WSIS Forum 2026
AI-generated report
ENFR

Digital Inclusion as a Driver of Community Development

8 speakers
Summary

This session, moderated by Roxana Widmer-Iliescu, focused on digital inclusion as a driver of development for rural, remote, and indigenous communities, drawing on over two decades of work by ITU and its partners . A keynote delivered on behalf of ITU's Dr Cosmas Zavazava noted that approximately 3.5 billion people - nearly half the world's population - still live in rural areas, and stressed that communities must be participants in the digital ecosystem as users, creators, and innovators, not merely passive recipients .

Anriette Esterhuysen of APC highlighted two critical lessons from adapting a community network training programme from Latin America to Africa: the necessity of thorough contextual research before replication, and the importance of genuine partnership . She noted, for example, that Africa's far greater linguistic diversity - with countries like Cameroon having up to 120 spoken languages - required almost every training module to be redeveloped from scratch .

William Baraza of AFRALTI, which hosted the Africa boot camp, observed that participants from across the continent shared common challenges including lack of electricity, poor backhaul connectivity, and prohibitive spectrum licensing costs . Dawit Bekele of the Internet Society reinforced that commercial operators, while effective in urban centres, have failed to deliver affordable connectivity to rural populations, and that community networks must be complemented by efforts to address affordability, local-language content, and online safety .

Carlos Baca Feldman emphasised that technology alone is insufficient; training must incorporate sustainability, local governance, and community engagement, and must depart from locally rooted knowledge already present within communities . Audience contributors echoed these points, stressing that infrastructure investment and government mandates for affordability remain essential complements to community-led approaches .

The session concluded with broad agreement that community ownership is the cornerstone of sustainable digital inclusion, with one participant from the UK's FCDO noting that programmes lacking community ownership have consistently failed to endure . The overall consensus was that meaningful connectivity for underserved populations requires a holistic, partnership-driven approach that places communities at the centre of design, implementation, and governance .

Keypoints

  • Overall Purpose

  • The discussion aims to showcase over two decades of ITU and partner-led work on digital inclusion for rural, remote, and indigenous communities, with a particular focus on community-centred capacity development programmes implemented in Africa and Latin America. The session seeks to share lessons learned, highlight successful models, and explore how these approaches can be adapted, replicated, and scaled globally to ensure no one is left behind in the digital age.
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  • Major Discussion Points

  • The scale of digital exclusion and the necessity of community-centred solutions: Approximately 3.5 billion people live in rural areas globally, and in Africa alone, roughly 900 million to 1.1 billion people lack meaningful connectivity. Commercial operators have largely succeeded in urban centres but have failed to extend affordable, relevant connectivity to rural and remote populations. The Internet Society emphasised that coverage statistics can be misleading, as affordability, language barriers, and safety concerns prevent meaningful adoption even where infrastructure exists. Community networks are therefore seen as critical because they are designed and managed by people who understand local needs, languages, and economic realities. - Context-specific adaptation and localisation of capacity development programmes: A central lesson from transferring the programme from Latin America to Africa was that models cannot simply be transplanted across regions. APC conducted thorough contextual research, including analysis of linguistic diversity - for example, Cameroon alone has approximately 120 spoken languages - and redeveloped nearly every training module from scratch for the African context. This process of localisation, combined with strong regional partnerships with organisations such as AFRALTI, the Internet Society, and local community networks, was identified as fundamental to the programme's success. - Regulatory and infrastructure barriers facing community networks: Participants from across Africa identified shared challenges, including lack of electricity, poor backhaul connectivity, and prohibitive costs of spectrum access and licensing. Existing regulatory frameworks tend to favour large mobile network operators, with licence fees in some countries reaching USD 20 million - entirely inaccessible for small community networks. These shared challenges prompted calls for community networks to form continental advocacy platforms and speak with a unified voice to push for more inclusive regulatory frameworks. - The importance of community ownership for long-term sustainability: Multiple speakers and audience contributors stressed that digital inclusion programmes are only sustainable when communities are owners and decision-makers, not passive recipients. Real-world examples from Nigeria illustrated that infrastructure deployed without community ownership failed to endure, whereas models where communities partly own, operate, and maintain infrastructure have proven far more resilient. Carlos Baca Feldman reinforced this by noting that locally-rooted solutions, developed with genuine community participation, have a lasting impact and can be replicated across different contexts. - Mentorship, peer learning, and multistakeholder collaboration as drivers of impact: The programmes in both Africa and Latin America emphasised peer learning, mentorship, and bringing together diverse stakeholders - including regulators, civil society, operators, and community leaders - in shared capacity-building encounters. Participants who already lead community connectivity and digital inclusion initiatives amplify the benefits of training, extending its reach to thousands of people in their communities. Carlos Baca Feldman highlighted that collaboration and partnership - spanning 15 years and involving organisations such as ITU BDT, APC, ISOC, AFRALTI, and community networks - is the single most important factor underpinning the programme's success. ---

  • Overall Tone

  • The overall tone of the discussion is constructive, collaborative, and optimistic, underpinned by a strong sense of shared purpose and commitment. From the outset, speakers conveyed genuine enthusiasm for the work being done and deep respect for the communities at its centre. The tone remained consistently positive and solution-oriented throughout, even when participants acknowledged significant challenges such as regulatory barriers, affordability gaps, and the vast scale of digital exclusion. There was a notable warmth and collegiality among panellists, who frequently acknowledged one another's contributions and expressed gratitude for long-standing partnerships. Audience contributions maintained this constructive spirit, offering practical observations and real-world examples. If anything, the tone grew slightly more urgent and impassioned towards the close of the session, particularly around the theme of community ownership, as speakers and audience members alike emphasised that without genuine community agency, digital inclusion efforts cannot be truly sustainable.
Speakers Overview
ID
ITU Delegate on behalf of Cosmas Luckyson Zavazava
106 wpm · 4 min
WB
William Baraza
142 wpm · 8 min
DB
Dawit Bekele
117 wpm · 6 min
AE
Anriette Esterhuysen
159 wpm · 5 min
CF
Carlos F. Baca Feldman
138 wpm · 6 min
VN
Video Narrator
129 wpm · 5 min
A
Audience
151 wpm · 3 min
RW
Roxana Widmer-Iliescu
139 wpm · 11 min

