ICT Lessons: The Power of Radio

Reflecting back on my ICT4D experience I initially did not know what to expect when I came into class. I never would have thought that ICT was such an integral part to our daily livelihoods. Although I knew that ICT could be integrated into development I never thought about its success when applied to the digital divide. Looking back at the class the one concept I will take with me is the power of radio.

In another class I took this semester I had to create a radio program. Before I learned about ICT and radio use I didn’t care for the radio much, however after producing the radio program and learning about the functions of radio abroad, I realized how important radio is. Although its such a simple device to work, its use and functions are endless and beyond innovative for mankind. As I learned in class, the radio is the most widely used form of technology worldwide. Although I hardly use the radio anymore, its use is essential for millions of other individuals. Not only is it cheap, but it has helped bridge the digital divide. It connects rural areas to urban, it’s a form of communication, it provides economic, educational, and women empowerment opportunities through its programs. These programs allow for marginalized as well as privileged populations to further build on a skill or gain knowledge in an area that will further help them maximize their potential to improve their livelihood. It is also beneficial for disaster relief and family reunification.

I am very passionate about education and next year I will be teaching elementary school. After my gained experience with radio, I really want to implement radio use into my class, and create a program that my students will benefit and take from. No matter what country you live in or your socioeconomic status, I think that its very imperative that everyone has a radio and understands its capabilities. It has the power to bridge divides, provide opportunities, and serve as a tool for disaster relief. With the world population growing everyday, radio is among the few technologies that can serve and help these individuals progress equally. For future ICT4D classes, I think it would be great if students had to create a radio program that caters to a specific ICT sector.

Reflection on ICT4D

Overall, prior to ICT4D I never really thought of technology as an integral aspect to development. In my mind I pictured the merging of the two concepts similar to One Laptop Per Child. I envisioned people giving technology to poverty stricken people who were uneducated about the devices and therefore never used them. In general, I assumed it would simply be a waste of development resources. Like we’ve learned in class this is often the case. However there is another side to the story, a side where technology (if appropriately used and implemented) can drastically help areas of development (i.e. radio in rural/agricultural areas).

Specifically, I enjoyed learning about different sectors. I found the participatory radio campaigns particularly interesting because I had never heard of the concept. Not only is it integrating technology into education but it also deals with capacity building. Both are extremely important in terms of development. When I think of technology I immediately think of the iPhone or other new devices. However using what we would consider “old” technology in a smarter way can be more innovative than the newest gadget. If a community does not have a need for a device, the device is useless no matter how high-tech it is.

ICT Failures in Tanzania

Why are ICT development projects failing in Africa
This week in class we questioned the success of ICT projects and their strengths and weaknesses and I immediately thought about projects that have been implemented in certain regions in Africa and the longevity of them. As I was browsing the internet I came across an article titled “Africa: Failed ICT Development Projects- Sweeting It Under the Carpet and Moving On?” The article starts off by stating the positive effects of ICT and how they have the potential to improve projects making them more sustainable. It also speaks on why governments and communities push to have projects that are geared toward health, education, agriculture, employment, female empowerment etc. However Inka Barnett, author of the article outlined specific failures of of an ICT project conducted in Tanznia by Daraja (NGO).  The failures were presented by Ben Taylor  who was the leader of the  project, which was called the Maji Matone program.  The aim of the project  was to

Encourage citizens to put pressure on their local authorities to maintain and repair broken-down water pumps by using mobile phones. Using a simple SMS-message local communities were asked to report on the state of their water supply to the authorities. Local radio stations were simultaneously informed and followed-up the action the local water authorities would take in response to the text message (Barnett, allafrica.com).

Before the implementation  of the project the community was thrilled about the potential of the program. Maji Matone  received positive feedback both internationally and nationally. Unfortunately the project failed because the NGO projected to receive 3,000 texts but only received 53 (Barnett, allafrica.com).    The project failed due gender discrimination, political issues and trust, digital divide. The project goal was too ambitious especially due to the lack of resources many Tanzania have.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201212101705.html

 

Michael Riggs

Michael Riggs is a prevalent member in the e-agriculture community and one of their lead facilitators. Riggs is also very active in rural and agricultural development looking into the content and proceses sectors. He is a big pusher for innovative technology and is seen as a mentor for many in the ICT4D field.He currently works at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and is a member of the ICTD Collective and of Orbicom and runs a website called e-agriculture. 

