Bulanda Tapiwa Nkhowani
For years, digital governance conversations have been remarkably good at naming and diagnosing the problems and making recommendations on paper. We have accumulated frameworks, principles, guidelines, and resolutions at an impressive pace. What we have lacked, however, is clarity on how to move from text to practice, particularly across the diverse regulatory, political, economic and institutional contexts that make up platform regulation, more so, how to interpret this for the global majority. Much so for Africa, where some of the existing international platform governance architecture was built without meaningful African input.
Digital governance is no longer a niche conversation. It is happening in capitals, conference halls, and community spaces around the world, and Africa is increasingly at the centre of it. Conversations are slowly moving away from whether platforms cause harm or whether governance frameworks are needed, and increasingly skewed toward how we collectively advance concrete solutions. That shift matters more than it might appear and suggests that the field has reached a threshold of shared understanding of the problems and solutions, and is now poised to move from framing to building.
So, it is not surprising that one of the key recommendations at the UNESCO International Conference on Digital Platforms 2026 in Pretoria, South Africa, was precisely moving from words to action. The conversations in the event shifted from mere rhetoric toward concrete implementation of the UNESCO Guidelines for the Governance of Digital Platforms and other aligned frameworks.
While the UNESCO Guidelines for digital platforms provide the framework, now organisations and regulators have the opportunity to embed these guidelines into local strategies and regulations. It is important to note that regulation in itself should not be an end goal, but rather, securing platform governance should reach far beyond regulation and punitive measures and incorporate interventions like user empowerment, digital literacy, safety by design approaches, etc., that can support holistic system change.
Harnessing the power of the collective
At a time when the world is grappling with similar digital challenges simultaneously, this new shared reality creates a unique opportunity for strengthening collaboration at national, regional, and global levels. Enhanced multi-stakeholder collaboration is key as governance effectiveness increasingly depends on unified institutional networks rather than isolated authorities. In addition, collaboration fosters trust, stakeholder alignment and a unified voice when demanding platform transparency and accountability. While the notion of multi-stakeholder collaboration is not new and has been the subject of many discussions, this time around, it feels different because discussions seem to acknowledge and committe to addressing the perceived mistrust among stakeholders, and fostering ways in which different groups can collaborate with trust as a key value.
The other aspect is that of bridging capacity gaps. Regulators face an enormous challenge: keeping pace with a rapidly evolving platform landscape while ensuring adequate coordination, and this may be the main constraint on implementation, especially for some global majority countries that have been marginalised from the international policymaking processes that produce the frameworks they are now expected to implement. Regulators are expected to govern a rapidly evolving, technically complex, globally operating platform ecosystem with institutional capacity that was not originally designed for this. The need for sustained knowledge-building efforts to strengthen institutional capacity and build technical expertise can not be overlooked, not through adversarial approaches, but by building bridges across institutions and multi-stakeholders and offering practical and constructive policy recommendations, something that we strive for at Digital Action.
Cross-regional knowledge and strategy exchanges remain valuable for solving interconnected problems that span borders.
A defining moment: The Pretoria Action Plan
The Pretoria Action Plan is a concrete roadmap that sets out a shared process and priorities for translating the UNESCO Guidelines into real national-level action with support of regional and international mechanisms for inter-institutional cooperation. This is significant and signalled a deliberate break from the diagnostic pattern.
The Action Plan signals a collective commitment to moving toward solutions. Solutions such as strengthening the capacity of regulators in the rapidly changing technology landscape, enhancing equitable multisectoral collaboration and strengthening regulatory capacity by translating human rights principles into enforceable mechanisms. Its value lies not in the novelty of its principles but in its attempt to specify a shared process. It addresses one of the most persistent failures in international governance: well-drafted frameworks that are widely endorsed in principle and unevenly applied in practice.
The Pretoria Action Plan is a reminder that progress is possible when the right stakeholders come together with a shared process and commitment to action. However, what strikes me about this framing is its humility: it acknowledges that no single actor has all the answers and that the speed of platform evolution requires concerted efforts and adaptive governance.
The final Plan will soon be in hand, and what matters next is how each stakeholder, from regulators, regional and international bodies to academia, civil society and others, plays their respective parts according to their mandates, capacities, and contexts to translate text into action.