Afronet (Inter-African Network for Human Rights and Development) - Lusaka, Zambia

Full case study report Published July 22, 2003 By Maartje Op de Coul, New Media Evaluation Manager, OneWorld International Introduction OneWorld is part of the Building Digital Opportunities programme sponsored by the British, Swiss, Dutch and Canadian governments. One of the elements in this programme is an ICT survey that aims "to give decision makers a clear understanding of how civil society is actually using ICT and its impact through a comprehensive study". It was decided that could be done best through a number of case studies on different uses of ICTs. Throughout the different studies "impact" is considered in terms of opportunity, empowerment and security(1). The present study focuses on the use and impact of ICTs by the Inter-African Network for Human Rights and Development (Afronet), an umbrella organisation for human rights in Zambia. Afronet uses a website and e-mail for the dissemination of information and communication with their stakeholders. Internally they have PC's and access to e-mail and internet to make their work more efficient. About Afronet Afronet originated in London as a result of the 1993 Geneva WSSD Conference. At that time one was concerned that African human rights issues were mainly communicated on by non-Africans. Therefore the Afronet secretariat was established in Lusaka, Zambia. As it was meant to be a truly African network, another office was opened in Lagos, Nigeria in 1994/5. However, because of lack of coherence between the two offices, the Lagos office was closed and Afronet effectively covers only Southern Africa. This regional human rights work is coordinated by Sahringon. The aims of Afronet are to network human rights activities and organisations all over Africa and to gather and disseminate information on the enhancement of human rights, accountable government and development in Africa. They further challenge corruption by facilitating programs of empowerment and participation for the purpose of ensuring public accountability at all levels of the African society. Afronet also tries to ensure effective and representative participation of African NGOs before international bodies, institutions and gatherings devoted to human rights and development. The Afronet targetgroup consists of intermediaries like human rights NGOs and lawyers, policemen and academics, but also the general citizenry. They reach their targetgroup through a number of publications such as position papers, human rights reports, the Human Rights Observer and the Southern African Human Rights review. The latter are quarterly magazines and "they are sent the world over. Caribbean, Asia, you name it" says Yuyo Nachali-Kambikambi, the information officer. For more urgent issues Afronet produces human rights alerts and press releases, on average at least two every month. Till September 2002 Afronet also had a Zambian weekly newspaper called the Monitor, one of the few non-governmental newspapers in Zambia. Though the Monitor is officially independent now, Afronet still owns 90% of its shares. Afronet has a yearly budget of around 1 million US dollars of which 50% is dedicated to their regional activities (Sahringon) and 50% for Afronet. Among the donors are NORAD, DANIDA, SIDA, Ireland Aid, USAID, Australia Aid, Norwegian and Danish Church Aid and Hivos. It is so called basket funding, meaning that (almost) all donors put money in one "basket" from which Afronet can fund its activities. The most important use of ICTs by Afronet is for the purposes of disseminating human rights information (through the Afronet website) and for communication with their constituency (through e-mail). ICTs are also used internally to make the work processes more efficient. Afronet and ICTs - the website Mbinji-Tange Mufalo, Webmaster of Afronet, Zambia Mbinji-Tange Mufalo, the present webmaster and overall ICT responsible within Afronet, is at the same time environmentalist and lecturer at the University of Zambia. His first involvement with the internet dates back to 1992 when he was connected to NASA. By 1996 he had become a webmaster and came to Afronet to sell his product, a website. Afronet contracted him to build the site and till two years ago Mbinji has been responsible for its maintenance. Even when he was studying in Cape Town he proceeded updating the site. Now the updating is partly outsourced. The website is in plain HTML and Mbinji uses Frontpage and Text Editor to modify the content. There are no databases linked to the site. The site needs some reconstruction since updating the content is a tedious process and thus not done regularly. The Afronet site was first hosted with Zamnet, the pioneer Zambian ISP. But from 1999 onwards the site was hosted abroad with OneWorld in the UK, mainly because of security reasons: the Zambian government sometimes tempered with content on the Afronet site that was viewed as critical of the government. Hosting abroad is also a lot better and cheaper; with OneWorld it is even free. The site is mirrored with SANGONeT in South Africa (for usd 25 a month only), which is why they have two different URL's. "Whenever