The website’s mission is “to serve as a catalyst for institutions and individuals in agriculture and rural development to share knowledge, learn from others, and improve decision making about the vital role of ICTs to empower rural communities, improve rural livelihoods, and build sustainable agriculture and food security.”

Riggs also has a very active twitter account (@mongkolroek) which he utilizes to tweet about ICT and other innovations. 

Many of his tweets revolve around agriculture and innovations that could help farmers such as a weather application. Though his tweets  are not limited to agriculture and Riggs delves into the general realm of ICT’s like how cell phones fail in emergencies which is a conversation that we have had in class multiple times. Riggs has shown himself to be very influential in the ICT4D and e-agricultural world and will likely continue to do so!

Social Media and Violence

It is almost universally agreed upon that individuals and groups have a right to their freedom of expression and freedom of the press. These freedoms are essential to a strong civil society and are critical in any democracy. Social media is very obviously intertwined with these freedoms, as it provides an outlet for individuals to connect, communicate, and express their voices and opinions.

There are many positive benefits to social media. Here at Tulane, we get emails of every crime reported in the nearby area. In the greater New Orleans area, we have gotten text messages with “water boil advisories” when the water is unsafe to drink. These benefits have been seen on a global scale as well. The Zapatista group in Mexico was able to spread their message through the use of the Internet, and gained a lot of international attention, thereby holding the Mexican government accountable to their demands. Social media was critical in the organization and mobilization of individuals in the Arab Spring, and helped shape democratic ideas globally.

However, social media is not always used for the greater good, as exemplified recently in Myanmar. Until recently, Myanmar was under military rule, where there was tight censorship and limited access to telecommunication technologies. This ensured that the vast majority of citizens in Myanmar remained “in the dark” about what was truly happening in their country. The International cites a publication of the UN Human Development Index with figures regarding ICTs in Myanmar: in 2010, one of every 100 citizens owned a computer, less than 300 owned mobile phones, and only 13% had electricity. It currently ranks as the second to last country in the world for Internet connectivity.

However, with the new leadership of President Thein Sein, this is all beginning to change. The President hopes to implement reforms to allow for more freedom of expression. The government plans to provide mobile access to the majority of the population by 2015. Moreover, last month, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt visited Myanmar to launch the new page www.google.com.mm. However, since that original visit, Schmidt has had pessimistic predictions for the future of the Internet in Myanmar.

He recently posted on his Google+ page the following quote.

As the police state has withdrawn, always present religious tensions have erupted with burning of homes and some murders. With popular support, the government then responded with the Army to restore order. In the same way, we are entering a dangerous period for the Internet in Myanmar. What happens when a religious group falsely claims damages from others.. will the Army be sent in too? The country cannot even agree on a press freedoms law for the newspapers, and freedom of political speech is a one year old concept.

The group that has largely been oppressed and had severe violence inflicted on them recently are the Rohingya people, an Indo-Aryan ethnic group. Many in the country have used social media to organize against this group. The International, writes that “the newfound access to social media has been blamed for the swift increase in violence”. The Myanmar case demonstrates an example of where social media has caused extraordinary violence and oppression.

Of course, there is a flip side to this — the group Anonymous has used Twitter to expose what they call a genocide of the Rohingya people. The hashtag #RohingyaNOW was hit a peak of 24,000 tweets per hour. The Daily Beast posted an article on this, for further reading.

Using radio to promote safe motherhood: the Taru initiative

In our readings for this week, we learned about the power of a seemingly simple device: the radio. The Mary Myers article; “Why Radio Matters” made a case for the potential that the radio has to save lives and improve health outcomes by broadcasting health messages in form of radio soap operas. This may seem like a weird concept to us, but it has been proven successful in many developing countries around the world. I will share a case study from Bihar, India where a radio soap opera show was used to lower fertility rates, therefore decreasing maternal mortality.

