The recent rebellions in the Middle East and North Africa have shown to the world the power of recording and disseminating revolutionary events often denied by oppressive regimes; and the proliferation of mobile phones has proved to be a necessary piece of media weaponry for these citizen journalists.
How then, can mobiles be used to maximize the efficiency of their citizen journalists?
The Mobile Media Toolkit created by MobileActive, clarifies problems that may arise while using mobiles in media and assists citizen journalists in their endeavors to deliver their own perspectives of events to the rest of the world.
The Toolkit—available in English, Spanish and Arabic—provides how-to guides, wireless tools, and case studies on how mobile phones are being used for reporting, news broadcasting, and citizen media.
Citizen journalists often report out of necessity so mobile phones are a rapid, covert, and cheap communications channel to suits their needs. In hostile regions where journalism is censored or banned altogether, citizen reporters must be prepared for reacting to quickly changing situations and security measures.
MobileActive’s online resource has information relevant for varying prototypes, from the basic Java phones to the latest smartphone. The tool kit has five main components consisting of:
Creating the Content—Knowing how to capture multimedia enables reporters to capture breaking news and information at a moment’s notice. This section discusses capturing content (like photos, video, audio, and location information) on phones, both smartphones and otherwise; editing that content; (briefly) sharing that content online.
Sharing Content from Mobile to Media—Explores content platforms that let mobile phone users (including trained journalists, untrained content producers, or even “readers”) easily upload content to various mediums. This section also looks at blogging, microblogging, and uploading multimedia.
Delivering Content Online from Media to Media—Covers how to make content (text, audio, video, and more) accessible to a mobile audience in various ways, including text message alerts, audio channels like phone calls and radio, mobile web, mobile apps, and location-based services.
Engaging the Audience—This section articulates how to engage audiences on their mobile phones to make it more participatory. Since social media has become an important conduit for engagement, understanding mobile social media, “listening” to the audiences are saying, and thinking about audiences as participants and content creators rather than passive recipients of content. The section focuses on helping media organizations see their mobile-using audiences as participants in the media process.
Making Sure Information is Secure
The Mobile Surveillance Primer helps identify and understand the risks involved with mobile communication in citizen journalist’s work. The Primer goes over basic mobile surveillance, and acknowledges what kind of information can be transmitted by or stored in your phone.
The Tips and Tools section discusses specific use cases
Mobile Active’s Security Risk Primer—to help activists, human rights defenders, and journalists assess the mobile communications risks that they are facing, and then use appropriate mitigation techniques to increase their ability to organize, report, and work more safely.
MobileActive’s new Mobile Media Toolkit covers all the bases in what citizen journalists should know about reporting with their mobile phones.
Hopefully this how-to initiative will encourage more citizen journalism efforts beyond the Middle East and North Africa to all repressive governments, enhancing efforts for citizens to hold their government’s more accountable and transparent.
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Current discourse on the Arab Spring excludes social media as the sole perpetuator of the movement—but scholars and activists alike, agree that technology has helped to unify and project, citizen’s feeling of dissent.
My previous post about last Wednesday’s Future Tense event explored some speaker’s discussion on the West’s connection with new technologies, as either aiding or embedding the revolution.
Other panelists, however, elicited a more homegrown, internal perception on how the uprisings evolved.
Merlyna Lim, Professor of at the Consortium of Science, Policy and Outcomes and the School of Social Transformation – Justice and Social Inquiry Program at Arizona State University, discussed origins of anti-Mubarak protests in Egypt.
She claimed it was rooted before the Tahir moment occurred, stemming from three stages of organization—networks, narratives and claim making—to mobilize collective action.
The first protest organized exclusively online, without physical headquarters, was arranged by Kefaya in 2004. Using a website calledMisr Digital, Lim recalls, the organizers increased the reach of the oppositions movement through the websites by engaging weak ties.
After the death of Khaled Said on June 6, 2010, the participatory youth culture, added emotions onto their organizational network’s narrative—and Egyptians feared being killed.
Khaled Said’s passing changed Egyptian’s view on human rights violations, the panelist stated. While it was once an abstract narrative, they are now saw concrete infringements by the regime—such as corruption, torture, and eventual death.
Egyptians shared these contentions, spreading them by networks. “The Tahir moment was facilitated by cabs, signs, cell phones, word of mouth, SMS, and social media provided the organizing platform,” Lim alluded.
Ahmed Al Omran & Oula Alrifai Photo Credit: New America Foundation
Another panel convened by Oula Alrifai and Ahmed al-Omran discussed their firsthand perspectives on the violence in Syria, and the political and social issues of Saudi Arabia.
