Strengthening the pan African movement for social

justice

Challenges of using ICTs

Fahamu has a vision of the world where people organize to emancipate

themselves from all forms of oppression, recognize their social

responsibilities, respect each other’s differences, and realize their full

potential.

ReputationReputation for being a technology

organisation …

We are not!

We only use technologies as tool for what we want to achieve

Themes• Strengthening capacity in human rights

and advocacy• Pambazuka News: Platform for debate,

analysis and action for freedom and justice• Reaching wider communities• Experiences in mobile phone

technologies• Pambazuka Press:From digital to print

(and back again)• Blogs, social networking, twitter, etc:

building Pambazuka 2.0 platform

Strengthening capacity in human rights and advocacyLearning for change program

Origins

• Thought ICTs could help human rights training

• Research on >100 organizationsin eight African countries (1998)

• Organizational needs and capacities• Priorities and preoccupations• Training needs and capacities• Information and communications capacities

Context

• Widespread violations of human rights

• Volatile, and sometimes hostile, political environment

Context

• Capable individuals but fragile organisations

• Heavy case loads and stressful work

• Unable to release staff for training

• Dichotomy of values

Information and communications infrastructure

• Computers with CDROM capability• Low specification machines

(Win98+)• Email ubiquitous• Low bandwidth • WWW expensive, slow, frustrating• Poor telephone connections

Conventional courses

• Difficulty in releasing staff for extended periods

• Fragility of organizations• Cost• Non-returners• Relevance to ongoing operations

Workshops: advantages

• Face to face human ‘interface’• ‘Interactive’• Exchange of experiences• Short absences from work• Networking• Cost

Workshops: disadvantages

• Heterogeneity of knowledge and experience

• Little or no preparation by participants

• Limited depth and breadth• Unknown long-term impact• No post-workshop support

Challenges for design• How to ensure substantive training

without long absences from work?• How to overcome limits of

workshop based learning?• How do we ensure that training

results in strengthening of organization and not just of individual?

Learning for change model

Learning for change model

Learning for change model

Choice of method

• Ease of editing and updating• Faster production• Enables search• Automatic sitemap/ToC• Bookmarking• Incorporation of Flash

CDROM features• Fully interactive• Feedback to user for exercises• Stand-alone learning• Reusable content• Extensive resource centre of

documents and other resources

CDROM features• Strong designs• Emphasis on aesthetics• Simplicity• Usability• Focus on learning/content• Can be used as course or reference• Cross-platform Windows 98+;

MacOS9+

Stand-alone learning

Institutions with whom we have developed courses

UN University for Peace

Office of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

University of Oxford

Institutions with whom we have developed courses

UN Systems Staff College

Association for the Prevention of Torture

Article 19

ChallengesUniversal preference for print - no

computers at home, internet café problems at night, fieldwork etc

Only minority of relatively well-endowed organisations have access

Great demand from grassroots CBOs can’t be met through this approach

In the end …

Decided not to develop CDROM materials further, but instead focus on producing printed materials for learning

… and at some future date, when bandwidth availability improves, maybe go to web-based access

Pambazuka News

Platform for debate, analysis and action for freedom and justice

www.pambazuka.org

Origins• Origins: in response to demand• Debate, discussion, analysis, commentary• Tool for advocacy, lobbying, and

campaigning for social justice• Platform for diverse views within

framework of struggle for social justice• Origins as newsletter only. After 4 years,

website set up!

Results• Readership• Subscribers• Use by other media• Awards• Text based email• Low bandwidth website

Example of use in advocacy• AU Protocol on the Rights of Women

in Africa• Speed of ratification• Lobbying at AU Summits by SOAWR• Distribution of printed special issues• Red, yellow and green cards• Online petition• Use of text messaging / SMS

SuccessDue to direct face-to-faceInternet great for disseminating to

activists, and raising public profile of campaign

Print more important for key audiences

Widening the reach• Podcasts and video• Documentary films• Radio programmes• Soap operas

Challenges• <7% Africans have access to

internet• Predominantly in urban areas• Nowhere near a mass phenomenon• 80% subscribers say they print out

Pambazuka News for reading

PressuresTo produce printed magazine /

newspaperTo make printed copies of thematic

articles availableTo publish books

And To make use of new media, social

networking and further use of ICTs

Experiences of using mobile phone technologies

Texting for women’s rights Online petition, signing using SMS Contribution of text messaging -

minimal: of 5000 signatories, 454 from mobile phones (<10%)

Yet impact huge owing to novelty value - “sexy” thing to do

But why so few text messages?

Experiences of using mobile phone technologies

SMS for farmer support Short experiment Very limited use of text

messaging Lots of messages sent out by

project, but very few responses from farmers

Why?

Experiences of using mobile phone technologies

Campaign on domestic violence - KZN 30% prevalence Minimal reporting of cases Collaboration with paralegal network BulkSMS system set up and paid for 83% households said they had

mobile phones 80% knew how to send/receive SMS

Campaign on domestic violence - KZN

After one year, doubling in number of cases reported to paralegal offices

Celebrations that project was successfulBut women sent less than 100 messages

throughout the whole year!Why?Evidence suggests it was the 12 workshops

that made the difference not the mobile phones

Mobile phones: constraintsCost of text messaging $.20 -$.50

per message cf $1-$2 / day incomePoor pay more per unit than rich

because poor use pay-as-you-go. Inequity of user charges - cf Water, Electricity etc

Ownership of phones in rural areas predominantly men, even though women use them too

Experiences of others in AfricaUshahidi - Election violenceElection monitoringOrganising protests etcRallying votersWork because there is pre-existing

network of activists.

Mobile phone - the great solution?Penetration rate claimed to be 30%

according to mobile phone companiesBut because multiple networks in most

countries with premium charges across networks, tendency for middle classes to have at least 2, if not 4 phones

Actual penetration rates may be about 10%Could be transformative if charges dropped

to reflect actual costs (effectively zero)

From digital to printFrom accidental publisher of books to

becoming a formal publisher of progressive pan African books

Pambazuka Press www.pambazukapress.org

… and back again

ebooksPrint on demand technologies

Concluding remarksTechnology as a complement, not substitute

for social interactionTendency for technologies to amplify and

exacerbate social differentiationTechnology is not neutral: it reflects the

power of those who use it - not always for ‘good’

ICTs powerful: those with economic power are rendered more powerful because of their access; conversely, those without access rendered more powerless

Concluding remarksTendency for us to fetishize ICTs - i.e.

imbue inanimate objects with power and abilities.

Need to recognise social nature of technology: technology not a thing but an expression of a social relation

Concluding remarksGreatest power of ICTs lies in ability of

people to give voice to their own experiences and to play a more sigificant role in determining their own destiny.

By allowing technology to amplify social differentiation, those with access increasingly determine the destiny of the majority who don’t have access.

Concluding remarksIn a sense, ICTs have strong anti-

democratic tendencies that need to be consciously militated against.

Otherwise those with power will end up more powerful