Justice for all

For my first “Feature Friday,” I’ve decided to highlight kiwanja.net for the truly innovative and exciting work they are doing. kiwanja.net helps pioneer new applications of mobile technology to push forward positive social and environmental change in the developing world. kiwanja.net helps “empower local, national, and international non-profit organisations to make better use of information and communications technology in their work.”

kiwanja.net specializes in the application of mobile technology, and provides non-profits with a wide range of ICT-related services. kiwanja.net focuses on non-profits in developing countries, emphasizing “low-cost, grassroots, sustainable solutions.” They provide “free consultancy, workshops and advice - and access to technology through its own initiatives - to all grassroots non-profits interested in exploring the social and environmental potential of mobile in their work.” So far, non-profits in over forty countries have already benefited from the help of kiwanja.

A few of Kiwanja’s Current Projects

FrontlineSMS: kiwanja.net is currently working with FrontlineSMS in research and developing, helping them set up a field communication/SMS system for NGOs. FrontlineSMS itself is a highly innovative initiative, providing an SMS-based communications system for grassroots NGOs. It’s a program that allows people to text message large groups anywhere there is a mobile signal.

Grameen Technology Centre: kiwanja.net is currently working with the Grameen Technology Centre, providing advice and assistance to its “AppLab” initiative in Uganda. AppLab focuses on “developing, testing, strengthening, and scaling mobile applications” that benefit poor people around the world.

nGOmobile Competition: Kiwanja.net is holding a competition designed to encourage grassroots NGOs in developing countries to describe how they can improve their work using mobile technology. NGOs can win prizes like laptop computers, mobile phones, and cash.

The Founder

Ken Banks is the founder of kiwanja.net, and he has a strong background in business, technology, and anthropology. He was a Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellow, obtained funding for his projects by the MacArthur Foundation, and was awarded a Fellowship at the Reuters Digital Vision Program at Stanford. He has speaken at workshops and conferences like IDEO, Amnesty International, Mobile World Conference, and more. Check out his bio here!

Why you should check out kiwanja.net

I am a strong believer that innovation and technology can really drive things forward. Mobile technology is making great leaps right now, especially in various parts of Africa and India. Although many remote areas might lack internet access, mobile phones are quite widespread and the use of SMS/texting is common. Innovations like FrontlineSMS are helping to connect people to vital information: farmers to market prices, doctors and health professionals to medical information and advice, etc. I urge you to check out the great work that kiwanja.net and its partner organizations are doing, because there are a lot of exciting developments in this field!

Picture credit: kiwanja.net

Social entrepreneurship is a truly powerful, revolutionary idea. It’s quite literally changing the way the world works. Social entrepreneurship (aka social enterprise or social business) is essentially business with social objectives in mind. A social business doesn’t focus on profit, while a regular for-profit business wants to maximize profits in order to benefit its shareholders. Instead, a social business has certain clearly defined social objectives which it pursues regardless of profit. A social business will reinvest any profit back into the business after the initial investors have been paid back. The concept of social business is revolutionary because it brings the competitive edge of business to work traditionally confined to charities and NGOs. Social business can be the next step up from charity and become truly sustainable with incredible, quick growth because of its business acumen.

In his book “Creating a world without poverty,” Muhammad Yunus argues that social business eventually needs to become as common and pervasive as regular for-profit business if the world is to significantly change for the better. Yunus, the visionary champion of microfinance and Nobel Prize Laureate, has gained worldwide acclaim for his own social business ventures - ranging from the innovative microfinance services provided by Grameen Bank to a social business initiative with Dannone yogurt aiming to provide nutritious yogurt for poor schoolchildren in Bangladesh for a very low cost. Yunus envisions a world where eventually, there will be a social business stock market and the general public considers social business as worthy of investment as for-profit businesses.

Prof. Yunus must certainly feel gratified, for today microfinance - as well as the broader movement for social business - is becoming incredibly popular and has gained so much public attention. Charity has always been considered a “dirty word” of sorts - because people envision charities as always asking for money. But social business is exciting and novel and more than that — it’s considered cool. As a result, there is currently a social entrepreneurship craze. Starting with Ashoka and the Skoll Foundation, there are now tons of social entrepreneurship competitions and contests. I can name a dozen off the bat. It’s because innovation is inherently exciting.

But is social entrepreneurship then becoming just a buzzword? The problem is the obsession with innovation. Innovation is important, but is it really necessary to constantly innovate? I believe it’s more important to work towards scaling up innovations and programs that are already known to be effective. By effective, I mean: programs and organizations that are really creating social change, helping the most number of people, and truly improving lives in a sustainable manner. There are so many great programs out there that employ innovative - but more importantly, effective, models and technologies. These programs deserve more support and funding, and need to be recognized for the incredible impact they make. Innovation simply for the sake of innovation is unnecessary. And innovating just because it sounds cool and exciting is definitely not necessary.

