The Engine Room is among the initial cohort of 10 organisations that form the Global Network for Social Justice and Digital Resilience, an initiative supported by the Ford Foundation and publicly launched this week.
The mission of the network is to ensure social justice organisations across the Global South can better leverage the benefits of technology while minimising its harms. Funding is provided for each member to work on strengthening their own tech capacity, as well as to provide technical support to civil society organisations in the contexts we work within.
We’re excited to be part of this initiative: In our work supporting organisations fighting for social justice around the world, we’ve seen that these groups need all the tools and support that they can get – especially from technical experts who also understand the contexts they’re working in, and who are dedicated to transferring technical capacities and knowledge.
A website built by network memberswas launched alongside the official announcement – you can read more about the network (and how we define digital resilience) there, as well as stay up to date on our activities, news and reflections.
What digital resilience means to us
For us, fostering digital resilience goes hand by hand with restructuring systems of oppression and promoting liberatory, justice-driven and sustainable technology ecosystems.
As our Deputy Director, Paola Mosso, notes: “Digital resilience holds equity at its core. It points to the ability of organisations to design digital ecosystems where everyone can participate in meaningful ways by keeping infrastructures human and environment-centered, safe, and adaptable to ever-changing contexts.”
Network members
The Global Network for Social Justice and Digital Resilience is composed of 10 incredible South-led organisations:
- Núcleo de Pesquisa, Estudos e Formação (Brazil)
- The Citizen Lab (Canada)
- Derechos Digitales (Chile)
- Fundación Acceso (Costa Rica)
- Centre for Internet & Society (India)
- Social Media Exchange (Lebanon)
- SocialTIC (Mexico)
- Co-Creation Hub (Nigeria), and
- Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (Uganda).
Read more on the network’s website on how the network defines and thinks about digital resilience.
Read more about our digital resilience work
Our team has been working on our own resilience with support from Ford Foundation for more than a year now. If you’re interested in reading more about what we’ve been working on, here are a few places to start:
- How we’re updating our video conferencing tools.
- Learnings inspired by our work mapping digital resilience challenges with partner organisations.
- How our team thinks about digital resilience.
Tips and guidelines!
If you’re looking for guidance on specific challenges like unstable internet connections, creating tech guidance for your team, or adopting new technologies, you can find our tips for all of these in the posts below – all inspired by actual challenges faced by partner organisations we’ve supported.
- Tips for Creating technical documentation for non-technical people
- Tips for Staying Online During Internet Shutdowns
- Tips for Ensuring Communication with Unstable Internet
- Tips for Adopting new tech and giving your team the best chances of success
We have also been hosting frequent community calls about digital resilience (and how to make it a reality for social justice organisations!), so make sure you follow our blog and newsletter to hear about the next ones!
Get in touch
If you’re interested in learning more, you’re welcome to reach out to Cathy Richards who leads our work on Digital Resilience at cathy[at]theengineroom.org – or schedule a call with our team.
Photo by Karim MANJRA on Unsplash