Originally posted on the GBI Portal – Page 19

How ICTs Can Empower Blind Students: Souktel’s New Audio Service in Palestine

Lately there has been a lot of talk about how mobile phones can improve the access to and quality of education in the classroom. But how has the technology affected students with special needs?

Souktel, an organization that designs and delivers mobile phone services for finding jobs and connecting aid agencies with communities in need, announced Tuesday that it has developed a new mobile audio service that is empowering blind and low-literacy communities. The voice messaging system allows users to record messages online and send them to multiple phones easily and efficiently. The messages can then be retrieved by the recipients through using a voice-activated service or touch-tone audio menu, allowing easy access to information for the visually impaired and illiterate.

As part of Souktel’s mission to give low-income communities the information they need to improve their lives, Nureddin Amro, founder of the Siraj al-Quds School in East Jerusalem for both blind and sighted students, is now able to use this innovation to record messages online and send them to the mobile phones of students, staff, and parents. “It saves a lot of time and money,” says Amro, “I love using it. We sent a message just yesterday [to several hundred people] announcing the launch of a new program and the services and activities that will start February 1st … And I’ll send another one out tomorrow to advertise the beginning of second semester.”

Nureddin, visually handicapped and an innovator himself, has pioneered a new integrated-education approach to teaching visually impaired students, allowing them equal opportunities in school and providing them with the necessary skills to becoming accepted and integrated into their communities. Recognized for his advocacy for disabled students’ rights and groundbreaking work at the school, Nurredin was named an Arab World Social Innovator by the Synergos Institue in New York, the organization which funded the Souktel project.

Using mobile phones in education is certainly not a new idea but mobile learning, commonly referred to as mLearning, is such a new opportunity for many schools within developing countries that searching for documented examples of it’s application to aid blind students yields few results. Computer-based technology, or eLearning, has already provided tools that are helping visually impaired students. In fact, Nureddin’s Siraj al-Quds School is already using ‘talking computer’ technology which uses an assistive learning computer program designed for blind students.

But through identifying more cases where Souktel’s services can be used, as well as exploring new creative ways in how mlearning can be introduced to help, not only blind students, but all students with special needs, these new technologies promise to aid education and informing low-literacy populations. “In almost every developing country, illiteracy and disability are massive challenges,” says Souktel president Jacob Korenblum. “When a large percentage of the community can’t read, they can’t get the basic information they need for daily life: Where to find a doctor, where to find emergency food supplies.” For Souktel, mobile audio services have become a growing part of its work and will be a major focus for 2012.

February 2, 2012/by actualize

Sustainability Lessons from HSS: Implications for FS & ICTs Projects

Eric Sarriot @ the Talk - Photo Credit: Ben Addom

“I suspect that the world you’re dealing with is even more complex than the world we’re dealing with in health…health is dealt with by doctors, a very simple minded people, but your field is probably more complex.” Those are the words of Eric Sarriot, Technical Director, CEDARS at ICF International.

Eric was speaking on the topic “Emergence of Sustainability in a Complex System: Are Lessons From the Health Sector Applicable to Food Security?” during January 2012 USAID’s Microlinks Breakfast Seminar in Washington DC.

Eric brought two challenging concepts together – “sustainability” and “systems” to help understand the question whether sustainability strategies for health system strengthening (HSS) can be applied to food security. He noted that development programs in general intervene on specific problems, gaps in performance, and deficits in capacity. And to do so, there is the need for workable plans and log frames. These imply a very rational use of linearity but when it comes to dealing with sustainability and the number of actors—‘stakeholders’—at play, it just gets too complicated or rather ‘complex’.

Photo Credit: CEDARS Center

So beginning with his view of a system, he argues that a complex, adaptive systems by some definitions will have a large number of agents/actors that are diverse and try to adapt to each other. The adaptation process to each other results in the complexity of the system. He went on to define sustainability in HSS as an (emerging) property of a system embedded in a larger environment in which interdependent actors through negotiated and coordinated social interactions, allow the expression of their respective and collective capabilities to maintain and improve the health of vulnerable population.

