ICTs, Statebuilding and Peacebuilding in Africa
The ubiquity of new ICTs such as the mobile phone and their ability to interact with older media, from radio to poetry, is enabling citizens to experiment with innovative ways of influencing politics, interacting among each other as well as with the variety of actors that shape political processes, from governments to private companies to religious organizations. In “media and development” theory, policy and practice, however, strong normative statements about the transformative power of ICTs have often clouded the understanding of how people and communities actually make sense of, and engage with, the old and new communication technologies that surround them. By focusing on three neighboring countries in Africa – Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia – each characterized by a very distinctive approach to ICTs, and by concentrating on processes of state-building and peace-building, our project seeks to bring greater clarity about the expectations and the realities of the use of communication technologies in developing contexts. For more information about this project, visit the website.
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Publication Commercial Remote Sensing Satellites and the Regulation of Violence in Areas of Limited Statehood(2015-01-01) Livingston, StevenThe number and sophistication of commercial remote sensing satellites has grown steadily since 2000 when the first high resolution satellite went into service. The nature and trajectory of the growth in satellite technology is outlined in this paper. The discussion is placed in the context of an international relations theory about statehood. An area of limited statehood framework is outlined, especially as it relates to the maladroit use of force by limited states unable or unwilling to discipline security personnel or otherwise control the use of force. Of course, another possibility is that the use of excessive and indiscriminant violence is deliberate. We consider the “regulation of violence” to be deliberate violence by nonstate actors serving as “functional equivalents” for state oversight functions not found in limited statehood. NGOs and other international institutions, comprising what Keck and Sikkink call a Transnational Activist Network (TAN), use remote sensing satellites to gather data about uses of force by weak-state security apparatuses. Put more formally, we investigate the use of commercial, high-resolution remote sensing data by TANs as they attempt to regulate excessive and indiscriminate violence used by the security apparatuses of states that can be thought of as limited in key dimensions.Publication In Search of Local Knowledge on ICTs in Africa(2015-01-01) Gagliardone, Iginio; Kalemera, Ashnah; Kogen, Lauren; Nalwoga, Lillian; Stremlau, Nicole; Wairagala, WakabiBy reviewing and comparing literature on the role of ICTs in statebuilding and peacebuilding in Africa, with a particular focus on neighboring Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia, this paper examines whether the claims of the transformative power of ICTs are backed by evidence and whether local knowledge – e.g., traditional mechanisms for conflict resolution – is taken into consideration by ICT-based initiatives. Several key findings emerged, including: 1) empirical evidence on the successful use of ICTs to promote peacebuilding and statebuilding is thin; 2) few differences exist between scholarship emanating from the Global North and from Africa; and 3) the literature exhibits a simplistic assumption that ICTs will drive democratic development without sufficient consideration of how ICTs are actually used by the public.Publication Programming for Peace: Sisi Ni Amani Kenya and the 2013 Election(2014-12-01) Shah, Seema; Brown, RachelIn 2007-8, Kenya experienced protracted and widespread post-election violence. Mobile phones—and text messages in particular– were used to spread rumors and to organize violence. Sisi ni Amani Kenya (SNA-K), a Kenyan non-governmental organization, utilized a combination of traditional and innovative communication and dialogue approaches to increase civic education and engagement and prevent violence in Kenyan communities before, during, and after Kenya’s 2013 General Elections. SNA-K developed SMS-based programming that reached over 65,000 Kenyans with civic education, civic engagement, and violence prevention text messages throughout the 2013 election cycle. This paper analyzes data from qualitative and quantitative surveys distributed to samples from SNA-K’s subscriber base. The paper draws insights and lessons learned that can inform future programming seeking to utilize mobile technology and ICT-based communications strategies for civic engagement and violence prevention.Publication Who is ICT Innovation For? Challenges to Existing Theories of Innovation, a Kenyan Case Study(2015-01-01) Marchant, EleanorKenya, along with countries like Nigeria, South Africa, and Ghana, is leading the way on the continent in innovating new applications and programs that enable developments in the information communication technology (ICT) sector. This growth has not gone unnoticed. It has attracted substantial international interest, not just from non-profit organizations focused on development, but increasingly from for-profit actors interested in investing in the country. In this environment, understanding how tech innovation happens in Kenya – the roles played by these many different international, local, for-profit, and not-for-profit actors – is a big part of understanding the shape of new technologies that will emerge. Yet many of the theories that exist to explain technology innovation were developed to describe processes in Western contexts, like Silicon Valley, far removed from the reality of innovation in Kenya. This paper uses the technology innovation sector in Kenya to illustrate where existing innovation theories fall short. If we hope to understand the growth of these sector and help shape its development, ICT, communication, and management scholars need to work together to develop better theories to explain the unique context of innovation in African countries.Publication Uchaguzi: A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of ICTS, Statebuilding, and Peacebuilding in Kenya(2015-02-27) Bowman, Warigia; Bell, Bob; Ngugi, Wambui; Mungai, Wainaina; Githaiga, Grace; Cavallari, PaolaWhat do scholars know about the internet, social media, and other ICTs in African elections? Information on the role electronic media plays in politics on the African continent is limited, with little scholarly work empirically examining the role of electronic media in African elections. In this report, we focus specifically on crowd-sourced publics in the Kenyan context. We intend to contribute to literature on ICT4D and governance, particularly highlighting the potential and limitations of non-profit ICT-using intermediaries and their work to re-define the relationship between citizens and the State. Throughout this report, we center on questions about the role of the crowdsourcing initiative Uchaguzi. This inquiry examines technical challenges, the organization’s ability to catalyze responses to reports of