ICTs FOR PEACE
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As a precious goal of humanity, peace has to be
achieved and sustained by all possible
means. ICTs, even if they are not a direct tool of
stopping armed and civil conflicts, are a useful and
rich resource for raising awareness and suggesting
appropriate action. Where countries are
recovering from recent hostilities, ICTs can play a
valuable role in recreating communication networks
not only in terms of technical infrastructure, but also
in terms of human interactions. The integrative function of ICTs can be
especially valuable for overcoming the past
and moving optimistically towards the future. Virtual inclusion,
as alternative of real-life exclusion, can promote positive social dynamics. |
ICT stories from the field
Peace Worldwide - Pakistan
Success Strategy:
Christian community is the largest
minority group of Pakistan with the population of 2.5% and dispersed in all four
provinces. 70% of this Christian population live in remote villages. The rest
lives in the cities with only 0.5% higher income families who live in better
standard conditions while the majority resides by the banks of sewerage and
drainage canals of dirty waters of that city.
Peace Worldwide has been working from 1996 to arrange, establish and support
various programs aiming at promoting literacy and professional training
initiatives. The vocation of the organisation is, on one hand, to establish
literacy centres and create educational & training opportunities and, on the
other hand, sponsor short term professional courses especially for people
residing in rural and remote areas for promoting income generating capacity and
enhance livelihood systems. This strategy of boosting human resource potential
in order to contribute to the solution of unemployment problem considers
spreading information technology education through out the country. Thus it is
aiming to provide the local population with more chances to integrate the
regional and local employment markets and build more sustainable enterprises.
The women's development program of PWW is mainly focused on assistance to
widows, divorcees and wives of drug addicts and unemployed men socially,
economically and morally, arranging their training in various institutes
including adult literacy centres since the majority of these women are
illiterate.
A disaster prevention programme is also under way which is fitting in the global
framework of the research and study projects of the organisation on natural and
manmade disaster relief and early alarm system.
Although the activities of the PWW do not seem to have a great coverage, yet it
is a pioneer of freedom of expression and of raising awareness about the value
of the human right protection, the respect of human dignity and the empowerment
of community members from minorities. The complementary purpose of making
families and women in particular independent and self-reliant by learning skills
and getting more competitive on the labour market is an other brave initiative
in the context of Pakistani civil society life experience.
Target group:
Christian women, poor families, remote Christian communities
members
Partners:
Peace Worldwide
Source:
WSIS Stocktaking Database and
the website of the activity
Conflict Prevention
and Integration Program - Georgia
Success Strategy:
The Conflict Prevention and Integration Program in Samtskhe-Javakheti, Georgia
is designed to reduce tension and prevent conflict through activities related to
language education, information flows and media development, legal assistance
and legal information and management of inter-ethnic relations. The program’s
objective is to strengthen the public's access to legal information and
policymakers' skills in minority legal issues, by improving the professionalism
of journalism and the availability of Georgian news programmes in
Samstkhe-Javakheti.
Partners:
Canadian International Development Agency - CIDA
Source:
WSIS Stocktaking Database
Colombia’s laptop warrior- Connectivity for peace and progress
Success Strategy:
Vilma
Almendra, a 23-year-old Paez Indian from Colombia, represents what Canadian
Aboriginal Chief Dwight Dorey recently referred to as the modern "laptop
warrior." Almendra coordinates the community information service, or
telecentre, in the town of Santander de Quilichao in southwest Colombia. The
telecentre — part internet café, part library, and part meeting place —
is housed at the headquarters of ACIN, the Asociación de Cabildos Indígenas
del Norte del Cauca [association of Indigenous governing councils of North Cauca],
and is one of three internet-equipped information services in southwest Colombia
supported by Canada’s International Development
Research Centre (IDRC). Vilma Almendra says that information and
communication technologies (ICTs) are playing a key role in denouncing
human rights abuses in Colombia — a country plagued by civil war for the
past 39 years. Almendra is part of a growing movement using internet
communications as an antidote to violence against Indigenous peoples.She and Dorey addressed a Canadian-Latin American aboriginal forum on
information technology and connectivity, held in Ottawa from March 24th
to 26th 2003. The three-day meeting, sponsored by the Institute
for Connectivity in the Americas (ICA)and several Canadian federal
government departments, was webcast live on the internet via the Aboriginal
Canada Portal
For more information:
see
IDRC website
Support Mine Action - Mozambique
Success
Strategy:
The goal of the project is to support and strengthen
demining action in Mozambique. CIDA provided equipment (e.g.
