Plenary Roundtable: Digital Rights and Threats: Imagining New Futures

Venue: iClub, Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct
Format: Panel Discussion
Host: Paradigm Initiative

Moderator: Bridgette Ndlovu, Paradigm Initiative
Panelists:

1. Dr Barbara Glover, AUDA-NEPAD
2. Phillip Ayazika, Pollicy
3. Kristen Abrahams, Legal Resources Centre (LRC), South Africa
4. Kristophina Shilongo, Senior Tech Policy Fellow, Mozilla Foundation

Session Overview

This session will bring civic tech and media innovators together to discuss current and emerging digital rights trends and threats in the African tech ecosystem. Issues such as the closing down of civic space will be addressed, as well as new ideas and approaches to mitigate the effects of these attempts, often by state actors or external parties, and plan to overcome the knock-on effects for community organisations that are working to improve civic engagement, participation and freedom of the press. Other topics that will be covered are ethical data generation, protection and privacy of personal information, as well as an evaluation of the role of tech in African elections.

The session is envisaged to include an opening Plenary which sets the stage and shares some common information about the sub-theme, as it relates to the #AfricaFlows conference theme. Following this session, there are parallel curated workshops, individually designed to encourage participation, discussion and debate on a topic regarding the issue of digital rights and its various impacts and consequences for Africa. A wrap-up plenary at the end is an opportunity to synthesize key observations and discussion points emerging.