With permission, I’ve shared the PDF file of this report with the members of the DoWire Group called the E-Democracy and E-Government Research Network. It is available in the files area for at least the next little while.

Here is the executive summary:

Prospects for e-Advocacy in the Global South

A Res Publica Report for the Gates Foundation

Executive Summary

Social change is driven by communication, coordination, and collective action by groups of citizens who wish to change the institutions and policies that govern them. This change is vital to the progress of the global south, and it can only be led by the citizens of that region. This paper suggests that the rapid spread of information and communications technology (ICT) in the global south offers possibilities for democratic and social change unmatched since decolonization.

The internet and other communications technologies are revolutionizing the way individuals communicate, coordinate, and act across the world. Websites, SMS (”short message service”, or “text messages”), and mobile phones are democratizing the production and consumption of information, and allowing the possibility of new forms of flexible, rapid citizen organizing outside existing power structures.

Despite a persistent digital divide, this communications revolution is not limited to the global north. In two years, a quarter of a billion Indians will have mobile phones. Last year, one million Indonesians voted via text message in the Indonesian Idol contest. Thirteen million Brazilians have joined Orkut, a social networking website. Moreover, penetration of these technologies can revolutionize advocacy long before they reach substantial percentages of the population. The President of the Philippines was deposed in 2001 in an SMS-organized mobilization he called a “coup de t ext” when just 15% of Filipinos had mobile phones.

However, there are formidable barriers to the realization of this opportunity. The digital divide is felt most acutely in sub-Saharan and South/Central Africa. While mobile phone penetration is growing rapidly even in this region, the promise of the internet and other ICTs is dimmed by regressive telecommunications policies and poor infrastructure. Across the global south, censorship and intimidation have shut off the internet as a source for social change in nations most in need of reform.

Despite these structural and political limitations, lack of knowledge is the greatest obstacle to the realization of the promise of ICT in the global south. In most countries, the political and technological environments necessary to begin e-advocacy efforts already exist. All that is missing is the technical training necessary to realize creative and effective campaigns.

This report provides a primer in the methods and applications of e-advocacy and surveys the current applications, constraints, and opportunities in the global south. It focuses on the problem of access, the need to nurture the knowledge and tools necessary to realize the promise of e-advocacy, and outlines a few cutting edge initiatives that could further expand the realm of possibility for ICT to drive change in the global south. Our focus is on developing concrete recommendations for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help catalyze this social change. Our key recommendations are:

1) Increase Access in Africa – Fund a social enterprise model, pioneered in India, that allows entrepreneurs to use solar powered wireless access points to set up internet access and telephony in underprivileged communities.

2) Make SMS Cheaper – Text messages are the medium of choice for activism in the global south, but their cost limits their mass appeal. Establish a global architecture of cheap or free SMS codes that civil society organizations can apply to use in e-advocacy campaigns.

3) Fund the Ecosystem that Grows Good e-Advocates – Through a fellows programs, conferences, trainings, and a global network of e-advocacy centers, give citizens and activists in the global south the opportunity to learn and exchange, allowing them to fulfill the promise of ICT in their own advocacy.

4) Pilot Test Online Organizing in Nigeria – Support a first rate e-campaigning organization in Nigeria, to demonstrate the possibilities for e-advocacy, even in such a challenging environment as West Africa.

5) Fund Visionary Technology – Enable exciting new technologies to reach scale, such as a technology that allows mobile phones to communicate directly with each other, without the need for a carrier phone company.

The Gates Foundation has the unique ability to lead this new front of social change. The foundation’s distinctive experience in providing access to technology and challenging inequality in the global south, combined with resources that rival many nations, make it an ideal trailblazer in the global promotion of e-advocacy. We the researchers, writers, advisors, and reviewers of this report urge the Gates Foundation to take on this historic role.

…

And the authors and table of contents:

Project Director
Ricken Patel

Lead Researcher and Writer
Mary Joyce

Expert Advisors
Katrin Verclas
Alan Rosenblatt, Ph.D.
Case Study Writers
Rishi Chawla, LLB
Atieno Ndomo
Priscila Néri
Gbenga Sesan
Idris F Sulaiman, Ph.D.
Reviewers
Bev Clark, Kubatana.net
Rob Faris, OpenNet Initiative
Stephanie Hankey, Tactical Technology Collective
Janet Haven, Open Society Institute
Helen King, Shuttleworth Foundation
Paul Maassen, Hivos
Sascha Meinrath, IndyMedia
Russell Southwood, Balancing Act Africa
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 2.5 License
Version 1.0 – January, 2007

Table of Contents

Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . 4
Outline of Key Concepts . . . . . . . . . . 6
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . 9
Methodology . . . . . . . . . . 11
I) e-Advocacy in the Global South . . . . . 12
Access . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Getting Online . . . . . . . . . . . 13
The Politics of Access . . . . . . . . . . 14
Censoring ICT . . . . . . . . . . . 15
The Digital Divide in Context . . . . . . . . . 16
The Cellular Savior . . . . . . . . . . 18
Implementation . . . . . . . . . 22
A Conceptual Framework for e-Advocacy . . . . . . . 22
Data Integration: Collecting Information and Making it Work . . . . . 24
Info-Hub: An Online Brochure. . . . . . . . . . 25
CRM: A Dynamic Hub and Spokes . . . . . . . . 26
Network-Centric Activism: A Communication Spider Web . . . . . 28
Technology Culture. . . . . . . . . . 30
Political Culture . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Expanding Access: No Technology Succeeds in Isolation . . . . . 32
Hybridization: Making Old Technologies New . . . . . . . 33
Peer-to-Peer Mobile Networks . . . . . . . . . 34
Leapfrogging Borders: Thinking Outside the Geographic Box . . . . . 34
II) Funding the Future of Social Change . . . . 36
Values for Funding e-Advocacy in the Global South . . . . . . 36
Recommendations . . . . . . . . . 36
Access: End-User Solutions and Policy Change . . . . . . . 38
Implementation: Building e-Advocacy Capacity . . . . . . . 44
Innovation: Shaping the Future . . . . . . . . . 48
III) Back Matter . . . . . . . . . 52
Glossary of Abbreviation . . . . . . . . . . 52
Actor Map . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Literature Summary . . . . . . . . . . 61
e-Advocacy Case Study Summaries (Brazil, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria) . . . 64

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