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

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

Right now, I’m just floating on a cloud of excitement, hope, and anticipation. I’ve been offered a summer internship in Geneva in one of my favorite organizations, a young and innovative non-profit working to combat torture and human rights violations in the developing world. What is so exciting about this organization is that they really combine human rights and law with innovation — my two favorite “fields” and topics in one!

I just read over my job description again, and it sounds incredibly enticing. This summer I’ll get to combine my interest in social media and social entrepreneurship with my interest in human rights. Two things I have always loved are: writing, and the Internet. And today’s amazing technology makes it possible to pursue these passions professionally. During my internship, I will build connections with various blogs and websites related to criminal justice and human rights, leverage social media for marketing and advertising purposes, tell the stories of those working to improve legal rights in developing world, and work on the branding of the organization’s website and newsletter.

I’ll get to learn from and meet people I really admire, and be surrounded by a diverse team of lawyers, students, business professionals and entrepreneurs. I’ll gain important insights into the worlds of innovation, social media, human rights, and criminal justice law — all things I am incredibly excited about. But most of all, this is my ideal job - it allows me to use my skills and pursue my various passions, all at once. I am shocked that my “ideal” position actually exists, floating out there somewhere in the internship-verse.

But this never would have happened had I not been willing to put myself out there and think outside the box. Before I even decided to apply for an internship at this organization, I had fallen in love with the amazing work they do and wanted to join in somehow. I decided to go ahead and attempt to start a student club advocating for them, so that I could somehow contribute to their great efforts. I wrote up a quick proposal of my idea of a “student arm” and sent it in.

A few days later, I was shocked (and delighted) to actually hear a response. They were actually keen on helping me start a student club for them, but they also encouraged me to apply for their internships. I applied, and got an interview. My interviewer definitely remembered my proposal, which showed my genuine interest - and I got the internship! The fact that I had shown initiative and true passion made a huge difference, especially to a nonprofit aiming to do something innovative.

So when you’re looking for a job or internship - take a risk. Don’t just be the typical candidate. Be different. Go for something you love, and the rest will really follow. It seems cliche, but it worked for me - and I think that’s what it boils down to: passion and creativity. So take that risk and go for it, and soon enough it will pay off.

Next up: tips for students on how to get an internship at a nonprofit!

Image credit: shesjack

Technology can do so much - it’s connected people everywhere in a common language, given people increasing amounts of knowledge and information, created an increasingly globalized world, and now — it’s revolutionizing even democratization.

Technology, itself, is democratic. It allows anyone to post content on the ever-growing web and gives people immediate access to huge amounts of information that previously would have been obscurely stored in books. You no longer have to pay $20 to read a book - you can often easily glean the same information from the web. This ‘democratization of information’ is like the 2nd printing press, and it’s changing the shape of political systems around the world. No longer do dictatorships and governments have a monopoly on information — ordinary citizens can find out if their leaders are corrupt, if their governments are living up to their promises, if they are being subjected to unfair policies. Technology also helps people organize, and empowers civil society. Knowledge is power, and technology is putting more power in the people - a countervailing force to the state.

But technology is doing more than just providing knowledge to people and breaking boundaries. It’s being concretely used to promote democratization and to improve elections around the world. The new ways technology is being leveraged are incredibly exciting and innovative - and provide hope for future democracies.

Ghana election campaigns; source, BBC

In Ghana, elections in December 2008 went off quite successfully, and were “praised as transparent and well-run.” One factor contributing to the success was that civil society groups had been using cell phones and texting to monitor and observe the ongoing elections. The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) in Ghana apparently used cell phones to report back on the conduct of voting at polling centers around the country. Volunteers with mobile phones monitored a representative sample of 1,000 out of some 21,000 polling stations. While voting went on, they sent text messages containing data on the conduct in their polling station to a toll-free number. They used special codes for various types of misconduct; for instance, a text containing “D1″ meant “ballot box missing”. Volunteers also texted the ballot count for a specific polling station in order to prevent any political party from falsely claiming victory before official results were announced. Similar systems had been used during elections in Indonesia, Montenegro, Egypt, and Sierra Leone - but not as effectively.

In Angola, the first elections in 16 years were held in September 2008 - and to prepare for the momentous occassion, the government spent a lot of time, a lot of money, and a lot of technology to lay the groundwork for a successful election. Since Angola hadn’t had elections in so long, the government identified participation and voter turnout as the main problem to target. More than 8 million people were registered using a technologically advanced anti-fraud system of cards with holograms, pictures and fingerprints. Government officials basically went to remote areas of Angola in order to register as many people to vote; they registered each person by snapping a photo and taking their fingerprint, and then gave each person a voting card. They didn’t even need to know how to sign their names. There was also a lot of publicity encouraging people to vote - some was even sent out through phone text messages. They set up polling stations on oil rigs, and officials used helicopters to go to remote villages and voting stations in order to personally collect ballot papers. Satellite and solar-powered fax machines sent lists from other polling centers. For those who lost their voting cards, more than 6,000 hand-held computers were used at polling stations to help people access their details and registration number. Of course there were logistical issues, and it took 3 years to plan and a whole lot of money.

But at the same time, this sort of intensive effort amazes me and I see such immense future potential to get people engaged in democracy - even in rural villages - through innovation and technology. The potential is literally endless.