Expanded Summary: Digital Inclusion as a Driver of Development for Rural, Remote, and Indigenous Communities

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Session Overview and Opening Remarks

The session, moderated by Roxana Widmer-Iliescu, focused on digital inclusion as a driver of development for rural, remote, and indigenous communities, drawing on over two decades of work by the ITU and its partners . Opening remarks were delivered on behalf of Dr Cosmas Zavazava, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau, who was unable to attend due to a parallel official engagement . The remarks established the philosophical and empirical foundation for the entire discussion, noting that approximately 3.5 billion people - nearly half the world's population - live in rural areas today . In an era of rapid digital transformation, the delegate stressed that rural, remote, and indigenous communities must be ensured affordable access to emerging technologies, and that if artificial intelligence is to drive sustainable development, these communities cannot remain at the margins . Rather, they must be participants in the digital ecosystem as users, creators, innovators, and leaders .

Widmer-Iliescu also noted in her introduction that the session's work addresses not only specific groups such as youth, women, persons with disabilities, and older persons, but takes a holistic perspective on the right to communicate for each and every citizen . A central and recurring principle was articulated at the outset: that sustainable digital transformation is most successful when communities themselves are at the centre of the process, meaning that local needs must be listened to, communities engaged from the design stage, local knowledge built upon, and trusted partners engaged . The ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau was described as having worked on this broader agenda for more than two decades, collaborating with a broad network of partners including the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), RISMATICA, Red SAC, the Internet Society, and AFRALTI . It is worth noting that this two-decade timeframe refers to ITU's wider work on rural, remote, and indigenous communities, and is distinct from the specific capacity development programme described later in the session, which began in 2012. Over the preceding year alone, two regional capacity development programmes had been delivered in Africa and Latin America, empowering community leaders, network managers, and digital inclusion practitioners . The delegate noted that investment in local knowledge, technical skills, and community leadership creates a multiplier effect, advancing digital inclusion for tens of thousands of people . The session was framed as an opportunity to hear directly from those involved in this journey and to explore how successful community-centred models can be adapted, replicated, and scaled to support other communities around the world .

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The Scale of Digital Exclusion and the Limits of Commercial Connectivity

The urgency of the challenge was brought into sharp relief by Dawit Bekele, Vice President for Africa at the Internet Society, who drew on personal experience to illustrate the urban-rural connectivity divide. He described how Addis Ababa has seen enormous improvements in connectivity over the past two decades - to the point where the gap between the city and a European capital is now negligible - yet relatives living just a few kilometres outside the city still have no connectivity whatsoever . This experience, he argued, is representative of 2.2 billion people globally . Commercial operators, while effective in urban centres, have consistently failed to extend affordable and relevant connectivity to rural and remote populations.

Bekele further challenged the reliability of headline coverage statistics as indicators of meaningful digital inclusion . He noted that some African countries report coverage of 98%, yet this does not translate into people actually using the internet . Affordability remains a severe barrier: in the Central African Republic, for example, a person may need to spend 25 to 30 per cent of their monthly salary to obtain minimum internet access, which cannot reasonably be described as access at all . Beyond affordability, Bekele identified two further barriers to adoption. First, the absence of local-language content means that many people - particularly those who do not speak English, French, or Spanish - find nothing on the internet that is relevant to their lives, such as a farmer in Guinea who finds no useful agricultural information in their language . Second, the growing risk of online scams and other digital dangers actively deters adoption, as people who encounter fraud shortly after going online have rational reasons to disengage . These observations reinforced the argument that community networks are critical precisely because they are designed and managed by people who understand local needs, languages, and economic realities .

William Baraza of AFRALTI complemented this analysis with statistics specific to Africa. Of the continent's approximately 1.5 billion people, only around 300 million have meaningful connectivity, leaving between 900 million and 1.1 billion people unconnected . He argued that training community network managers and digital inclusion practitioners creates ambassadors who scale their knowledge through their communities, gradually bringing more people into the digital economy .

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The Capacity Development Programmes: Structure and Achievements

A short video presented during the session provided an overview of the ITU's regional capacity development programmes in Africa and Latin America, described in the video as implemented in 2025 and 2026 . These initiatives provided technical, organisational, and regulatory training to enable communities to develop and sustain their own connectivity, communication, and digital inclusion solutions . They were implemented through collaboration among ITU and a broad network of partners, including APC, RISMATICA, Redes AC, AFRALTI, the Internet Society, and donors including WACC, Colaboratorio, 48%, the UK's FCDO, and Sweden's SIDA .

According to the video, in Africa the first cohort graduated 43 participants from 18 countries . The programme comprised five online courses covering ICT project development, community networks, solar energy and electricity, regulatory frameworks, and economic sustainability, followed by an in-person boot camp held in Nairobi, Kenya in February 2026 . The boot camp focused on practical and collaborative learning and was accompanied by a public forum on community-centred connectivity in Africa, attended by over 100 stakeholders including community organisations, government representatives, donors, and experts . A field visit to the Tanda Community Network and Oasis Mathare in Kibera allowed participants to observe community networks in operation . One participant from the Pamozi Community Network in Malawi described how observing the Tanda network - which enabled local people in the area to develop market access to sell their wares online - gave her a concrete lesson she intended to apply directly upon returning home .

In Latin America, 42 participants from 12 countries - the majority of them women - completed an online training programme and attended a ten-day boot camp in Puebla, Mexico in March 2026, according to the video . The boot camp offered specialisations in community radio and community networks, alongside workshops on policy advocacy and film screenings . Participants also joined the third forum on telecommunications in rural areas and indigenous peoples of Latin America, which brought together more than 80 advocates, institutions, and organisations . Participants described the experience as empowering, particularly in learning how to make technologies autonomous and how young people and indigenous communities can manage their own networks . The video concluded by noting that what makes these programmes particularly impactful is that participants are already leading community connectivity, media, digital inclusion, and advocacy initiatives, meaning that their new knowledge has a multiplier effect extending to thousands of people in their communities .

