Creating Opportunities for Poor and Marginalized Groups in the Information Society

Impressions on the development of the Information Society

Information and communications technologies (ICTs) are transforming the world in ways that cannot be comprehended. The means in which businesses are being conducted and people are being governed have been altered immeasurably. Clearly, the ICTs revolution has occurred, initiating significant implications for all peoples and nations. This revolution has potential for making fundamental changes in all facets of life from the dissemination of information, to health and recreation.

In the current global, mainly inter-governmental, deliberations on policies governing the flow of information and the development of communication technologies there has been a reluctance to address the diverse needs of the full range of stakeholders. As they stand, the latest WSIS draft documents will lead to an Information Society that is neither participatory, nor development-oriented, and one in which all stakeholders can exercise choice and agency. The documents reflect the undermining of aspirations of Developing Countries and especially poor and marginalized groups in society seeking to explore the use of ICTs as a means for the alleviation of poverty and the disadvantages under which they live. 

If the Information Society is to reflect its stated vision of being inclusive and fulfil the objective of fostering socio-economic and political development, the policy development process has to be both transparent and participatory both, within the Developing and Developed Countries. This necessitates the active engagement of civil society in particular, the poor and marginalized members of society. 

Case study: Volunteering within ABANTU for Development

Profile: ABANTU for Development is an African development NGO, established in 1991 by African women living in the UK. 

• We are a knowledge-based organisation that operates from an African-centred and gender perspective. 

• >Areas of focus: emphasis of our work is on poverty alleviation through tackling issues of governance, conflict and looking at the contribution of ICTs in development. 
• Aim: Our work involves the synthesis, analysis and dissemination of information and the provision of training to empower individuals, communities and institutions to action change in their socio-economic and political environment. We also work on awareness raising and advocacy projects aimed at, influencing policy and decision making on the local, national, regional and international level.
• Target groups: range of stakeholders but within community - refugee and African migrant communities (diaspora) & grassroots organisations.

Volunteers

• Essential in enabling the organisation to carry out aspects of its work. 
• Part of our community capacity development and empowerment objective and is a two-way relationship between the organisation and volunteers - they give time and skills and ABANTU offers training, work experience and support. The aim is to strike a balance between our needs and creating opportunities for individuals to develop their capacities (ie. skills and knowledge).

We use volunteers to: 

• fill a temporary human resources gap by assisting on programme work;
• add value to the work the organisation - bring experiences, skills and insight.

Recruitment within UK office: Depending on the human resource needs of the organisation volunteers are sought regularly throughout the year. We recruit by targeting specific categories of volunteers:

• Students: college and university students, preferably studying development related fields;
• African communities: members from within the community with a range of skills and knowledge;
• Volunteer centres: recruit individuals with skills and expertise in a range of organisational development skills.

We also receive a large number of speculative approaches mainly from:

• Students on higher education courses and looking for work experience or employment within a development-oriented African NGO; 
• Members of the African community looking for new employment opportunities.

Selection and induction: All applicants are sent a volunteer pack which contains an application form, information about the organisation and it's work, volunteering option available within the organisation, terms of reference and person specification.

Once selected volunteers are undergo an Induction Training Programme. They are given Volunteer Charter that outlines work they are being asked to carry out.

Capacity development issues we face 

In doing an overall assessment of the critical issues we face regarding the use of volunteers from African communities in particular, we find that:

Volunteers bring: 

• Skills such as language skills
• Basic practical skills - ie. use of computer; internet and e-mail, writing, etc.
• Enthusiasm
• Some background knowledge in development or more extensive knowledge on Africa
• Short-term human resource

What they get:

• Work experience - office, development NGO, gender organisation
• Training & skills development - research, information production, advocacy, policy analysis
• Knowledge in development field
• Work reference

The fact that we draw a certain number of our volunteers are from impoverished and marginalized communities ( ie. asylum seekers, African women, unemployed professionals, etc) has implications for the work of the regional office. 

Issues: 

These communities face a range of social and economic deprivations - eg. in UK Africans face immigration problems, unemployment, underemployment, language barriers. Due to these realities ability to volunteer is limited and becomes a luxury that they cannot afford.

