Global Geopolitics and the Future of Digital Rights Funding
Date: May 12, 2025 I Time: 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM I Venue: Virtual (Zoom)
Introduction
Digital rights—encompassing privacy, free expression, and equitable access—are increasingly shaped by global geopolitical dynamics. As nations navigate competing ideologies, economic interests, and security concerns, funding for digital rights initiatives faces volatility. This meeting will explore how shifting geopolitical landscapes impact funding flows, identify risks to sustainable support, and propose strategies to safeguard digital rights advocacy and enhance resilience of digital rights organisations in Africa.
Background
African civil society organisations have been at the forefront of defending digital rights in a constantly challenging environment. Across various countries, the state of digital rights has been declining despite increasing access to the internet, as governments move to clamp down on activism and critical voices online. To support their initiatives, digital rights organisations in Africa rely heavily on international funding from western governments and charitable foundations.
However, recent geopolitical tensions such as the U.S. tariffs wars, Russia-Ukraine war, and Global North-South divides are reshaping government and donor funding priorities. Consequently, there is increasingly declining funding for “politically sensitive” digital rights work in authoritarian contexts; donor countries disregarding global affairs and focusing solely on domestic policy such as ‘America first’ policy; while emerging donors such as Gulf states and private tech philanthropies are not prioritising digital rights work. The recent suspension of funding from USAID and notification of further decreases in funding for development in Africa by other western countries has indeed sent shockwaves across the development world.
Given these developments, digital rights organizations in Africa now stand at risk of being decimated in Africa given their years of donor dependency, fragmented coordination and increasing restrictive laws regulating their work and limiting their international funding. Consequently, African digital rights civil society organisations have been given a wake up call, to rethink their funding models and sustainability outside donor funding.
Objectives
- Analyze how geopolitical shifts influence funding priorities for digital rights initiatives.
- Identify challenges and opportunities for sustainable funding models.
- Explore strategies to diversify funding sources and align them with local needs.
- Foster dialogue between funders, policymakers, and advocates to strengthen collaboration.
Expected Outcomes
- Identified challenges and opportunities for digital rights civil society in Africa
- Documented Strategies for resilient funding models amid geopolitical and policy changes.
- Dialogue between funders and advocates committed to equitable resource distribution.
- A public summary of insights and next steps.
Target Audience
The target audience will include: digital rights NGOs and activists, international funders and philanthropic organizations, policymakers and diplomats, academics and researchers and tech industry representatives.
Conclusion
This meeting will catalyze critical conversations to ensure digital rights funding remains independent, inclusive, and adaptive to geopolitical realities. By fostering collaboration and innovation, stakeholders can safeguard the future of digital freedoms in an increasingly fragmented world.
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/PbdrutQUSMyUnZLtFea36Q
Draft Program
| Time | Agenda | Moderator |
|---|---|---|
| 02:00 – 02:05 PM | Welcome and introductions | KICTANet |
| 02:05 – 02:10 | Overview of meeting objectives and urgency of the topic. | KICTANet |
| 02:10-02:20 | Grounding the conversation: Brief on geopolitical shifts impacting digital rights funding. | Rose Maruru– CEO Epic Africa, Senegal |
| 02:20: 03:20 | Panel Discussion: Geopolitical Realities & Funding Challenges (30 mins)
Panelists:
|
Moderator: Victor Kapiyo |
| 03:20: – 03:50 | Plenary Session | Moderator: Bridget Andere, Access Now |
| 03:50 – 04:00 | Key Take-aways and Recommendations | Moderator: |
| End of Webinar | ||