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Lessons from Adapting the Programme Across Regions: APC's Experience

Anriette Esterhuysen of APC noted at the outset that her role in this particular partnership with ITU had been quite limited, before describing the partnership's work in adapting the community network training programme from Latin America to Africa and offering two principal lessons . The first concerned the absolute necessity of contextual research before any attempt at replication. She was explicit: "Don't do it quickly. Don't assume that what works in one region is going to work in another region" . Before bringing the programme to Africa, APC conducted thorough context analysis, examining demographic differences and regional specificities . One particularly striking finding was the difference in linguistic diversity between the two regions: while Latin America has significant indigenous language diversity, Africa's is far greater, with countries such as Cameroon having approximately 120 languages spoken simultaneously . This immediately signalled that the challenge in Africa was substantially more complex. As a result, virtually every training module had to be redeveloped almost from scratch for the African context, retaining the overall programme structure but developing entirely new content .

The second lesson concerned the centrality of partnerships. Esterhuysen highlighted the importance of APC's existing partners in Africa, who had already been working on local connectivity for many years . Involving these partners in testing the training curriculum, developing specific modules, and conducting outreach to find participants contributed enormously to the programme's success . The partnership with AFRALTI, the Internet Society, and ITU was also identified as essential . Esterhuysen also addressed the broader question of what policymakers and development actors should take from community-led approaches. Drawing on her experience running the African School on Internet Governance, she argued that bringing together regulators, policymakers, journalists, civil society activists, and operators in shared capacity-building encounters enriches learning in ways that go beyond the curriculum itself . Participants gain not only knowledge on the topic covered but also a deeper understanding of one another's realities and how they can contribute to positive change - even where tensions exist between, for example, government and civil society . As Esterhuysen put it, community networks achieve what the session itself was about: community development .

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AFRALTI's Role and the Common Challenges Facing African Community Networks

William Baraza described AFRALTI's role in hosting the Africa boot camp, which brought together participants from approximately 19 countries - a figure consistent with the video's more precise count of 18 countries and 43 participants . One of the most significant outcomes of the boot camp was the recognition that community networks across Africa face strikingly similar challenges: lack of electricity supply, poor backhaul connectivity, and difficulties in accessing spectrum . This shared experience built trust among participants and prompted reflection on how community networks could form a collective continental advocacy platform to speak with one voice on these common challenges .

Baraza also highlighted the prohibitive nature of existing regulatory and licensing frameworks for community networks. Licensing regimes are designed for large mobile network operators, with fees in Kenya reaching approximately $20 million for a 15-year MNO licence - an entirely inaccessible sum for small community networks . Spectrum access costs compound this barrier further . These structural obstacles mean that even technically capable community networks struggle to operate legally within existing frameworks.

Baraza also shared a particularly innovative example from a field visit to the Black Equations community network in Ocean View, Cape Town, which serves a community of approximately 4,000 families . The network uses affordable base stations costing around $10,000 - compared to upwards of $200,000 for commercial equivalents - and has established its own core network . Most notably, the network operates a barter trading platform through which residents earn internet access by providing community services, such as managing traffic for school buses, accumulating loyalty points that count towards their connectivity costs . This model demonstrates that communities without disposable income can still access the internet through community service, fundamentally reframing affordability as a challenge that communities themselves can address through innovative economic models . The network also runs a streaming radio service for local announcements and news, illustrating how community networks serve broader communication needs beyond internet access alone .

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The Internet Society's Perspective: Community Networks, Adoption, and Safety

Dawit Bekele situated the Internet Society's support for community networks within a broader analytical framework. He acknowledged that commercial operators have made genuine progress in urban connectivity but argued that the solutions that brought connectivity to major cities do not translate to affordable rural connectivity . Community networks are therefore not merely a supplementary option but a critical necessity for the populations that commercial models cannot reach .

Beyond connectivity, Bekele emphasised that the Internet Society works on adoption as well, recognising that connectivity alone does not produce digital inclusion. The organisation's online trust initiative provides communities with basic digital safety education - analogous, he suggested, to teaching people to check for traffic before crossing a road - because the risks of online scams and fraud are not self-evident and are constantly evolving . He noted that even computer scientists are sometimes scammed, as techniques such as QR code fraud continue to develop rapidly, underscoring the importance of ongoing safety education as an integral component of digital inclusion programmes . The Internet Society also supports the building of Internet Exchange Points (IXPs), which help spread connectivity infrastructure more broadly.

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Fifteen Years of Learning: Carlos Baca Feldman's Synthesis

Carlos Baca Feldman, who has coordinated the programme since its inception in 2012, offered a reflective synthesis of the lessons learned over nearly 15 years of implementation across Latin America and Africa . It is worth noting that this 15-year timeframe refers specifically to this programme, and is distinct from ITU's broader two-decade engagement on rural and indigenous digital inclusion. Baca Feldman framed the programme as a continuous journey of rethinking and learning from communities themselves, driven by a commitment to break with conventional telecommunications thinking and genuinely meet the needs that communities face . He emphasised that communities have long been resilient in the face of diverse challenges, and that the digital transformation now sweeping the world is simply the latest challenge they must face from within their own ways of living, thinking, and culture .

Baca Feldman articulated several interconnected lessons. First, technology is never sufficient on its own: digital inclusion is about the meaningful use and appropriation of technologies to solve real communication, social, and economic challenges, and communities must be seen as actors of their own future rather than passive clients or users . Second, locally rooted solutions - developed with genuine community participation and decision-making - are more sustainable over time and have greater impact than externally imposed ones . Third, technical skills training alone is insufficient; curricula must also address sustainability, local governance, community engagement, and participatory methodologies, all of which must be grounded in the real context of communities, including their political organisations and ways of understanding the world .

