Despite the growing diversity in Africa’s media and digital landscape, plurality, neutrality, safety, and freedom of expression face continuous challenges. Concerns around data privacy, internet access affordability, content moderation and surveillance, among others, also affect media and internet actors in Africa. In this context, in-depth, structured assessments on the internet ecosystem based on UNESCO Internet Universality Indicators help to reveal the extent to which countries are actually performing on internet development and allow for achieving evidence-based policy and practice reform.
On 16 March 2022, UNESCO and the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) hosted a regional dialogue on the Internet Universality Indicators (IUI) with the support of UNESCO International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC). The event highlighted the good practices, challenges and lessons learnt from the IUI assessments conducted in Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Niger and Senegal in 2021 with the aim to attract more actors utilizing the indicators to inform advocacy for media freedom and digital rights.
UNESCO is pleased with the growth of Internet Universality and ROAM X in Africa. The region has so much to contribute to global debates on human-centered digital ecosystems, and is building the evidence base needed for effective, inclusive Digital policies.
In 2015, UNESCO endorsed a new definition on the University of the Internet based upon four principles, namely Rights, Openness, Accessibility to all and Multi-stakeholder participation, abbreviated as the ROAM principles. The four principles, against which the IUI are based outline a framework for assessment of national digital landscape towards promoting the growth and evolution of the internet, and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
The addition of cross-cutting indicators in 2018 resulted in the ROAM-X Indicator framework comprising of 303 indicators that assess the extent to which national stakeholders, including governments, businesses and civil society, comply with the ROAM principles.
Back in 2008 the UNESCO International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) endorsed the Media Development Indicators (MDI) which serve to assess the overall environment for media development in a country. Another IPDC assessment framework is the Journalist Safety Indicators (JSI) which serve to identify the actions that are taken by the various relevant stakeholders in promoting journalists’ safety and fighting impunity at national level.
Together, the IUI, MDI and JSI are important tools for reviewing internet and media ecosystems and fostering collaborations at national, regional and international levels. As a follow-up to this regional exchange, in-country trainings on the Internet Universality Indicators will be conducted in Cameroon, Somalia, Namibia, Malawi and Uganda.