Session
Organizer 1: Civil Society, African Group
Organizer 2: Civil Society, African Group
Organizer 2: Civil Society, African Group
Speaker 1: Adeboye Adegoke, Private Sector, African Group
Speaker 2: Sandra Aceng, Civil Society, African Group
Speaker 3: Okito Wedi, Technical Community, African Group
Speaker 2: Sandra Aceng, Civil Society, African Group
Speaker 3: Okito Wedi, Technical Community, African Group
Format
Roundtable
Duration (minutes): 60
Format description: TechHer believes a 60-minute roundtable discussion is the most effective format for this session. This format fosters equal participation, dynamic exchanges, and actionable insights. Unlike traditional panels, which limit engagement, this format encourages interactive dialogue among diverse stakeholders, allowing cross-sector knowledge-sharing on digital trust and resilience. This structured yet flexible discussion will enable participants to explore practical solutions to OGBV, privacy risks, and digital security challenges affecting women and marginalised groups. The session will be a launchpad for ongoing engagements, including webinars, research collaborations, and policy dialogues, ensuring sustained momentum beyond IGF 2025. By creating a safe, participatory space, the session will also drive strategic collaborations between civil society, policymakers, and tech companies, fostering global partnerships and concrete policy recommendations to enhance digital safety and resilience.
Duration (minutes): 60
Format description: TechHer believes a 60-minute roundtable discussion is the most effective format for this session. This format fosters equal participation, dynamic exchanges, and actionable insights. Unlike traditional panels, which limit engagement, this format encourages interactive dialogue among diverse stakeholders, allowing cross-sector knowledge-sharing on digital trust and resilience. This structured yet flexible discussion will enable participants to explore practical solutions to OGBV, privacy risks, and digital security challenges affecting women and marginalised groups. The session will be a launchpad for ongoing engagements, including webinars, research collaborations, and policy dialogues, ensuring sustained momentum beyond IGF 2025. By creating a safe, participatory space, the session will also drive strategic collaborations between civil society, policymakers, and tech companies, fostering global partnerships and concrete policy recommendations to enhance digital safety and resilience.
Policy Question(s)
How can community-led digital literacy and safety programs empower marginalised communities, particularly women and girls, to identify, mitigate, and report digital threats? What effective protective mechanisms and scalable models have emerged globally?
Additionally, how can collaboration among civil society, policymakers, and tech companies combat gendered misinformation and boost digital trust in the Global South? What policies should civil society pursue to advance AI, regulate Big Tech accountability, and support survivors of online gender-based violence?
Finally, how can policymakers create or enhance legal protections against online gender-based violence without risking censorship, shrinking the civic space or suppressing marginalised voices?
What will participants gain from attending this session? Participants will exchange practical strategies, policy insights, and digital safety tools to combat technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV). Through real-world case studies from Nigeria, Africa, and the Global South, they will explore how gendered misinformation, privacy breaches, and online harms disproportionately impact women and marginalised communities and the most effective ways to counter them.
Attendees will also engage with TechHer’s revamped OGBV response platform, KURAM, offering feedback and learning about similar digital safety mechanisms from other regions. This hands-on interaction will help refine and scale survivor-centred interventions.
Beyond knowledge-sharing, the session will serve as a networking hub, fostering connections among grassroots organisations, policymakers, and digital rights advocates working on TfGBV on the continent. Facilitating cross-regional collaboration will spark new partnerships and strengthen collective action towards a safer, more resilient digital ecosystem.
Description:
Digital spaces across Nigeria and the rest of the Global South are increasingly unsafe for women and marginalised communities due to gendered misinformation, privacy breaches, deep fakes, and hate speech. These digital harms fuel harassment, blackmail, and real-world violence, while weak data protection laws and inconsistent platform interventions leave survivors exposed, eroding digital trust and resilience. TechHer proposes an interactive workshop that will convene grassroots organisations, policymakers, researchers, and advocacy groups to develop actionable solutions for Online Gender-Based Violence (OGBV). Discussions will focus on community-driven digital safety strategies, platform accountability, and effective policy implementation. Participants will exchange regional insights, assess response mechanisms, and collaborate on refining TechHer’s OGBV intervention to enhance impact for the digital ecosystem. This session will foster cross-regional learning and action-oriented dialogue, generate concrete policy recommendations, improve survivor-centred safety mechanisms, and push for stronger regulatory frameworks while advancing digital trust and resilience across diverse communities.
Digital spaces across Nigeria and the rest of the Global South are increasingly unsafe for women and marginalised communities due to gendered misinformation, privacy breaches, deep fakes, and hate speech. These digital harms fuel harassment, blackmail, and real-world violence, while weak data protection laws and inconsistent platform interventions leave survivors exposed, eroding digital trust and resilience. TechHer proposes an interactive workshop that will convene grassroots organisations, policymakers, researchers, and advocacy groups to develop actionable solutions for Online Gender-Based Violence (OGBV). Discussions will focus on community-driven digital safety strategies, platform accountability, and effective policy implementation. Participants will exchange regional insights, assess response mechanisms, and collaborate on refining TechHer’s OGBV intervention to enhance impact for the digital ecosystem. This session will foster cross-regional learning and action-oriented dialogue, generate concrete policy recommendations, improve survivor-centred safety mechanisms, and push for stronger regulatory frameworks while advancing digital trust and resilience across diverse communities.
Expected Outcomes
TechHer’s session aims to strengthen digital trust and resilience while addressing online gender-based violence (OGBV). Participants will gain actionable insights on community-driven safety strategies, platform accountability, and policy advocacy to combat digital harms. The session will promote cross-regional collaboration and equip stakeholders with tools to enhance OGBV prevention and response in the Global South.
A key output will be a learning brief summarising insights, best practices, and policy recommendations for future advocacy. The session will lay the groundwork for ongoing initiatives, including webinars, research collaborations, and multi-stakeholder dialogues, ensuring sustained efforts against OGBV.
This gathering will facilitate knowledge exchange and foster alliances, contributing to stronger digital policies, improved support systems for survivors, and increased accountability among platforms and policymakers. Collaborations will focus on advancing protections targeted at ECOWAS, the African Union, and other continental bodies, bridging the technology inequalities between the Global North and South.
Hybrid Format: TechHer intends to designate a virtual moderator who coordinates the online discussion, poses questions to onsite speakers, and ensures online participants remain engaged to facilitate seamless interaction. We will also co-create solutions with online and onsite participants via Riseup pads, sharing a list of prompts at the beginning of the workshop. This ensures that all voices are captured, whether they get a chance to speak or not.
TechHer will design an interactive agenda with a mix of presentations and activities for both audiences. To encourage participation, TechHer will incorporate regular Q&A sessions and feedback opportunities.
Finally, TechHer will use Slido during the session for Q&A and polling and complement this with activity on our social media platforms to enhance real-time interaction to promote a designated hashtag for participants to share thoughts and connect.