A Voice For the Voiceless

MISSION

The Advocacy Project seeks to help community-based advocates produce, disseminate and use information, and so become more effective advocates for human rights and social justice

Information Communications Technology

AP offers a selection of services aimed at helping partners to produce, disseminate and use information. One of these services helps partner to use Information Communications Technologies (ICT). These pages describe the service and several supporting online tools that are available on this website.

• Intended beneficiaries: This service has been tailored to the needs of community-based advocacy groups and is based on AP’s experience of working at the community level and in response to the requests of many partners. It is designed to help groups that have very few resources (connectivity, etc.), and also those that are rich in resources.

• Adapted to the needs of partners: The service is tailored to the needs and capacity of AP’s partner organizations. It is clear that different partners will have different ICT needs, depending on their resources, goals and circumstances. In other words, this is not a one-size-fits-all approach.

• Available for use by non-partners: The approach described here, and the accompanying modules, are offered free of charge and for use by any CBOs wishing to make better use of ICT in their advocacy.

• Backed up by online tools: AP has developed several online tutorials and modules to support this service, Building Your ICT House, which can be downloaded free of charge.

• Tech supporters/trainers: The services are mainly provided by AP Peace Fellows who receive specialized training from AP before they start their field assignments. Peace Fellows act as ICT catalysts or evangelists – helping to build support for ICT and create demand within the organization.

• The a la carte approach: Partners are invited to select what services they want. AP recommends that all partners select the following four: assessment of ICT needs and strengths, training an “accidental techie,” building a page on the AP website, and developing a wiki page (for groups that do not have their own website).

• The package approach: AP has constructed an ICT “house” for groups that want to make a commitment to developing a more involved ICT program. This helps a group to assess and plan, finance ICTs, build and troubleshoot.

• Measuring results: It is important to set clear goals for this service. With this in mind, partners should mark down the services they need in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), together with a time frame. This allows for results to be measured.

• Developing a web presence: AP helps partners to develop a presence on the Internet that can support the partner’s advocacy and will not create an undue burden.

The Advocacy Project
1326 14th Street NW
Washington DC 20005
phone: +1 202-332-3900
fax: +1 202-332-4600