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ICT in EiCC Checklist: A Tool to Ensure Your Tech Design is Conflict Sensitive

Thu, April 18, 1:30 to 3:00pm, Hyatt Regency, Floor: Atrium (Level 2), Waterfront D

Proposal

In this presentation we will share a newly created tool to check the conflict sensitive design of ICT programming in education. The tool is free to use, and was designed collaboratively by members of the Education in Crisis and Conflict Network (ECCN) and the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE). It was written based on best practices research and field experience of network members.

80 million children's education is negatively impacted by crisis and conflict worldwide. Many of us working in the field of Education in Crisis and Conflict (EiCC) recognize the complex relationships between education, conflict and crisis; designed well, an education intervention can ameliorate a conflict but done poorly it can actually exacerbate the conditions these children face. This is where conflict sensitivity proves critical. Conflict sensitive interventions are ones that avoid increasing the risk of (or aggravating the factors that drive) a conflict. Conflict sensitive designs also seek to maximize their positive impact on the factors that reduce violence.

Conflict sensitive design can be brought to bear not only on an education intervention in general, but also on the specific use of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) within that intervention.

Members and staff of ECCN and INEE's Technology and Education in Crisis Task Team (TecTT) formed a Reference Group to look at this issue, which led to the creation of a new guiding tool: the Checklist for ICT Interventions to Support Education in Crisis and Conflict Settings (ICT in EiCC Checklist). The checklist works at the level of extracted principles, ensuring that it remains relevant to any educational intervention, using any type of ICT tool. Use of the tool at the project level will ensure that project staff consider the potential impact of their intervention on education systems and communities in crisis or conflict settings.

During the presentation we will discuss the principles of Conflict Sensitivity and human-centered ICT Design which shaped the ICT in EiCC Checklist. We will also provide the tool for free use among the wider community of practitioners and researchers in general, hoping to recruit projects in conflict zones to pilot the checklist and shape it’s next iteration with their feedback.

The checklist focuses on the intersection of conflict sensitivity principles and ICT design approaches. At five pages long, it is meant to be a light and user-friendly tool that can guide reflection and planning throughout a project life cycle. Therefore, it is divided into 5 Phases: Analysis, Design, Implementation, M&E, and Close-out. The tool also tracks the holistic implications of an ICT intervention by breaking it into 4 ‘C’ components: the community context, the communication device, the content & pedagogy, and the connection.

The 4 ‘C’ components organized within each of the 5 phases provide a simple framework to check an intervention’s design. Ideally, this checklist should be completed during the early planning stages of an intervention to help avoid common pitfalls. And it should also be consulted frequently during the implementation lifecycle to help shaping thinking around issues that arise.

References

IDRC, CIDA, Minbuza, GTZ, SIDA (2004). Conflict-sensitive approaches to development, humanitarian assistance and peace building: Tools for peace and conflict impact assessment. Retrieved from: http://local.conflictsensitivity.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Conflict-Sensitive-Approaches-to-Development-Humanitarian-Assistance-and-Peacebuilding-Resource-Pack.pdf.
United States Agency for International Development, Education in Crisis and Conflict. Retrieved from https://www.usaid.gov/what-we-do/education/crisis-conflict.

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