Session
Description:
Civil society, the technical community and for- and not-for-profit community connectivity providers have been engaging telecoms regulators in Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean for more than a decade, with the dual goal of building recognition of the value and feasibility of community-based connectivity solutions for bridging the internet access gap, and achieving enabling policy and regulatory environments for local access providers. Over time, the interaction between these actors has changed dramatically. At the beginning, community networks felt they were simply not heard or taken seriously. Today, many are not only working in partnership with the community connectivity sector, several regulators have introduced community-connectivity-friendly licensing options and creative approaches to spectrum allocation. The story of how regulators in Africa and LAC have shifted their stance towards community connectivity providers demonstrates the success and impact of three important internet governance processes: a) multistakeholder collaboration b) evidence-based policy and regulation c) building a bottom-up movement among advocates and activists for the unconnected This session will bring together regulators, civil society advocacy groups (APC), multistakeholder networks (KictaNet) members of the internet technical community (ISOC) and community connectivity providers themselves who have lived and worked through this transition — from contestation, when regulators were not interested, to collaboration, with regulators and others working together to find solutions for connecting the unconnected or the "barely connected." By creating an opportunity for them to share their stories, this workshop will capture the lessons learned and document them in a format that can be shared with others. The session will not just talk about multistakeholder digital governance as an abstract ideal — it will explore how it has evolved through ups and downs in practice, in the specific context of community connectivity, towards the ultimate goal of digital inclusion.
Civil society, the technical community and for- and not-for-profit community connectivity providers have been engaging telecoms regulators in Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean for more than a decade, with the dual goal of building recognition of the value and feasibility of community-based connectivity solutions for bridging the internet access gap, and achieving enabling policy and regulatory environments for local access providers. Over time, the interaction between these actors has changed dramatically. At the beginning, community networks felt they were simply not heard or taken seriously. Today, many are not only working in partnership with the community connectivity sector, several regulators have introduced community-connectivity-friendly licensing options and creative approaches to spectrum allocation. The story of how regulators in Africa and LAC have shifted their stance towards community connectivity providers demonstrates the success and impact of three important internet governance processes: a) multistakeholder collaboration b) evidence-based policy and regulation c) building a bottom-up movement among advocates and activists for the unconnected This session will bring together regulators, civil society advocacy groups (APC), multistakeholder networks (KictaNet) members of the internet technical community (ISOC) and community connectivity providers themselves who have lived and worked through this transition — from contestation, when regulators were not interested, to collaboration, with regulators and others working together to find solutions for connecting the unconnected or the "barely connected." By creating an opportunity for them to share their stories, this workshop will capture the lessons learned and document them in a format that can be shared with others. The session will not just talk about multistakeholder digital governance as an abstract ideal — it will explore how it has evolved through ups and downs in practice, in the specific context of community connectivity, towards the ultimate goal of digital inclusion.
Policy Question(s)
A. What, from the perspective of the different stakeholder groups, have been the main barriers and/or enablers of effective and influential engagement?
B. Is there evidence of capacity building gains and of regulatory decisions being influenced as a result of engagement between regulators and other stakeholders? If so what examples are there and are there differences between the two regions?
C. What is needed to strengthen these relationships and engagement?
Expected Outcomes
The main objective: to gather and synthesize lessons from the experience of civil society, community networks and the technical community's advocacy for regulatory change, with a focus on improving the effectiveness of these efforts to secure official recognition and enabling policies for community-centred connectivity.
Lessons learned capture here will be included in a case study that KictaNet will publish in early 2027 together with the Diplo Foundation's CADE project.
Format
Roundtable
Duration (minutes): 90
Format description: A 90‑minute roundtable format is best suited to this session because the goal is genuine peer dialogue among regulators, community connectivity providers, civil society and the technical community, rather than one‑way presentations. The roundtable layout allows participants to face each other and interact as equals, mirroring the multistakeholder collaboration the workshop seeks to highlight. Short, focused interventions from each stakeholder group will be followed by a moderated conversation where speakers and attendees can respond directly to one another’s experiences from Africa and LAC. Ninety minutes are needed to provide concise scene‑setting, allow a substantial exchange among roundtable participants, and integrate questions and comments from onsite and online attendees. This depth of discussion is essential to surface nuanced lessons on the shift from contestation to collaboration in community‑centred connectivity and to identify practical recommendations that participants can adapt in their own contexts.
Duration (minutes): 90
Format description: A 90‑minute roundtable format is best suited to this session because the goal is genuine peer dialogue among regulators, community connectivity providers, civil society and the technical community, rather than one‑way presentations. The roundtable layout allows participants to face each other and interact as equals, mirroring the multistakeholder collaboration the workshop seeks to highlight. Short, focused interventions from each stakeholder group will be followed by a moderated conversation where speakers and attendees can respond directly to one another’s experiences from Africa and LAC. Ninety minutes are needed to provide concise scene‑setting, allow a substantial exchange among roundtable participants, and integrate questions and comments from onsite and online attendees. This depth of discussion is essential to surface nuanced lessons on the shift from contestation to collaboration in community‑centred connectivity and to identify practical recommendations that participants can adapt in their own contexts.
Hybrid Format: The session will treat on-site and online participants as a single integrated group. All speakers will use the official IGF platform, and the onsite moderator will regularly invite questions and comments from both the room and the online space, with the online moderator bringing chat interventions into the roundtable. Short initial inputs from each stakeholder group will be followed by a moderated conversation and targeted questions that invite responses from participants, not just speakers. We will avoid long presentations and keep interventions concise to allow interaction. To deepen engagement, we will use simple collaborative tools like slido so that onsite and online participants can post key lessons and recommendations during the session. These joint contributions will be displayed live and form the basis of a short synthesis to be shared after the workshop.
Organizer 1: Mwendwa Kivuva, KICTANet
Organizer 2: Anriette Esterhuysen, African School on Internet Governance
Organizer 2: Anriette Esterhuysen, African School on Internet Governance
Speaker 1: Yumna Panday, Technical Community, African Group
Speaker 2: Charley Lewis, Government, African Group
Speaker 3: Mwangi Michuki, Technical Community, African Group
Speaker 4: Bruna Zanolli, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 5: RENATA SANTOYO, Government, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 6: Dennis Sonoiya, Government, African Group
Speaker 2: Charley Lewis, Government, African Group
Speaker 3: Mwangi Michuki, Technical Community, African Group
Speaker 4: Bruna Zanolli, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 5: RENATA SANTOYO, Government, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 6: Dennis Sonoiya, Government, African Group
Moderator
Anriette Esterhuysen, Civil Society, African Group
Online Moderator
Mwendwa Kivuva, Civil Society, African Group
Rapporteur
Anriette Esterhuysen, Civil Society, African Group
What will participants gain from attending this session?