A particularly important insight concerned the value of local knowledge. Baca Feldman argued that in every community there are people with substantial practical knowledge - for example, individuals who can solve electricity problems without any external assistance - and that if programmes depart from this recognition, they can build on a rich foundation of existing community expertise . He also noted the need to develop online learning tools appropriate to communities' actual circumstances, acknowledging that many participants do not have connectivity and therefore purely online delivery is not universally accessible . He concluded by expressing deep gratitude to all partners involved over 15 years - including individuals such as Eric Huerta, who helped shape the programme from the beginning - and to institutional partners spanning ITU BDT and its regional offices, APC, ISOC, AFRALTI, WACC, FCDO, SIDA, and community organisations such as REDES, RISOMATICA, and TANDANET - affirming that collaboration and partnership is the real key to the programme's success . (Note: the transcript renders some partner names - including "WAG" and "FCDO CIDA" - in ways that may reflect transcription artefacts; these have been interpreted as WACC and SIDA/CIDA respectively.)

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Audience Contributions: Infrastructure, Government Commitment, and Community Ownership

Two audience contributions enriched the discussion with additional perspectives. The first, from an unnamed participant, argued that community-level work cannot succeed without the foundation of broader national infrastructure investment and government commitment . Drawing on the example of the Western Isles of Scotland in the 1990s, where government and business community commitment enabled Scottish Telecom and BT to bid for infrastructure, the participant argued that community networks flourish when built upon a solid infrastructure base . The participant also expressed appreciation for programmes that begin with community anchor institutions such as libraries and schools as entry points for connectivity. India's government-mandated affordable access was cited as a model that, if replicated in Africa, could dramatically accelerate the impact of community-level work . The participant was careful to frame these as complementary rather than competing priorities, affirming the value of community-level programmes while insisting that broader enabling conditions are equally necessary .

The second audience contribution came from Sidon Situ-Do-Aidi of the UK's FCDO Digital Access Programme, working out of Lagos, Nigeria . Drawing on direct field experience, she argued that the most sustainable digital inclusion programmes are those where communities have genuine ownership - moving from being passive users to being owners who operate and participate in decision-making processes . She cited real-world evidence from Nigeria where infrastructures had been deployed but failed to endure due to lack of community ownership , contrasting this with the UK's current model of community hubs in Nigeria where communities partly own, operate, and maintain the infrastructure . She also referenced ongoing work with AFRALTI, Carlos Baca Feldman, and others to develop broad-based community network reforms and licensing frameworks that enable community-level solutions to operate within a supportive legal environment . Her conclusion was unequivocal: "Digital inclusion without community ownership, I think it's not sustainable" .

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ITU's Three-Pillar Framework and Closing Reflections

In response to the audience contributions, Roxana Widmer-Iliescu articulated ITU's framework for digital inclusion as resting on three interconnected pillars: infrastructure, affordability, and accessibility/usability - the last of which encompasses policy and regulatory measures, device development, and digital skills training adapted to specific end-user groups . This framework reinforced the session's consistent message that no single dimension of digital inclusion is sufficient on its own, and that meaningful connectivity requires simultaneous attention to all three pillars.

Closing the session, Widmer-Iliescu affirmed that the work showcased - spanning over two decades, multiple regions, and a broad coalition of partners - reflects a shared commitment to ensuring that no one is left behind in the digital age . The discussion reflected broad alignment across participants on core principles of community-centred digital inclusion: that communities must be agents rather than passive recipients; that partnerships across diverse stakeholders are indispensable; that technical training must be embedded within holistic curricula addressing sustainability, governance, and local context; that regulatory frameworks must be reformed to accommodate community networks; and that community ownership is the cornerstone of long-term sustainability . The session also raised themes that will require continued attention as these programmes evolve and expand - including the pace of scaling versus the need for deep contextualisation, the suitability of online delivery tools for communities with limited connectivity, and the respective roles of community networks and government-mandated infrastructure in closing the global connectivity gap.

