How Can Information Technologies and New Media Empower Citizens and Reduce Poverty?
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Tanya Rebolledo-Branski |
YOUTH @MAKING CHANGE HAPPEN
The power of the people is stronger than the people in power. Social media is the instrument which brings this aphorism to life. The Ibero-American region, and particularly Latin America, is not immune to this technological contagion. In EVAC (Espacio de Vinculación, Asociación Civil), many of these ideas have converged and spread--based on best practices and shared knowledge--to promote equal rights and opportunities for international youth.
One significant initiative is 360 Agents, which, thanks to CISCO’s donation of 100 flip high-definition cameras, turned students and community leaders from six Mexican cities into “digital reporters,” who raise serious issues, contact local authorities, and are creating a Bank of Good Practices and a Governance Observatory. This network has spread to the national and regional levels, including the 22 Ibero-American member countries of EVAC’s Vanguardia Network. Young people who had never before benefited from ICT access, found themselves going to the closest Internet Cafe in neighboring towns to upload their video reports and make their voices heard, by involving civil society in their actions, especially other young people. Beyond videoreporting, being a 360 Agent is a life-project that gives youth value as citizens. In EVAC’s experience, through technology, youth are empowered to recognize and report on problems in their communities, making change happen…just a click away.
Samar Samir Mezghanni
Writer and Youth Activist, Tunisia
SOCIAL MEDIA IN TUNISIA'S TRANSITION
Many people have been calling for the use of social media in the process that Tunisia is undertaking for democratization, building social accountability, and reconstructing trust between the people and the state. These are the same tools that proved to be extremely powerful in raising awareness about political, social, and economic development issues during the Tunisian Revolution. Awareness campaigns, advocacy groups, and calls for development initiatives have been spreading, mainly on Facebook where a fifth of the Tunisian population shares information and knowledge.
One of the projects in which I am involved, for instance, is the creation of an online platform that will help citizens increase social accountability and activism in Tunisia by giving them access to a network connecting all civil society organizations and institutions in the country.
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Amr Abdallah |
YOUTH DEVELOPMENT--THE ROAD AHEAD
Information Technology and Social Media played a significant role in helping the Dreamers of Tomorrow (DOT) organization reach out to Egyptian youth and improving their lives. In 2007, DOT established a Youth Career Planning and Development Center (CPDC) which provides information technology skills training for disadvantaged 3rd and 4th year university students from provincial universities in poor rural areas in Egypt. Taking advantage of the technology boom in Egypt, the DOT uses its website and Facebook page as communication and knowledge-sharing tools to connect its alumni network of 5000 youth.
A program graduate once told me: “I had lost hope in changing my life, being poor and living in an underprivileged community in Minia, but today, I feel that there is a chance for me not only to change my life, but to change my community as well.” This Fall, DOT is launching the first E-Entrepreneur program in Egypt to promote the concepts of social and business entrepreneurship.
Using Technology and Social Media tools to help youth development is the road ahead.
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Michael Munavu |
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Samuel Ochieng MIS Coordinator CT-OVC Program |
USING ICT FOR CASH TRANSFERS TO ORPHANS AND VULNERABLE CHILDREN
In 2009, there were some 2.4 million orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) living in Kenya (nearly 30 percent of the number of children living in poverty). Approximately 600,000 were living in extremely poor households.
The number of OVC has been continuously rising in Kenya, mainly because of the widespread problem of HIV/AIDS. The living conditions of these children have made it difficult to provide them with basic services. They tend to start school at a later age and they drop out earlier than other children.
A World Bank-supported program has increased access to social safety nets for extremely poor OVC households, raising the number of children served from some 140,000 to 250,000, including 40 percent of the total number of OVC living in extreme poverty. Evidence suggests that the program is having a significant impact on poverty reduction, school enrollment, and birth registration.
The program uses a comprehensive web-based Management Information System that generates and processes information for monitoring and reporting, and captures, stores, and updates information on program recipients and beneficiaries. The program will use a new payment delivery mechanism that offers a cost-effective, efficient, accessible, accountable, and secure system for delivering the cash payments. It captures biometric data (fingerprints and beneficiary photographs) as part of the enrolment process; and beneficiaries use a smart card to access their payments electronically from Point of Sale devices at local businesses, banks, or other agents. This will reduce the cost of making payments which were previously handled through the Treasury or postal service.
This has been a partnership with the Government of Kenya, the U.K. Department for International Development, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).
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Alberto Arredondo |
In Nicaragua, 72 percent of the population are younger than 27 years. These young people are very susceptible to the changes brought about by globalization and new technologies. An initiative of the Young Nicaraguan Parliament stresses the importance of making new technologies available to marginalized and underserved communities.
YOUNG-360 offers a web platform where youth organizations and other NGOs can network, coordinate their project work, and register their organizations, movements, and interest groups throughout the country and the region. This platform supports the work of civil society organizations (CSOs), government, the private sector and even international organizations, and allows them to be more effective. Some challenges remain: We need to promote access to information and communication technologies especially for young people. Access to technologies is still a big challenge for the country and especially in remote regions.
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Maria Staszkiewicz |
CREDIBLE MESSAGING DEPENDS ON CREDIBLE ACTIONS
Central Europe is a region where Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are used to invite people to parties and self-manage one’s image rather than to organize and conduct revolutions as in other less stable places. But the motivation for using social networks, and information technologies in general, is the same--to replace the traditional one-way and top-down mode of learning and informing.
A good example of this is a competition for high school students that we implemented recently. Students were asked to represent how the European Union functions, by creating short audiovisual presentations (songs, interviews, videos, or any other electronically transmittable format), which they then uploaded and evaluated on their project website. These materials can later be used in a classroom environment. Another reason for our using Information and Communication Technology is that in postmodern societies, where citizens can watch change happen in real time on their laptops and smartphones, and are overwhelmed by chaotic news flows, they may turn to civil society organizations(CSOs) and think tanks for balanced, unbiased information. So we need to use the newest outreach technologies to get our expert messages out.
However, messaging alone is not enough to bring about change or spread an idea. A CSO, NGO, or think tank has to possess social authority, which cannot be acquired by simply displaying an attractive Facebook image. Rather it is rooted in the value of one’s real-life activities. Without this authority, no one would download our policy papers or follow the lectures and discussions on foreign policy that we broadcast on our YouTube channel, because they would be seen as just more political marketing tools.
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