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Africa: Doing Her Bit for Haiti

January 17, 2010 By 2 Comments

It is fun going to conferences and events that focus on subjects that are important to you. Once such event for me has been Africa Gathering. It not only focuses on the continent of my birth, but also how technology and social media can help with creating sustainable development. Two of my favourite subjects.

People most often view Africa as the recipient of aid, the poor cousin who needs technical assistance. Events like Africa Gathering are important as they show the world Africa is full of capable people who can, and do create systems, technology and processes that not only work for Africa, but have global significance and application.

The most visible of these projects right now is Ushahidi and their vital efforts in crowdsourcing data coming out of the Haiti earthquake and translating it into useful, available and actionable information.

Ushahidi was initially developed by Kenyans to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post election disturbances in 2008.  Since then the platform has been rebuilt primarily by people within Africa, but in true open source philosophy with contributions from people in Europe and the US.

Take a look at their website and read further, it makes interesting reading.

Here is the link to their Haiti specific site.

As a Zimbabwean, it delights me to be able to point to the hard work, dedication, and resourcefulness of some very smart African people, who have developed a platform that has global application and the ability to ultimately save lives.

From an organizational perspective, this raises a few important questions and points

  • Who said social media tools do not have real purpose and application?
  • How can organizations learn from this?
  • Why aren’t more people thinking about how they can organize information from the collective and turn it into useable and valuable data?
  • Why must the revenue model of social media concentrate on making money directly from the tools verse figuring out how the tools and their application can empower your organization to reach objectives or gain revenue?

Let’s all learn a little from the people of Africa

Filed Under: Africa, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Brand Africa, Twitter and World AIDS Day

December 1, 2009 By 2 Comments

321px-terrestrial_globesvgTwitter is doing a fantastic job supporting the World AIDS Day. Changing their whole theme and incorporating the colour #RED has done much to spread the message and allow people to connect and spread their message.

Having said that I have a problem with one aspect of the execution. It was brought to my attention by @meotree who retweeted this post from @ithorpe:
ithorpe+twitter_120109

It is fair to say that Twitter has not created this, merely fallen prey to the prevailing Western attitude towards Africa. Africa as a Brand stands for poverty, disease, pestilence, corruption, drought, and recipient of aid.

How can Africa develop under these stereotypes? Can you blame outspoken African leaders who talk about the arrogance of the West? When are people going to recognize that the aid model has not worked?

If you have been following the investment trends for Africa over the last 24 months you will see an increased investment from and courtship of Eastern and Asian countries. You see African leaders seeking partnerships with South American countries and organizations.

Of course Africa has its fair share of problems. Yes AIDS is a huge concern, as is Malaria and TB. Of course there is need for development and assistance. But let us not define a continent by these things. Solutions to Africa’s problems will come from within Africa, with the assistance, partnership and goodwill of the West, the East, the North, the South. Let us concentrate on what is good about Africa and grow that. Surely nobody can argue that this is not the best way for Africa to develop?

Thank you Twitter for all you have done on World AIDS Day. Consider, however, the impact on people of reading an investment-focused tweet on Africa when it is turned red, reminding them of Africa’s stereotypes, instead of allowing people to see its potential.

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Development Aid’s Bitter Little Pill

May 23, 2009 By 7 Comments

Net Efekt bitter pillAuthor: Alasdair Munn

The West currently lives within a prescriptive mentality. The road to efficiency is paved with check boxes and packaged solutions. Robust and complicated infrastructure props up bad decisions and resources are used like wallpaper to paper over the cracks. Relative excess generally allows people to live well within this framework.

I was struck by two pieces of writing recently. The first was from Dr. Geoffrey Douglas the CEO of the charity HETN (Health Empowerment Through Nutrition). Dr. Douglas in his blog “An Epidemic of Rickets” was commenting on a recent Channel 4 News report on the alarming increase in the prevalence of Rickets in the UK. The news report thought it was shocking that Calciferol; the pharmaceutical treatment for Rickets was in short supply. At no time did the news report mention nutrition and lifestyle. Rickets is increasing in the UK because of a change in diet and attitudes towards exposure to the sun, not because of a shortage of pharmaceutical Calciferol.

The second piece of writing was by TMS Ruge on the website Project Diaspora. In “Celebrity Stunts of Altruism are Killing Livelihoods In Africa”  Teddy argues that the current trend of sending mosquito nets to Africa, while neat and tangible for the giver, is actually doing little to tackle the underlying malaria eco-system.