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Roxana Widmer-Iliescu
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm pleased to be the moderator of today's session on rural, remote, and indigenous communities, digital inclusion as a driver of these communities. And I'm very pleased to share today this discussion with very distinguished guests that we have and considering, let's say, all this ongoing session, which are not all as, let's say, sharp as we are with the time, with your permission, I would like to deliver the opening remarks of Dr. Cosmas Lakison Zavazava, the Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau. Thank you.
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ITU Delegate on behalf of Cosmas Luckyson Zavazava
Good afternoon. I will deliver this remark on behalf of the Director of ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau, Dr Cosmos Zavazava -Lakisson, who has another parallel pressing official engagement and is not able to join this session. Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, and especially those of you here to represent rural, remote, and indigenous communities, it's my great pleasure to welcome you on this important session. According to the UN World Urbanization Prospect 2025, approximately 3 .5 billion people live in rural areas today. This is almost half of the world's population. In an era of rapid digital transformation, we must ensure rural communities can afford an access. This is a moment of great opportunity for us to make a difference. We must make a difference. emerging telecommunication, and that these technologies are accessible, relevant, and safe to be used effectively. If AI, for example, is to drive sustainable development, then rural, remote, and indigenous communities cannot remain at the margins. They must be participants in the digital ecosystem as users, creators, innovators, and leaders. For more than two decades, the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau has been working to advance this important agenda. One consistent finding has guided our efforts. Sustainable digital transformation is most successful when communities themselves, are at the center of the process. This means listening to local needs. This means engaging communities from the design stage of initiatives, building on local knowledge, and working with trusted partners. Over the past seven years, we have worked closely with remarkable network of partners, including the Association of Progressive Communication, RISMATICA, Red SAC, the Internet Society, AFRALTI, and much more. Many other community -based technical and academic organizations operating at local and regional levels. We have also delivered two regional capacity development programs in Africa and Latin America, only for this year, empowering community leaders, network managers, and digital inclusion practitioners from across each region. The beneficiaries are directly involved in digital inclusion initiatives serving rural, remote and indigenous populations. Many support not only their own communities, but also neighbouring communities. Investment in local knowledge, technical skills and community leadership, those have a multiplier effect, creating opportunities and advancing digital inclusion for tens of thousands of people. Ladies and gentlemen, today's session offers you an opportunity to hear directly from those involved in this journey. We'll also explore how successful community centre models can be adapted, replicated and scaled, and thus support other communities around the world. The Development Bureau remains fully committed to working with communities that are interested in digital inclusion. and local stakeholders, as well as governments, regulators, and development partners to ensure no one is left behind in the digital age. I would like to thank all our partners and the communities. Those commitment, leadership, and vision have made these achievements possible. I look forward to a rich and inspiring discussion.
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Roxana Widmer-Iliescu
Thank you. With these words, I would like to, with no more introduction, go to the session, which I would prefer to be as much as interactive as possible. So we will try to present you all the work that ITU was doing in the last 20 years, together with strategic partners, at the words of the... Development Bureau Director has been highlighted because this is a work that concerns everyone and the beauty of this work is that through our work, as said, we address not only silent work for youth, for women, for persons with disabilities, for older persons, but we address from a holistic perspective the right to communicate to each and every citizen, each and every member of the community. So the discussion of today will be a little bit more concrete oriented. We'll aim to showcase concretely the work that ITU is doing with some strategic partners that we have and with your support we would like to have first of all your views about this work but also to see if you have additional experience that can enrich the work which we are already doing or ideas that can help us to do even better. So with these remarks I would like to guide a little bit the question to our first speaker is Ms. Henriette Estour -Hausen from APC and I would like to share with you that Henriette has played a key role in supporting the adaptation and localization of the program from Africa and brings decades of experience advancing community center connectivity, digital rights and capacity development worldwide. So, APC has supported the progress of evolution across region, including its adaptation to Africa. What lessons have emerged about designing capacity development initiative that responds to local realities while maintaining a shared vision? And just to create the context, with your permission, I'll also put my second question to you. Perhaps you may wish to link it, which is actually a continuation. Looking at your experience over the years, what lesson should policymakers and development actors take from capacity -building, community -led approach to digital inclusion and meaningful connectivity? The floor is yours.
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Anriette Esterhuysen
Thanks very much, Roxana. Firstly, my role in this particular partnership of the ITU has actually been quite limited. But just to say what it was, this is an initiative where there was a partnership between APC and APC's members in Latin America, training... people to install, operate, manage, and grow community -based networks. And these are service providers that provide connectivity, but they do much more than provide connectivity. They also provide content, capacity building. They mix demand and supply, if you come from the telecommunications sector. And they also achieve, I think, what this workshop is about, community development, because you have the same people that are in the community that know what the linguistic diversity issues are, what are the economic challenges, what are the power asymmetries in that community. If it's an indigenous community, what are the issues that they experience as indigenous people? You have the same people that are living in that community, understanding that community, become the shapers of the connectivity solutions for that community and the capacity building skills, capacity building needs in that community. I think what worked... well, as Roxana was saying, as APC took this program from Latin America, where it ran, Baka, for how many years was it running in the LAC region before we brought it to Africa? Five years. For five years, so five years, so experience, that's one lesson already. But when we brought it to Africa, and we had the support of the ITU on this, we decided we can't just parachute this from Latin America to Africa. We needed to do context analysis, we need to look at what the demographics are, what are the differences. For example, one of the facts that I remember so well that our research revealed, is the difference in number of indigenous languages in Africa from what there is in Latin America. That immediately means the challenge in Africa is much greater, because there are many more, you have some countries like Cameroon, for example, where you have 120 languages that are spoken all the time in one country. So we did the research, we looked at the population, we looked at Look at what are the differences in the regions and how would that impact on the needs. And then I think the second thing that we did, and this is the other lesson, so the first lesson is the context, you know, learn from that, was partnerships. I think for us the partnership of AFRALTI here, and you'll hear from AFRALTI, Internet Society, the partnership with ITU, but the partnership of our existing partners. APC has already been working in Africa in local connectivity for many, many years. And being able to present the training curriculum to them and have them test it, have them involved in developing some of the modules, in the outreach to find participants, that all I think contributed enormously to the success. So I think just in summary to this, don't do it quickly. Don't assume that what works. One region is going to work in another region. You can't do that. You actually have to talk to people in that region, make sure you understand that region. We had a program, a process whereby every module. had to be redeveloped from scratch almost for Africa. So we used a similar structure, but we developed the content. And BACA was really fantastic in leading that. And then just in response to your second question, I think the lesson that we've learned is that bring different stakeholders together. I run something called the African Schooling Internet Governance. Abdel Jalil over there has been there. And we find that by bringing regulators, policymakers, journalists, analysts, activists from civil society, you know, operators, together in one capacity -building encounter actually really enriches it because they don't just learn from the capacity, they don't just gain capacity on the topic that the workshop or the curriculum covers. They actually have a better understanding of one another's realities, experiences, and how they can contribute to bringing about positive changes in different ways. And sometimes in ways that could have tension. but that still if you can work through that tension for example between government and civil society, you can achieve very positive results.
