IATP Monitoring and Evaluation Report - IREX

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Wikis: These internet tools offer unprecedented opportunities for real-time collaboration on documents, projects, and resources between people in different (often remote) locations. According to the findings of the Web content online survey, the overwhelming majority of respondents 91% found wiki resources “useful and convenient as a datasharing tool.” One hundred fifteen wiki resources have been developed to date by IATP users who took part in IATP wiki training. Ilya Sagaidak of Belarus used a wiki to narrate the story of his journey retracing the historical 9 th century trade route along the Dvina, Dnieper, Lovat, and Volkhov Rivers which connected ancient Russia with the Middle East. His blog sparked renewed interest in historical tourism in the region. A lecturer of history at the Belarusian State University in Minsk, Sagaidak has been learning ICT skills at IATP since 2006. He published the wiki “From Varangians to Greeks” (http://ancientway.iatp.by) in the spring of 2008. Narrated by Sagaidak, the ancient account embodied in the Wiki generated intense interest in history lovers from Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. 93 Three medical professionals from the Central Hospital in Garm, Tajikistan, used Wiki pages to develop local language content in the medical field, at the same time improving educational resources for their students. The three were recruited in an IATP outreach presentation targeting medical practitioners at Garm’s Central Hospital in February 2009. After completing their IATP coursework in computer and internet skills and advanced training in Web 2.0 technologies in March and April, they created a Wiki site for their students in the Tajik language (Бемории_Саратони). Surgeon and Rasht District Medical College lecturer Dehoti Zoirov commented, “Although we can find sufficient printed materials and abundant online resources on medicine in Russian…most Tajik students face a language barrier in understanding these resources.” Zoirov added that his students also lacked the ICT skills to use online resources. These two challenges led Zoirov and his colleagues to translate teaching materials from Russian into Tajik and publish them on a Wiki page. With this resource as a model, physician Sobirjon Mirzoev says is now able to encourage his students to contribute to the development of other Wiki pages in the Tajik language (http://iatpnews.typepad.com/ iatp/2009/05/tajikistan-physicians-create-locallanguage-online-wiki-resource.html). RSS feeds: These tools allow beneficiaries working on specific issues to notify interested parties about the latest content and updates to their websites, without having to rely passively on others visiting their sites. Interactive website editors allow those without programming knowledge to maintain dynamic, appealing and useful sites. As a result of IATP activities, 98 organizations were trained to use RSS over the last two years. For example, in autumn 2007 and spring 2008 IATP centers in Belarus hosted the seminar “Online Media” for local residents, as well as for representatives of regional and national mass media outlets. The seminar introduced IATP users to a wide variety of newspapers, magazines, and other media sources on the internet and introduced RSS concepts for subscribing to these information flows. Within the framework of the seminars, IATP also introduced user to Belarusian internet publications, providing them a wider opportunity to receive alternative local and national information and to manage new technologies that allow readers to become active participants of news making process. 94 Mobile technology: IATP also began exploring the applications of a technology already in the pockets of the majority of Eurasians—mobile phones. The possibilities for using mobile technology as a tool to inform and connect are growing by the day. In 2009, IATP introduced the tool to a Ukranian NGO working on the social issue HIV/AIDS. IATP and the NGO Doroga Zhyttya (Road of Life) in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, spearheaded a pilot project in March 2009 to help 20 patients better adhere to their tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS treatment regimens. This progress not only benefits the individuals involved, but also contributes to the broader state of public health. Doroga Zhyttya, part of the USAID-partnered All-Ukrainian Network of People 93 For more information, see IATP Interim M&E Report, June 2007 – December 2008 94 For more information, see IATP Interim M&E Report, June 2007 – December 2008 36