Neither is saying that pharmaceutical Calciferol or malaria nets do not have a role to play within their relative eco-systems. What they are saying is that effective solutions and understanding come from looking at the entire eco-system, not through a single magic bullet.

When development projects fail in Africa, Africa is blamed for its lack of infrastructure, for its lack of understanding and for not having the right systems in place. By their very definition, developing countries do not have robust infrastructures as defined by the West. They do not have an excess of resources to paper over the cracks. Bad decisions cannot be propped up. A prescriptive mentality cannot work within development projects. Checkboxes, packaged solutions and predetermined paths lack efficiency and relevance in these conditions.

Perhaps the West needs to change its approach? Prescribing solutions based upon their ideals, norms and values has not worked in Africa. Belligerently trying to change the way Africa deals with these prescribed solutions so that she can then develop in a way that is pleasing to the West seems a little crazy to me. Would it not be easier to change the way the West approaches development in Africa? And perhaps a little more effective?

Photo by Net_Efekt

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Where is the beginning?

May 14, 2009 By 2 Comments

feather pen in the sandI love being exposed to new ideas, new approaches and new ways of looking at things. It was brought to my attention this week that what I regarded as the beginning is not necessarily a universal construct.

Although I come across as being driven by process and form, my natural instincts are towards the beautiful and at times chaotic creative. I love brainstorming and free form thinking. I get pleasure from trusting my instincts, especially in situations where I have the experience and confidence that flows from that.

Seeking out creative solutions and thinking on my feet are my natural states.

I have had to discipline myself through applying process and form. I have had to develop processes and methodologies in order to provide a framework for the creative. This is especially true in situations where I am not a subject expert or I do not have first hand experience.

In order to allow the creative to flow I need to feel confident, informed and have the self belief that I will find the right answer. In order to do that I need context.

For me the beginning is gaining an understanding of the audiences. I mean really understanding them, not from a quantitative survey, or closed product focus group, but in terms of who they are, what their learning styles are, their aspirations, influencers, values and desires. I need to talk to them, to explore and seek clarity. I need to understand the industry. Not only from the perspective of the organisation I am working with, but in relation to their competitors, industry experts and real time conversations. I also need to learn about the organisation. Just as the customer knows best what the customer wants, so too the people of an organisation are best placed to pass on its personality, culture, objectives and unique business rules.

Armed with the right information from the best sources, the creativity can begin and the often surprising findings lead the strategic direction for the rest of the project.

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

What can Africa teach the World about Technology?

April 26, 2009 By 8 Comments

321px-terrestrial_globesvgAuthor: Alasdair Munn

tcg: The Communication Group

After attending Africa Gathering this weekend, the central key words and phrases I gained were:

  • Relevance
  • Solution based approach
  • Context
  • Understanding your stakeholders.
  • Sustainable (All four cornerstones)

In the West, particularly the US, the most publicised and most visible business model for the development of collaborative and people-connecting technologies have been the social network models.

There is a perception (right or wrong) that the model to replicate is the one that is built on ‘the great idea that takes off’.

  • Have a great idea
  • Obtain funding
  • Build it using smart technology
  • Gain user buy in and critical mass
  • Figure out the business models later
  • New, unexpected business models will appear as you go along.

What these models have proved to us is that there is power in connecting people, in collaboration and allowing people to add value and perspectives. Some amazing technologies have resulted from this and new ways of looking at how we can use these tools have been unexpected by products. There is no denying that these have changed the way we do things, and have a huge capacity to ensure the way we do business changes for the better.

These models came about in a time of comparative wealth and excess. As resources become increasingly scarce, people are looking towards business models based upon relevance and context.

It has always been the case within Africa that development resources have been scarce. One thing the people of Africa understand is how to make the most of their limited resources. AfriGadget, a blog that explores the way in which the people of Africa solve everyday problems with ingenuity illustrates this very well.

In the West there is a tendency to try and replicated what is out there. There is a preoccupation on talking about the various ways in which existing platforms or networks can be best “leveraged”. Hands up those who have not written or read numerous blogs on how to get the most out of twitter?

Technology solutions coming out of Africa are built with purpose, against objectives and within the boundaries of their resources. It is a solutions based approach. It is also a stripped down approach where only the relevant resources and tools are used. Simple works because less can go wrong and if it does go wrong, simple is easier to fix. There is a shift in the way tools and technologies are looked at.