Using the sustainability framework developed at CEDARS through research with communities and practitioners, Eric shared their experiences with the health sector from Bangladesh. The health system in Bangladesh at some point was in equilibrium with interactions among diverse actors.

Process Towards new Equilibrium by CEDARS

This equilibrium was punctuated as a result of an external intervention that sent shock to the system leading to the shaking of the equilibrium. And by the end of the project, there was a new equilibrium which as achieved through things that were planned for and others that were not planned for. In effect, the actors found another way to interact that created the new equilibrium.

From this experience made available through a detailed report, the study posited that at least some of the lessons that have been learned about how health systems actually behave as “systems”—complex adaptive systems—may be relevant to the world of food security and value chain interventions. Also, observed is that complexity increases rather than decreases when it comes to sustainable food security and the role of value chains.

Can elements of this model help value chain efforts better plan for and evaluate the ultimate sustainability of food security of households?

Yes, I believe the elements of the sustainability framework for HSS can help agriculture and food security value chain system to better plan for and evaluate the ultimate sustainability of food security of households.

I totally agree with Eric on his statement that the world of food security, agriculture and value chain is more complex than the world of health. Firstly, I think the nature of the agricultural value chain – actors from research and development, input manufactures and suppliers, producers, transportation and logistics, processors and manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, and the consumers – really makes it more complex than health.

Secondly, while “health services” aim at ensuring healthy lives of its users, “agricultural services” are aimed at building the capacities of its users to increase their productivity. For example, farmers are provided with agricultural advisory service to know when to sow their crops, when to spray, and when to market their products; and agricultural commodity traders are informed of the prices and locations of potential commodities to be able find the right market.

Thirdly, even though the health system is complex, all the actors have a common goal of providing health services to a vulnerable population in order to maintain and improve their health. So the users are more or less “passive recipients” of these services. Within the agriculture and food security value chain system, however, there are multiple recipients of the services as well as producers, making it more complex than health system. Farmers provide and receive agricultural services just as researchers, traders, and extension officers.

These features of the agriculture and food security value chain “system” and its larger environment with multiple interdependent actors, demand for a well coordinated and negotiated social interactions as required in the health system, to keep it sustained.

The place for ICTs

The complexity of the system and its associated interactions calls for effective communication networks, and this is where the importance of information and communication technologies (ICTs) could be realized. The sustainability framework presented by CEDARS, recognized the importance of a consistent data use to allow information-based decision-making and action. ICT for agriculture and food security projects should therefore be seen as value added services to ensure that actors within the system have access to timely and appropriate information for sustainable food security.

ICTs could be used in the following ways for increased information flow among the interacting actors:

Capturing technologies for actors to interact among themselves to understand potentials and diagnose needs such as data collection, monitoring and evaluation tools could be very useful within the system.
Communication tools to facilitate relationship building, and social network development such as social media tools that inform partners about services and users are good examples.
Processing and system management tools to ensure sustenance of the relationships built through network formation can also keep the system in equilibrium.
Communication and display media are also excellent ICTs for awareness creation and informing users about new products and their importance within the value chain.

How do we balance results and learning from these two systems?

I believe the key is collaboration. Realization of the ‘sustainability framework’ within the health system in any given community depends on the food security situation of that system. A closer look at the actors within the health system will reveal one or more ties with the food security and agriculture value chain system. Disturbing the equilibrium within the food security and agriculture value chain system will invariably disorganize the orientation of actors within the health system. Therefore to ensure that new equilibrium is maintained years after the intervention, actors must not see themselves as isolates but as components of the larger environment comprising of a number of systems.

