Experiences in using the Participation Handbook

Dear Mikael and Matthew

Thanks for your posts. I'm picking up on the idea of a "smyposium" on new media and communicating with disaster-affected communities, and the idea of participation. There is a lot of discussion and activity on this currently in the humanitarian sector, particularly with initiatives such as the CDAC Network (which was operational in Haiti - see http://www.cdac-haiti.org/) and infoasaid (see http://infoasaid.org/).

There is increasing recognition within the humanitarian sector that when disasters strike, people need information as much as they need food, water, shelter, etc, and that by providing the right information at the right time, from the right source, lives and livelihoods can be saved. At the same time, if people have access to useful information during disasters they can make their own choices and decisions, and become more active participants in the process of their own recovery and claiming their rights. So it's about participation, yes, but goes beyond that by explicitly recognising people's right to information (and the power that information brings), and our own accountability as humanitarian actors.

ActionAid is currently partnering with infoasaid to mainstream communications with disaster-affected communities in our emergency preparedness and response. As part of the partnership we initiated a communications project in Isiolo, Kenya, as part of our wider response to the drought and food crisis. The project has two key aims:

1. To reduce food insecurity through the provision of relevant and timely information on food and livestock prices
2. To improve the speed and effectiveness of two-way communication between ActionAid and the local population, and so improve the efficiency of ActionAid's emergency programming

The project provided 250 community membes and 30 Food Monitors (employed by ActionAid to oversee food distributions) with mobile phones. Using Frontline SMS and Freedom Fone technology, along with more low-tech communications channels such as community bulletins, information is relayed from ActionAid to drought-affected communities. At the same time community members can use their mobiles to contact ActionAid regarding our activities or anything else, eg. security concerns, reports of disease outbreaks, reports of rainfall, enquiries about weather patterns, etc. The project also has a data management component in that Frontline SMS is used to speed up data collection from the field through specially designed "forms" which are sent via text message through the Frontline SMS system.

You can read more about the project here http://www.actionaid.org/stories/frontline-sms-pastoralists-check-stock-prices-their-mobiles or I'd be happy to email across more information - you can contact me on airlie.taylor@actionaid.org.

Some other useful resources on communicating with disaster-affected communities:
- Let them speak; Best practice and lessons learned in communication with disaster-affected communitis, Haiti 2010 - http://www.alnap.org/node/7979.aspx

- IFRC beneficiary communications evaluation, Haiti - http://www.ifrc.org/Global/Publications/disasters/reports/IFRC-Haiti-Beneficiary-Communications-Evaluation-EN.pdf

Matthew, ActionAid would certainly be interested in participating in some sort of event/symposium on this area of work in Nairobi - let me know if you'd like me to link you with colleagues in our Kenya office. I'm sure colleagues from the infoasaid consortium would also be keen on this.

Kind regards
Airlie

Airlie Taylor
Emergencies Information Officer
International Emergencies and Conflict Team
ActionAid International
Email: airlie.taylor@actionaid.org
Tel: +44 (0)20 3122 0538

Dear Colleagues,

1. I will pick up from the issue of communicating with disaster-affected communities. Countries world over are in various stages of development and the same is reflected in the tech content of their communication systems. Further how the available systems are used in disaster mitigation context depends on the priority a nation accords to meeting disaster risks. India being an 'emerging nation' in terms of its communication systems is settling down with 3G standards and devices. However once you overlay the urban-rural digital divide we have rural India still shedding POTS and taking to mobile telephony and 2G devices. As social and development issues are higher up in the pecking order (not that disaster mitigation is not a development issue) we find the communication systems have been adapted quite innovatively in certain cases to send out agriculture, education and health content.

2. This approach of reaching out to the rural population has been taken up by both, the Government through various ministries and the private sector for commercial reasons. For example the Ministry of Agriculture disseminates corp and region specific information to subscribing farmers to improve their productivity and their ability to cope with various pests and diseases. There are other programmes like 'Sanchar Shakti' run by USOF administration of the Communications ministry which reaches out to gender focused self-help groups or SHGs (http://usof.gov.in/usof-cms/gender.htm).

3. The point I am trying to make was that in countries like India pre and post disaster situations you may not have to 'reinvent the wheel' as there exits this network of mobile communication, user categorized geographically by regions/districts/villages, gender, interest groups ect, backed by fairly reliable content providers. It is like laying your hands on multiple and diverse mailing lists in a situation. Now you just need to hook up with the content provider to connect to the beneficiaries with your workers also on the same network. Of course, in post disaster situations you would have to wait for the communication system to recover and be up and running. The second point is the users here are more amenable to content/ information being 'pushed' to them, though the communication is two way, hence are easier to connect with. Such networks also increase the situational awareness and accountability within the Humanitarian agency.

Best regards,

Monish Gulati
Independent Analyst

Dear Mikael,

First of all, it is interesting for us to know you found the
Participation Handbook useful. For Groupe URD - and I presume for all
organizations working in support to humanitarian agencies- it is always
interesting (and I would say quite rare) to have feedback about our
work. The information we can monitor is the number of downloads- and the
Participation Handbook is our 'best-downloader' with a total of nearly
25.000 chapters downloaded and an average of 1.000 downloads/month (48%
in English, 44% in French and 8% in Spanish). Thanks for your more
qualitative feedback!

Regarding trainings, we did some sessions on how to use this handbook.
It was really interesting. We can discuss these experiences with
you but if other organisations would be interested in developing a
training package on Participation, we are interested in thinking about
it and we could try to find means together to do so... In fact, we are
already in touch with some French organisations who would be interested...

Regards,

Véronique de Geoffroy
Groupe URD

Dear Mikael,

I am part of a team conducting a review of community participation in humanitarian aid operations on behalf of DG ECHO.

As part of that exercise, the lead consultants, Neil Barry and Jane Barham, writing below, will be conducting general interviews in Nairobi and hosting a round table meeting at Save the Childrens' Office on 27th Feb at 14:00 (please see below for details)

If you are interested and able to attend please let me know by email to r.ward@aguaconsult.co.uk

If not, we would of course be very willing to discuss outcomes considering your parallel interests and the positive response to the subject here.

Many thanks.

Kind regards,

Richard