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Roxana Widmer-Iliescu
Thank you so much Henriette and I would like to highlight the importance that we try to immediately eager to present exactly which is the result of this work but let me make a step back in order for you to also give you all the landscape of this work and how we arrived to this fantastic work in which as Henriette just mentioned experience, adaptation to the local context the partnership and contribution of each of the stakeholders is so important I would like to ask if possible to run a short video that will give you a little bit more insight of the work that we are doing for now 20 years and how we arrive where we arrive. And Aria just mentioned about the video, please. Thank you.
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Video Narrator
Moving on to decades of support for rural, remote, and indigenous communities, ITU and its partners delivered regional capacity development programs in Africa and Latin America in 2025 and 2026. These initiatives provided technical, organizational, and regulatory training that allows communities to develop and sustain their own connectivity, communication, and digital inclusion solutions. The programs were implemented through collaboration among... ITU and a broad network of partners, including APC, Rise America, Redes AC, AfroLT, the Internet. Net Society, donors like WACC, 48%, Colaboratorio, the UK's FCDO, Sweden's SIDA, and community -based organizations across both regions. The first cohort of the program in Africa graduated 43 participants from 18 countries. It included five online courses on ICT project development, community networks, solar energy and electricity, regulatory frameworks, and economic sustainability. Participants completed their training at an in -person boot camp in Nairobi, Kenya in February 2026, which focused on practical and collaborative learning. The program also featured a public forum on trends and opportunities for community -centered connectivity in Africa, attended by over 100 stakeholders, including community organizations, government representatives, donors, and experts. A field visit to the Tanda Community Network and Oasis Mathare in Kibera allowed participants to see the world around them. The program also featured a virtual session on the project, which included a virtual session on the project, and a virtual session on the project. The program also featured a virtual session on the project, which included a virtual session The program also featured a virtual session on the project, which included a virtual session on the project, and a virtual session on the project. The program also featured a virtual session on the project, which included a virtual session on the project, which included a virtual session on the project. on the project, which included a virtual session on the project. What I've learned from this boot camp is how to manage a community network and how to make sure it is sustainable and also how to make it resilient to different disasters. With this knowledge, I will definitely go back home and use everything that I've learned here in my organization, Pamozi Community Network. It's just been an awesome time of collaboration, cultural exchange and sharing of ideas, learning about what the future of digital sovereignty looks like for local communities. In Latin America, 42 participants from 12 countries, mostly women, completed the online training program and attended a 10 -day boot camp in Puebla, Mexico in March 2026. The boot camp offers specializations in community radio, community networks. It also offers workshops and policy advocacy, along with film screenings and workshops. Participants also joined the third forum on telecommunications in rural areas and indigenous peoples of Latin America, which brought together more than 80 advocates, institutions, and organizations focused on indigenous and community communication, public policy, and connectivity initiatives. I think one of the most important things I have learned in this boot camp is how we can make technologies autonomous. One of the things that I feel has empowered me a lot is learning how to make these connections, which are often centralized in technology, but we as young people, as indigenous peoples, as communities, can learn and also manage these networks of communication and technology. Participating in these events, believe me, is a great opportunity because for us as communicators, it has always been limited. It has been very difficult. To be able to go to other countries to interact, to relate, to learn not only the technical aspects. but to share and learn from other experiences is the best. And I am ready to go to my community and be able to accompany other processes. What makes these programs particularly impactful is that participants are already leading community connectivity, media, digital inclusion and advocacy initiatives. By applying and sharing their new knowledge, they amplify the benefits of the training, extending its impact to thousands of people in their communities. The training programs in Africa and Latin America demonstrate how collaboration can ensure that rural, remote and indigenous communities are included in the digital future.
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Roxana Widmer-Iliescu
Actually this round of applause goes to those who have made this possible so thank you very much and before going further because now you understood a little bit how we are operating this I would like to go to our next speakers who is William Barasa and to give you some context on William's input to make this happen William has been a key partner in the implementation of the program in Africa through of course Rafrauti hosting the Africa in person boot camp in 2026 and supporting its growth across continent and as a leader of a regional telecommunication training institution serving governments regulators and other stakeholders across Africa He brings extensive experience in capacity development for digital inclusion and meaningful connectivity. So, William, Afarati has been a key partner in implementing and hosting this ITU program in Africa. What have been the main lessons learned from supporting participants and communities across the region? And also, how does this type of community -centered capacity development fit with broader efforts to strengthen Africa's enabling environment for meaningful connectivity, digital inclusion, and local digital development?
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William Baraza
Thank you. Thank you, Roxana. I hope you can hear me. Yes. Thank you for that introduction. And thank you for audience and also fellow participants. Panelists. So, I'll start with your first question in terms of the lesson learned. And I think you've done enough justice to me because you're already. done the video and which is showing Afrati's contribution to this project and program. And you heard a very nice song at the end of the video. That song was being done on our campus. So we did this boot camp and in support of APC, ISOC and also ITU on the Afrati campus and brought in about 19 countries with about almost 40 participants. And one of the key things that we drive from there is the fact that some of the challenges that the community networks experience across Africa are very similar. You're looking at lack of electricity supply. You're looking at poor connectivity in terms of barcalling. You're looking at the issue of access to spectrum and all. So all these things, you could see many of the participants related with them very well and said, okay, someone from Malawi, someone from Pomozi Community Network, with Uganda, with Zimbabwe, they are all facing the same challenges. And then this building the trust of saying, okay, so we are facing the same challenges. How do we drive ourselves to ensure that we can have a common lobby group to be able to ensure that we can talk about these things in a common platform? So therefore bringing all these community networks on a continental platform where they can now speak with one voice. And this was one of the key things, so that they know it's not just them alone in their countries that are facing the same challenges. And the other one was definitely... The issue of most of them, and which is one of the things I'll talk about as I respond to the next question. was the issue of regulatory barriers, the challenges of accessing spectrum, being able to get licensing as operators. You realize that the regime now only advocates for big MNOs to be able to purchase licenses, you know, forking in a lot of dollars. I think in Kenya, for example, where I come from, we hear of $20 million to get an MNO license to operate for 15 years, which definitely is a big amount for a small community network to be able to access that. The spectrum alone also costs a lot of resources to be able to access it. So that's a big lesson that learned from this experience. And we're able to see, as you can see, they also went to a community network to just have the field experience and to see how they are set up and how... what they are doing. And they could see that even when you set up a Tanda community network, for example, they could learn that when that community network is set up, the local people in the slums are able to utilize the