Microlinks and its activities

Microlinks Staff Introducing the Breakfast Seminar - Photo Credit (Ben Addom)

Microlinks captures new learning in microenterprise development, disseminates it among practitioners, USAID mission staff, and other donors, and connects those actors to each other in order to improve development outcomes around the world. Using a knowledge-driven approach to microenterprise development, Microlinks aims to extend and multiply the impact of the learning and innovation developed through microenterprise research and practice. Visit Microlinks for more information on this presentation – the screencast and the transcript of the presentation, as well as future events.

The USAID’s Microenterprise Development office supports Microlinks and a broad array of knowledge-sharing tools, strategies, and events through the Knowledge-Driven Microenterprise Development program, implemented by The QED Group, LLC and its sub-contractors, International Resources Group and Training Resources Group .

February 2, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Mobile, Mobile Money, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Uganda’s Airtel launches mobile money

Uganda’s Airtel officially launched its mobile money scheme on Tuesday with Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi making the first transaction to a local journalist. The new platform should enable Ugandans to access their real money and convert it to e-money in order to pay bills and accounts, top up mobile credit and receive money across the country’s telecom networks.

Uganda’s Airtel officially launched its mobile money scheme on Tuesday (image: Blogspot)

Mbabazi said that telecom operators in the country are now giving users more options and adding value to their operations, which the PM said would have a “positive social impact and economic growth” for the country, singling out rural areas as having the greatest potential.

Airtel’s launch means the country now has four operators serving mobile money, after MTN, Uganda Telecom and Warid Telecom already had launched their services.

Airtel Uganda Managing Director, V.G Somasekhar told guests that the company invested sh300-million ($130 608) to upgrade its network services at 300 sites countrywide.

He said this enabled at least 1.5-million more customers to be accessed, bringing its total customer base to 4-million.

Andrew Matapare

February 2, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Mobile, Mobile Money, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Kenya’s Cellulant and Barclays partner for digital services

Kenyan mobile services provider Cellulant has inked a deal with UK’s Barclays Bank in order to provide digital services across the African continent.

The two companies will partner on a new platform aimed at connecting banks (image: stock.xchng)

According to the deal, the two companies will partner on a new platform aimed at connecting banks with third-parties, including mobile network operators to boost the efficacy of mobile money services across the continent.

“Cellulant’s platform will be deployed in stages in Ghana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Mauritius, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Seychelles, Botswana and Kenya,” the companies said.

Cellulant’s chief business officer, Paul Ndichu, said in a press release that “we have built a mobile commerce network connected to different platforms across different value chains in Africa such as [mobile] wallets, banks, merchant bill payment gateways and content delivery channels to deliver a transformational experience on mobile.”

According to John Gachora, Barclays Africa’s corporate banking MD, the digital drive is part of Barclay’s One Africa strategy to increase channel access for both retail customers and corporate clients.

“For corporate clients, this offers an efficient and cost-effective channel to bill and receive payments from their customers,” he added.

Janan Yussif

February 2, 2012/by actualize

Connectivity, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Libya’s interim government eyes ICT reform

In February 2011, we concluded that “a regime change will…increase efforts to strengthen broadband infrastructure and to create a national ICT policy, something that Libya is currently lacking.” Well, that time has come. Libya’s interim government shows signs of caring about ICT. However, the nation lacks adequate regulatory laws, is unaccustomed to the private sector, and will be repairing damaged infrastructure for some time to come.

When you live in country where censorship is the norm … the Internet is your only communications mechanism.” – Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google, after visiting Libya in January 2012

First, some history. Censorship of the Internet, among other factors, has long hindered growth of technology in Libya. Perhaps nothing limited ICT advancement more than when Libya Telecom & Technology (LTT), under the direction of Gadhafi’s government, shut-down the local Internet for over five months last year in an attempt to suppress the rebel movement.

Libya undeniably has better fixed and mobile infrastructure than most African nations. Despite one Internet service provider and only two mobile operators (nine telecoms operators in total), Libya boasts high Internet and mobile access rates (15% Internet penetration rate and a staggering 201% mobile penetration rate!)

