digital technology - informal settlements and community empowerment in the kibera slum, kenya

Informal settlements & community empowerment

How digital technology is improving the lives of the young in the world’s slums

“Cities are now home to half of humankind.”

UN Habitat Website 2010

Our world is no longer simply going through the

experience of urbanization.

Our world has become urbanized.

What defines an urban

slum?Access to safe water

Access to improved sanitation

Durability of structures

Sufficient living area (overcrowding)

Access to secure tenure

UN Habitat Slum Indicators - United Nations 2010/11 State of the World’s Cities Report “Bridging the Urban Divide”

Over 1 billion people now live in an urban slum

Or 1 in every 3 urban residents in the world live in a slum.

That number is expected to rise to 2 billion by 2030.

By 2050 95% of the growth of the human population will occur in the urban areas of developing countries.

whose population is expected to double to nearly 4 billion.

Sources: UN-HABITAT, United Nations & Inferring Human Dynamics in Slums Using Mobile Phone

“A firebrand raging across the southern hemisphere.”

Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Design with the Other 90%: CITIES

With growth comesOvercrowding

Unregulated and unsafe housing

Growing risks associated with solid and liquid waste

High levels of informality and lack of access to stable income sources

Social pressures due to limited access to services and deficient infrastructure

61.7% of

people living in

towns and cities in

sub-Saharan Africa

today live in slums

The raging firebrand in Africa

United Nations (2010) UN-HABITAT For A Better Urban Future Report & UN 2010/11 State of the World’s Cities Report “Bridging the Urban Divide;

Africa is home to the largest proportion of young people in

the world today Young people aged 15-24

years represent 18% of the world's population

In most African countries, including Tanzania, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Zambia those under 25 constitute about or over 70% of the population.

In many African cities more than 50% of inhabitants are under the age of 19.2. UN Habitat Website

Youth are particularly affected by growing urban poverty

High unemployment

Child trafficking and sexual exploitation

The growing phenomenon of street children

Victims of crime and violence

The breakdown of family life

Environmental degradation

Worsening health conditions

The transmission of infectious diseases, and the worsening HIV/AIDS pandemic

ICT’s have been diffusing rapidly among the urban

poor, providing new livelihood opportunities and fostering entrepreneurship (UNCTAD,

2010).

Specific ways ICT is building and empowering slum communities

Urban Mapping & Community Involvement

Urban Health, Risk and Hazard Management

Urban Capacity-Building & Networking

Training and education, and employment

Micro-enterprises

ICT, and in particular, mobile and digital technologies are helping to empower slum

residents and their youth to have a greater control over their lives, communities and

prosperity through

Access to information &

knowledge

3 Organizations providing access to information & knowledge

Urban Mapping

Web and digital design skills

Digital and social media platforms

Community involvement

Training & employment

Entrepreneurship

Self determination

In one urban slum community

Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya

Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya……

Spread across 550 acres of government-owned land, 5 kilometers southwest of the city center.

Its population is estimated at anywhere from 200,000 to more than one million, and varies seasonally

World Bank Institute Website

Satellite images show a dense, vibrant settlement

But Google maps shows a quiet farming village

In official registers it is designated a forest

Outsiders are led to believe that Kibera is a kind of hell on earth and are moved

to send cash, while Nairobi’s middle and upper classes tend to avoid it altogether, out of fear or disdain.

“Without basic knowledge of the geography of Kibera it is

impossible to have an informed discussion on how

to improve the lives of residents of Kibera.”

Map Kibera’s Mikel Maron

“We aimed to alter the existing power dynamic by

shifting the information dynamic so that the residents

could use localized information to influence

policy and development.”

Map Kibera’s Erika Hagen

Mapping KiberaPhase One

In 2009 a small group decided to Map Kibera

Openstreetmap

Within three weeks, the mapping team had produced one of the densest maps ever made, labeling "points of interest"

throughout Kibera

Some initial early pay-offs

The participants learned new computer and technology skills.

The mapping experience validated their own community knowledge.

Now they were regarded as holders of important information rather than poorly educated slum dwellers.

NGO’s and local groups were keen to make use of the information

But for whom and what purpose?

Many Kiberans did not see how a map available only online could

benefit them or their community—besides which,

they already knew how to get around.

Empowering through information

Phase Two

Allow Kibera residents to speak for themselves throughExtending the mapping work to

gather more in-depth, issue-based information and to providing paper based maps for residents.

Engaging people in the community through citizen journalism, or reporting by non-professionals on important local issues and news.

