Summary

"Information campaigns to promote reconciliation can take many forms. ICT can be used to influence political leaders and audiences at an international level. Influencing political elites is vital, since it is such groups that usually generate and sustain organized violence; tactics to influence them may include political or financial incentives; and political and military deterrents; however, ICT can also be used to promote information exchange and dialogue between local communities. Rather than seeking to promote a solution from outside, the goal is simply to create space for collective problem solving between the protagonists. Local exchanges can be supplemented by linking people to people, both in country and in Diaspora populations. Sometimes this must be done with the acquiescence of local political elites; at other times it must bypass those elites and speak directly to the communities involved."

Excerpt from The Role of ICT in Preventing, Responding to and Recovering from Conflict, published by the ICT4Peace Foundation.

Resources

Accountability

Documentation Centre of Cambodia (DCC)

http://www.dccam.org/, a non-profit international NGO that aims to record and preserve the history of the Khmer Rouge regime and to collect data that may serve as evidence in any future tribunals, through online databases and submission of testimonies. ICTs include online photographic and geographic databases, and post-genocide family tracing.

Justice

Hyper-Spectral Imaging

Cutting-edge technology for locating deceased, i.e. post-genocide, by using special cameras that measure changes in the light from soil and plants. The research could help police solve missing persons cases or reveal new mass graves from hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago. Se http://news.discovery.com/tech/hyperspectral-imaging-dead-bodies.html

Reconciliation Processes 

War Torn Societies Project (WSP)

http://www.wsp-international.org, which seeks to promote reconciliation and social integration among populations in crisis zones. The project has developed a Participatory Action Research methodology to analyze and build consensus solutions to policy problems in various domains and build societies’ capacities for collective problem-solving in tense post-conflict situations.

Video Letters

The Video Letters series appears to have had an impact on public consciousness. Almost all the public broadcasters in the region have shown the series’ messages from former friends, colleagues and neighbors who have been separated and traumatized by the wars. The original site is down at the time of writing. For information on the videos and a write up on the project, click here.

Radio la Benevolencija

http://www.labenevolencija.org/en/home.html, La Benevolencija runs prototype large scale broadcast campaigns in Rwanda, DRC and Burundi in support of reconciliation and justice processes in the Great Lakes region, coordinated into a common strategy under the name Great Lakes Reconciliation Media (GLRM)

Gurtong Peace Project

http://www.gurtong.org, a Swiss-funded NGO initiative to establish a coalition for peace among South Sudanese at home and abroad. The project’s website provides information about Sudanese developments and relevant meetings and resources.

Search for Common Ground

http://www.sfcg.org is currently working in 16 developing and transitional countries and uses the mediums of radio, TV, film and print, as well as mediation and facilitation, training, community organizing, sports, drama and music to help people in conflict understand their differences and build on their commonalities.

InfoShare

http://www.info-share.org. Based in Sri Lanka, this NGO platform uses the Groove Virtual Office software application to develop customized “Peace Tools” – adjustable analytical and management systems for conflict transformation and peace building in the Sri Lankan context. These interactive tools allow users to undertake standardized assessments based on internationally accepted human development indicators, establish active and open source knowledge banks, disseminate training materials and conflict transformation and reconstruction approaches and case studies, build reconstruction networks between the various institutions and organizations, coordinate on logistics, and so on.

Report on global mapping of technology for transparency and accountability

The Transparency Accountability Initiative recently released the final report on a Global mapping of technology for transparency and accountability. Special Advisor to the ICT4Peace Foundation Sanjana Hattotuwa’s work in Sri Lanka using technology to strengthen democratic governance was highlighted as a key example in the lead up to this report. As the launch press release avers,

As internet and mobile phone use increases, technology is transforming the field of transparency and accountability making it an increasingly dynamic space across the globe. Technology is helping to improve citizen participation in decision-making and producing new ways of identifying public service challenges through processes such as ‘data mashing’. This paper documents current trends in the way technology is being used to promote transparency in different parts of the world. It reviews over 100 projects from across Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America, examining how new technologies are re-energising traditional methods. In particular, it focuses on how these new technologies are helping to engage different actors from citizens, media, authorities and the private sector. Our research finds promising success stories alongside less accomplished examples. The authors argue that a key element of successful technology use in transparency and accountability efforts is their speed – both in execution and in stimulating change. Well-designed efforts produced relevant and usable information that can be used to demand accountability quickly. Technology for transparency and accountability tools need not be sophisticated, but it does need intelligent design that is relevant to the local context. Projects also have a better chance of effectively producing change when they take a collaborative approach, sometimes involving government.

The paper includes a summary of the key findings and recommendations for further research in key areas of this field.

Read more and download the full report here.