violence, the organization’s connection with the media establishment and the wider public as well as Uchaguzi’s overall role in strengthening electoral transparency and accountability. To address these questions, we employed mixed methods involving both qualitative and quantitative analyses as well as field methods and desk research. Data collection focused on review of documentary sources in addition to collection of both qualitative and quantitative data. Empirical and qualitative sources included fourteen semi-structured qualitative interviews with founders, designers, and implementers. We also conducted a short survey to assess citizens’ familiarity with Uchaguzi, reaching a total of 446 people and covering most regions in Kenya.Publication Satellite Communication and Peacebuilding in East Africa(2015-02-01) Parks, LisaThis report highlights new opportunities to integrate satellite communication into peacebuilding initiatives in East Africa, especially given challenges faced by terrestrial and undersea telecom operators, the affordances of satellite technologies, and growth of the satellite market in Africa. Section one of the report describes threats to terrestrial and undersea telecom infrastructure in East Africa arising from vandalism, theft, and sabotage. Section two delineates the unique affordances of communication satellites and then describes some of the major players in the African satellite market as well as their satellite assets. Finally, section three offers a series of recommendations for how satellite capacity can be used to support peacebuilding in East Africa. Undergirding this analysis is a recognition of the legal provisions of the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which defined outer space, including orbit, as the province of all (hu)mankind, and mandated that it be used to benefit all countries regardless of “the degree of their economic or scientific development.” (Treaty…, 1967).Publication The Role of ICTs in Governance, Statebuilding, and Peacebuilding in Africa: The Case of Ethiopia(2014-08-01) Beyene, Zenebe; Zerai, AbdissaWhile the codification of a national ICT policy is an important indicator of a nation’s commitment to the development of ICTs, it is possible that states are “coerced” into implementing ICT reforms, particularly e-Government reforms, through pressure from donors (Brussels, 2011) and other significant and powerful constituent groups. Even when policies are developed by a state’s own volition, what matters is not the policy per se, but how and to what end the policy is used. Located in one of the most economically marginalized and unstable regions of the world, Ethiopia’s prioritization of economic development, stability, and national security might be legitimate. However, such concerns could also have a chilling effect on ICT development in the country. In light of this, this study seeks to examine how Ethiopia’s ICT policy is deployed and the extent to which the policy creates an enabling environment for the free flow of ideas, promotion of good governance, and socio-economic development.Publication Mapping ICTs in Somalia: Policies, Players, and Practices(2014-06-01) Center for Global Communication Studies at the Annenberg School for CommunicationThis report offers a review of the policies and players that impact media and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) policies and practices in Somalia. The research, supplemented with interviews with senior policy advisors on ICTs, civil society organizations, journalistsâ unions, and the private sector, suggests that the Somali Federal Government faces significant hurdles in constructing a national media policy. These can be reduced to the following four key challenges: 1) A weak central government; 2) A geographically and politically fragmented media environment; 3) A strong private telecommunications sector that benefits from a lack of regulation; 4) A preference by many actors for the traditional xeer and sharia law systems, rather than a formalized ICT regulatory environment.Publication Testing a Media Intervention in Kenya: Vioja Mahakamani, Dangerous Speech, and the Benesch Guidelines(2013-12-01) Kogen, LaurenSusan Benesch, human rights scholar, genocide prevention fellow at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and faculty associate at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, has, over the last several years, developed an analytical framework for identifying ‘dangerous speech’ that catalyzes violence (Benesch, 2008; 2013). According to Benesch, “hate speech” is a vague term that encompasses many forms of speech, only some of which may catalyze violence under certain circumstances. By creating a set of guidelines “for monitoring speech and evaluating its dangerousness, i.e., the capacity to catalyze violence by one group against another,” Benesch aims to inform policies that reduce incitement to violence through speech while protecting free speech (Benesch, 2013). Among questions about these ambitious guidelines were how they could be used to make audiences more skeptical of incitement and therefore less likely to succumb to it. In the summer of 2012, Benesch teamed up with Media Focus on Africa (MFA) and the cast and crew of a Kenyan television comedy drama series, Vioja Mahakamani (referred to as Vioja throughout this report). The collaboration aimed to “inoculate” audiences against inciting speech, and make them more skeptical of it, by increasing understanding of what constitutes incitement to violence, the psychology behind incitement that helps prepare groups of people to condone or even take part in violence, and its consequences. This was accomplished through two avenues: 1) by applying her ideas through a medium that would entertain and educate the Kenyan public, and 2) by training the cast of the show so that they could become local agents of change, circulating this information outside the context of the television program. This evaluation was partially tasked with examining whether audiences did indeed become more skeptical of inciting speech. As a real-world test of skepticism (i.e., exposing audiences to inciting speech and observing behaviors) was not a feasible or desirable evaluation method, “skepticism” as a concept was investigated by breaking down the concept into its component elements – those which are likely to lead to skepticism. Namely: Did viewers better understand the origins and motivations behind inciting speech? Did viewers better understand the consequences of inciting speech? Were viewers more likely to accept personal responsibility for violent actions arising from dangerous speech? Were viewers more likely to take non-violent actions in response to future perceived injustices (using a hypothetical scenario)? Were viewers more likely to promote love and forgiveness in response to the 2007-2008 post-election violence? Through an evaluation of each of these components, we were able to draw a fuller picture of how the program influenced audiences, and how these influences might affect future behaviors. This report summarizes the findings of that evaluation, led by Dr. Lauren Kogen of the Center for Global Communication Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.