The objectives of the AfriSIG are to:
- Strengthen existing capacity of a diverse range of stakeholders in the field of IG in Africa, across all sectors, with a specific emphasis on mainstreaming women’s rights, sexual rights and youth.
- Provide a safe and accommodating environment for new entrants to the field, particularly non-traditional actors from the women’s and sexual rights sectors, to increase their knowledge on IG.
- Bring together people from government, civil society, business and other stakeholder groups to interact and build common ground around a public interest-oriented approach to IG.
- Promote intergenerational, cross-sector and cross-issue engagement and collaboration in the spirit of multistakeholder participation as articulated in the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms.
- Foster critical debate in a multistakeholder forum on IG issues from an African, Southern and gender perspective.
- Provide opportunities to identify and develop African positions on current issues in internet policy and governance.
- Give participants hands-on experience in IG processes through a practicum that involves role playing a current topic in multistakeholder negotiations, and by co-locating AfriSIG with a significant IG event in which they can participate immediately following the School.
- Strengthen the capacity of actors in the African IG field to integrate gender perspectives.
- Increase the participation and influence of women’s rights and sexual rights stakeholders in IG processes and outcomes in Africa.
- Encourage local to global learning and application of skills and expertise.