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.
Read on for the fourth piece of the series, focusing on how our community is collectively shaping digital policies, processes, standards and norms.
Collectively shaping digital standards, policies, processes and norms
We strengthened multistakeholder internet governance processes, securing positions of influence for civil society. 2025 marked the 20th anniversary of WSIS, a global process that has been foundational to the multistakeholder approach to internet governance. APC's advocacy strategy for the WSIS+20 review began in the second half of 2023 and reached a significant milestone in December 2025 at the UN Headquarters in New York with the adoption by consensus of the WSIS+20 Outcome Document. This secured the continuation of the WSIS process, aligning it with the Global Digital Compact and laying the groundwork for better coherence across the UN's digital agenda. Another key result of this process was the IGF being granted a permanent mandate and recognised as a vital multistakeholder space for digital governance discussions. This was the result of coordinated efforts by APC and other civil society organisations who pushed for recognition of the role that civil society organisations play in internet governance. The WSIS+20 Informal Multistakeholder Sounding Board (IMSB) also selected APC's global governance advocacy lead manager, Valeria Betancourt, to be part of the first experiment to implement the multistakeholder model in UN intergovernmental processes, enabling APC to influence the IMSB's scope and role. Meanwhile, the Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) of the IGF selected Betancourt and APC senior advisor on global and regional internet governance Anriette Esterhuysen to join its special 2025 convening, enabling APC to help shape the IGF agenda and connect it to the WSIS+20 review process.
We centred the discussion on financing digital connectivity in the Global South. A priority at the WSIS+20 review was to push forward a dedicated focus on financing in order to ensure that the implementation of the WSIS goals would be feasible. As a result of APC’s consistent advocacy, the UN Group on the Information Society (UNGIS), which is the inter-agency mechanism coordinating WSIS implementation, established a financing task force and a Multistakeholder Consultation Group to work on frameworks for financing digital development as outcomes of the WSIS+20 review. Complementing our work through the Local Networks (LocNet) initiative on sustainable blended financing solutions for community-centred connectivity initiatives, APC co-authored the official report of the UN IGF Dynamic Coalition on Community Connectivity focused on sustainable financing solutions for community connectivity. The report was launched in a session at the IGF in Oslo in June. This milestone was followed in October by the T20 summit side event “Breaking barriers: Innovative financing for community-centred digital inclusion” in South Africa, convened by the UK High Commission, UNESCO and APC. The side event gathered around 100 stakeholders who discussed ways of achieving sustainable funding for community networks. We have also seen a shift in approaches in financing digital inclusion among bilateral donors, such as the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
We strengthened digital and human rights language in global processes, outcomes and resolutions. Through advocacy at the WSIS+20 review by APC and its partners, its Outcome Document incorporated strong language on digital inequalities, community-centred connectivity, and human rights, including gender equality. We also positively influenced the language in a new resolution on human rights defenders and new technologies adopted by the UN Human Rights Council in March, strengthening its language on gender rights. Meanwhile country delegations, civil society and the private sector within the Freedom Online Coalition (FOC) consistently mainstreamed human rights, gender and social justice issues within the FOC Advisory Network and in the policy discussions and outputs of the FOC’s 41 member states. APC, as part of the Advisory Network, led proactive advice, convened meetings, participated in FOC events and panels, briefed delegations ahead of key governance processes, and provided evidence on situations of human rights online in Global South countries. APC’s engagement with pressing issues and international processes led to issuing or endorsing 38 statements and submissions in 2025. These covered topics such as AI, the right to privacy and the impact of disinformation on human rights.
