Creating Safe Spaces Online for Freedom of Expression The project aims to increase awareness and respect for online freedom of expression by carrying out activities that educate, inform, influence, and support the implementation of policies, laws, and practices on the subject matter. The project is expected to significantly change the overall outlook toward digital engagement in Nigeria. Implemented Activities Within the Period Under Review were building a Digital Rights violations reporting platform, website upgrade, Strategic Litigation, Capacity Building, Digital Rights Workshops, Digital Rights Media Fellowship, Research, Digital Rights in Africa Report, Media and Communication, Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum (2020 and 2021), and participating in global convenings (RightsCon and FOC). 
Media Fellowship: the Fellowship program is designed to immerse selected journalists in digital rights advocacy and intervention efforts in Africa. The fellows published stories on topics such as digital platforms and protests, digital footprints in policy, language diversity online, hate speech, and fundamental human rights.
Digital Rights in Africa Report: The 2019 Digital Rights in Africa report provided in-depth analysis on the state of digital rights in Nigeria and 12 other African countries. It examined violations such as Internet disruptions, illegal surveillance, the arrest of bloggers, and the passage of hurtful legislation. In addition to this, we converted the report into a short movie titled Training Day. By the end of the reporting period, the movie grossed over 360,000 views on YouTube and over 1.1 million on Facebook.
The 2020 report, named Londa, echoes the call for the collective work of different stakeholders to protect the digital rights environment in Africa. The report analyses the state of digital rights and inclusion in 20 African countries and makes key recommendations for improving the digital rights landscape. 
Media and Publicity Engagements : (a) Media Parleys: We held two media parleys(b) Online Advertisements: We created audiovisual content that enabled us to run adverts on all our social media platforms (Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn). (c) Newspaper Advertisements: We ran newspaper advertisements on the proposed Social Medial bill in Nigeria and also ran advertisements condemning civic restrictions (d) Radio Advertisement: We ran infomercials on 3 radio stations in Abuja for one week towards pushback on the anti-social media bill. We also started a #SayNoToSocialMediaBill radio tour that featured the need for a rights-respecting approach to legislative proposals on radio stations in 26 states. 
Digital Rights Violation Reporting Platform RIPOTI: RIPOTI, the web platform for reporting digital rights violations has been completed and launched. The platform is being used to report, document, and process human rights violations online. It serves as a platform for collaborative intervention, research, and whistleblowing around state-induced clampdowns against freedom of expression.
Digital Rights Toolkit: The Ayeta toolkit was developed with the overarching aim of addressing the need to safeguard digital rights defenders, journalists, whistleblowers, and others working with sensitive information in the global South. Paradigm Initiative (PIN) is dedicated to making the toolkit user-friendly and ensuring it remains a living resource.
Capacity Building: We reached 45 civil society organizations in our 3-day workshop held in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, in February 2020. We rescheduled others to 2021 due to the COVID 19 lockdown.
Strategic Litigation: For the period under review, we filed court cases in support of wrongfully accused #EndSARS protesters, we issued a joint statement calling for respect for citizens’ rights during protests and challenged the violation of citizens' rights.
Global Convenings (RightsCon and Freedom Online Conference) Participation in relevant and strategic global convenings was proposed as part of the project. The objective of our participation is to provide a platform to present our research and advocacy work to a global audience, learn from best practices across the world and benefit from diverse expertise available at such meetings. We have participated in two out of four convenings proposed and we have hosted three side sessions dedicated to our work on these platforms. We will be participating at RightsCon in June 2021 and Freedom Online Conference later in the year. 
Risks, Challenges and Mitigating Measures: The unprecedented episode of the COVID-19 pandemic caused a major disruption to our work causing activities to be either suspended, cancelled or postponed causing a low rate of depletion for this project. 
The financial excesses reported for Year 1 are mostly as a result of activities not yet carried out due to the COVID-19 restrictions but are now set to be implemented in Year 2, as indicated in the annual plan. While some project activities were interrupted by the COVID-19 lockdowns, we have not departed from the theory of change as we continued to ensure that online activities helped drive home our message about the need to create safe spaces online. 
 Sustainability: Sustainability in this project will be guaranteed based on the following:. We position ourselves for funding and institutional support by demonstrating leadership in our field. We continue to offer value and engage broadly, bringing attention to our work in relevant circles. Our sustainability plan is built around developing a community of partners and organisations through our Netsrights Coalition. Our work will extend beyond the project lifeline for the following reasons (a) Paradigm Initiative has been active on the Internet Freedom scene in Africa for over 10 years, and has acquired the reputation of impact and have also forged partnerships with organizations within Nigeria, such as the Nigerian Network of NGOs, Digital Rights Lawyers Initiative, Citizens’ Gavel, among others (b) Our Internet freedom interventions across Africa over the past 10 years has involved the train-the-trainer model. This process continues to produce a ripple effect that effectively multiplies our impact and ensures that our work is sustainable even if particular programs have ended. (c) Paradigm Initiative has multiple and diverse long-term funding partners that support our work for the foreseeable future. For example, our 5 year grant relationship with Ford Foundation; our 2-year grant, covering 5 countries, with the United States’ Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor; and our 3-year Greater Internet Freedom project supported by the United States Agency for International Development. 
Conclusion:  We are excited by the level of implementation of this project despite the limitations imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. We are on course to achieve a 100% implementation of the grant and cannot wait to measure the impact of the project on the landscape for freedom of expression online.