NGOs, stop talking, start listening

Reflections on the Partos Innovation Festival of October 12th, 2017

When attending an event on social innovation you generally expect to be welcomed with some great talks about inspiring initiatives, stories about good practices and like-minded individuals who want to make a difference in the world. You then leave with a warm fuzzy feeling and the intention to tell everybody who’s willing to listen to the lessons you have learnt. Not this year at Partos Innovation Festival. It was one a day of confrontations and changing your perspectives. In hindsight, Bart Romijn (Director of Partos) already warned us at the very beginning of the festival: “I’m looking forward to seeing some great conflicts today, that hopefully will lead to innovation.”

Give young people a voice

It all started with a talk by Kehkashan Basu, an inspiring youngster, who at the age of 17 has already won the International Children’s Peace Prize, founded her own Green Hope Foundation and mobilized thousands of children to act on the Sustainable Development Goals. This made the audience shift uncomfortable in their seats and you could hear people think ‘what was I doing at that age?’ One of the key things young Basu wanted to convey was to start involving youth in discussions about climate change. After all, her being the only child present at a UN panel discussion on Youth & Environment is just plain ridiculous. She’s not wrong, children should be involved; it’s their future too.

Africa on the rise?

While mainstream media speaks of ‘Africa Rising’, a term that refers to economic growth, Moses Isooba denounces this term and claims it to be an ideal made popular by romantic economists. He explains that ordinary Africans do not experience the effects of this so-called prosperity in their daily lives. According to Isooba, NGOs have done great work in the past, but have lost touch with the people they are trying to help and are suffering from heavy bureaucratization. Instead he calls for a new type of organization, led by local citizens, to create an inclusive movement. To lead by example, he has started his own movement ‘Africans Rising’ to make sure that in the future locals make up the majority in decision-making bodies (unlike the current NGOs in which 60+ percent of the employees are from the global North).

Digital imperialism

‘Ever realized that having infinite access to the Internet, continuously consuming information, reinforces a system of digital exclusion?’ is what Caroline Williams throws at our feet. She continues by analyzing the term imperialism and concludes that it does not only refer to countries, but also companies and groups of people enforcing their power on a certain region. She repeatedly asks NGOs to keep a mirror up and do some introspection: are you in it to help yourself or are you truly there to help the people? Among many tips on how NGOs can benefit the region they target (also see picture below), my two major takeaways were:

• As a company you should come, introduce yourself and your services, and then shut up. Let the locals tell you what they need instead of forcing your (IT) solutions on them.
• Don’t overestimate the local community in terms of their language skills. Translate your services in a local language and provide other ways of conveying your message than written text.

The downside of connectedness

Prof. Dr. Mirjam van Reisen is researching how new technologies are facilitating new methods of human trafficking. In her workshop she illustrated how the mobile phone has enabled a new modus operandi: trafficking for ransom by a combination of torture, extorsion and ransom collective of relatives. Before she continues, she first explains how mobile technology in Africa is still being rolled out and currently consists of a network of nodes and cables in important areas (hubs). Interestingly enough, a map of the Internet coverage in Africa looks very similar to the distribution network of the Dutch East India trading company (VOC) back in the 17th century, with key cities on the trading route. Knowing this, you could even go as far to saying that previous VOC slave routes look eerily similar to the routes now used by human traffickers who are using areas with high mobile coverage. Van Reisen ends on a positive note by saying that these ‘internet routes’ are also used for good, as data shows that refugees use them to find their way from city to city and stay in contact with their close ones.

Unlocking government data

Transparency is key in current-day governance. Arjan El Fassed from the Open State Foundation advocates for open data and making it re-usable for all. With his company he is transforming public information, which can already be found on regional, national and even European data portals, into easy-to-use apps and websites for the general public. Unlocking the information in the simple way informs civilians about government expenditures, but it also empowers them (and even politicians who sometimes have a hard time gathering the information themselves) to make well-informed decisions which might help change policy. Yes, being able to compare the education budgets of two municipalities or knowing which NGOs received the largest grants is confrontational, and the Dutch reserved culture makes it challenging, this approach will eventually lead us to a transparent society in which citizens are empowered with knowledge.

Conclusion

This year’s event was full of confrontations for most of the NGOs — and the individuals — present. Some pleasant, some rather unpleasant. I imagine it definitely got people thinking about their current approach and perspectives. The day was summed up by a simple gesture by keynote speaker Killian Kleinschmidt, who stepped down from the stage, walked into the audience and said: “I see faces now. People I can relate to.” And that’s exactly what I hope most people went home with, the notion that you should really listen to people you want to help AND include young people in these talks.

We were also present at last year’s Innovation Festival. Liked this blog? Then I can definitely recommend reading our reflections on the 2016 event: What About Non-First World Countries?

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