In recent months, however, power outages have plagued reliable Internet connectivity. Plus, infrastructure – especially cellular and WiMax – was damaged in the recent civil war. Sentiment from the ground (via Twitter & Twitter, for example) indicates frustration with the level of services. TechnoLibya has reported issues with LTT WiMAX speed and coverage, but experiences stable connections with ADSL.

Libya is looking to Egypt to form ICT policy and regulations:

In January 2012, Egypt and Libya discussed working together to strengthen Libya’s ICT environment. Ministers from both nations exchanged ideas on creating a regulatory framework. More importantly, officials talked of the importance of empowering the people with tech skills. We wouldn’t be surprised if Libya’s regulatory body and processes mirror those found in Egypt. After all, Egypt, like Libya, does not have clean slate when it comes to Internet censorship. Therein lies the opportunity of this relationship.

The e-Libya initiative will strengthen key areas of government, education, and the economy:

The majority of the Libyan workforce has heretofore been employed in the public sector. A drastic privatization of the telecoms companies would be ineffective. Fortunately, the e-Libya initiative aims to create an open and transparent government, strengthen e-commerce, and establish a higher level of e-learning. The construction of a strong SME culture is essential for Libya to grow economic stability.

How effective will the interim government be?

Business Monitor International, a telecoms intelligence firm, is less optimistic about Libya’s future. Their analysis questions the interim government’s ability to reform Libyan policy. Like Khaled el Mufti, the man in charge of e-Libya, BMI is skeptical that Libya is ready for a free telecoms sector.

Click to enlarge. {Libya Telecom & Technology}

February 2, 2012/by actualize

Connectivity, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

What exactly is 3.75G?

Recently, the term ’3.75G’ has been appearing all across Africa. Airtel is most keen on 3.75G branding and plans to soon offer the platform in more nations where the company operates 3G (presumably all eight). Nations currently with 3.75G service include:

South Africa (Cell C)
Congo-Brazzaville (Airtel)
Sierra Leone (Airtel)
Zambia (Airtel)
Ghana (Airtel)
Nigeria (Etisalat)
Egypt (Etisalat)

But, what exactly is 3.75G and how does it compare to 3G or 3.5G?

Airtel, along with other mobile operators, touts HSPA+ service as being 3.75G. Other sources (including 3GPP), consider HSPA+ to be 3.9G. Airtel’s country pages all include a brief description of how they define 3.75G. Sierra Leone’s page states:

3G has evolved through several updates, leading to the very latest release, HSPA+, which is referred to as 3.75G, now available on airtel. 3.75G technology operates at dazzling speeds of up to 14.4 MB/s downlink and 5.7MB/s uplink.”

However, the 3.75G page for Zambia lists a 3.75G top download speed of 21Mbps, thus making Airtel’s cited 3.75G technology speeds incongruous. We deduce that either Airtel is offering 3.75G (HSPA) at a maximum of 14Mbps, they are offering 3.9G (HSPA+) at a maximum of 21Mbps, or they are simply changing out download speed since the handsets sold in Sierra Leone might not have the same chipset as those sold in Zambia.

Either way, the HSPA+/3.75G terms are used solely for marketing purposes. The same goes for the 4G versus LTE versus WiMAX debate. Mobile operators endure fierce competition to attract customers (who drive profits).

Although 3.9G is better than 3.75G and 3.75G is by all means technically superior than 3.5G, there will not be a noticeable transfer speed difference for most customers. Factors like signal strength and coverage mitigate any advertised speeds. African 3G users aren’t about to experience anything higher than even 10Mbps. But, since 21 Mbps speeds are technically possible, they are allowed to be used for advertising purposes.

Often, 3.75G is the first form of 3G service available in a country. Accordingly, the mobile operator skips mention of just “3G” and goes straight to using “3.75G” due to the potential marketing benefits.