Living with HIV/AIDS (network.org.ua), encourages and empowers patients to stick to their treatment schedules. Many of their clients are involved with drugs or the criminal justice system, populations especially susceptible to poor adherence. The Ukrainian government provides treatment free of charge, but medicine—whatever its cost—cannot be effective if it is taken improperly or insufficiently. In response to this problem, Doroga Zhyttya applied a mobile technology-based community outreach tool developed in Africa and brought to Eurasia by IATP. With IATP support, members of the NGO created a project plan to send SMS messages to the mobile phones of a 20 client test group. To implement this operation, the NGO needed only a laptop, a cell phone and FrontlineSMS – free software available to community-focused development NGOs. Now clients receive coded messages three times each day, anonymously reminding them to take their scheduled dosage (http:// iatpnews.typepad.com/iatp/2009/04/ukrainianngo-employs-sms-technology-in-battle-againsthivaids.html). Another NGO, Tamarisk, was among several local NGOs in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, that launched pilot projects in cooperation with IATP using mobile phone technology to promote social change. At the beginning of 2009, IATP began conducting training for local NGOs on mobile technology and the use of FrontlineSMS, open source mobile communications software developed specifically for the non-governmental sector. Tamarisk serves as an information and resource center for similar organizations in the region. It manages an online portal on citizens’ initiatives in Dnipropetrovsk, runs a media center for NGOs, and regularly organizes training sessions, roundtables, and other events for representatives of local NGOs and media outlets. FrontlineSMS is a valuable resource for organizations like Tamarisk in distributing important information to large numbers of people. After mastering the software, Tamarisk staff compiled an SMS mailing list with 50 mobile phone numbers of local NGO representatives and sent SMS updates and notifications on community events. The staff was impressed by their ability to inform dozens of people in a few minutes instead of spending half a day to contact them by phone. Tamarisk still uses e-mail to send the same information, but not all NGOs and citizen activists have access to e-mail, especially in rural areas. More people have mobile phones, and are more likely to read messages they receive immediately. Disseminating information using FrontlineSMS has had a positive impact on Tamarisk’s ability to reach its target audiences; at an April 2009 event held at the NGO’s office, 60% of attendees heard about the event via SMS. Participants expressed their gratitude to Tamarisk for using such a convenient form of outreach, allowing them to get timely information and facilitating their participation in what was an important event for the local civil society community. Tamarisk is constantly adding new contacts to their SMS mailing list and plans to divide it into several sub-lists for NGOs working in different fields. Tamarisk President Tatyana Barashkova commented, “We started working with IATP less than a year ago. Since that time, they have introduced us to a number of new and useful technologies. First, we participated in a series of training sessions on Web 2.0 applications, and organized other NGOs to take this training at IATP. Now we learned about a new opportunity to increase the effectiveness of our work through mobile technology. We are sure that the positive impact of IATP activities on our local community will be noticeable for years after IATP is officially closed in Ukraine” (http:// iatpnews.typepad.com/iatp/2009/06/local-ngos-indnipropetrovsk-use-mobile-technology-todisseminate-important-information.html). User-friendly website design: IATP helps local governments, NGOs and youth organizations design and update websites through a WYSIWYG (“what you see is what you get”) editor. This possibility unleashes the creativity and passion of local citizen activists without requiring any knowledge of Web programming. Since June 2007 646 regularlyupdated websites were created by IATP users throughout Eurasia in result of IATP web design technical training. Moreover, 49 e-government websites were created by local governments in cooperation with IATP. 37
Page 1 and 2: INTERNET ACCESS AND TRAINING PROGRA
Page 3 and 4: Executive summary .................
Page 5 and 6: I. INTRODUCTION IATP aimed to spur
Page 7 and 8: IATP users coming to IATP centers i
Page 9 and 10: IV. OBJECTIVE 1: Citizens are Empow
Page 11 and 12: NGO Officials IATP also partnered w
Page 13 and 14: Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurs have pr
Page 15 and 16: 6 Midline focus group discussion re
Page 17 and 18: Implementation of knowledge and ski
Page 19 and 20: Thanks to IATP’s assistance and r
Page 21 and 22: IATP center contacts where they can
Page 23 and 24: Libraries were also sometimes menti
Page 25 and 26: F. IATP Responds to Internally Disp
Page 27 and 28: G. IATP Empowers Youth in Turkmenis
Page 29 and 30: During the focus group she announce
Page 31 and 32: Year One : • 61 in-country online
Page 33 and 34: Natalya Polyakova, a 51-year-old do
Page 35: Objective 3 Outcomes : Year One:
Page 39 and 40: ment. The deputy decided to provide
Page 41 and 42: Tajik.” Through IATP’s free tec
Page 43 and 44: VIII. CONCLUSIONS A.Summary of Find
Page 45: there still is a need for free, qua

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