computers, plotters, and technical advisors) to the Database
Unit of the Institute for National Demining (IND) and the
Accelerated Demining Program (ADO), and ensured the proper
installation of a global landmine information management
system, which is used world-wide to track the location of
landmines in landmine-affected countries. CIDA also
supported the Geomatic component of the project.
Partners:
Canadian International Development Agency - CIDA
Source:
WSIS
Stocktaking Database
Building and Enhancing
Information Networks between Local Communities
Success Strategy:
The objective of the project "Building and Enhancing Information Networks
between Local Communities" is to facilitate and document innovative models for
local information networking combining the social and technological dimensions,
in ways that facilitate practical use of information by poor women and youth for
education, enterprise and income generation. Based on ongoing research into
specific local information environments, configurations and processes for
operationalizing local information networks will be developed. These networks
are supposed to simultaneously identify needs, facilitate documentation and
knowledge transfer and dissemination, and especially access to information by
poor and marginalized groups, particularly women and youth, notably in conflict
and post-conflict areas.
The activities being implemented in the framework of the project focus on
grassroots level, and specifically on the information and communication
processes that take place among the poor women, youth and their families.
Networks will encompass social elements: grassroots women's and youth groups,
their meetings, linkages amongst themselves and to other groups, to local
knowledge brokers and information gateways. There will also be technological
elements: different types of local ICT centres, internet access, specific
software, cable audio and TV, local community newspapers, etc.
Key outputs of the project are expected to be new research and models for local
information networking to be published in a comprehensive, user-friendly format,
both online and in print. The project is intended to inspire replication of the
models and to feed research findings into policy formation.
Target group:
Disadvantaged communities and families, women, youth
Partners:
UNESCO
Source:
WSIS Stocktaking Database and the
website of the activity
Women's Experiences in Situations of
Armed Conflict - Uganda
Success Strategy:
"Women's Experiences in Situations of Armed Conflict" was carried out using
different ICT applications. This included use of tape recorders, video
recording, photography and face-to-face interaction through meetings, focus
group discussions and validation workshops. Their research results are available
for download on their website.
The major focus of the project was to highlight women's experiences in
situations of armed conflict, the roles they play, the effects and how they are
coping in post conflict situations.
The project targeted areas that have experienced or are experiencing armed
conflict in Uganda. The documentation was accomplished with the full
participation of women war survivors and local leaders. All the respondents were
based in affected rural areas.
This project has resulted in six research reports, two video documentaries,
photographs and pictorial posters. Such a comprehensive package of information
has been useful to a cross section of development workers and policy makers in
lobbying for peace-building as well as a support of the community memory. This
outcome is powerful tool in raising awareness amongst communities on the need
for peaceful resolution of conflicts and peace-building. It enables both women
and men, educated and illiterate to understand the causes of conflict, the
physical and psychological effects on women and men, as well as the need for
harmonious and peaceful living.
The documentation enabled Isis-WICCE to recognise the animosity that prevailed
among the various affected ethnic groups. As a result, it was able to initiate
women's initiatives that have effectively contributed to the peace-building
processes in the affected communities.
The research findings were used to influence the Ministry of Gender and
Community Development to incorporate the issue of peace as a cross-cutting issue
in the National Action Plan.
Partners:
Isis-Women's International Cross Cultural Exchange (Isis-WICCE), media crew,
professionals and technical experts from different fields, medical staff, the
Heinrich Boll Foundation and UNIFEM.
Awards:
GKP Gender and ICT Award 2003 - Winner: Multi-Stakeholder Initiative
(National/Local).
Source:
The Global Knowledge Partnership website and
the website of the activity