In Nigeria, Etisalat was quick to describe the move to 3.75G as a major innovation. They also claimed it was the fastest 3G network in Nigeria. However, reading on, it becomes apparent that the move was mainly impressive since it replaced a 2.5G network with true 3G. It just so happened that the 3G platform was of the 3.75G release.

However, when 3.75G arrived in Congo-Brazzaville in October 2011, Airtel used plain 3G terminology in their news release announcing the arrival of 3G service in the country. There was no mention of 3.75G. Similarly, there is no mention of 3.75G in Airtel’s video spot promoting 3G service beginning in January 2012 (although Airtel’s social media never fails to mention 3.75G).

Mobile competition has increased remarkably in Africa since that time, and 3G operators (mostly Airtel) have begun to increase their efforts to secure customers.

However, customers should be focused on how the latest mobile technologies can ease the strains of life rather than exact technical specs. Bragging rights can be enjoyable, but what matters is not the benchmarks “3.75G” and “14Mbps” or whether 3.75G is really considered HSPA+. Important instead are that 3G is available and that costs are becoming more reasonable. What matters is that 3.75G (or 3.9G) enhances mobile health efforts and provides new educational opportunities.

A rough comparison of recent 3GPP releases and basic features. {Sayy 365}

February 1, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Food Security, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

The Myth of E-Voucher Schemes for Enhanced Fertilizer Use

Photo Credit: Ben Addom

The future use of the information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as e-vouchers in delivering subsidized fertilizer (or other inputs) to farmers in the current information age is blurred due to the very high cost involved in setting up such systems and the anticipated power/energy problems. This was one of the revelations made by experts from the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) and the World Bank during the January 2012 USAID’s Agriculture Sector Council Seminar held in Washington DC.

Ian Gregory, a consultant from IFDC spoke on the subject “Voucher Schemes for Enhanced Fertilizer Use: Lessons Learned and Policy Implications” and David Rohrbach, a Senior Agricultural Economist at the World Bank shared his experiences from eastern and southern Africa remotely from Tanzania on the subject “Opportunities and Risks of Fertilizer Voucher Programs.”

The speakers argued that based on their earlier experiences, using ICT-based systems to facilitate fertilizer delivery through the subsidy programs can be very expensive. This includes the initial cost of establishing such a system as well as maintenance cost due to the absence of ICT infrastructure and low ICT human resource level in their respective areas of operation. Also anticipated is the lack of power or energy (electricity) in the communities that these inputs are distributed.

This revelation came in at the time when the World Bank had just launched an eSourcebook on ICTs in Agriculture with a comprehensive list of innovative practice summaries that demonstrate success and failure in interventions. Among them is the use of an electronic voucher system in Zambia, an initiative that was reported in 2010. The system is currently being piloted by the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), CARE International, and the local Conservation Farming Unit (CFU) with support from Mobile Transactions (a company specializing in low-cost payment and financial transaction services). The e-voucher system empowers smallholders to obtain subsidized inputs from private firms (giving the firms, in turn, an incentive to expand and improve their business).

Fertilizer subsidy programs

Giving the background to the fertilizer voucher schemes, Ian stated that while the traditional fertilizer subsidies were an integral policy tool of the Green Revolution in the 1960’s, excessive fiscal costs and risks, late delivery, rent-seeking, political economy and patronage, rationing, lack of equity and efficiency, and displacement of the private sector led to the demise of these subsidies in the 1980s. But the fertilizer subsidy programs have resurfaced in the last ten years as a results of high international fertilizer prices.

David from the World Bank Tanzania also identified some of the risks associated with the program as vouchers (or fertilizer) being distributed late; vouchers redeemed by agents distributing the fertilizer; counterfeiting vouchers (or fertilizer); vouchers redeemed for cash; price inflation: greater demand than fertilizer supply (top-up or subsidy grows); number of target recipients grows faster than population; and over-reporting of production.

