By: Montserrat Legorreta, GNI Membership and Program Associate
The Global Network Initiative (GNI) is a unique organization that fosters a multistakeholder environment where over 100 members discuss and collaborate on addressing some of the hardest challenges related to upholding freedom of expression and privacy in the digital age. At a time when civic space is under threat, and in light of the changing geopolitical environment, we believe our ability to bring together civil society organizations (CSOs), companies, investors, and academics to protect digital freedoms has never been more vital. This means recognizing, and working through power asymmetries within and across stakeholder groups and geographies. Recognizing Africa’s relevance and importance, as well as its complexity and diversity, GNI has been incorporating, showcasing, and engaging with perspectives from and issues resonating on the continent.
Photo Caption: GNI members meet for lunch on the sidelines of FIFAfrica 2024
Expanding our Membership
Over the last few years, GNI’s membership and engagement on the continent have grown significantly. When GNI was founded in 2008, the Internet ecosystem looked a lot different than it does today. Digital utopianism – the idea that the Internet would inherently create a more democratic society – plagued vernacular discourse. GNI was one of the first bodies to confront potential harms to freedom of expression and privacy linked to tech company products and services. Through the GNI Principles on Freedom of Expression and Privacy and our more detailed Implementing Guidelines, GNI created a truly multistakeholder space. However, making that space truly “global” proved to be a challenge. GNI met this challenge by making deliberate efforts to expand its membership to include organizations and companies from the Majority World, including Africa. Through our Emerging Voices Fellowship Program, GNI supported leaders from digital rights organizations in the Global Majority to participate in GNI activities and conduct relevant research in order to get a better sense of how a multistakeholder institution worked in practice. Paradigm Initiative’s Executive Director, ‘Gbenga Sesan – one of the first GNI fellows – described joining GNI in 2017 as an, “integral part of their [organization’s] success story”. Most fellowship-participating organizations joined GNI, contributing local perspectives vital to advancing GNI’s mission of upholding human rights in the digital space worldwide.
Photo Caption: GNI and Paradigm led a multistakeholder meeting with the Zambian Minister of Science and Technology.
Since 2020, GNI’s membership base in Africa has expanded significantly, doubling the number of members on the continent. Most recent members include L’École Supérieure de Journalisme, des Métiers de l’Internet et de la Communication (E-jicom) in Senegal, and the Digital Agenda for Tanzania Initiative (DA4TI). GNI has also worked hard to provide opportunities for its Global Majority membership to engage more across our committees and working groups, including in leadership roles. We are proud to have three African women filling a quarter of our voting Board seats.
Photo Caption: GNI and DA4TI
Shared Learning & Collective Advocacy
Photo Caption: GNI, NGO Board Member, Lillian, and Meta at FIFAfrica 2024
Through GNI’s learning pillar, members have had opportunities to openly and candidly discuss network disruptions, one GNI’s policy priority areas, government surveillance, and other key issues on the continent. Out of 54 countries with documented shutdowns reported by Access Now in its 2024 KeepItOn report, 17 were African. GNI has facilitated Africa-focused learning calls where companies with operations in Africa share their work and answer questions around their transparency and human rights reporting, how the GNI framework is applied, and efforts to build bridges with civil society. GNI advocates for greater transparency and accountability around disruptions, and seeks to bridge understanding and communication around this issue between telecommunications companies and other stakeholders. Examples of our advocacy work on this topic include a seminal report commissioned by GNI on network disruptions in Africa and a recent, February 2024 statement regarding network disruptions in Senegal.
Photo Caption: Conversation with AccessNow, Business and Human Rights Resource Center, Meta, GNI and Access Now discuss responsibility of tech companies in protecting human rights during conflict
Photo Caption: GNI, Paradigm Initiative, BSR, Youth and Society in Malawi and Internews discuss civil society and private sector Engagement at FIFAfrica 2023
GNI provides member organizations on the African continent a space to enhance their networks, engage in capacity building and knowledge exchange, and participate in GNI’s unique accountability mechanism. GNI has also advised on strategies for CSOs in the region to engage with the private sector using a benchmarking research based approach given that GNI’s framework is closely aligned with, and company membership has consistently correlated with strong performance on tech-industry benchmarks. For instance, GNI membership is recognized as a method for demonstrating stakeholder engagement in the Ranking Digital Rights methodology.
Photo Caption: GNI Managing Director at the WSIS Regional Consultative Workshop on the WSIS +20 Review
GNI staff also attend digital rights events and forums on the continent, providing our input into relevant discussions and fostering opportunities for members to meet each other in person. In April 2023, GNI held its first Board meeting on the continent, alongside Paradigm Initiative’s annual Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum (DRIF). In September 2023 and 2024, GNI members gathered again during the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa’s (CIPESA) flagship Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica) in Dar es Salam, and in Dakar, Senegal.
In May of this year, GNI attended DRIF 2025 in Lusaka, Zambia, where we lead a tabletop exercise showcasing how companies in the region apply the GNI Principles in practice as they address challenges such as network disruptions and surveillance, and convening a multistakeholder audience to discuss the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) +20 process with Zambia’s Minister of Technology and Science. Later the same month, GNI’s Managing Director participated in the Africa School of Internet Governance and the Africa Regional Internet Governance Forum (IGF) where we continued those critical conversations.
Photo Caption: GNI’s Managing Director, Vodacom, CELE, KICTAnet and ECNL discuss digital meaningful transparency.
What’s next for GNI in Africa
Photo Caption: GNI ViceChair, Membership and Program Associate, and GNI members at DRIF 2024.
GNI is uniquely positioned to serve the digital rights community as an interlocutor between stakeholder groups and priorities. Sharing information in real-time can be complicated and legally complex. Understanding the challenges companies face when operating in jurisdictions where local laws may be in conflict with human rights from different points of view is vital to helping all stakeholder groups adopt rights-respecting approaches. GNI aims to increase its African tech company membership to provide a space where civil society, academics, investors, and companies can work together on some of the most pressing human rights issues, such as internet shutdowns.