APC member organisation PROTEGE QV is hosting a training workshop on advocacy strategies to push for a faster internet in Cameroon from 19 to 23 December. The workshop has brought together close to 20 participants including telecommunication students, media representatives, industry players and members of civil society. The aim of this workshop is to analyse a number of problems encountered in the provision of access to internet services and their consequences for the development of economic activities, as well as to formulate proposals that could lead to improvement in the sector. The ultimate goal is to promote advocacy for a faster internet in Cameroon.
According to the president of PROTEGE QV, Sylvie Siyam, “We are doing this because all the hopes that were founded on the internet, particularly the impact that it may have on education, medicine, governance, remain somewhat mitigated because the quality of the service is problematic. There is a problem of service stability, cost of service, and internet speed. It for these reasons that we are setting up a small group of ambassadors who will lead the advocacy for a faster internet in their sphere of activities.”
This advocacy workshop has been made possible by funding from the APC subgrants programme for members of the APC network.
One of APC’s priorities is to allocate resources to members of its network. The goal of the subgranting programme is to enable members to contribute to the key result areas or changes identified in APC’s theory of change to achieve its long-term vision
Subsidised activities fall into the following categories:
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Research and analysis
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Capacity development
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Network and movement building
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Advocacy.
During the workshop, Avis Momeni, secretary general of PROTEGE QV, presented the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms. He asked the participants to become acquainted with the regulatory texts in Cameroon in the field of information and communications technologies (ICTs) to be able to better analyse how this declaration of principles could be used to influence policies on electronic communications, including the internet. Each participant went home with a copy of the Declaration.