Is there a need for e-vouchers?

On the future direction of the fertilizer subsidy programs, David Rohrbach mentioned smart vouchers and ICT based systems as one of the possible reforms. Also possible is the effort to improve fertilizer use efficiency; find alternative strategies for strengthening competitive input markets; test alternative exit strategies; and explore the option of third party monitoring for improved management. These are areas that information and communication technologies could be strategically deployed for an efficient system.

Photo Credit: Mobile Transactions

According to the eSourcebook, the mobile transaction system in Zambia is enabling electronic monitoring of the e-voucher system, documenting which vouchers have been redeemed, where, and for which products, thereby improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the input subsidies. Also because farmers are registered with the system, they can be identified more effectively for specific training programs with input- and productivity-enhancing components. The e-voucher system also supports private agribusinesses by making them the direct source for inputs; as more private input dealers choose to participate, competition may increase.

With the success of the Zambia’s e-voucher pilot case, and the immense benefits that both farmers and the private sector providers can gain from such a system, I wonder why cost should still be an obstacle to its implementation in other countries. It may be true that an e-voucher system may not be easily accessible to these rural poor communities at this time, but the steadily decreasing costs of ICTs and the Internet infrastructure all point to a promising future. I believe this is a great opportunity for the private sector and the young entrepreneurs in these parts of the world to explore.

Cases of fertilizer subsidy programs

The two experts also compared fertilizer subsidy programs like the Sustaining Productive Livelihoods through Inputs for Assets (SPLIFA) of Malawi, Agricultural Inputs Support Program (AISP) also in Malawi, Ghana Fertilizer Support Program (FSP), Zimbabwe Agricultural Input Project (ZAIP), and National Agricultural Input Voucher Scheme (NAIVS) of Tanzania.

Photo Credit: Inform Africa

Some of the lessons learned include the fact that fertilizer subsidy programs do work for poverty reduction if targeted to vulnerable, potentially viable farmers and maintained for 3-5 years; they will also improve food security but at a huge cost and with leakage, crowding out, and mainly crop-specific; based on mixed evidence from 1980s, not sustainable; and they may work as a short-term fix for price spikes but distort markets, and at-source subsidy is a lower cost alternative.

Agrilinks is a new space for agriculture specialists and practitioners to access current information and resources on important agricultural and food security related topics and issues. The space leverages an array of experiences, resources, and expertise to encourage and promote knowledge flow among practitioners, USAID, partners, and other organizations specializing and working on current agricultural development issues. Visit Agrilinks for more information on this and future events.

January 31, 2012/by actualize

Civil Society, Democracy & Governance, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Digital mapping and governance: the stories behind the maps

This is a guest post from Jamie Lundine, who has been collaborating with Plan Kenya to support digital mapping and governance programming in Kwale and Mathare.

Throughout October and November 2011, Plan Kwale worked through Map Kibera Trust with Jamie Lundine and Primoz Kovacic, and 4 young people from Kibera and Mathare, to conduct digital mapping exercises to support ongoing youth-led development processes in Kwale county. One of the important lessons learned through the Trust’s work in Kibera and Mathare is that the stories behind the mapping work are important for understanding the processes that contribute to a situation as represented on a map. To tell these stories and to complement the data collection and mapping work done by the youth in Kwale, the Map Kibera Trust team worked with the Kwale youth to set up platforms to share this information nationally and internationally. Sharing the important work being done in Kwale will hopefully bring greater visibility to the issues which may in the longer term lead to greater impact.

Sharing stories of local governance

To support their work on social accountability, the Kwale Youth and Governance Consortium (KYGC) mapped over 100 publicly and privately funded community-based projects. The projects were supported by the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), Local Area Development Fund (LATF), NGOs and private donors. As one channel of sharing this information, the Consortium set up a blog called Nuru ya Kwale (Light of Kwale). According to KYGC the blog “features and addresses issues concerning promotion of demystified participatory community involvement in the governance processes towards sustainable development. We therefore expect interactivity on issues accruing around social accountability.” This involves sharing evidence about various projects and stories from the community.