network to develop market access to sell their wares online, which is an experience I see one of the participants from Malawi carry that as a lesson back home. How does this fit into the broader agenda of encouraging broader connectivity for the continent? And, you know, the developing world as large. We are about 1 .5 billion people in Africa. And when you look at the statistics, I think this is coming from ITU, meaningful connected Africans are just about 300 million. So it tells you about 900 to 1 .1 billion people don't have meaningful connectivity. So therefore it means if you are able to train these people, they go out there and become ambassadors of what, what is the next day of lunch? What is the next day of lunch? and they become also managers of the networks they run. They are able to be entrepreneurs and they scale this through their communities and this will encourage development of not just connectivity but also business and include more people in the digital economy. And therefore, one by one, step by step, get these 1 .1 billion people unconnected to be connected and participate in the digital economy. And obviously with this we also require support and I'm happy ISOC is here. And one of the things I want to draw from an experience I had one month ago when I visited one of the community networks which is in South Africa run by, they're calling themselves, some equations, I think something equations, I'll remember the name, I'll tell you. So based in Ocean View in Cape Town. black equations exactly, yes black equations so one of the things I learned there and probably this will be my second last contribution is that when I visited and I went there with my engineers and my researchers when I visited with a team from the University of Cape Town so I went there and found this is a community of about 4 ,000 people 4 ,000 families actually so we mark that by about an average size of a family of about 4 people so probably 15 ,000 to 20 ,000 population and what I learned from there is they are running the community network using very affordable base stations from I think a Chinese vendor costing about $10 ,000 for a base station, you know for an MNO a base station could cost upwards to $200 ,000 to set it up and they have set up a core network you know the core network as a BSCs already set up and packet core network already set up and one of the things they are doing is they have even started up their own butter trading platform on that community network so what they do is because people don't have access to money they give community service so someone will go and mandate another person will go and manage the traffic for the school going children or the school buses and through that they get what we call loyalty points which now are counted to be part of their earnings towards getting access to internet connectivity because they cannot pay for the internet so they pay for the internet through community service so that was a very good learning that you don't have to have money to get access to internet you just need to provide a service so that upgraded the accessibility for that community another part of it is they have a streaming radio service sorry I need to call it a streaming radio service where they do broadcast announcements of what is happening about news and all that so I'll come back to one of the other practical examples I learned but I thought that was a very impactful way of having this community network set up.
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Roxana Widmer-Iliescu
Thank you very much William for sharing with us from challenging to solution and how actually the solution came from the community itself I apologize I think it's truly very interesting so perhaps offline some of the participants may wish to continue discussing with you but just to give the opportunity to other speakers I would like to go to Dawid Dawid Bekele it's from Internet Society and ISOC has been a strong supporter of this initiative since its early stage in Latin America and played an important role in expanding the program to Africa through the Internet Society partnership with APC, Afrauti, and other regional actors. As vice president for the Africa region and the Internet Society, he brings extensive experience in advancing community-centered connectivity, meaningful access, and digital inclusion through local and community-driven approaches. So the Internet Society has supported this initiative from its early stage and has increasingly prioritized community-centered connectivity as part of its broader strategy. What role do you see community-led approach playing in advancing meaningful access and digital inclusion globally? And also building on this experience of the programme, what partnership and investments do you believe are needed to scale community centre connectivity and ensure that rural, remote and underserved communities can fully participate in the digital world? Thank you in advance.
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Dawit Bekele
Thank you Roxana. I have a presentation but it's okay if it's not there. Perhaps the presentation can be also. So thank you for the opportunity. So maybe I will go one step back and say a few things why we are insisting on developing community networks. Some people say, you know, operators, commercial operators are already doing a lot of job, a lot of the connectivity. And if you see the . Thank you. main cities, that is true. I come from Addis Ababa, a big city, and in the last 20 years, I have seen enormous improvement in connectivity. Today, you can almost say that there is practically no gap between a city like Addis Ababa and a city in Europe, which is excellent. However, if you go just a few kilometers outside of Addis Ababa, where some of my relatives live, the last 20 years, nothing has changed. They still don't have connectivity, let alone fiber connectivity that I have today at home. So, and this is the case of 2 .2 billion people around the world. Very often people say, well, the coverage is improving, and it's true. If you look at the statistics in Africa, there are countries that have 98 % coverage. but that doesn't mean that people are using the internet and why sometimes you can work on availability it is important that there is coverage but it's not enough it should be affordable for most people in Africa internet is not affordable recently I saw statistics like in Central Africa Republic I think you have to pay 25 % 30 % of your salary to get really minimum internet you cannot say that that person has access to the internet if he or she has to pay that much to get minimum access and then sometimes it is let's say affordable but there is lack of adoption and to see why there is no adoption you have to dig a little bit more why people who can afford it who have access to it don't use it very often it is because they don't get what they need many people in Africa don't speak English don't speak French or Spanish and their languages are not available there so why should they he or she might be a farmer in I don't know in Guinea and there is nothing on the internet about interesting about farming there and they might not be literate so we have to take all these things into consideration and now more and more it is becoming even a danger to be on the internet you get there and a few days later you get scammed why should they adopt something that is dangerous to them so that's why as the internet society we believe community networks are critical because we know that the solutions that brought connectivity to the main cities don't bring connectivity that is affordable to the cities to the rural areas so that is one solution and we believe that we have to work on the adoption as well we have to make sure that they are safe that's why we have the online trust initiative where we teach people the basic things about making themselves safe when you build a road you have to tell people that before crossing you have to check that there is no car something as simple as that we have courses on on scamming and my colleague Marian is here if you are interested you can talk to him which allows people to know about it because it's not at all self evident I know people who are computer scientists who are scammed because the techniques are evolving everyday you know using QR codes to scam you that's something that I myself learned very recently so it is important that we work on all these areas thank you.
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Roxana Widmer-Iliescu
Thank you so much for sharing and I think it's even more impactful since we we we many people in this world are yet in this digital frontier if I can say like this and many of these are left behind and last but not least it's my colleague Carlos Beca and it is last speaker because Carlos actually bring us a lot of expertise and history I would say in working with ITU as mentioned we have been actually bringing all this knowledge from Latin America thanks to experts that we have been implementing there and we try to transport this in other parts of the world so Carlos has coordinating the development and the implementation of this initiative across Latin America and Africa since its inception, leading curriculum development, mentorship, and peer learning processes. Through this experience, he has worked closely with communities, local organizations, and graduates to strengthen community -centered digital inclusion and build sustainable networks of practitioners. And after seven years of implementation across Africa and Latin America, what have been the most important lessons learned about strengthening digital inclusion through community -centered approach, Carlos? And also, one distinctive feature of the program is its emphasis of mentorship, peer learning, and community building. How do you think have these elements contributed to long -term sustainability, local impact, and the replication of this model across different regions of the world? Carlos, the floor is yours. Thank you