Why can’t some of these budding entrepreneurs shift their focus to working on some of the pre-existing successful programs? It takes so much time and energy to create your own social business. Starting from scratch is a painful and slow process. Getting funding itself a huge challenge. I’d argue that there are many ways you can contribute more by joining or working for nonprofits that have effective models and need your help to grow and reach more people. Why isn’t the spotlight on these programs and models? We really need to get back on track and focus on proven solutions that work.

I recently ran across the University of California Berkeley Human Rights Center, which held a Mobile Challenge to invite projects and innovations utilizing cutting-edge mobile technology to aid human rights work. I immediately fell in love with this project because it’s something I strongly believe in: law and human rights working together can benefit so much from technology and innovation. Mobile technology has thus far been leveraged so successfully in the fields of banking (mobile banking), entrepreneurship (Grameen’s village phone ladies), global health, and agriculture (to help small-scale farmers gain market information) to name a few. Since people in the developing world have much easier access to cell phones than to computers, mobile technology has become a focal point for further development and innovation, and is playing a key role in bridging the international digital divide.

But I hadn’t heard much about how mobile technology is being implemented to monitor and end human rights abuses until I saw UCB Human Rights Center’s Mobile Challenge, which recognized the top 10 project ideas for doing just that. So naturally, I was excited. Let me highlight a few of the projects which I found exciting and potentially powerful (although all of them were):

IJCentral: A movement to support global rule of law - The ICC desperately needs the cooperation and support of the international community in order to succeed in its mission to end impunity. Many major countries like China, Russia, and the U.S. have not ratified the Rome Statute and thus do not support the ICC. Studies have shown that when people know more about the ICC, support for the Court increases. IJCentral thus aims to inform more people about the ICC by using geolocated mobile phone SMS text messages, Twitter, an IJCMap, and a website with a blog, IJC News, and an IJC Video gallery with ICC footage updated weekly and links to relevant information and NGOs. This is a unique project, and though I am not sure how much impact it can have on changing the policies of major countries, I would be interested in seeing how it could shape popular sentiment towards the ICC.

Face the change: This project aims to put a human face on global warming and include in the debate human rights problems resulting from natural disasters and forced migration. Face the Change will highlight the social - not just environmental - impact of climate change, and will empower poor and vulnerable communities to participate in national policy debates. The web-based platform will use mainly video and other multimedia to document this impact; those without Internet access can use SMS and multimedia messaging to report about impoverished communities who are threatened by the effects of climate change (e.g. rising seas, drought). I like this idea because climate change really does lack a human face; people feel like helping the environment isn’t necessary because the negative effects seem so far away. This project will show that the negative impact has already begun.

Freedom Fone: This project helps communities and individuals communicate with one another without the need for internet access. It provides personal information 24/7 by storing audio files in the Freedom Fone’s Content Management System, which is updated through a simple to use browser interface. Callers can navigate the audio clips for the information they want, and can access the information in their preferred language. Each person can contribute questions, content, and feedback by leaving voice messages through the interface; people can call in for free using toll free numbers, for instance. It seems almost like a wikipedia - on a phone! It seems like a simple idea that can prove to become highly popular and helpful.

Handheld Human Rights: This project provides a hub for groups documenting human rights abuses. It allows people - especially those who are experiencing or witnessing human rights violations - to submit data and information about these abuses from their mobiles. Abuses and alerts will be channeled through the hub and mapped, and this information will be raised to raise international awareness and support advocacy campaigns. Handheld Human Rights wants to make human rights data more accessible and more actionable. It is currently focused on the human rights abuses occurring in Burma, but I see potential to scale it up for situations around the world. This project is simple, yet has the potential to be effective.

But this begs the question: how much innovation is needed? The problems I saw with many of the other entries for this contest is that much of this has already been done, and some of the innovations didn’t seem to contribute anything significantly groundbreaking. Most of the ideas were focused on reporting human rights abuses/violations/problems as soon as possible using mobile technology so that reporters and the international community could view the information. But is this much constant innovation necessary, or do we already have ample technology and innovations that simply need to be properly implemented?  I asked my twitter buddies about this, and here are some of the responses I got:

@CarlosMic: We shouldn’t stop innovating, but we shouldn’t try to implement properly EVERY innov. Ppl should split the work
@ExpressPros: Innovation and action need to be better friends. Otherwise, great ideas don’t mean better work. They should.
@leslieforman yes, i think innovation=necessary, implementation=even harder!
@jamestodhunter It’s the implementation & achievement of adoption of an inventive idea that transforms it into a useful innovation.

My conclusion is that innovation for the sake of innovation is useless. Innovation is only necessary, and useful, if it is actually implemented. Technology is great, but new ideas go waste - even if they are amazing - if they aren’t marketed well, put into place, and really utilized to make a difference. So although I see constant social entrepreneurship and innovation contests everywhere these days, I think people need to keep this in mind: before you innovate, ask yourself whether this is really needed. Or if you can have the same impact by working to put in place or improve some pre-existing systems, technologies, products or ideas. Really dig deep. Because innovation for the sake of innovation - is worthless.

Photo credit: here and here