One example is the documentation of the Jorori Water project in Kwale; through the mapping work, the Governance team collected details of the constituency development fund (CDF) project. The funding allocated to upgrade the water supply for the community was 6,182,960 ksh (approximately 73,000.00 USD). From their research the KYGC identified that the Kenya Open Data site reported that the full funding amount has been spent.

A field visit to the site however revealed that project was incomplete and the community is still without a stable water supply, despite the fact that the funding has been “spent.”

Jorori Water Project, built using approximately 6.2 million shillings (73, 000.00 USD)

Read more about the questions the team raised in terms of the governance of CDF projects, including the detailed the project implementation process and some reflections on why the project stalled. This is information on community experiences (tacit information) that is well-known in a localized context but has not been documented and shared widely. New media tools, a blog in this case, provide free (if you have access to a computer and the internet) platforms for sharing this information with national and international audiences.

Addressing violence against children and child protection

Another blog was set up by the Kwale Young Journalists. The Young Journalists, registered in 2009, have been working with Plan Kwale on various projects, including Violence against Children campaigns. The group has been working to set up a community radio station in Kwale to report on children’s issues. Thus far, their application for a community radio frequency has encountered several challenges. New media provides an interim solution and will allow the team to share their stories and network with partners on a national and internal stage.

The Kwale Young Journalists worked with Jeff Mohammed, a young award-winning filmmaker from Mathare Valley. The YETAM project not only equips young people with skills, but through peer-learning establishes connections between young people working on community issues throughout Kenya. The programme also provides young people with life skills through experiential learning – Jeff reflects on his experience in Kwale and says:

Jeff and the Kwale Young Journalists shooting a scene from “The Enemy Within”

“My knowledge didn’t come from books and lecturers it came from interest, determination and persistence to know about filmmaking and this is what I was seeing in these Kwale youths. They numbered 12 and they were me. They are all in their twenties and all looking very energetic, they had the same spirit as mine and it was like looking at a mirror. I had to do the best I could to make sure that they grasp whatever I taught.”

Jeff worked with the Young Journalists on a short film called “the Enemy Within.” The film, shot with flip-cameras, tells the story of 12-year-old girl who is sold into indentured labour by her parents to earn money for her family. During the time she spends working, the young girl “falls prey of her employer (Mr.Mtie) who impregnates her when she is only 12 years old.” Jeff reflects that “early pregnancies are a norm in the rural Kwale area and what the young filmmakers wanted to do is to raise awareness to the people that its morally unacceptable to impregnate a very young girl, in Enemy Within the case didn’t go as far because the village chairman was bribed into silence and didn’t report the matter to higher authorities.” This is a common scenario in Kwale, and the young journalists plan to use the film in public screenings and debates as part of their advocacy work in the coming months.

Jeff and the Kwale Young Journalists shot the film in four days – they travelled to Penzamwenye, Kikoneni and also to Shimba Hills national park to shoot 7 scenes for the movie. Read more about Jeff’s reflections on working with the Kwale Young Journalists on his blog.

Sharing ecotourism resources

The Dzilaz ecotourism team – a group that encourages eco-cultural tourism in Samburu region of Kwale county — also integrated social media into their work. During the last week (November 8th-12th) the group set up a blog to market the community resources, services and products. They also plan to document eco-culture sites and the impact that eco-tourism can have on the community. As of November 10th, 2011 the Dzilaz team had already directed potential clients to their website and thus secured a booking through the information they had posted.

The importance of telling the stories behind the maps

One important component to mapping work is to tell the stories behind the map. The three groups in Kwale are working to build platforms to amplify their grassroots level work in order to share stories and lessons learned. The information documented on the various platforms will develop over time and contribute to a greater understanding of the processes at a local level where youth as young leaders can intervene to begin to change the dynamics of community development.