Alrifai, a Syrian youth activist discussed the origins of the Syrian protests. With no independent media and post-imprisonment of an Al Jazeera correspondent, she stated, social media and video were the only ways to get information about the revolutions to the outside work.
However, the connections to do so were not always available.
For activists, using cell phones with cameras was the easiest way to take pictures and record videos, but since they had no networks in the ground someimtes they had to cross the borders. Some activists, “were crossing the borders to go to Jordan to download the videos in Internet cafés and (would) come back and fight again or be on the street and protest, risking their lives,” Alrifai said.
Ahmed al-Omran, a blogger for his site saudijeans.org, discussed the excitement many have felt across the Gulf of the revolutions.
Though the demand for freedom and justice in his home country of Saudi Arabia is similar, the dynamic is different—elections do not exist, and Saudis are largely politically unaware because citizens are not allowed to, “practice politics”.
Ahmed only became aware of politics when he started blogging in 2004, as he was not raised discussing the government, but social media gave him an outlet to learn about them. “I think that the Internet and social media has given this generation a space where they can express themselves and engage with one another and talk about the issues that are typically hard to talk about in the public sphere,” he said.
Ahmed also stated that an uprising similar to Egypt will be difficult in Saudi Arabia because of the monarchy, but predicts it will occur because time is on the people’s side. “Money is a short term resolution, these issues need a fundamental solution,” Ahmed poignantly observed, “At some point the money will run out, the oil revenues will not be there forever”.
Though opinions vary on how imperative social media was to aiding the Arab Spring uprisings, almost all scholars and activists agree—it is an organizational tool that can bring like-minded individuals to collaborate for change.
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Since the Arab Spring uprisings, human rights activists worldwide have championed the power of technology, mainly the Internet and mobile phones, as tools for democracy and change. Evidence shows that they are right, social media played a role in bringing down dictatorships in the Middle East and North Africa. But other evidence shows that technology actually often reinforces social inequalities in other instances, giving more voice to the powerful, further drowning out the meek cries of the politically weak.
Social media has been successful when all social classes unite to take down the big bad evil dictators. The Arab Spring is the contemporary poster boy for this movement. The proletariat united, rose up, and took down the bourgeois in Tunisia and Egypt, and is still fighting in Syria, Libya, and other nations. Twitter hashtags and facebook groups were large players in mobilizing protestors, who came from all backgrounds—rich, middle-class, and poor—and simply communicated with their mobile phones to organize mass movements.
It seems logical, then, to assume that social media and technology penetration will lead to more democracy and social justice. The more blackberries in a country, the less the economic disparity. The more rural telecenters, the less political corruption. Or at least so goes the thinking.
Studies show otherwise. To the extent that inequalities between social classes are affected at all by the increase in ICT usage, they often became stronger and disparity increases. In a DFID study in 2005 on telephone use in India (Gujarat), Mozambique, and Tanzania, researchers found the most wealthy and educated people used phones more and with greater frequency, in both urban and rural areas. Other studies show that not only do more educated and wealthier people have greater access to ICTs, they also value them more, and use their for more development related activities as opposed to entertainment than poorer populations. Furthermore, the rich and smart are far more likely to produce digital content, solidifying the stronghold of the elite in societal knowledge production.
The relationship between ICT penetration and social inequalities, then, is more complex than the Arab Spring would suggest. The difference with the Arab Spring is that the people united to take down one leader, whereas daily life features far more social classes and political opinions, halting social change, or at least considerably slowing it down. While technology helped bring social justice to entire nations, it did not eliminate social classes within the nations.
In order to decrease social inequalities in ICT usage, then, ICT designers and national policymakers should consider stipulations to favor usage of their technology by marginalized social classes. Whether it be reducing costs to allow poorer classes to buy the product or developing voice recognition technology to engage the illiterate, extra effort will be needed to reduce the social inequality of ICT usage. Preliminary efforts by USAID’s Women in Development initiative show promise; other agencies should mimic their efforts to increase ICT usage among digital minority populations. Without these extra efforts to assist marginalized populations, ICTs will only further embed developing nations with social and economic inequalities, leading to future instability and lower quality of life.
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Muhammad, 27, fled his home in the port city of Latakia last March, and deserted his job as cameraman for the Syrian state television network.
He now opts to use his acquired skills for media activism.
Similarly, Osama, 22, is a soldier for the state army who refuses to shoot at his fellow Syrians in protests.
He now arms himself with a brand-new-video-equipped smartphone, instead of a gun.
