Innovation Report 2022

Civil society innovation and digital power shift

Digitalisation as a driver for civil society innovation and impact

Digitalisation is a fundamental global driver of change influencing how we work, what work is valued and our means and media for dialogue and deliberation, which in turn shape how we communicate and think and, ultimately, our cultures.

Understanding and productively navigating the opportunities and threats presented by digitalisation’s widespread impact on communications, economics, values and culture across our diversity of global societies presents a challenge so multi-faceted and fast-moving as to feel impossible. Yet we must learn to do so. Digitalisation will proceed, with no finite end point, increasing tension between those already powerful and privileged enough to receive its benefits today – and its further promise to increase the amount of data available to truly understand our world and power better decision-making – and the half of humanity who remain unconnected.

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Decode Surveillance NYC

Amnesty Decoders combines citizen science and data science, people and automation. At the core of the project is the promise that digital volunteers with little or no training can help solve large and often complex research questions in human rights.

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We are...leveraging crowdsourcing and crowdsolving to disrupt really asymmetrical power dynamics

- Sophie Dyer, Product Manager, Amnesty Decoders, Amnesty International


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Code for Pakistan – Fellowship Program

Code for Pakistan works to harness the power of people and technology to build a better, citizen-centred ecosystem of governance for everyone.

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Do whatever you can with whatever you have… build it anyway, build it in the open, talk about it… you might be surprised

- Ali Raza, Director Technology, Code for Pakistan


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SOS Children’s Villages – Digital Villages

The Digital Villages programme aims to integrate technology into the everyday lives of children, youth and their families by providing the necessary information and communications technology (ICT) skills and resources to support and improve their education, employability, training and capacity.

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Let’s make a lobby group together to talk to governments...corporates....local agents...to really push for this access to technology

- Maria Berenguer, Co-Team Leader, Youth & ICT For Development, SOS Children’s Villages International


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Rainforest Foundation US and ORPIO’s Rainforest Alert

Rainforest Foundation US facilitated a study to analyse whether indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon with direct access to satellite-based deforestation alerts could curb deforestation, when trained and incentivised to patrol forests and investigate the alerts they receive

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By putting high-quality satellite technology into the hands of those holding the lands subjected to illegal deforestation, this programme has democratised information access and shifted the power of intervention from the state to community levels

- Cameron Ellis, Senior Geographer, Rainforest Foundation US


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Plan International – Equality Tech

Plan’s concept of ‘Equality Tech’ is technology that in itself advances equality, generating products which raise awareness of the consequences of bias, and harnessing the power of technology to challenge harmful norms and stereotypes and nudge users towards more inclusive behaviours.

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Equality Tech has been momentum for the girls to rise up and realise the importance of how girls should come in and design...technology

- Lirisha Tuladhar, Campaign Administrator, Plan International Nepal


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Internet Society and Murambinda Works Community Networks

A community network in Zimbabwe grows from cyber café to local hub of knowledge, healthcare, and development, realising the Internet as a place of possibility.

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When people come online in many communities that we're working with...they become part of the world of creators, rather than just consumers

- Verengai Mabika, Senior Policy Advisor for Africa, Internet Society


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Rhizomatica - High Frequency Emergency and Rural Multimedia Exchange System (HERMES)

The High Frequency Emergency and Rural Multimedia Exchange System (HERMES) is technology that aims to address the communication challenges of isolated communities across Latin America where indigenous populations have
limited access to telecommunications infrastructure.

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Think about autonomy...because it’s good for us to have a network that we can control

- Rafael Diniz, Lead Developer and Project Manager, Rhizomatica


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Recommendations

  • It is critical to analyse the power dynamics around technology and data
  • Use this to inform where your organisation and approach can plug in and add value, and to do this without increasing risk, especially to programme participants
  • Find ways to move from consultation and customisation to co-creation with (user) communities and partners.
  • Connect the technology or data systemically with wider governance around it, to ensure a safe, enabling environment around how it is used, while respecting and recognising local and national contexts
  • Think strategically about the role/relationship with government
  • Emphasise ecosystem-wide collaboration, sustainability and anticipation.

Final Thoughts

Collectively, these case studies demonstrate the importance of principle-led frameworks for planning and practice for CSOs to contribute effectively to digital equity and power shift. These aren’t original insights and largely reconfirm the wisdom of existing good practice, especially the Principles for Digital Development. CSOs should follow these to think through every single aspect of any new digital- or data-related approach – systematically, strategically and with sustainability in mind – to position themselves as effective agents of digital power shift which are also not reinforcing existing unequal power dynamics through their own activities. Ideally, every CSO programme should be able to produce a clear, coherent narrative about how each of the principles has been addressed or integrated at each stage of the project lifecycle.


Partner & Donors

Special thanks go to our innovation partner, TechSoup, whose invaluable guidance, support and wisdom helped shape the development of this report from its very inception.

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