want".
We supported digital rights networks in Latin America. APC member Sursiendo launched the Observatorio Latinoamericano de Amenazas Digitales in which our members in the region participate. The observatory’s first report focused on digital threats in Latin America. In Ecuador, the organisations that make up LaLibre.net Tecnologías Comunitarias, a 2025 subgrantee, strengthened their work on digital safety, regulatory frameworks and sustainable financing, despite a challenging national context. LaLibre.net consolidated its advocacy concerns through its Second National Gathering of Digital Rights Defenders in Ecuador, which grew from 16 people and eight organisations at the first edition to 28 people and 11 organisations, including women, non-binary persons and people from Afro-Ecuadorian and Amazon communities. After years of partnership, the Mexican organisation REDES A.C. formally joined the APC network. In collaboration with APC and Rhizomatica, the organisation continued to implement several training programmes on digital technologies and community-centred connectivity. These included the International Training Programme for ICT Network Managers in Latin America and the first edition of the programme in Africa, developed jointly with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
We strengthened our approach to movement building in the Asia-Pacific region by connecting national movements around digital rights issues with network members and partners in South and Southeast Asia. The approach built on feedback given by grassroots and national-level digital rights groups, and it established a new model for connecting diverse national and regional movements working on digital rights regionally. APC contributed as lead organiser by convening national-level events in five countries in South and Southeast Asia in collaboration with APC members (including EngageMedia, Point of View and Foundation for Media Alternatives) and partners (Digitally Right and the Research Group in Innovation for Social Solidarity and Inclusive Economy in Asia at Chulalangkorn University).
APC would like to thank its strong community of members, associates, staff, partners and supporters who, year after year, make these achievements and their significant impact possible. For more information we also invite you to explore our 2025 annual report in full.