These two cases exemplify a recent transformation from Syria’s previous state media and soldiers, to activists who are “bearing witness,” to the atrocities being committed by the Syrian government.
"Supporters" of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad shout slogans in Syria's northern city of Aleppo, March 27, 2011. Photo Credit: Reuters/George Ourfalian
The Syrian government uses their state television network as a medium to propagate images of citizens attacking soldiers during protests, when the opposite is reality; and airs images of peaceful demonstrators at pro-Assad rallies, instead of showcasing dissidents.
Civil society wants to achieve social change by recording what their eyes and ears see and hear.
Muhammad is rectifying his work on the state channel, arguing that the station “threatens people’s lives,” by refusing to film the violence against protesters, or blaming them for soldiers deaths.
He is making amends through his work exposing the true stories of Syria’s pro-democracy uprising, with a great combination of technical skill and secrecy.
The true stories of Syria’s revolution are unreported, he says, because the intelligence community, called the Mukhabarat, control everything projected outwards. “The world does not know what is happening here,” he says, “The Mukhabarat are killing people without any media attention.”
“Syrian media lies, lies, lies,” Muhammad states. “I had to leave my job to protect the Syrian people, here in the valley and everywhere else.”
Muhammad is part of a group of cyberactivists who clamor to obtain footage of military forces as they roll into towns. There are also Syrians within the military itself engaging in the cyberactivist movement, despite personal costs.
Military service is compulsory in Syria, unless they are the only male child or pay a heavy wage, and lasts almost two years. In 2010, army regulars were estimated at 220,000 troops, with an additional 300,000 in reserve.
22-year-old Osama is a Syrian soldier who obtains footage while serving since he bought a brand-new video-equipped smartphone in the Syrian tech capital of Bahtha.
“They told me that Israel had occupied Daraa, and some people there were siding with Zionism against our president, so we had to go and liberate the city,” he says. But “there was no Israeli occupation there. We were actually occupying the city, there was nobody else”.
In a still frame from video posted online by Syrian activists, a soldier appeared to plant ammunition among the bodies of protesters who had been shot and killed. Photo Credit: NYTimes
According to an article in Wired.com, Osama frequently takes days off to visit a friend’s house with a satellite link. The individual coordinates these teams of so-called video soldiers, taking their full flash cards and gives them back empty ones. He has recently been uploading and distributing the mobile camera footage on Youtube and Facebook.
One clip, posted online in the beginning of June and shared on a Syrian activist Facebook page, was supposedly produced by one of the shabiha, the militia loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.
This featured activist’s video shows heroic music over images of heavily armed men in uniforms smiling and laughing as they chat near the bloody corpses of two men in civilian clothes.
“I decided to start filming and documenting the truth when I realized the amount of lies we are forced to believe at the army,” says Rami, who is another Syrian soldier interviewed by Wired.com.
“This will be my weapon,” Osama asserts, and wonders: “Maybe one day, when this is over, I will throw my gun away and become a video reporter. Inshallah.”
While the outside world has been watching video clips of barbarism, Syria’s state-controlled media has repeatedly published and broadcasted violent images that the government maintains stems from protesters. It seems, however, both state media and shabiha are taking initiatives to show the reality of the situation, one video at a time.
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Amidst the Middle Eastern revolutions and wake of the Arab Spring, the U.N. released a report last month announcing that Internet access is a basic human right, but some people are unconvinced.
The report, which was released May 16, is in conjunction with the ongoing response to the disconnection of Internet access and filtering of content by authoritarian governments around the world.
The UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Frank La Rue, presented his report on freedom of expression and the Internet to the U.N. Human Rights Council (OHCHR) in Geneva last Friday.
The report states that the Internet has become an important medium upon which human expression occurs.
Mr. La Rue made similar assertions on World Press Freedom Day, stating the Internet is a public space that encourages the facilitation of dialogue in civil society. Alternatively, he contended, politicians can use the same channel to repress dissent.
The special Rapporteur warned in the report that fearful governments are increasingly restricting the flow of information on the Internet due to its potential to mobilize people.
“In recent months, we have seen a growing movement of people around the world who are advocating for change – for justice, equality, accountability of the powerful and better respect for human rights,” Mr. La Rue asserted in his speech to the OHCHR in Geneva.
He referred to China’s filtering systems which prevent access to sites containing key terms such as “democracy” and “human rights”; and the “just- in-time” blocking, which denies users access to key information during times of social unrest, such as in the Middle East, as events that are deeply concerning to him.
While noting that the Internet is a relatively new communication medium, Mr. La Rue stressed the applicability of the international human rights framework when assessing whether governments are unduly restricting the flow of information online.
