Information and communication technologies (ICT) policy decisions affect anyone who wants to take advantage of the opportunities that new technologies can offer. Will the national policy favour technology that is state-of-the art but not affordable in rural areas? Will your government provide service subsidies to poor or disabled people? Will your government encourage the development of software that illiterate people can use? All of these are pressing questions whose answers depend on the ICT policy choices made by governments and other official decision-makers.

APC has created resources to help civil society organisations understand policy and regulation related to ICT so that you can begin to engage and influence policy processes affecting ICT adoption and implementation at national, regional and global levels.

“ICT Policy for Civil Society” Training Curriculum

The ICT Policy for Civil Society training course builds the capacity of civil society organisations to understand policy and regulation related to information and communication technologies (ICT) so that they can begin to engage and influence policy processes affecting ICT adoption and implementation at national, regional and global levels.

This is a five day course with each session planned to last approximately 1.5 hours. The modules can be used stand-alone as training on a particular topic or used together as part of a longer course.

Find out more about the curriculum and download the whole thing or modules covering different topics

ICT Policy: A Beginner's Handbook
APC/Ed. Chris Nicol, December 2003

This book by APC lays out the issues and dispenses with the jargon to encourage more people to get involved in ICT policy processes. It is for people who feel that ICT policy is important but don't know much about it, e.g. a government official worried about a gap in her technical knowledge of how the internet works, a human-rights worker concerned that his need to send secure email is being challenged by national government policy, a citizen fed up with paying exorbitant rates for dial-up internet access and ready to organise…

The APC handbook is not a map of the ICT policy terrain but it is a compass.

IN ENGLISH, SPANISH in early 2004 (zipped pdf)

Guide to Organising a National Consultation on ICT Policy

The APC “FAQ about Conducting a National WSIS Process” outlines the steps to take and key components in organising a national consultation around ICT policy, in this case specifically the debates raised by the United Nations conference on the Information Society (WSIS). We chose the ‘frequently asked questions’ (FAQ) question & answer format in order to home in on some of the key questions we have heard people ask.

This is not a completely comprehensive guide to national level ICT policy lobbying, but it provides some useful answers to a civil society organisation that has the interest and initiative to organise an ICT policy-related consultation.

WHO IS THE GUIDE FOR? The primary target audience is people that are active in using or promoting the use of ICTs in their work, but who have not necessarily been involved in national level policy processes previously.

Find out more about the FAQ......
Download the guide (pdf)
Brief background to the FAQ