© Ramy Raoof (CC BY 2.0)

Throughout Africa human rights violations are being conducted all over the continent, but technology is shifting the power of information into the hands of the repressed.

Leveraging mobile phones and FM radio have been the channels to achieve this objective, according to the 2011 Amnesty International Annual Report.

Political activists and citizens have used other new communications forms, such as Facebook and Twitter, now easily available on mobile phones, to bring people to the streets to demand accountability.

Salil Shetty Photo Credit: Amnesty International

“In many countries in Africa,” says Secretary General, Salil Shetty, “there is now a vibrant civil society, which, although often still repressed, can no longer be ignored by those in power.”

The report states that 2010 may be known as the year where technology aligned both activists and journalists to bring truth to the world of power.

The Secretary General also mentioned that innovative crowdsourcing technologies, such as forerunner Ushahidi.com of Kenya, have opened up a whole new set of possibilities for conflict prevention by tracking and recording abuses.

He acknowledges that they have been tools that have aided the struggle for human rights, despite the adversary from governments, in particular those in the Middle East and Northern Africa, to restrict the flow of information and censor communication.

In this sense, Shetty cautions, that the use of technologies are not a magic bullet solution that can completely determine and end human rights violations: “Technology will serve the purposes of those who control it – whether their goal is the promotion of rights or the undermining of rights,” he advised.

“We must be mindful that in a world of asymmetric power, the ability of governments and other institutional actors to abuse and exploit technology will always be superior to the grassroots activists, the beleaguered human rights advocate, the intrepid whistleblower and the individual…”

Even so, Shetty digressed that these are amazing times for human rights activists who recognize the potential of technology, which provides the context to evade censorship and reveal truth. They also holds the promise, he continued, that we will be, “living in a truly flat world,” where we are all connected by an accessible information that flows across borders and all can provide a voice to help determine major decisions in our lives.

“Fifty years on the world has changed dramatically, but the imperative for individuals to stand together to fight injustice and protect the rights of human beings, wherever they may be, has not,” the Secretary General emphasized.

Assessments of the state of human rights in countries across Africa, Amnesty concluded:

Uganda—law enforcement officers “committed human rights violations, including unlawful killings and torture, and perpetrators were not held to account” and “a number of new and proposed laws threatened the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly”.

Zimbabwe—“police continued to arbitrarily arrest and detain human rights defenders and journalists undertaking legitimate human rights work”. However, there was “some loosening of restrictions on the media and parliament debated a bill to reform the repressive Public Order and Security Act”.

Swaziland—“human rights defenders and political activists were subjected to arbitrary detention, ill-treatment and harassment … Torture and incidents of unjustified use of lethal force were reported. The prime minister appeared to publicly condone the use of torture.”

Sudan—“human rights violations, mainly by the National Intelligence and Security Service, continued to be committed with impunity. Perceived critics of the government were arrested, tortured or ill-treated and prosecuted for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly. Death sentences were handed down, including against juveniles. Women, young girls and men were arrested and flogged in the north because of their ‘dress’ or ‘behaviour’ in public places.”

These summaries were provided on a post on AllAfrica.com

Photo Credit: Stop TB Partnership

Earlier this month, the Indus Hospital in Karachi, Pakistan reported a substantial increase in Tuberculosis (TB) detection rates after the start of a program that uses mobile technology and financial incentives to get people to test for the disease.

Since the implementation of the program in January 2011, reported TB cases more than doubled at the hospital. Doctors reported a total of 420 cases in the first quarter of 2011, up from 200 in the last quarter of 2010, before the program was in place.

The program is anchored by a financial incentive scheme and use of mobile technology. In the program, doctors and community health workers who screen for TB are rewarded with a financial incentive through their mobile banking account. Health professionals are rewarded based on both the number of sputum samples that they collect and the number of patients that test positive for active TB following sputum test results.

Mobile banking centers that have emerged in Karachi make this program possible. Health professionals use SMS to send their TB data to the Indus Hospital TB Reach mobile data collection system and in return receive a text message which tells them how many cases they have helped to detect. The incentives are then tabulated and distributed at the mobile banking centers on a monthly basis by the data collection system, called OpenMRS Mobile.

Tackling TB is a big deal in Pakistan and the South Asian region as a whole. According to estimates by the World Health Organization, Pakistan developed nearly 300,000 new cases of TB in 2009, making them 8^th on the list of countries most burdened by TB. Case detection is imperative in treating TB because according to TB Reach, for every 10 additional cases detected, an estimated 5 lives are saved and 100 infections are prevented.

The Indus Hospital received a grant from the Stop TB partnership’s TB Reach program. The TB Reach program focuses on promoting increased case detection of TB cases, ensuring their timely treatment, all while maintaining high cure rates within the national TB programs. Working in two “waves,” the first wave targeted 19 countries with $18.4 million worth of funding. The project at the Indus Hospital in Karachi is a product of the first wave. Under its Wave-2 funding, TB Reach has approved US$ 31 million for 45 projects in 29 countries.

The Indus Hospital program’s success has caught local attention as the Indus Hospital health workers are now training local private general practitioners on TB screening and detection. Furthermore Indus Hospital has launched a communications campaign complete with billboards, posters and local cable television ads that encourage people to get tested for TB. The Indus Hospital, also Pakistan’s first hospital to go paperless, hopes to expand the program nationally and even beyond.