A good example of this is what Ushahidi did in Kenya. Ushahidi is an opensource platform that crowdsources crisis information. They took a widely used and available piece of technology, texting on mobile phones and applied it to a Google Maps mashup. This was built in Kenya using local knowledge and technologists in response to post election violence. This provided a real time map of violence hotspots with an understanding of the types of violence in those areas. The interesting part is they quickly recognised that citizen reporting leads to an overload of incoming information. Using social media tools most people take for granted, or seldom consider outside the context of specific social networks, they are creating a crowdsource filter. Using tools such as rating, both content and people and word, language and phrase filters, for example, sense can be made out of this overload. Considering profiles to have a deeper significance than a means to tell people who you are, real value can be added to content. Check out Erik Hersman’s TED talk here. 

As the West, and the developed world continue to struggle against scarcity of resources, they can learn from Africa’s approach. Shifting the way resources are looked at and challenging old business models are essential. Context and relevance are no longer just buzz words.

I have just found these links to blogs on Africa Gathering thanks to Juergen Eichholz

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Open Letter to Bill Gates

April 18, 2009 By 75 Comments

zimflag1Today Bill Gates told the people attending the ICTD 2009 Conference in Qatar that Zimbabwe was not worth spending resources on as it is too far gone.

I disagree with his remarks and find them unfortunate. They have far reaching consequences for the people of Zimbabwe.

Below is an open letter to Mr. Gates explaining my thoughts. This letter just scratches the surface. I ask all Zimbabweans to contribute to this letter below by leaving constructive comments as to why he should change his mind.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation does some amazing work around the world. This is not an attack on them, rather an effort to engage positively.

18 April 2009
Dear Mr. Gates

I have been following updates of your keynote speech at the ICTD 2009 in Qatar.

I would like, with respect, to disagree with your assertion that “Zimbabwe is not worth spending resources on as it is too far gone”.

If ever there was a chance to rebuild an African country so that it can become sustainable and a model for other countries to follow, this is it. Here is an opportunity to engage with the people of Zimbabwe to ensure the restructuring of the country is relevant, sustainable and meets the needs of the people.

I agree that there are still challenges Zimbabwe has to face with regard to the political climate, but real progress is being made in the country. The majority of people in the new government have a positive and enlightened attitude towards reconstruction and recovery. The government contains capable, intelligent and dedicated people. The main challenges are the negative perceptions of the West and the unwillingness of some people/institutions, internally and externally who can effect real change in the country to commit to this task.

Here are a few reasons why Zimbabwe cannot be discounted:

  • Zimbabwe still has an infrastructure that can be quickly turned around using relevant technologies, processes and new thinking.
  • Zimbabwe has many capable, educated people with the skills and the dedication needed to rebuild the country. Zimbabwe’s productive years were not so long ago that we have forgotten how to produce.
  • There is willingness and an understanding from the top that Zimbabwe needs to allow conditions for private enterprise to grow on a micro and macro level.
  • Zimbabwe has the natural resources and capacity to ensure continual growth and solvency with the right investment.
  • Change in Zimbabwe has come about through an opposition’s commitment to democracy. Sacrifices have been made and are still being made for these ideals. However, the commitment to these principles stands the country in good stead.

You talk about the need for strategies, the need for process and the adoption of best practices. You understand that profitability is one on the most fundamental cornerstones of building sustainable communities. You ask: “If someone knows how to take philanthropic money and create good governance in Zimbabwe I’d love to hear it”. You have already provided the answers.

Zimbabwe needs a robust recovery plan. It needs to integrate and align all internal and external efforts and direct them towards a Zimbabwean solution. Most of all, it needs genuine assistance from foundations, institutions and governments with no hidden agendas and no “prefabricated” solutions. Zimbabwe does not need disparate efforts and good intentions; it needs a collective, collaborative and communicated strategy. It needs the leadership and skills that a foundation like yours can provide to work with Zimbabwe’s leaders, businesses and stakeholders to bring all the relevant players together. This will ensure that the resulting strategy is relevant, aligned to available resources and executable. Zimbabwe needs partnerships and dialogue, not handouts.

I share your view that an empowered population will be less dependent on government. They will have choices and options. They will have the resources to educate their children, pay for medicines and to feed themselves. A population that does not rely on the state ensures the state is answerable to its citizens.

I am saddened by your remarks in Qatar. You have the power to do so much good for the country, and you have the influence and the right approach to make a real difference. So many Zimbabweans have sacrificed so much to get to where they are today. To hear you say this on the eve of our rebirth is devastating and counterproductive. I ask you to reconsider your remarks, and I challenge you to reach out and engage with Zimbabwe in an effort to understand what we need and then decide whether you still feel it is too late for Zimbabwe.
Sincerely

Alasdair Munn
Zimbabwean.

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