January 25 2024, Africa Meetup

The Africa Regional Meetups are bimonthly video calling gatherings that bring together folks from the African region to share, connect, seek help, and release stress by celebrating each other. In addition, it is a time for us to find ways to support each other, and help us understand what is happening in our part of the world. If you cannot attend the monthly meetups, we are taking notes of each gathering and linking to them below.

The African community is connected during the week in different ways. Either through the African channel on the TCU Mattermost or via different events organized on various topics during the year.

Africa Meetups What are the Africa Monthly Meetups Others Villages & Special Events Upcoming Meetups & Gatherings

Date: Thursday, January 25, 2024

Time: 5pm SAST / 6pm EAT / 10am EST / 3pm UTC (What time is it in my city?)

Who: Facilitated by Mardiya

Where: Link will be shared in the Regional Africa channel on the TCU Mattermost one or two hours before the start of the meeting.

• Don't have an account to the TCU Mattermost? you can request one following the directions here.

Collectives Notes: Please put notes here: https://pad.riseup.net/p/africa-meetup

Notes

Attendees: 6

Community Check In & Updates

Its been a tiring Janaury,but not for everyone because they had a full month of rest in December. This year is a full calendar of work and events.

Bridget Andere launched a paper on data protection laws, privact at access now Read it here: https://www.accessnow.org/improving-data-protection-by-african-governments/

DSA (digital society Africa) has launched their network of consultant where they are doing in country work,  and the consultant team is ready to go within their various locations! They are working on showcasing and upskilling the consultants with the key skills. Connectcon by DSA is happening at the end of July, save the date! DSA has also now expanded its work by creating key departments working on various tracks of digital security, cybersecurity etc.

Indepth conversation

a. The community spoke on gaps in providing support to francophone and lusophone Africa with capacity and resourcing support

b.  Some of the concerns raised where that when collaborations happen they often involve with grassroots organizations and other orgs in the space however it has was considered as an exploitative way because most people doing the capacity support speaks English, but only engages with French or Portuguese speakers when specific services are needed rather than providing them with the resources and space to address digital rights issues in their context.

c. How can we partner while figuring out how to resource people working in the space in an appropriate manner.

d. We need to map out the existing interest for collaborative engagements within the region to gauge the responses as a way to begin any type of support

e. To provide support on ToT (Training of trainers) within some of these low resourced regions would, contexual understanding of the threats within the space is essential.

Localisation

- Localisation labs worked with Zimbabwean folks to localise resources and training as well.

- Some of the cases that happens in Anglophone countries are very similar in Francophone spaces , so theres also an opportunity to realize some of the ways these issues intersect and learn from how others have addressed it... the spaces are not radically different all the time.

How can these conversations and collaborations move forward

1. A good start is the meetup space we create that peak people's shared interests

2. Learning from how others have mitigated some of these issues,how they localised materials and protected themselves.

3. Shared fundraising to conduct similar work could be another method towards digital rights advocacy.. a way to bridge skill and language gaps  within the region