“Legitimate expression continues to be criminalized in many States, illustrated by the fact that in 2010, more than 100 bloggers were imprisoned,” the Special Rapporteur warned. “Governments are using increasingly sophisticated technologies to block content, and to monitor and identify activists and critics.”
In the report, he explores key trends and challenges to the right of all individuals to exercise their right to freedom of expression, as guaranteed in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
The vast potential and benefits of the Internet are rooted in its unique characteristics, such as its speed, worldwide reach and relative anonymity. At the same time, these distinctive features of the Internet that enable individuals to disseminate information in “real time” and to mobilize people has also created fear amongst Governments and the powerful. This has led to increased restrictions on the Internet through the use of increasingly sophisticated technologies to block content, monitor and identify activists and critics, criminalization of legitimate expression, and adoption of restrictive legislation to justify such measures.
Mr. La Rue’s reference echoed Hilary Clinton sentiment on Internet freedoms and the U.S. continued interest in upholding the values of Article 19 when she spoke last January.
“The internet is a network that magnifies the power and potential of all others. And that’s why we believe it’s critical that its users are assured certain basic freedoms. Freedom of expression is first among them.” Clinton stated in her address.
“This freedom is no longer defined solely by whether citizens can go into the town square and criticize their government without fear of retribution. Blogs, emails, social networks, and text messages have opened up new forums for exchanging ideas, and created new targets for censorship.” she proclaimed.
The U.S. has made no comment on the most recent U.N. report.
One new idea featured in the report stresses that a person’s Internet access should remain connected even if an individual violates intellectual property law. This would typically apply to copyright infringers who knowingly download music and videos without paying.
This is one of the more controversial points in the report, as there is clearly a still a divide between how to balance the legal system with an individuals freedom of expression—without crossing the line of using the Internet for criminal purposes.
The Special Rapporteur went on to highlight in the report the need for better protections on intermediaries, which includes Internet access providers, and a person’s right to privacy with the inclusion of data protection
Mr. La Rue emphasized that states should include Internet literacy skills in school curricula, and provide training on how users can protect themselves from harmful content.
While this report provides good insight on how the Internet has increasingly become a vehicle for the freedom of expression and governments who deny access counter that liberty, public opinion has vacillated that the U.N. should deem it as a “universal human right,” but it has its critics.
The influential and outspoken critic, Kentaro Toyama, is one such opponent. “The question is whether the Internet must be actively made available to everyone, which is the implication of something being a human right. There are many things that are desirable, but which cannot practically be provided for all, and are not absolutely critical to dignified human life.”
Gordon Kelly of Trusted Review, starts his article on the report by stating, “Air, water, free speech… there are many things over the years we have come to see as basic human rights. According to the United Nations this week we should all start getting used to another, perhaps more surprising one, Internet access.”
Their points are important and risks becoming redundant in the public’s common notion of what the La Rue is trying to achieve in this report, however, that is not the U.N.’s objective.
By definition, universal human rights are international standards that are set to help guard people around the world from severe political, legal, and social abuses. Examples of human rights are the right to a fair trial when charged with a crime, the right not to be tortured, and the right to engage in political activity.
It this sense, it should be noted that La Rue was not discussing Internet access as a new right, rather as an addition to the underlying importance of the right to freedom of expression. This should also imply access to information and the right to express ideas and opinions.
The human right to the freedom of expression and opinion encourages civil societies participation, associated with other democratic freedoms like freedom of press that creates a safeguard for other freedoms that are critical to leading a dignified human life. A voice to demand basic human rights that are not “guaranteed” by governments can ensure other rights, like minimal nutrition standards and clean water.
Internet access is not a guaranteed human right, rather it is a channel and tool used to fuel further civil liberties that encourage social and economical development in oppressed communities. Citizens’ ability to have their voices be heard is critical to enhancing their livelihoods and quality of life, as they can hold their governments accountable to addressing and meeting their needs.
There are other tools that have been previously used to further citizen’s rights to lead a better life. Take, for example, national government and U.N.’s initiatives in water sanitation centers.
Photo Credit: Pulitzer Center
Water sanitation centers were not declared human right, but they still serve as instruments in creating a clean source of drinking water for citizens to survive on. The centers are not a silver bullet solution for access to water, just like Internet is not an all-encompassing solution to development, but these tools help in its aim.
Internet access should not be thought of as the only tool to be used to enhance these democratic liberties—mobile and radio—are also devices that improve the ability to freely express opinion as a human right.