Bihar is the poorest state in India and has the highest fertility rates. The average fertility rate in India is 2.6, yet the rate in Bihar remains above four. Only 34% of single females in Bihar reported using contraception of any kind, according to the 2001 Census in India. High fertility rates contribute greatly to maternal. A local NGO, Janani (which provides reproductive health care), a non-profit “Population Communication International,” and researchers from Ohio University paired up to address the dismal maternal health situation in Bihar. They produced and entertainment-education campaign targeting about 190 million men and women living in rural Bihar and three neighboring states. They reached their target audience through a radio program soap opera that aired once a week for a year. This 52- episode series was about the life of a fictional woman named Taru. As Vijaykumar (2008) states, the campaign sought to, “motivate listeners to take charge of their own health, seek health services, and better their living” (p. 182).

The campaign was a great success. Baseline vs. follow-up surveys of 1,500 households in Bihar showed that there was an increase in awareness family planning and an overall greater approval from people’s social networks about the use of family planning after the radio series. Utilization of family planning services also increased which portrays a great success; not only was this campaign able to educate and inform its audience, it actually caused behavior change which is not always an immediate outcome of mass media campaigns. In addition, condoms and other forms of contraception and pregnancy test sales increased “exponentially,” in several villages according to Vijaykumar (2008, p. 184). The study even found that there was an overall increase in gender equality beliefs among the respondents, which is a huge step in the right direction for maternal health because maternal mortality stems from the general lack of value placed on women’s lives in many developing countries. The fact that there were changes not only at the individual level, but also at the community and service-demand level highlights the extent of the success of this campaign. It was also able to influence social norms and behaviors, which is a huge barrier to public health movements and is especially important in a destitute area like Bihar where traditional cultural beliefs often persist and present themselves as barriers to modern public health campaigns. The only obvious downfall of this campaign in my opinion is that it only used one channel to attempt to reach a population of 190 million, but clearly, it still worked.

Radios can do more than you thought, huh?

Reference: Vijaykumar, S. (2008). Communicating safe motherhood: Strategic messaging in a globalized world. Marriage & Family Review, 44(2-3), 173-199. doi:10.1080/01494920802177378

Low-Cost and Practical Solutions for Enhancing Rural Community Radio in Kenya

With over 80% of Africans having access to  radio and a little over 50% having access to television, these technologies have been in the spotlight for use in the developing world. Although these may be considered “old” technologies, using radio and television as a means for ICT4D does not mean not to bring “newer” technologies into developing countries like Africa, but more stresses that ICT initiatives should not overlook radio and television.  I read an interesting initiative taking place in Kenya called KenTel that offers a low-cost solution to enhance community radios and/or community telecentres that lack broadband internet connectivity. These programs utilizes a service offered by Twitter for those in rural areas with limited  connectivity and/or runs on simple feature phones that allows them to receive tweets as short text messages (SMS). “Each country has a special short code which they can use to configure any phone to receive tweet on feature phones.” The program involves compiling a list of listeners from the community, who then are instructed over radio how to subscribe to this Twitter feature. Using this Twitter channel, the community radio can remind listeners of upcoming broadcasts/programs, provide a feedback mechanism, and conduct surveys among other small services. This channel mobilizes the listeners ultimately enhancing the capabilities of the local radio to reach its listeners and achieve greater and more efficient means of communication and media.  I thought this was an especially neat program in the large difference it makes utilizing ICTs at an extremely low cost with only each tweet costing $o.o125 USD.

http://zunia.org/post/world-radio-day-reflections-affordable-icts-solutions-make-radio-more-relevant

