Formerly ‘Africa Recovery’ United Nations Department of Public Information Vol. 24 No. 1 April 2010 New media: giving young Africans a voice ‘Crisis in waiting’ on AIDS medicines Africa Media Online / Antony Kaminju Africa rejects coups, defends democracy PLUS Rights for Africa’s disabled United Nations Vol. 24 No. 1 April 2010 contentsFeatures Young Africans put technology to new uses . 3 Africa defends democratic rule. 10 A ‘crisis in waiting’ for AIDS patients . 16 Africa’s disabled will not be forgotten . 18 Also in this Issue MDGs: time to step up . .5 Africa’s displaced people: out of the shadows . .6 Even with peace, Liberia’s women struggle . .8 ‘Stability is based on democracy’ Reuters / Finbarr O’Reilly Interview.with.Said.Djinnit . .13 Africans extend solidarity to Haiti . .22 Departments Agenda. 23 Books. 23 Military coups and other unconstitutional seizures of power cannot be tolerated, argues the African Union. Watch. 24 Africa Renewal is published in English and French by the Strategic Communications Division Editor-in-Chief of the United Nations Department of Public Information. Its contents do not necessar- Masimba Tafirenyika ily reflect the views of the United Nations or the publication’s supporting organizations. Articles from this magazine may be freely reprinted, with attribution to the author and to Managing Editor Writers Ernest Harsch Michael Fleshman “United Nations Africa Renewal,” and a copy of the reproduced article would be appreciated. André-Michel Essoungou Copyrighted photos may not be reproduced. Research Production Correspondence should be addressed to: Marian Aggrey Chris van der Walt The Editor, Africa Renewal Room M-16031 Administration Distribution United Nations, NY 10017-2513, USA, Marlene Tremblay-Gervais Atar Markman Tel: (212) 963-6857, Fax: (212) 963-4556 e-mail: [email protected] Subscribe to Africa Renewal We have a new web address: Africa Renewal offers free subscriptions to individual readers. Please send your request to Circulation at the address above or by e-mail to <[email protected]>. Institutional www.un.org/AfricaRenewal subscriptions are available for thirty-five US dollars, payable by international money order or a cheque in US dollars drawn on a US bank, to the “United Nations” and sent to Follow us on Twitter: Circulation at the address above. www.twitter.com/africarenewal Africa Renewal is printed on recycled paper. Young Africans put technology to new uses Kenyan.software.a.tool.for.political.participation By.André-Michel Essoungou of the team used government sources, aid for increased political participation. Using t 11 p.m. on 2 January 2008, groups’ information and press reports to their cell phones, ordinary citizens helped back from Nairobi, Kenya, an verify events submitted to Ushahidi (“tes- counter rumours and what they perceived A exhausted Ory Okolloh — a to be official underestimations. They Johannesburg-based Kenyan law- were able to help record trends and yer in her thirties — posted the fol- patterns of violent incidents. lowing message on her blog: “For the reconciliation process to occur Democratizing information at the local level the truth of what In an e-mail to Africa Renewal, happened will first have to come David Hersman, one of Ushahidi’s out. Guys looking to do something co-founders, affirms that the “only — any techies out there willing to goal was to create a simple means do a mashup of where the violence for ordinary Kenyans to say what and destruction is occurring using was going on.” The idea, he adds, Google Maps?” was “to democratize information For most of the previous week, in what was a very closed media at post-election violence had flared up the time.” in Kenya, leaving scores of people Juliana Rotich, another Ushahidi dead. Ms. Okolloh herself had left co-founder, shares that view. Yet she the country in an evacuation. “The notes the limited impact the plat- trip to the airport was one of the scar- form had within Kenya at the time. iest moments in my life,” she wrote No communication campaign was on her blog. designed to help people learn about Live media broadcasts had been Panos / Fred Hoogervorst the platform. Those who used it were suspended and, among the large mostly people already connected to Kenyan diaspora around the world, the Internet regularly. “We were not many relied on bloggers like Ms. able to reach a critical mass of people Okolloh to follow what was hap- in the country, partly because we did pening in their country. “I was not get much local awareness,” Ms. updating my blog almost every five Rotich told Africa Renewal. “But at minutes,” she recalls. But she soon the same time, it did help since no realized that more information was Young Kenyans pioneered the use of cell phone calls and text one threatened to shut us down.” messaging to monitor political conflict, and their “Ushahidi” soft- needed and launched the appeal. A By allowing young Africans to ware is now used in