Paradigm Initiative (PIN) is thrilled to announce that registration is now open for the 9th edition of the Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum (DRIF22). The registration will run from Monday, 7 March to Thursday 7 April 2022. The Virtual DRIF22 event will hold from Tuesday, 12 April, to Thursday, 14 April 2022, with in-person events co-hosted by Paradigm Initiative and its country partners in 17 African countries.
DRIF22 is a platform for communities of practice around privacy, affordable Internet, gender and ICTs, disability rights and ICTs, health surveillance during COVID-19 times, Internet shutdowns, and similar themes. The event aims at creating platforms for discussing key issues, developing action plans to enhance digital rights and inclusion in Africa, and increasing networks and collaborations on digital rights and inclusion.
In 2021, DRIF gathered 445 participants in 32 virtual and in-person sessions across 12 countries 2021. According to the Community Manager, Thobekile Matimbe, “DRIF continues to present a platform for the community to interrogate digital rights and digital inclusion policies, glean best practices from other countries, formulate strategies, and networks”
PIN and its Partners invite the private sector, government representatives, the academia, the media, human rights defenders, national human rights institutions, civil society actors, researchers, and interested stakeholders to join DRIF22 as we engage under the theme – Towards a digitally inclusive and rights-respecting Africa.
This year’s hybrid DRIF22 shall commence with a three-day virtual session from the 12th to the 14th of April, followed by a series of in-person events from the 20th of April to the 20th of May 2022. Seventeen in-person sessions will be co-hosted by Country Partners in Namibia, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Senegal, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Ghana from Saturday, April 9th to Friday, May 20th, 2022.
To register for the DRIF22 virtual session, click HERE.