In addition, when La Rue argued that universal Internet access reducing authoritarian regimes stronghold in oppressing online dissidents, this was also highly criticized.
Toyama writes in response, “…the reality is that any dictator willing to shut down or censor the Internet is already engaged in violating other more important human rights, such as the right not to be shot in the head or tortured by secret police.
Though he is correct that any dictator censoring information is usually engaged in other fundamental human rights violations, extending beyond information control, this is not a valid argument against free speech.
However, there is a core meaning beyond censorship and shutting down Internet access by dictators and authoritarian regimes. As evidenced, in Iran’s proposed internal Internet, and China’s Great Firewall, these leaders recognize the power of communication in fueling the change desired by their citizens.
It also shows that they the Internet is a communicative tool that can be used to channel that change, and dictators are immediately threatened by it.
Although information may not appear at the base of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the freedom of expression and opinion are still protected human rights under Article 19. Public opinion seems to side with the United Nations, or on the BBC World Service survey finding that almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the Internet is a fundamental right.
Last week a State Department official responded to the NY Times article on the “Internet Suitcases,” defending the main goal of the U.S.’s investment on the innovative technology as upholding the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights.
The Times article cited that the U.S. government is investing in individualized mesh networks, which are networks connected through individual nodes that do not have to rely on a central server to capture and disseminate information.
It was contested that this type of technology is ideal, and being provided by the U.S., for dissidents living in oppressive regimes to subvert censorship and avoid Internet shutdowns.
Acknowledging this, the official maintains, “…to fight against regimes is not the main aim, but rather, leveraging modern communication to uphold the freedom of expression of opinion is.”
Arguably, governments that respect the rights of civil society have nothing to fear in freedom of speech and opinion, further, they have no reason to fear freedom of the Internet.
The official admits that the Internet is not a one-size-fits-all solution and recent grants have been given to developing technology itself along with raining, and have been used on mobile innovation, citing mobile causing a, “pocket phenomenon.”
According to the official, “…the need is not one particular piece of technology or one silver bullet. The need is to be responsive to the ongoing challenges of people who are trying to call out the problems in their societies and give voice to their own future.”
The official referenced a Sudanese blogger writing about a YouTube video of a ballot box being stuffed, commenting that the National Election Commission would not investigate any evidence that was posted on the Internet. Instead, he/she cited, people posting the video were the ones being targeted and investigated.
In cases like these, the official recounted, it is the State Department’s obligation to help aid these freedoms by re-crafting the current model.
“And it hasn’t worked for Mubarak, and it hasn’t worked for Qadhafi, and it’s unlikely to work for Asad, and there are others who eventually will have to deal with either the stark choice of giving people the space to have a role in crafting their own futures or the lack of sustainability of their present model,” the official stated.
However, when asked by reporters which countries or groups this type of technology was being developed for, the official deferred questions about China, only stating that the Great Chinese Firewall and their type of censorship is a “different kind of freedom threat.”
…our goal is to make sure that we are doing what we can to amplify the voices and create the space for free expression and freedom of association and assembly online regardless of who the group is
The State Department’s recent statements are in light of the recent U.N. report declaring Internet access as a basic human right. The mesh networking innovation has the potential to leapfrog connectivity barriers and deliver freedom of expression to the oppressed.
Today on Twitter @ZiaGe, or “Patricia G”, posted a picture of herself behind the wheel of a Lexus dressed in her hijab in act of defiance. Saudi Arabia is a country where women are banned from driving.
She is one of the hundreds of Saudi women using the hash tag #women2drive to mobilize a campaign in an attempt to get a green light on paving the way to this new freedom.
Saudi Arabia is the only Muslim country that does not allow women to drive, and although it is not an official law, it is culturally unacceptable. Religious rulings typically enforced by police have the same effect as a ban, and women must rely on chauffeurs or male relatives for transportation.
Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world in which women cannot drive. Additional prohibitions against taking buses, riding bikes, and appearing in public alone essentially rule out independent travel for women
In 1990, 47 women took to the streets to challenge this ban by taking their families’ cars out for a drive. They were placed in jail for a day and their passports were taken.
32-year-old Manal al-Sherif, a key figure in Women2Drive movement, faced a similar fate last month.
Ms. Sharif was arrested for nine days after she drove two times and they were highly publicized on Youtube; she also highlighted them on the Facebook and Twitter campaigns she helped organize.
In the video featured at the end of this article, Al Sharif says women need to learn how to drive in order to protect themselves and their families. Additionally, not all women can afford to hire private drivers, she says.
This all comes in light of the recent Arab Spring uprisings, where social media is a popular tool to help mobilize campaigns and movements.