Of those that can volunteer & with regards to ICTs we see:

• a low level of awareness on and access to ICTs and 
• lack of technical capacities to exploit ICTs for personal and community development. 

Our priorities have become:

Awareness raising:

• We have found that individuals within the community are ill-prepared to take advantage of opportunities that ICTs present for growth and development. Unaware of future needs of ICT related workforce. Use of the internet is mainly for social interaction (e-mail) and for getting information (ie. news). 
• The inability to take advantage of opportunities offered by ICTs is directly related to the lack of information about what ICTs are and knowledge on how to exploit ICTs for real changes in ones daily life. 

Training: 

Our volunteers generally display a low level of competence in the use of office related ICTs, especially for the work organisation needs to do. This leads to the organisation having to spend a lot of time training volunteers. As the original premise for using volunteers is to fill a human resource gap or bring expertise into the organisation, this can detract from programme work. 

Women: despite employment aspirations, some women, want to focus on the administrative aspects of the organisations work and less on the research, information production and dissemination and training aspects of the organisations work. This is problematic since this is the core of the work that we do. This reluctance has range of underlying reasons - age; technical therefore male; fear; etc. 

Finance & resources: 

• Realisation that we need to outsource some of basic training needs of volunteers - our primary role is not as training agency.
• Need more financing resources to ensure that ongoing training of volunteers & staff possible.

Capacity development within the community 

Capacity development is a long-term process aimed at fostering technical skills and the practical ability to use information on an individual, institutional and societal level. It involves learning by doing, and is crucial to enabling individuals & communities to increase their choices and thus take advantage of development opportunities.

The development of ICTs has brought about a revolution in the possibilities for the production and sharing of information, through the expansion of 'knowledge networks.' However, being an active participant in this Information Society requires acquiring technical capacities and the ability to employ information for development.

This being the case, it is true to say that Africa and African Diaspora communities, face the two main challenges:

I. that of promoting economic growth and 

II. addressing the issue of lack of infrastructure and capacity development to drive this growth. The issue of capacity development includes a low level of awareness on and access to ICTs, and problems around the lack of skilled human resources. 

The sum total is that individuals, communities and institutions are stifled, both in their attempts to exploit advantages offered by ICTs and also carve out a role within development of the Information Society.

The challenges for capacity development to promote development

On the local level, successful and sustainable initiatives geared to addressing community needs necessitate long-term capacity development. This can only be achieved through consultation and the active participation of all stakeholders within the community, especially the poor and marginalized.

Some of the issues that need to be addressed include: 

• Awareness raising: Firstly, informing populations on ICTs (ie what they are, etc). Secondly, acquisition of skills and knowledge to enable actors to participate in the Information Society is crucial. This is especially true of the need to promote training to familiarise individuals and institutions on how new and traditional ICTs can be utilised for the promotion of development.

• Education & training: the promotion of basic literacy, education and training, at all levels throughout the life of individuals is important in order to enable them to participate in changing their social and economic environment. Initiatives need to be targeted and able tackle the issue of how to overcome the social, economic and cultural obstacles to enabling universal access to education and training.

• Partnership: There is need to promote the exchange information and knowledge between individuals, institutions and communities. These information and knowledge networks can flow from South-South, North-South and South-North.

• Research: There has to be a move away from trying to provide a one size fits all blueprint for development within communities. In shaping policies and initiatives it is necessary to take into account the specific needs of individuals and the nature of local environments. It is also important to look at the social impact of the introduction of new ICTs into a community.

• Inclusion: There needs to be a move away from the idea that the sole repositories of information and knowledge and poverty alleviation-related capacities are those that do research, the North or the educated. All members of society have skills and knowledge to contribute to the development of the self and the community. Poverty is less about the lack of knowledge or ideas but more about the lack of economic power. It is therefore crucial that the poor and marginalized communities within society, especially women, are put at the centre of policy development.

• Finance & resources: There is need to finance and adequately resource initiatives aimed at addressing the range of capacity development programmes required to drive development.

The challenges of capacity development amongst communities will not be achieved without two other crucial elements - institutional capacity development (ie. strategy, coordination, etc.) and political will to implement and push through initiatives.