ICTs for Conflict Prevention in Kenya Kersti Ruth Wissenbach

Butterfly Works Butterfly Works is a social design agency which initiates projects and provides ICT supported answers to international social issues. We are using ICT tools- and strategies in all our projects.

We believe in potentials! We do not believe in the Global Village. We believe in potentials! Within Butterfly Works we do not believe in the global village Nor do we believe in ICTs being the panacea for every challenge in the global South! But we strongly believe in growing potentials!

We strongly believe in people’s creativity … and the supportive effects of new ICTs. We do believe in the creativity of people and their own capacity in every corner of the world to make a change! We do believe in potential of people as much as we believe in the potential of ICTs .. if used in the right combination and channeling the right contents!

in their communication spheres and being relevant Meeting people in their communication spheres and being relevant Co- Creation Cross- Media Today I wish to give some little insight in how Butterfly Works tries to bridge the access gap, to be inclusive and how we tackle the relevance issue. We do Co-Create, to realize relevant application designs and create relevant learning experiences Work Cross-Media, to bridge access gaps, break through hierarchies, foster inclusion Build Networks, to initiate sustainable processes, self-maintenance and to scale up. We want to trigger global synergies through network creation! Network Creation

Experiences from the ground Cross-Media Campaigning Building Bridges - interactive peace campaigning and platform creation Co-Creating Social Solutions Geth2o game, serious gaming to trigger behavior change among young change agents I will introduce two cases of our work to demonstrate how we, as makers, address challenges of access gaps and relevant content / tool implementations. Both projects have been implemented in Kenya and both addressing the smoldering fear of a repetition of the post election violence we experienced in 2008 in society where ICT adaptation and access is growing rapidly.

Building Bridges Cross-Media Peace Campaigning and Crowd Sourcing The first project I want to introduce is showing a cross-media approach to trigger citizen engagement in Kenya

The aim To encourage and reward Kenyans to reach out to others to overcome conflict. To build a platform for collaboration and interactivity on nation wide peace initiatives. To create a self-sustainable culture of peace throughout the country. Early 2010 we built a online platform including the Ushahidi crowdsorucing tool in order to map peace initiatives throughout the entire country. We wanted to stimulate a growing civil courage to create and maintain peace on all levels. In order reach this effect, a wide reaching awareness creation / promotion campaign was needed

We wanted to be inclusive, so the online platform was not enough… 9 The base, where all information would flow together, was a online platform, including forum functionalities and social media connections (facebook, twitter) We used the Ushahidi crowdsourcing tool and built it into a Joomla environment in order to extend functionalities, brand and enable more interactivity ‘Handing over the stick’ – offering platform and support for self-expression: We offered the platform, we do not tell people what kind of initiatives we are looking for.. People could register their peace initiatives and report their stories. BUT We wanted to be inclusive, so the online platform was not enough… 9 9

The way Launching the campaign Spreading the word online and offline, urban and rural Encourage people to participate On- and offline participation channels, local media, bilingual Enable people to participate Mobile phones, hands-on support on the ground / phone Diverse societies and preconditions require diverse access channels, different media channels as well as different ways of communication Launching the campaign Web (Ushahidi mapping tool) Flyers / Posters Radio TV / video Newspaper Encourage people to participate and keep updated Local peace network organizations Community Radios SMS Mail letter Personal support Social Media, Blogging Enable people to participate Phone support Project visits Uploading projects for people HUMAN Support on the ground

Results and lessons learned 603 initiated peace projects Participants from all regions, most projects in Rift Valley Estimated 75% registered via SMS Popular Facebook (almost 700) Major waves of registrations following radio promotion Invaluable team on ground!

Here you can see the connections and links who bring the project together and who source the chance to maintain it

GETH2O game Board and Mobile for Peace Building in Kenya! The second approach I want to introduce – a co-creation process – I will do by exemplary showing one of our recent product innovations A board- and a mobile game on conflict management in Kenya The entire game design and concept, including the characters, the setting and the ‘slang’ have been created by Kenyan youth. Tell story how everything started..

The aim Communicate solutions to everyday life challenges and conflicts of Kenyan youth. Bringing message into youth communication environment. Triggering behavior change mechanisms through reflection – on and offline. Kenyan Youth as Change Agents! We see co-creation as a key to uncover the core challenges and find the right frameworks and the right ‘laguage’ to offer solutions for change.

The way To achieve a change of behavior certain things matter - Finding the right tone - Creating real life settings - Being relevant - Using the right means Several rounds of co-creation and cross-checking with youth in Kenya Therefore, it was crucial to hand over to our co-designers and let them develop their daily challenges and major concerns into a playable story. Therefore, it was important to find out from Kenyan youth where and how they communicate - Mobile phone, Sheng Which phones they use, what they do with them. Where they download their games.. Where they would play the board game and how they would spread the word.

Starting with making a board game and testing the dynamics Translating the multi-player into a single player mobile game … Going through the entire process closely together with our Kenyan youth group, They decided about the main daily challenges which should be addressed and how they are related They debated solutions and how to intertwine them They decided on the characters and how they should look like And the language and terminology that should be used AND They all love their mobiles and to play games.. So we made a mobile version, Again checking round for round, with the target groups

Results and lessons learned Game authentically mirroring real life settings Board game for rural access. Mobile game for dynamic message dissemination. Immense positive feedback on board game as successful tool to create dialogue and solution finding processes.

This network scheme shows how we work to connect publishers, makers, developers and users in order to spread the game and tweak it to make it accessible to more people, more phones, more languages..

Every situation at every time demands a new consideration of tools and processes. Keep looking for innovation, do not forget reality on the ground!

Thanks @butterflyworks www.butterflyworks.org