The Women2Drive campaign encourages Saudi women all across Saudi Arabia to participate in a collective protest scheduled for June 17.
Arab Studies Institute Jadaliyya has some more information regarding campaign plans, which included:
Encouraging women with international driver’s licenses (or those from other countries) to drive their cars on June 17.
Taking photographs and videos to be posted on Facebook in support of the cause.
Adhering to the dress code (hijab) while driving.▪ We will obey the traffic laws and will not challenge the authorities if we are stopped for questioning.
If we are pulled over we will firmly demand to be informed of which laws have been violated. Until now there is not one traffic law that prohibits a woman from driving her own vehicle herself.
The campaigns, which had attracted thousands of supporters — more than 12,000 on the Facebook page —have been blocked in the kingdom. In spite this, a few Youtube videos that have been posted, along with gaining national and international support.
Screen shot of Facebook campaign
There has been an online petition addressed to King Abdullah, asking him to grant women the right to drive, which gathered signatures from more than 600 men and women; and today, Princess Ameerah al stated in an interview that she herself wants to drive and promises a women’s revolution.
Alternatively, the Saudi Women for Driving, the coalition of Saudi women’s rights activists, bloggers and academics campaigning for the right to drive, sent a letter to Clinton and to her European Union counterpart, Catherine Ashton.
“Where are you when we need you most?” they asked in the letter which the State Department told reporters Monday it had just received, it continues: “In the context of the Arab Spring and U.S. commitments to support women’s rights, is this not something the United States’ top diplomat would want to publicly support?”
One reporter questioned that the Secretary is more concerned about not estranging relations with Saudi Arabia when the U.S. needs help on Yemen and Bahrain, more than about defending women’s rights. State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland defended Clinton, saying the Secretary “has been engaged in quiet diplomacy.”
More importantly, Saudi women are taking this movement, and their empowerment, into their own hands by coordinating their grassroots campaign using online tools.
Throughout Africa human rights violations are being conducted all over the continent, but technology is shifting the power of information into the hands of the repressed.
Leveraging mobile phones and FM radio have been the channels to achieve this objective, according to the 2011 Amnesty International Annual Report.
Political activists and citizens have used other new communications forms, such as Facebook and Twitter, now easily available on mobile phones, to bring people to the streets to demand accountability.
Salil Shetty Photo Credit: Amnesty International
“In many countries in Africa,” says Secretary General, Salil Shetty, “there is now a vibrant civil society, which, although often still repressed, can no longer be ignored by those in power.”
The report states that 2010 may be known as the year where technology aligned both activists and journalists to bring truth to the world of power.
The Secretary General also mentioned that innovative crowdsourcing technologies, such as forerunner Ushahidi.com of Kenya, have opened up a whole new set of possibilities for conflict prevention by tracking and recording abuses.
He acknowledges that they have been tools that have aided the struggle for human rights, despite the adversary from governments, in particular those in the Middle East and Northern Africa, to restrict the flow of information and censor communication.
In this sense, Shetty cautions, that the use of technologies are not a magic bullet solution that can completely determine and end human rights violations: “Technology will serve the purposes of those who control it – whether their goal is the promotion of rights or the undermining of rights,” he advised.
“We must be mindful that in a world of asymmetric power, the ability of governments and other institutional actors to abuse and exploit technology will always be superior to the grassroots activists, the beleaguered human rights advocate, the intrepid whistleblower and the individual…”
Even so, Shetty digressed that these are amazing times for human rights activists who recognize the potential of technology, which provides the context to evade censorship and reveal truth. They also holds the promise, he continued, that we will be, “living in a truly flat world,” where we are all connected by an accessible information that flows across borders and all can provide a voice to help determine major decisions in our lives.
“Fifty years on the world has changed dramatically, but the imperative for individuals to stand together to fight injustice and protect the rights of human beings, wherever they may be, has not,” the Secretary General emphasized.
Assessments of the state of human rights in countries across Africa, Amnesty concluded:
Uganda—law enforcement officers “committed human rights violations, including unlawful killings and torture, and perpetrators were not held to account” and “a number of new and proposed laws threatened the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly”.
Zimbabwe—“police continued to arbitrarily arrest and detain human rights defenders and journalists undertaking legitimate human rights work”. However, there was “some loosening of restrictions on the media and parliament debated a bill to reform the repressive Public Order and Security Act”.
Swaziland—“human rights defenders and political activists were subjected to arbitrary detention, ill-treatment and harassment … Torture and incidents of unjustified use of lethal force were reported. The prime minister appeared to publicly condone the use of torture.”