Photo credit: Eric White

Last week in Jakarta GBI co-sponsored and participated in the “Universal Service Fund Asia Leaders Forum,” a two-day workshop that brought together administrators of Universal Service Funds (USFs) throughout the Asia/Pacific and Middle East regions.  Attendees had the opportunity to interact with other USF administrators and learn about how other countries had found unique solutions to common problems.  The workshop consisted of presentations by advanced USF as well as panel discussions by USF administrators that were moderated by GBI’s USF expert, Mr. David Townsend. Great interest was sparked by Turkey’s presentation of the “Fatih” school computing program, as well as Malaysia’s “Wireless Village” project.  The CEO of Pakistan’s USF, Mr. Parvez Iftikhar, described his country’s policy of subsidizing service, rather that infrastructure, and detailed how he enforces this requirement through a unique scheme that employs government liens on infrastructure.  A number of countries expressed interest in trying to copy the model.

Photo Credit: Eric White

The workshop was officially opened by Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, H.E. Hatta Rajasa, who declared Indonesia to have a strong interest in the expansion of broadband access while committing his government to a target of 30% broadband penetration by 2014.  It closed with a discussion of the tools that countries needed to achieve such aggressive broadband penetration targets.  In the interim discussions ranged from how to create strategic and operational plans for USFs to the particular benefits of providing broadband access as opposed to other forms of communication.

In the end all participants left satisfied that they had contributed to a worthwhile discussion, and many left with ideas for how to improve broadband operations in their own country.  Mr. P. Choesin, of Indonesia’s Chamber of Commerce (KADIN) was so impressed with the conference that he suggested expanding it to include a worldwide audience and conducting it at a ministerial level.

The forum was the second in a worldwide series that is being sponsored by GBI in association with Intel Corporation.

Photo credit: Eric White

Last week in Jakarta GBI co-sponsored and participated in the “Universal Service Fund Asia Leaders Forum,” a two-day workshop that brought together administrators of Universal Service Funds (USFs) throughout the Asia/Pacific and Middle East regions.  Attendees had the opportunity to interact with other USF administrators and learn about how other countries had found unique solutions to common problems.  The workshop consisted of presentations by advanced USF as well as panel discussions by USF administrators that were moderated by GBI’s USF expert, Mr. David Townsend. Great interest was sparked by Turkey’s presentation of the “Fatih” school computing program, as well as Malaysia’s “Wireless Village” project.  The CEO of Pakistan’s USF, Mr. Parvez Iftikhar, described his country’s policy of subsidizing service, rather that infrastructure, and detailed how he enforces this requirement through a unique scheme that employs government liens on infrastructure.  A number of countries expressed interest in trying to copy the model.

Photo Credit: Eric White

The workshop was officially opened by Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, H.E. Hatta Rajasa, who declared Indonesia to have a strong interest in the expansion of broadband access while committing his government to a target of 30% broadband penetration by 2014.  It closed with a discussion of the tools that countries needed to achieve such aggressive broadband penetration targets.  In the interim discussions ranged from how to create strategic and operational plans for USFs to the particular benefits of providing broadband access as opposed to other forms of communication.

In the end all participants left satisfied that they had contributed to a worthwhile discussion, and many left with ideas for how to improve broadband operations in their own country.  Mr. P. Choesin, of Indonesia’s Chamber of Commerce (KADIN) was so impressed with the conference that he suggested expanding it to include a worldwide audience and conducting it at a ministerial level.

The forum was the second in a worldwide series that is being sponsored by GBI in association with Intel Corporation.

A new telemedicine center opened last month in Lagos, Nigeria with the purpose of providing healthcare to local Nigerians. Designated as the Glo-Telemedicine Center, located on Victoria Island in Lagos, this center is a product of the collaboration between Nigeria’s Global Resources and Projects and healthcare providers in India, U.S., Egypt and other countries.

Photo Credit: Onche Odeh

The center is designed to minimize transportation concerns for Nigerians, especially those in isolated areas, to bring them expert healthcare from abroad. According to the executive officer of Global Resources Dr. Wale Alabi, “the Glo-Telemedicine Centre would bridge the gap between the poor and good health services by creating a simless [sic: seamless] communication between them and those with the expertise and facilities to help them.”

Dr. Alabi cited the high prevalence of Nigerians using life savings, and even taking out crippling loans to travel to foreign countries seeking expert healthcare. Dr. Alabi also claimed that over 60% of those who go abroad for services can get those same services in Nigeria, but often go abroad due to incorrect diagnoses.

The center will be used as a medical tool to reduce medical costs and substantially increase range of access to patients. The center is designed to offer specialty treatments to Nigerians at a low cost. It will also offer Continuing Medical Education to health professionals as a means to keep them informed of latest trends in health services.

The center’s capabilities are dependent on broadband fiber optics supplied by a Nigerian Telecommunication firm called Globacom. Their services take advantage of advances in ICT to transmit text, sound, video, image and other information from one location to another location.

Telemedicine is an application of medicine that takes advantage of electronic communications to transfer information from one location to another, often between health provider and patient, or between two health providers. Dr. Alabi noted that the success of telemedicine in African countries such as Kenya and Ghana is “transforming those countries.”

Similarly, Dr Alabi hopes the center will ultimately transform the way Nigerians think about accessing healthcare. However, this is not the first telemedicine project in Nigeria. Several years ago, the Nigerian government through the ministries of science and technology and health, commissioned a pilot telemedicine project that used satellite-based technologies. That project, called the NigComSat-1 Telemedicine pilot, was labeled impractical due to high costs and inapplicability. The Glo-Telemedicine center however, took note and addressed those issues, which is why it is now fully operational to Nigerians.