January 31, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Education, Education, Education Partnerships, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Learning, Freedom and the Web: Mozilla’s eBook Explores and Offers How-Tos

Mozilla published a book last month that offers a glimpse at how open-source technology is shaping the field of education. The book entitled Learning, Freedom and the Web written by Anya Kamenetz and some of the 400 participants of the first Mozilla Festival held in Barcelona in 2010, explores possible answers to the questions: How can the ideas of the open source movement help foster learning? What are the most effective ways to bring learning to everyone? How does openness help the spread of knowledge?

The book contains session notes from the festival, quotes and blogs from leading experts, key-findings from current projects, as well as several how-tos including how to create your own ebook. The format of the book itself follows the ethos of the minds which collaborated to create it so that printed copies are available for purchase but it can also be downloaded as a PDF for free or accessed in an easy-to-use web version that includes video clips.

Exploring ideas such as the concept of industrialized education, the future of the physical library, and the quality and sustainability of open content, contributors include promising new ideas and tools that can be used to develop and share educational resources. For people who are unfamiliar with these concepts or are interested in developing their own open educational resources (OER), the book’s easy-to-follow instructions and format make it a great introduction to open-source technologies and their applications.

Helpful how-tos include difficulty level, amount of time to develop, who they involve and benefit, as well as steps. Topics include:

Creating an open education resource
Contract grading
Adopting an open textbook
Creating your own how-to
Creating your own ebook
Creating your own festival
Teaching and learning with Wikipedia

Learning, Freedom and the Web, both the book and the festival, might well serve as a barometer for the level of involvement and development of this new open source movement. When faced with the question of the movement’s future, authors leave the reader with a need to contribute and collaborate. “What really keeps a community going? Shared work, shared goals, shared fun, shared vocabulary, and shared rituals. There doesn’t have to be one ultimate unified vision. The idea of what learning will mostly look like in ten years, 50 years, or 100 years remains fuzzy, and that’s by design, because one definition of an improved future is one that has a greater diversity of choices than in the past.”

January 31, 2012/by actualize

Climate Change, Environment, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Mexico’s Climate Challenge: ICTs pave environmental policy

Mexico’s bouquet of distinct ecosystems features an assorted variety of species, making the country one of the most biologically diverse in the world. The gem of Mexico’s ecological abundance is in great danger due to the forces of climate change. The country’s coastal regions risk destruction from tropical storms. Other problems include heavy rains that increase flash flooding and pollution that dulls overall health. Environmental deterioration and degradation can be traced as a root cause of current social and economic problems in Mexico, especially as poverty is agitated by the effects of climate change.

In June 2011 the Association of Progressive Communications (APC) released “ICTs and environmental sustainability: Mapping national policy-making and climate change strategies“. In the report, the authors note the potential for ICTs in Mexico but warn of the overall disconnect between policy-making and climate change strategies. A critical piece missing is the general lack of communication infrastructure. The report cites a study that states that Mexico has the second lowest broadband density of all countries in the OECD and in comparison to other countries Internet is slow and expensive. In 2010, only 30 out of 110 million Mexicans had access to Internet.

There is great potential for ICTs to litigate climate change in Mexico. The report points towards solutions for integrating ICT into the sector, noting the limited budget and lack of private investment in technology. Despite this, in 2010 Ericsson declared that they supported launching a public-private partnership for low-carbon solutions at the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change held in Cancun (COP16).

Some proposed areas where ICTs can be introduced include:

tracking carbon footprints and using sensors to improve energy use efficiency
surveying water use
using geographic data for flood prevention
creating information dissemination and consultation systems to prevent and issue early warning in vulnerable situations such as natural disasters that can coordinate members of the National Civil Protection System
updating the national volcanological monitoring system
forming a surveillance system for land conservation

January 31, 2012/by actualize

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