I upload, the easiest [Oneworld or SANGONeT] will be uploaded first and then it is linked to the other one" explains Mbinji. Aim and audience The aim of Afronet's website is to communicate their human rights information to people all over the world. Apart from the quarterly publications, the website is an excellent tool for spreading and archiving Afronet and Sahringon human rights alerts and press statements. But Yuyo explains that to actually realize that, the site needs reconstruction first. Though she would like to see more articles on the site she says "it would be too much to publish them fully on the website; we only pick one or two articles". Local Zambian people are not the target audience of the site, because most of them do not have access to the internet and sometimes do not understand English. Only those Zambians working on donor projects have access and Mbinji says that in internet cafes mainly foreign sites are viewed. Local sites are mostly visited by Zambians living abroad...For the Zambian constituency the information is therefore still disseminated in print. The people who do visit Afronet's site, as evidenced from tracers, are mainly academic institutions and students, human rights NGOs, inter-governmental organisations and civil society in general, most of them abroad. Afronet is able to track its audience through an application called Tracer, but the last time Mbinji checked was in 2001. SANGONeT provides web statistics; from OneWorld they have never asked stats. There are quite a lot of e-mails coming from the site (see next paragraph) and once every two or three months, Mbinji checks search engines to see where Afronet is cited or linked. One of the consequences of the "de-linking" of the Monitor is that their sites are not connected any longer. The Afronet site is now not updated anymore in the same rhythm as the Monitor site, but only once every three months as a minimum, and when need arises. "What used to drive us to update used to be the Monitor. We used to get features from there. We don't have so much content". As a consequence, the traffic to the Afronet site has probably reduced significantly. "Now most of our readers know we produce content only on a quarterly basis. So they know that if they read something new in December, nothing new will come until April". Benefits of the website When asked for the most important benefits the website has brought about, Mbinji mentions the significant cost reduction caused by the fact that they don't have to send their publications around the world anymore by snail-mail or even courier. The most costly mailings were the ones going outside Africa, where now the majority can access the information through the internet. Another positive effect of Afronet having a website is that it generates many requests from foreign volunteers. Afronet always hosts one or more volunteers at the time for which they only have to arrange accommodation (normally with one of the staff members). Thirdly Mbinji states that because of its website Afronet is much easier to be found by donors and national governors. The latter are important since in many cases the (Zambian) state is the target of their activities and Afronet has quite some influence on them. Yuyo has a somewhat different opinion. She doesn't see the website as an alternative for print publications and says "most people like hard copy instead of a website". There is no need for cost reduction, since the publication and dissemination of their quarterly magazines are funded anyway and there is no subscription fee. Promotion and networking are the main assets of the site in her opinion. "Afronet is the most famous human rights organisation in Southern Africa now, and I suppose that is because of the website as well". On the future reconstructed site she hopes to have online discussion for instance on the current debate on constitutional review. And if Afronet would have a poll on the website, that would make it easier to take their points of view to the government. She would also like to have an archive of all press releases and human rights alerts. Such an archive would save her a lot of time and hassle, because now for every request she physically has to go through all the files to find a specific alert or press release from the past. And "people (in other time zones) don't have to call me at odd hours anymore. The website could make clear our mandate and what our boundaries are, what we can help with and what we cannot help with". However, for all these important reconstructions to take place, there seem to be two major obstacles. One is the workload of Mbinji who has so many responsibilities that it will be hard for him to find time for the longer term reconstruction activities. The other is the decision making process within Afronet where every little change has to be agreed on. In Yuyo's words: "whatever we decide to do with that website will have to come from a meeting". This sounds democratic, but the down side is that it really seems to impede the process and may also temper the urge to reconstruct. Afronet and ICTs - e-mail and newsletter Yuyo is, apart from the publications, also responsible for the first contacts