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Guidelines for Designing Inclusive Digital Solutions and Developing Digital Skills (UNESCO, 2018)

The UNESCO-Pearson Initiative for Literacy launched these new guidelines to mark International Literacy Day 2018, which this year examined integrated approaches to literacy and skills development.

The guidelines are designed to help those working in technology to build more inclusive digital services. They show private companies, NGOs, international organizations and governments what factors to consider, questions to ask and processes to follow when developing solutions for people with limited literacy skills and low digital skills.

The guidelines provide recommendations to support the development of digital skills and literacy; to better understand and design for low-literate users; to create more engaging content and usable interfaces; to ensure the implementation environment supports inclusive usage; and to constantly monitor, measure and improve solutions.

UNESCO developed the guidelines over a two-year period, drawing on a landscape review of digital inclusion strategies for low-skilled and low-literate people and a set of fourteen case studies. The guidelines seek to help people who are still new to internet-connected technologies—collectively, half of the world’s population—find and use digital service.

Click here for further details and full guidelines.

The Modern Slavery Trap: Bonded Labour (IDS Briefing, 2018)

The IDS briefing entitled The Modern Slavery Trap: Bonded Labour highlights is based on research conducted with villagers in Nepal and India by IDS research fellows Pauline Oosterhoff and Danny Burns, supported by the Freedom Fund.

Its key recommendations include prioritising support for local officials to enforce existing laws on bonded labour; and developing inclusive, community approaches to tackling bonded labour, as it derives from dynamics of whole families and communities — warning that focusing on individuals will have limited impact.

Generations within marginalised communities most affected

The briefing highlights that bonded labour disproportionately affects communities living in poverty that are historically socially and economically marginalised.

Generations within families in bonded labour can find themselves trapped in a cycle of bonded labour. For example, if adults who are already in bonded labour require further loans, they will often have to offer their child’s labour to repay the additional debt – thus trapping the next generation into bonded labour. Family members can also become bonded labourers through inherited debt when original debtors within their family die.

Participatory data provides critical insights into bonded labour

Participatory research involving the gathering of ‘life stories’ from villagers, revealed key factors leading households in particular areas of Nepal into debt bondage and also weaknesses in policy implementation that is enabling the prevalence of bonded labour to persist.

Click here for full report.

Gender and ICTs — Mainstreaming gender in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for agriculture and rural development (FAO, 2018)

While the digital revolution is reaching rural areas in many developing countries, the rural digital divide continues to present considerable challenges. The problem is even more acute for women, who face a triple divide: digital, rural and gender.

This publication looks at the benefits of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) when placed in the hands of men and women working in agriculture and in rural areas. It examines the challenges to be overcome and makes recommendations so that rural communities can take full and equal advantage of the technologies. FAO’s E-agriculture 10 Year Review Report concludes that while substantial progress has been made in making ICTs available and accessible for rural communities, challenges remain with respect to the following seven critical factors for success: content, capacity development, gender and diversity, access and participation, partnerships, technologies, and finally, economic, social, and environmental sustainability.

This publication analyses with the gender lens the seven factors of success, followed by an overview of the general existing barriers to women’s access to, control and use of ICTs. Finally, it offers a series of recommendations for better integration of gender in ICT initiatives, based on gender mainstreaming throughout the seven critical factors of success, illustrated with concrete examples.

Click here for full report.

A Video Storytelling Method to Enhance Agricultural Extension (GCFS Innovation, 2017)

This handbook was prepared for a workshop held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on June 13, 2017. Representatives from the Tanzanian government, university researchers, NGOs working in Tanzania and donor organizations attended the workshop, which was organized by the Global Center for Food Systems Innovation (GCFSI) at Michigan State University, in collaboration with Farm Input Promotions (FIPS) Africa. The workshop was based on several years of experience working with narrative videos as an approach to extension in GCFSI projects in Malawi and Kenya. GCFSI is funded through the Higher Education Solutions Network program at USAID.

The handbook addresses the following topics that may be useful to other organizations seeking to use narrative storytelling videos as educational tools:

  • Developing a narrative, storytelling style to communicate content
  • Involving community members and extension professionals in content creation that is contextually relevant
  • Implementing a screening strategy that enhances exposure to and understanding of video content
  • Coordinating and combining dissemination of video content with other communication media
  • Evaluating outcomes from the use of both participatory and narrative storytelling videos

Click here for more details and the full handbook.

Going vertical: citizen-led reform campaigns in the Philippines (Making All Voices Count research report 2016)

The Philippines has a long history of state–society engagement to introduce reforms in government and politics. Forces from civil society and social movements have interfaced with reform-oriented leaders in government on a range of social accountability initiatives – to make governance more responsive, to introduce policy reforms, and to make government more accountable.

Several theoretical propositions on which strategic approaches work best for social accountability initiatives have been put forward – including the idea of vertically integrated civil society monitoring and advocacy. This multi-authored research report uses vertical integration as a framework for examining seven successful civil society social accountability initiatives in the Philippines, looking at what made them successful, and how the gains they realised can be deepened and sustained.

Click here for full details and report.

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