Community-centred connectivity initiatives (CCCIs) have emerged as critical actors in bridging the digital divide, providing internet access to unconnected and underserved populations. Prioritising purpose over profit, they demonstrate responsive, effective and undisputed social impact by expanding meaningful access to digital opportunities and enabling broader social, cultural and economic opportunities. To demonstrate this value, strengthen the evidence base and ensure investments are directed towards the most effective approaches, robust and measurable impact assessment is essential – particularly given competing narratives that dismiss CCCIs as resource-intensive ventures with uncertain or unproven returns.
Addressing this need, the Institute for Social Entrepreneurship in Asia (ISEA), in partnership with the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and Rhizomatica, conducted the study Towards measuring the social impact and cost effectiveness of community-centred connectivity initiatives, developing an innovative methodology combining two indicators – social return on investment (SROI) with development indexing (DI) – for assessing digital inclusion strategies. This innovative methodology was applied across four longstanding CCCIs in Asia and Africa: Kasepuhan Ciptagelar (West Java, Indonesia), Pathardi (Maharashtra, India), TandaNet (Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya) and Zenzeleni Networks (Eastern Cape, South Africa).
Read the full policy brief here.