with anyone who has an information request to Afronet. She then either responds herself or passes on the request to a colleague. After her e-mail address was put on the website a lot more e-mails came in. Now she receives about 200 mails (including newsletters) every day asking for information etc. "I am in the office at 7.00 AM just because of e-mail" she says. Some of the incoming e-mails are an incentive for Afronet to make a human rights alert or a press release. And Yuyo explains that in their turn "through e-mail we have been able to circulate our press statements and alerts more quickly than faxing and that sort of thing". It has made work more easy and the alerts are a lot more timely now". Afronet also has a newsletter through which only the alerts and press releases are spread. They used to have "Sahringon brief" as well. It was bi-weekly, but slowed down considerably because the countries stopped feeding in. It has ended now, but it may be resumed in June or July. The main benefit of e-mail and newsletters - both incoming and outgoing - seems to be the increase of communication and knowledge sharing with Afronet's stakeholders. Moreover, these tools have increased and widened the stakeholders involved in their human rights work. "Now at least we have contacts in strategic places" and "we can now participate in an online campaign of Amnesty International" says Yuyo. Afronet and ICTs - internal use of PC's, LAN and internet In 1997 USAID donated a sum of usd 65.000 for 12 workstations, 4 laptops and 2 servers for Afronet. Out of those 12 workstations, 3 are still working and the rest has been replaced. They use an IBM proxy server for the LAN now. All Afronet staff work on a PC with standard Microsoft software. Where needed designing or accounting software is installed as well and all graphics are done in house. An open source browser called Opera is available, "it's much faster in terms of downloading and it is free". Mbinji is aware of the advantages of open source: "now we need new computers because Bill Gates keeps changing his platforms. But Afronet's capacity is too small to switch to open source and the skills of staff are not sufficient". There is a dedicated ICT budget for upgrades, but if replacement of equipment is needed they have to submit a proposal to a donor. All workstations have internet access through a wireless radiolink connection provided by the Zambian ISP UUNet. The cost of connection in 2001 was usd 3000 and the monthly fee is usd 1000. At that time they did a cost-benefit analysis that concluded that a leased line with a modem would be cheaper. Unfortunately that solution only lasted a month till it broke down. VSAT (connectivity through satellite) is available in Zambia but it is very expensive to submit an application to the Communications Authority. The wireless connection Afronet has now is far from ideal; a possible explanation being that UUNet has moved its access points and is now already taking two months to redirect all dishes of its customers... Though all Afronet staff members have access to the internet, Mbinji has decided to limit browsing time; only between 9-11 and 15-17 people are allowed to surf the internet. There is no limitation on e-mail. Mbinji says "people abuse internet access; it takes people away from their regular work. There was a riot, but if you ask them what they are doing on the internet they won't tell". He also monitors which sites his colleagues are viewing. If we ask for privacy or ethic considerations, especially in a human rights organisation, one of Mbinji's arguments is "in Zambia pornography is illegal, that's also why we are monitoring. UUNet can terminate the contract if they find out". Mbinji and intern Charity are also responsible for ICT skills training of the staff. Mbinji himself takes advantage to build his own skills whenever free courses are offered, such as OneWorld webdevelopment training, or foreign interns as they come in. Afronet sometimes builds a site for a partner for free or for a very low fee. Mbinji states that all hardware and software have been good investments. The most important benefits on an internal level are the fact that because of the LAN the work is done a lot more efficiently. And secondly, access to internet and e-mail has largely expanded the horizon of Afronet staff, thus also improving their expertise and the institution's networking ability. The only negative effect is the distracting effect of access to the internet. Impact In the case of Afronet it seems to make sense to divide conclusions on impact of the use of ICTs in direct and indirect impact. Direct beneficiaries of the website, newsletter and e-mail facilities of Afronet are civil society organisations, academics and donors with internet access. The majority of them are located outside Zambia, but a considerable amount of them are probably Zambians. Other direct beneficiaries are the staff members of Afronet. Thanks to ICT facilities they can work more efficiently and exchange views with a wider range of people with a human rights interest. Besides, the website attracts volunteers and donors and (at least in theory) costs can be saved on mailing and