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Carlos F. Baca Feldman
Thank you, Roxana. Thank you, Dagui. Thank you, Henriette. Thank you, Willem, for being here and to share this very inspirational... thoughts about the program. I must say that it is a journey that started in 2012 actually. So we have almost 15 years rethinking and learning a lot from the communities itself. And we have this continuity on the process of trying to develop something different. To break our minds and to try to think different so we can really meet these needs that the community are facing and we can estrange the processes that they have been doing for too many years. It's not about only telecommunications or communications as we know now, but for many years the communities have survived in different ways and also have been very resilient with the different challenges they are facing. And now the digitalization of the world and the digital transformation that is happening around the world is one of these challenges that they need to face from their own ways of living, from their own way of thinking, and their own culture. So this is all the learnings and all the things that I want to say is just that, just this learning of working with them and from them. This is not Carlos Vaca just saying something that more like a journey with a lot of people involved in it. So, one of this is that the technology is never enough. We need to understand that to generate real conditions in the communities for digital transformation. So, digital inclusion is about the meaningful use and appropriation of the technologies but to solve the real needs of communication, social, economics, et cetera, challenges that they are facing. And in this process, of using and appropriation of the technologies is really important that the communities and the communities and the people in the communities are not seen only as clients or as users, but more like actors of their own future. So the second important lesson is that locally -routed solutions, when the community decides to make a solution and they are involved in the process, these solutions can be sustainable over time and have a lot of impact in the lives of the population there. The other main lesson is about technical skills, and if we don't train people together with other important aspects of the development of the community -centered connectivity initiatives and the community... media, etc., etc., is not enough. So we need to include in the training questions about sustainability, about local governance, about community engagement, but all of these aspects need to be very linked with the real life and the real context of the communities. They have political organizations, they have ways of understanding the world in a different way than us as people who are living outside the communities have. And the local knowledge is a fundamental resource. So one of the main lessons through this year is that in all the communities there is a lot of people with a lot of knowledge. We have people who know how to make a lot of things with electricity and they solve the problems in the community without anyone from the external. So if we depart from that, we have a lot of knowledge in the community and a lot of people, resource people, who can develop the projects that they need. we need to also rethink the way we develop the projects and work more on a participatory and practically based methodologies so if we understand that the people can develop actually the real training together with the people who are training them so we can make the things different and in that sense we need to develop tools we need to develop online learning tools that are appropriate for them we need to depart a lot of these people don't have connectivity for example so we cannot think online learning only through online tools and finally the last but I think the most important learning is that the collaboration and partnership is the real key of this so we all also all the people who have been involved for this 15 years people who are helping to think the program like Eric Huerta for example since the beginning but the people also who have been the facilitators of specific courses or specific workshops that they have the expertise to do that but also the big organizations who are trusting in us and putting some money all of us are part of this so I want to finish this just to say that I am very very thankful for the commitment beginning from the ITU BDT and the digital inclusion service for too many years the regional offices in Africa and in Latin America they have been also very important partners for this APC, ISOC, AFRALTI, WAG, FCDO CIDA, etc, etc and of course to my colleagues at DREDE, RISOMATICA and TANDANET because I think we are trying to develop something different and from that we need to stop learning a lot of things that we listen to in school and do the real things.
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Roxana Widmer-Iliescu
Thank you very much, Carlos. And indeed, I support that you all understood that we have here around this table people who really are very committed to ensure that no one is left behind in this digital age. And to conclude, I would like to ask if any of you have a question that you may wish to address to this distinguished panelist. So please, go ahead.
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Audience
Yes, thank you for this. Communities are key. At the same time, you cannot build communities if the infrastructure in a country isn't there and if the affordability isn't there. And this is already true for many years. When in the 90s telework started, the western islands in the north of Scotland, they didn't have the T1 access. That was very special then. And it was the government there who convinced, together with the business community, that they would really commit to make things happen there, which allowed both Scottish Telecom and BT, British Telecom, to put in a bid to get the infrastructure. So, yes, community is key. And don't forget the overall infrastructure. I know Internet Society is also building IXPs that help spread the word. And with terms to affordability, a problem is a challenge. Let's put it in challenge, not a problem. In Africa, it's that you've got so many divided countries, governments. In India, where we see 1 .3 billion people, at least the government mandates affordable access. If something like that could happen on top of the community infrastructure, on top of the excellent work that's happening on improving the broader infrastructure, the communities is a breeze. And I love the programs where they start with. libraries, schools or whatever but at least to have a point in the community I really enjoy this session, thank you
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Roxana Widmer-Iliescu
Thank you very much and just to assure you with regard to your observation that in the ITU we consider that digital inclusion has three big pillars so one, it's infrastructure but you cannot put people's fingers in the plug and say I'm connected so this is important but it's cable, then it's affordability to pay the service and the device and then it's all this work that together with these partners we are doing which is for us part of accessibility which is part of usability and encompass policy and regulatory measure, development of devices and digital skills training which is as you just saw, trying to be adapted to each of specific end user group and I think that's really important Any other burning question, please? And if it is addressed to a specific...
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Audience
No, thank you very much. Mine isn't a question, it's just a comment. First of all, my name is Sidon Situ -Do -Aidi. I work with the FCDO under the Digital Access Program and I work out of Lagos, Nigeria. And I wanted to make a really important point around community ownership of inclusion program. The most sustainable digital inclusion programs are those where the communities have ownership, more from being passive users to being owners who operate and are part of the decision -making processes, whether it's infrastructure. But owning that and being part of the process is important. And I speak from real -world experience working out of Nigeria on this. We have examples of where infrastructures were deployed, but lack of community ownership meant they were not sustainable. Currently, the UK is delivering a set of digital inclusion programs for example... set of community center connectivity, community hubs in Nigeria, where the communities actually partly own, operate, maintain in such a model that it is sustainable, because the ownership is really key to sustaining those infrastructures at a community level, and this is why this is important. But separately from there, we're also looking at working with FAC Locknet, Carlos and the rest of them, to develop a broad -based community network reforms and licensing frameworks where it is also possible to, at the community level, deliver solutions that the community participates through a licensing regime. So this is really important. Digital inclusion without community ownership, I think it's not sustainable.
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Roxana Widmer-Iliescu
Thank you very much. Thank you so much, and I think you just actually concluded so nicely this, because I also want to share that the community ownership and build from onset everything we are doing with the communities. It is not only for the community. communities, this is one of the key aspects that we truly want to consider. We thank you very, very much to all these distinguished guests, so a round of applause, and of course to you who have been contributing. Thank you

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