Texting for development
Mobile telecommunication is deeply rooted in developing countries. Hivos and its new partners Ushahidi and FrontlineSMS have thought of a clever new way to benefit from this. Thanks to them, citizens can now contribute to their society using mobile phones.
Riots broke out soon after the elections in Kenya in 2008. A group of Kenyans started to document these riots on the website www.ushahidi.com. Citizens could report to Ushahidi (‘witness statement’ in Swahili) what they saw, using text or e-mail messages. A total number of 45,000 Kenyans visited the platform and 300 incidents were reported. The organisation showed which crime took place where on an online map of the country. Via the internet, the information soon reached the relevant national and international organisations. The Ushahidi website is now also used outside Kenya in other areas where conflicts and disasters occur, such as in Haiti after the recent earthquake.
A wide reach
‘Hivos supports Ushahidi because it encourages people to act. It gives them the chance to give their side of the story. Thanks to mobile telecommunication, information becomes available that would otherwise remain hidden,’ explains Ben White of the Hivos ICT & Media programme. ‘Ushahidi is a relatively young organisation but it has already proven itself. The same goes for FrontlineSMS, who developed a method for reaching a large group of people. Without making use of the internet.’ With the FrontlineSMS method a text message can be forwarded to numerous mobile phones via one mobile number. ‘Hundreds of NGOs are already using this service. For example to give advice at times of disasters. But also to inform citizens about matters that the official state media do not broadcast. For example, the human rights organisation Kubatana used it during the most recent elections in Zimbabwe.’
Better observations
Hivos is aware of the fact that ICT is useful during elections. Together with the Dutch knowledge organisation TNO, Hivos developed the Election Monitoring Tool: a series of methods and advice to help election observers to do their work even better. This ICT toolbox was tested during the elections in Namibia last year. White: ‘Observations of fraud or violence, for example, were reported to our partner HSHR’s head office using text messages, e-mails and MMS. They were then passed on to the media or distributed via the internet. Observers were happy with this easy, fast and cheap way of giving an overview of the situation at poll stations.’ That is why Hivos aims to use the Election Monitoring Tool again at the elections in Tanzania (October 2010), Uganda (March 2011) and Kenya (December 2012).
For more information about these partner organisations, visit www.ushahidi.com, www.frontlinesms.com and www.nshr.org.na.
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