courier costs as well. The overall emerging picture is that more effective external communication, exchange and promotion and internal efficiency, indirectly benefit the local community, though that is very hard to measure. One must assume that people whose rights are violated are helped by a quick and efficient communication of alerts and press releases. Their rights are lobbied and advocated for a lot more effectively through internet and e-mail. Alerts also reach (international) decision makers a lot easier and campaigns can include a lot more people. It seems reasonable to conclude that the impact of the use of ICTs by Afronet mostly empowers them directly and their constituency indirectly because their rights are better fought for. In situations with extreme human rights violations, security of the targetgroup might be enhanced as well, but it goes beyond the scope of this study to draw such conclusions. Sustainability Financially Afronet is hugely dependent on donor support; the general mentality seems to be that "if we need money for anything, we just write a motivation and a justification for our donors". At least until recently this seemed to work out fine and thus the need for to income generating activities is low. Afronet is tied to contracts with donors as even permission is needed to charge for its subscriptions. "Because it is free a lot of magazines probably go to wrong or old addresses, but that is very hard to check if people don't have to pay", says Yuyo. On the other hand, Mbinji seems to be very much aware of the importance of income generation and cost reduction and with his ICT activities he tries to save money. He considered establishing an internet cafe, but decided against it because of the workload. Despite the "threat" of one day not receiving the same amount of donor funding anymore, in the short term donors still seem to be willing to invest in Afronet. Proof of this seems to be the Monitor being on the verge of financial collapse after its de-linking from Afronet. Before (and to a certain extent still) the Monitor could benefit from all the relatively wealthy facilities of Afronet. In terms of human resources there is a huge dependency as well: a lot of work is concentrated on people like Mbinji and Yuyo. It is no exaggeration to state that without Mbinji and his enormous commitment, Afronet would be a lot more backward in terms of ICTs. Even when he was away for a period and knowing that he is webmaster, ICT trainer, responsible for the equipment, researcher and lecturer at the university at the same time, Afronet hasn't thought of maybe also hiring or training someone else to diminish the workload. It seems likely that if some day Mbinji chooses to change direction, the ICT part of Afronet falls apart. Conclusions Afronet benefits a lot from the application of different kinds of ICTs: their website and internet access, e-mail and newsletters and their LAN and PC's. For a human rights organisation like Afronet international lobby, advocacy, campaigning, networking, communication and information exchange are crucial success factors. It goes without saying that ICT is an important tool for all those activities. The only limitation being that internet access in Zambia is still quite problematic and costly. Therefore only part of Afronet's stakeholders/targetgroup benefits directly from their ICT activities. But all people we spoke to say that the investments done definitely pay back. The foreign volunteers, improved contacts with donors, increased contacts with likeminded organisations around the world, timely alerts and wider and cheaper distribution of their material, are the most important values added. Having said this, it is surprising that Afronet management seems to put so little money and effort in ICTs. The website needs urgent reconstruction and hasn't been updated for a while as a consequence. To save costs, Afronet could send part of their publications as pdf attachments or publish them on the website instead of expensive mailings. A good newsletter, discussion forum and opinion poll would make a lot of sense and keep the site active. Hardware needs upgrading and internet connection is poor. Despite the website and the computers it seems Afronet as a body hasn't yet decided to innovate and to fully use the possibilities of ICTs. Otherwise decisions on reconstructing the website, maybe cutting down the hard copies of publications, training and hiring more staff etc wouldn't take so long. For the time being resources seem less of a problem than management support. Unfortunately lack of management support is often an obstacle for people wanting to use ICTs to enhance impact. This is particularly sad in a situation like Afronet's, where so many achievements have already been made and so many possibilities lie ahead. Footnotes (1) According to the World Bank World Development Report 2000/2001 Resources "Afronet on the internet. Demystifying the Conceptual, the Maintained and the Expectations of Being on the Internet", Mbinji-Tange Mufalo, April 1999. http://www.afronet.org.za or http://www.oneworld.net/afronet/ http://www.monitor.co.zm

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