The objective of the African Web Survey Project is to provide a most accurate overview on the status of African languages on the digital world, to raise public awareness of it and to facilitate the adoption of measures to reduce the linguistic digital divide.

The Survey methodology is the following: web pages from African domain are collected by crawler robots; language identification is done automatically by a programme specifically designed for this purpose; African language experts provide additional sample pages to improve the accuracy of the programme; printouts with statistics reflecting the situation of different African languages are issued periodically and largely disseminated on the Internet.

This project is part of the World Network for Linguistic Diversity, a multi-stakeholder initiative of the African Academy of Languages (ACALAN) and other partners, launched by its President, Adama Samassékou on the International Mother Language Day (21 February 2006) at UNESCO headquarters.