Sudan—“human rights violations, mainly by the National Intelligence and Security Service, continued to be committed with impunity. Perceived critics of the government were arrested, tortured or ill-treated and prosecuted for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly. Death sentences were handed down, including against juveniles. Women, young girls and men were arrested and flogged in the north because of their ‘dress’ or ‘behaviour’ in public places.”
These summaries were provided on a post on AllAfrica.com
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The State Department is financing the creation of external wireless networks that would enable dissidents to undermine repressive authoritarian governments trying to censor or disable telecommunication networks, according to a New York Times report.
According to the Times story released on Sunday, Internet and mobile phone networks are being created so they can be deployed in an area independent of government control.
The State Department-led project involves the building of a $2-million prototype “Internet in a suitcase”, and independent “shadow” phone networks by a group operating out of a building on L Street in Washington, D.C.
This comes to light after the U.N. and the U.S. proclaimed Internet access and Internet freedoms as central to free speech and human rights.
“We see more and more people around the globe using the Internet, mobile phones and other technologies to make their voices heard as they protest against injustice and seek to realize their aspirations,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote to the Times.
The new technologies made to circumvent oppressive regimes are currently in development by the New America Foundation under their nonpartisan think tank, Open Technology Initiative (OTI). The D.C. entrepreneurial engineers are cultivating both new technologies, and finding ways to utilize the tools from the previous uprisings.
The State Department, for example, is financing projects to create stealth wireless networks, including a $2 million grant to develop the “Internet in a suitcase.” The networking access points are designed to look like regular suitcases that communicate with each other to create mesh networks connected to the global Internet.
Photo Credit: NYTimes
These suitcases, which contain all the necessary hardware, could be smuggled into a country and deployed over an area to create a service independent of government control in countries like Iran, Syria and Libya, according to participants in the projects.
The other project is even more ambitious, the article states, where the State Department and Pentagon have spent $50 million to create an independent cellphone network in Afghanistan to offset the Taliban’s ability to shut down the official Afghan services.
This all comes after the “Arab Spring” uprisings over the past several months, which have drawn attention to network shutdowns and censorship conducted by regimes under threat like the Syrian and Egyptian governments. They attempt to stifle citizens’ ability to communicate with each other and to inform the outside world of what’s going on in the protest zones.
“The implication is that this disempowers central authorities from infringing on people’s fundamental human right to communicate,” recounted Sascha Meinrath, project director of the OTI, who is leading the “Internet in a suitcase” project.
However, Meinrath cautions that the cultivation of these independent networks also have can have a negative aspect:
Repressive governments could use surveillance to locate and arrest activists who use the technology, or persecute them for simply bringing hardware across the border.
Others believe that the risks are outweighed by the potential impact. “We’re going to build a separate infrastructure where the technology is nearly impossible to shut down, to control, to surveil,” says Meinrath.
The Times specifically discusses the foreign policy implications of these U.S. financed projects. After a decade long struggle in fostering media to evade hostile regimes like Voice of America, these ambitions are grandiose in scale. Alternatively, the creation of these new tools could be the next step helping to empower civil society.
https://www.integrallc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Integra-Blue-Logo-1.png00actualizehttps://www.integrallc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Integra-Blue-Logo-1.pngactualize2011-06-14 18:10:222021-01-11 11:41:44Innovative “Internet Suitcases” to Bypass Government Censorship
Did Facebook really fuel the revolutions: (Photo credit: Harvester Solution)
On May 5th at American University, a group of international scholars and Internet governance policymakers engaged in informed dialogue on current Internet issues at the Giganet conference.
One panel entitled “Revolution 2.0” featured two Middle Eastern Internet experts from Egypt and Tunisia arguing that social media was an aid in helping citizens topple the dictatorships, not it’s catalyst.
Khaled Koubba of the Arab World Internet Institute in Tunisia shared his experience in the revolution where 20,000 cyberactivists and opponents of the regime gathered in front of the Ministry of Interior on January 14, 2011.
“It is true that we used the 2.0 tools but it is not for sure that [it was] the 2.0 revolution or the Facebook revolution,” he stated, “it has been made by people who fight for their dignity, for their life…”
He acknowledged the message reiterated in the press that Twitter and Facebook were used to mobilize people and share information; but pressed that these social media tools also helped citizen’s regain confidence in their liberties, freedoms, and abilities to make change.
“Even after Ben Ali left, we are continuing even today to put pressure on the government [in] many ways using the 2.0 tools to make change to attain what we want to attain,” Khaled asserted.