different parts of the globe for humanitarian flurry of contributions by dozens relief, election monitoring and other purposes. contribute to ongoing discussions of compatriots followed. One per- and events, new technologies pro- son suggested a webpage listing vide them with unparalleled access casualties with details on where and how timony” in Swahili). to political debate. “In the African context, they had died. Another envisaged posting Ushahidi illustrates how young being able to voice one’s opinion freely is information on displaced persons in need Africans are using new technologies to not that easy, especially for young people,” of help. “It could help raise awareness,” enter the political arena. According to a comments Théophile Kouamouo, who has he explained. study by Harvard University scholars,* run IvoireBlog, a lively blogging platform Days later, after many other such post- Ushahidi has been the most comprehen- in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, since December ings, Ms. Okolloh, along with four young sive tool in gathering crisis-related infor- 2007. Having set up Abidjan Blog-camps, bloggers from Kenya, launched the web- mation in Kenya. The platform, the report site <www.ushahidi.com>, a communica- adds, performed better than mainstream * Patrick Meier and Kate Brodock, “Crisis Map- tion forum that allows anyone to report media by reporting more cases of violence ping Kenya’s Election Violence: Comparing cases of violence through text message, and covering a wider geographic area. Mainstream News, Citizen Journalism and e-mail or web submission, and to por- Although the website was intended Ushahidi.” (Boston: Harvard Humanitarian Ini- tray the information on an online map. mainly to get the word out about the crisis tiative, Harvard University, 2008). Web <http:// irevolution.wordpress.com/2008/10/23/map- In order to ensure reliability, one member in Kenya, it also functioned as a gateway ping-kenyas-election-violence>. April 2010 3 a training seminar in which bloggers from From Kenya to the world Revolutionary changes around the country regularly share views Since Ushahidi (which is also download- Long before this latest trend, Africans and experiences, Mr. Kouamouo believes able software) was designed to be used have been using new technologies for that African bloggers are walking in the by ordinary people, allowing users to various purposes with positive results, steps of independent media outlets that report an incident by filling in a very including in business, health care, dis- tance learning and banking (see Africa Renewal, January 2008 and April 2008). According to the latest African Eco- nomic Outlook report of the industrial- ized countries’ Organization for Eco- nomic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the increasing use of informa- tion and communication technologies (ICTs) in Africa is helping to sustain parts of the African economy during these times of economic turbulence. The recent use of such technologies in the political field is taking place amidst rev- olutionary technological changes across the continent. Africa’s mobile phone industry is growing at twice the global rate, according to the International Telecommunications Union. “The mobile phone, easy to carry laif/Redux / Christoph Goedan around, and whose infrastructure is cheaper to deploy, has led Africa’s revolution,” adds the OECD report. As major undersea cables are being laid off the east and west coasts of the continent, broadband Internet Non-governmental peace workers sharing information by cell phone to help monitor access is also expected to vastly improve, and prevent violence in the South African township of Soshanguve, near Pretoria. a fact that prompts some to predict an end to the “digital divide” — the gap between led the battle for free speech in the early simple form with a description of what those who have access to ICTs and those 1990s. “This is part of our efforts in build- happened and when it took place, it has who do not. ing a democratic society,” he explained to proven to be easily adaptable. The soft- Africa’s political bodies are striving to Africa Renewal. ware has been used to help rescue vic- catch up. In late January an African Union The similar site CongoBlog was tims in Haiti in the wake of a devastating (AU) summit took up the theme of ICT launched in the Democratic Republic of earthquake in January. It has also been links to development. Earlier, in 2007, the the Congo (DRC) by Cédric Kalonji, a used to monitor violence in the DRC, continental body adopted a science and young citizen journalist from Kinshasa. South Africa and Gaza. technology plan of action and asked the He too aims at providing better access to In addition, Ushahidi has helped people UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural the public sphere for young Congolese. to use cell phones and the Internet to track Organization (UNESCO) to help.