We catalysed policy change to support community networks across regions and in our focus countries. Through APC and LocNet advocacy, as well as the work of several APC members and partners including Colnodo, REDES A.C., ISEA, CITAD, Common Room and Zenzeleni, regional and national regulatory bodies have integrated community-led connectivity initiatives into their digital inclusion policies, strategies and discussions. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Americas Regional Office formally recognised a community-led initiative as a regional model, showcasing the ICT Network Bootcamp (organised by Rhizomatica, REDES A.C. and APC) as an impact story in its official publication “State of digital development and trends in the Americas”. The member states of the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development also adopted new languageformally recognising “participative and community-centered connectivity models” in an official resolution. The proposal was introduced by Tanzania, supported by South Africa and Egypt, and accepted by all states. Alongside these achievements, following years of engagement we were asked to develop regional guidelines for community broadband networks by the Communications Regulatory Authority of Southern Africa (these were later adopted by Southern African Development Community member states). Meanwhile, the countries where the LocNet initiative focused its advocacy efforts in 2025 achieved various concrete results. Policy-making milestones were celebrated with the public launch of national strategies to advance community networks in South Africa and Kenya, and the approval of a groundbreaking law in support of connecting underserved communities in the Philippines. In Kenya, community-centred connectivity initiatives shifted from operating informally to formally engaging with regulators, resulting in 13 licence applications and four successful licences. In Colombia, the Ministry of ICT adopted Resolution 1701 of 2026, which regulates the assignment of the 900 MHz band to organised connectivity communities. Meanwhile, following years of persistent engagement, APC together with our member CITAD co-designed a sensitisation workshop for the Nigerian Communications Commission, and established a working group to finalise a community network licensing framework for the country.
We pushed for gender perspectives in global and regional forums, expanding discourse on digital violence. Key forums and processes focused on digital rights, such as the Global Digital Compact process and WSIS+20, included gender-rights language in their outcome documents as a result of APC working with coalitions such as the Gender and Digital Coalition and the Global Digital Justice Forum. While the Freedom Online Coalition mainstreamed gender in its deliberations, and APC strengthened the gender language in the UN Human Rights Council resolution on human rights defenders, through our work on technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) the need to prevent and respond to digital violence was taken on board by decision-making bodies addressing gender-based violence more broadly. An important impact was APC’s contribution to the Organization of American States’ MESECVI Inter-American Model Law on Gender-Based Digital Violence against Women, expanding the TFGBV discourse beyond social media to include militarisation, war and genocide. This was the result of work by Safety for Voices consortium member IM-Defensoras, which presented analyses drawn from over a decade of research at an expert meeting, encouraging state and institutional actors to take necessary action. In 2025, the IM-Defensoras registry of attacks on Mesoamerican women human rights defenders (WHRDs) recorded 6,839 attacks against 581 individual women defenders and 70 organisations across Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.
We built the visibility of WHRDs in policy spaces. APC and partners working in the Safety for Voices consortium continued to strengthen the voice and visibility of WHRDs in policy spaces, influenced international and regional advocacy agendas, and promoted systemic changes rooted in feminist holistic protection. This was done through engagement in UN processes such as the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), the UN Human Rights Council and WSIS+20. APC co-authored four UPR stakeholder reports, three with members – TEDIC and Derechos Digitales (for Paraguay), CIPESA (for Rwanda) and SMEX (for Lebanon) – as well as a report for Namibia which we authored independently. A report on digital repression in Myanmar, produced by the Myanmar Internet Project in collaboration with APC, was originally intended as a UPR submission but was published as a separate output.
We also built stakeholder capacity on gender and cybersecurity. We strengthened the capacity and awareness of the importance of gender in cybersecurity of stakeholders engaged in international cybersecurity governance processes. These included policy makers, civil society and academics, as well as institutions such as the Organization of American States and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and mechanisms such as the UN’s Open-Ended Working Group on security of and in the use of ICTs. APC's global policy advocacy coordinator co-authored a framework for integrating gender into the interpretation and implementation of the 11 UN norms for responsible state behaviour in cyberspace. Based on its research, APC contributed to the Open-ended Working Group on developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security 2021-2025.
We deepened stakeholders’ understanding of emerging policy terrains. In May, participants in the 13th edition of the African School on Internet Governance (AfriSIG) held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, increased their knowledge of internet and digital policy, sharpened negotiation skills, and deepened their understanding of a multistakeholder, human rights-based approach to internet governance. There were 55 participants from diverse stakeholder groups – members of parliament, regulators, the private sector, academia, media and civil society from across Africa. The event was co-organised by APC, and the African Union Commission and Research ICT Africa, in collaboration with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the UN Internet Governance Forum Parliamentary Track. In July, the first edition of the School on Platform Governance in Asia, organised by Open Net Korea and APC, was held in Thailand. It was a unique capacity-building opportunity for young lawyers, researchers, policy workers and civil society actors who furthered their understanding and analysis of policy frameworks related to platform governance in Asia and explored strategies to hold platforms accountable.
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.