IICD: Radio and the Empowerment of Women

IICD or the International Institute for Communication and Development is a nonprofit that uses technology as a development tool and a one of their recent videos shed light on a new way of using radio. This video from their YouTube page, showed the implementation of a very interesting and innovative project. It is still surprising to think that women are denied a role or voice in politics and this video was an eye opening watch as is utilized the medium or radio to help inform women and get their opinions on local political issues.  It is very innovative to think that the people would rebroadcast previous stories in order to reach more individuals and increase awareness of issues that effect them.The use of radio, or traditional media as IICD refers to it, in development it closely related to the topics we discusses in class. This project in particular adds to Mary Myers article, “Why Radio Matters: making the case for radio as a medium for development.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bamyan Media: Reality TV for Social Change

In light of the readings about how simple technologies can go a long way in development, I found this project I stumbled across very interesting. Since radio was pointed out as being able to access the most rural/illiterate segments of a country’s population, I was curious as to what TV could do. This organization, Bamyan Media, has as their mission: Through producing locally relevant popular television programs, Bamyan Media inspires marginalized people in the developing world to lead change and create prosperity in their communities by building social enterprises.

Founded by Anna Elliot in 2009, the project’s pilot series in Afghanistan proved a success. The program has been working in Egypt since 2011 when it was awarded a contract with USAID and is also working to support the development of productions in the Middle East, South America, East and South Africa.

The project focuses on two formats: one focuses on celebrating social entrepreneurship and promoting green, socially-impactful organizations, environmental responsibility and leadership; the other targets youth unemployment by showcasing entrepreneurs and their business models to drive mass small and medium enterprise creation at the base of the economic pyramid. They work with local broadcasters and businesses to develop each series.

 

For more info, visit their website.

An Overview of why Radio is so Important in the Developing World

In this week’s assigned readings we focused on why Radio is such a crucial ICT to the field of development. One of this week’s reading “Why Radio Matters Making: the case for radio as a medium for development” written by Dr. Mary Myers and commissioned by Developing Radio Partners, emphasize the importance of radio for many different aspects of life and development. According to Myers, Radio is by far the most prevalent mass- medium throughout the developing world. Myers discusses the impact of radio in times of emergencies, education, and empowerment. According to her in emergency and disaster situations “radio is an invaluable tool” (Myers   2).  With the help of the radio survivors can sometimes be informed of their loved ones whereabouts as well as different locations to access food, shelter and medical aid. Radio’s can also help evacuate certain areas that may be affected by a natural disaster. Certain radio shows, even one’s that are fiction based, can have a strong impact on helping reduce trauma caused by disasters. According to the author UNDP supported a radio program after the tsunami in Indonesia. “The trauma radio show had 30 counselors who worked closely with the community and had one of the highest audience ratings in the region” (Myers   3).  Topics would vary but would mainly direct mental trauma such as how to control your emotions.

Although in the developing world radio is considered a device for entertainment it can also very easily educate. In this paper, Mary Myers describes various ways radio is used to educate throughout the world. One example she uses to support her claim is an example of a radio program used as a strategy to teach farmers in rural areas new farming methods. Certain studies showed that there a lot of farmers listening to the broadcast listened to the advice that was given on the show and indeed did improve the agricultural fields in the country discussed.  Radio shows can also educate individuals especially women about certain health risks and factors.  A fiction radio soap opera has the power to educate women listening to their show about several issues regarding sexual and reproductive health as well as child and parent relationships. According to a study 85% of respondents who listened to such a program have implemented changes in their lives as a result of the knowledge they learned by the radio show (Myers   7).  Myers does indeed justify her statement that radio really does matter.

In response to Dr. Mary Myers paper I further researched radios and development. I found an organization that focuses on using radio technologies as a mode to help improve education in the developing world. This grass- root humanitarian organization Ears To Our World (ETOW) specializes in the distribution of radios primarily to children and teachers. In their mission statement ETOW claims that their mission is “ to enable children and their support networks in the most remote, impoverished parts of the world to receive educational programming, local and international news, emergency and health information as well as music and arts programming through the use of shortwave radio receivers. While our primary focus is on schools, our reach now encompasses other community facilities, the visually impaired, and, when required, disaster relief ” (ETOW). Ears To Our World is just a few of several non- profit organizations that focus on using radio and other ICTs as a tool to further development.