When Asaad (name changed to protect identity) heard that he was invited to a Madania (civilian-led) forum with other citizens in his town, Kassala, Sudan, he had to stop and think carefully about whether it would be wise to attend. Kassala, the capital of the state and a border trade hub known for its views of the Taka Mountains, was filled with intergroup tension. To Asaad, attending a forum with members of other ethnic groups sounded dangerous.

With municipal and regional council elections approaching on September 2, 2023, tensions in a number of Ivoirian cities were escalating. The country had seen a recurrence of election-related violence, including following the 2020 elections in which President Alassane Ouattara stood for and won a controversial third term as president under the Rally of Houphouëtists for Democracy and Peace (Rassemblement des houphouëtistes pour la démocratie et la paix, RHDP) party banner.

“This is for everyone.” These are the famous words of the founder of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, but the reality is that in many parts of the world, the Internet and how it is governed is controlled by the very few. In the Maldives in June 2023, a group made up largely of women, worked to change that and make the internet work for the people and for democracy, which they continue to do today.