Issues based mapping

Health

Security

Education

Water/Sanitatio

n

The pay-offs – for example, on healthcare they learned

What various clinics charged for what services

There is a shortage of affordable maternal health care but they got the address of the best midwife in town

Kibera has no mental health services, dentists, or opticians

Identified low-quality chemists prescribing inappropriate remedies but also these chemists with unlicensed examination rooms play critical roles in healthcare

Especially when people with acute emergencies have to be carried several kilometers along mud paths to the government hospital

Allow Kibera residents to speak for themselves throughExtending the mapping work to

gather more in-depth, issue-based information and to providing paper based maps for residents.

Engaging people in the community through citizen journalism, or reporting by non-professionals on important local issues and news.

A sustainable future?The initiatives are governed by Map

Kibera Trust and they are charity dependent for funding.

But the costs are small using inexpensive mobile technologies and open source platforms

The initiatives are now in the hands of the youth of Kibera with the founders seeking to spread the word globally via the Ground Truth Initiative

A repeatable model – started in the other large Nairobi slum - Map Mathare & Voice of Mathare

3 Organizations providing access to information & knowledge

Urban Mapping

Web and digital design skills

Digital and social media platforms

Community involvement

Training & employment

Entrepreneurship

Self determination

Nairobits Programs

ICT Multimed

ia Program

Reproductive health & HIV-AIDS program

Micro-Entrepreneursh

ip program

Information for poverty alleviation

Life skills and

employability

The Slum Dog Manager

Impact

79% -

engaged in employment, self-employment, internship and/or community service since program completion

74%- engaged

in employment, self-employment, internship and/community service and/or continued education sinceprogram completion

2010 Youth Empowerment Program Evaluation

64% - unemployed before program commencement

98% perceive the future will be better for themselves and their families after the program

74% of

participants rated themselves good or higher in 10 out of 13 life skill attributes

Outcomes

Anne Ikiara - CEO of NairoBits Winner of the 2011 Anita Borg Social Impact Award – Sponsored By Microsoft

“Anne has enabled more than 6,000 women and girls from urban poor settlements across the African region to gain ICT skills that have improved their lives economically, socially-culturally and politically”. Anita Borg Institute 2011

Creating more empowerment through knowledge

A (serious) game which simulates the complexity of life in the slums, the scarcity of resources, how to deal with them and prevent escalation of conflict. .

Train teachers in North Nigeria in the use of an interactive SRH program (learning about living).

Building Bridges is a campaign to encourage, map and connect peace initiatives in Kenya.

Sustainability - funders & partners

"Our resources are not enough in Africa - we need more local people to help us," Wook Ko, Samsung Marketing Manager for the Middle East and Africa

2010 Youth Empowerment Program Evaluation

Sustainability - clients

Partners by outsourcing web design clients to NairoBits MediaLab.

3 Organizations providing access to information & knowledge

Urban Mapping

Web and digital design skills

Digital and social media platforms

Community involvement

Training & employment

Entrepreneurship

Self determination

“My ultimate goal is to get everyone talking to one

another”John Karanja

Founder,Whive

Classifieds

SMS

A bright future?100,000 user subscriptions and

modest growth.

A contacts database of 500,000 to market offers to

Number 1 Facebook application in Kenya

Growing Small Medium Enterprise base of over 600 customers who use Whive services to send bulk messages

A bright future?In partnership with Nokia East Africa will

providing a Free SMS service that will reach millions in East Africa.

CrowdPesa.com: A mobile money mappings solution built on the Ushahidi platform that is being used to map the 25,000 Mpesa Agents in Kenya. This application will be used by Kenyans to locate mobile money services using their phones.

PesaPay.com: A mobile payments solutions that will allow for IN-APP purchases locally in Kenya.

Others think so too

1st Open Screen Fund winner 2010.

Best Software Maker Faire Africa 2011.

Vision2030 ICT Award for innovation in Youth, Gender & Vulnerable groups.

Winner Gaming, Entertainment, Utilities at Pivot25 Mobile Apps Competition.

3 Organizations providing access to information & knowledge

Urban Mapping

Web and digital design skills

Digital and social media platforms

Community involvement

Training & employment

Entrepreneurship

Self determination

Lessons for the developed world

Slum communities must become visible – even in developed countries – for the problems to be recognized and understood.

Digital technology means information that was once difficult to find is now easy to collect, collate and share.

Digital technology tools not only educate and inform they empower people to manage their own communities.

Information & knowledge

Empowerment Self

determination Prosperity

Asante,Usiku Mwema