Reflect ICTs Project (Uganda)

The central project strategy is building on the work of existing community-based discussion circles in an effort to enhance the capacity of people to make strategic choices about the media of communication most relevant to them and the technology they need and use. Reflect is an approach to adult learning and social change used by over 350 organisations in more than 60 countries. Literacy and Empowerment is a partner of ActionAid that developed out of Reflect training in 1998; it now implements Reflect circles in 25 villages in Kabarole region of SW Uganda. The organisation currently supports 20 trained facilitators working in 11 village-level circles, mostly involving women, and 6 peer circles for adolescents in local primary schools. There are over 50 Reflect circles in Uganda.

In an area where education is a key indicator of marginalisation and poverty, literacy has been the obvious entry point for Reflect. However, issues arising from the Reflect circles have included poverty, disease, and power. HIV/AIDS has been an important element of Reflect work in the area, and links have been made with Strategies for Action, a participatory approach to HIV, sexual health and gender. The school circles were developed for adolescents to share information and attitudes around sexual health and HIV with their peers away from their parents. Another major component has been agriculture, as income is a major issue.

Types of communication means and technologies being used in the work of current Reflect circles in Uganda include:

• Reflect circles in which people share information and analyse issues directly, and facilitators meet regularly to share lessons and strategies;
• Drama groups that have been trained to highlight certain issues;
• Videos distributed from the district level with key messages on issues including HIV/AIDS and agriculture; and
• Religious centres, which can be used to disseminate information (through sermons, counselling services, burials, visits to the sick). There are 47 religious centres in an area of only 25 villages.

During the first year, the groups are encouraged to analyse issues around their own access to and control of information relating to their livelihoods. This process includes looking at the value of information to people's own lives, the control of information resources, existing sources of information, and communication mechanisms. This analysis leads to a planning process at community level, whereby choices are made about the use of a grant for technology and staff to be provided in the second and third years. The resulting 'communications centres', or whatever materialises from the planning processes, will be monitored according to indicators and objectives set by the communities themselves. This is our way of assessing what economically poor and marginalised people want from the new information technologies and media available today.

Technology, Economic Development, HIV/AIDS, Agriculture, Youth.