He cited two controversial videos, currently circulating on Facebook, of Farhat Rajh, Tunisia’s current interior minister, speaking about some very contentious issues of the ex-ruling party and the elections to be held on July 24.
Nivien Saleh, an Egyptian and professor of International Studies in Texas, echoed Khaled’s sentiments that technology does not necessarily liberate.
It is the people who liberate themselves from an authoritarian government onto democracy. Social media is only one of the communication avenues that drive the mass outlook.
She maintained alternate forms of communication, such as strategies for non-violent resistance through targeted outreach, coupled the latent feeling of dissatisfaction, are the real central pillars for a population to mobilize change.
Professor Shaleh also questioned the future role that Internet governance will take in regulating the content of social media
“What standard [do] providers of social media such as Facebook decide [in terms of] what kind of content can make it onto their media platforms and what cannot,” she wondered outloud to the crowd.
She referenced the Khaled Said group on Facebook, where the government asked Facebook to remove disturbing pictures of the deceased Alexandrian martyr posted by activists.
“Facebook forced the activists to take the pictures down, even though [they were there] in the first place to protest and show that stuff like this actually happens,” Shaleh said.
It is blazingly clear from these two Middle Eastern scholars that this was not a Facebook revolution, it was a citizen’s revolution and social media was merely a channel to funnel change.
Please view the video below of the Giganet conference’s panel “Revolution 2.0: the Internet and the Middle East and North Africa” and the panelists viewpoints on the role that social media played in the Middle East’s uprisings:
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Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Director
Mr. Torosyan leads one of the firm’s practice areas as the Director of Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning. He brings 18 years of experience in USAID and other donor-funded project management, evaluation, and consulting roles in more than 15 countries across Europe, Asia, and Africa. Half of his career was dedicated to delivering development consulting assignments in field offices as Project Director, Team Leader, and Policy Advisor in projects funded by USAID, The World Bank, ADB, UNDP, and EU. The remaining half was devoted to managing USAID-funded projects from the corporate headquarters of development consulting firms in the Washington, D.C. area.
Mr. Torosyan’s technical expertise spans a wide range of private sector development topics, such as the improved enabling environment for trade and investment, firm-level competitiveness enhancement, value chain development, and increasing SME access to finance. He also has in-depth knowledge of public sector governance reform issues, including evidence-based decision-making practices, impact assessment schemes, regulatory convergence with international standards, reform of state-owned enterprises in the energy and other infrastructural sectors, anti-corruption, and improved public service delivery via Govtech solutions.
Beyond his extensive project management and advisory work, Mr. Torosyan has a decade of experience in project performance evaluation and monitoring. He has demonstrated his expertise in Monitoring and Evaluation Lead roles at a development consulting firm in Washington, DC, and as an independent Evaluation Team Leader and Principal Evaluator of multiple donor-funded projects in Europe and Asia.
Mr. Torosyan holds a Master of Advanced Studies degree in International Law and Economics from the University of Bern, World Trade Institute, Switzerland. He was also a research fellow at the University of Muenster, Germany, specializing in institutional economics, which led to a Doctor of Economics degree from the Institute of Economic Research. He speaks Armenian and Russian fluently.
Brenda Lee Pearson
Research Director, LEAP III
Ms. Brenda Lee Pearson is the Research Director for the Integra-managed USAID Learning, Evaluation, and Analysis Project (LEAP III) and has served as Team Leader for economic growth performance evaluations in Georgia, Kenya, Ukraine, and USAID’s global programs: CATALYZE, EDGE, US-SEGA, Women’s Economic Empowerment Fund. She served as the gender and social inclusion advisor to USAID/India and Indo-Pacific Strategy from 2020-21. She has been Team Leader for democracy, human rights and governance assessments and political economy analyses in Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Guyana, Honduras, Kosovo, Malawi, Romania and Tanzania. She served as global coordinator of nutrition programming for the United Nations World Food Programme, FAO, UNICEF and WHO. Ms. Pearson has provided technical assistance to projects funded by USAID, State Department, Millennium Challenge Corporation, DfID, AustraliaAid, World Bank, and UN agencies in 50 countries, and authored more than 100 articles. Ms. Pearson is the President of Cui Prodest, LLC, a woman-owned small business (www.cuiprodest.org) that partners frequently with Integra. Earlier in her career, she served as Chief of Party in Cambodia, Croatia, Egypt, N. Macedonia, Tanzania and Yemen.
Peter Levine
Business Development and Private Sector Specialist
Mr. Levine is a senior new business, project management and private sector development specialist with over 20 years direct experience in the design, oversight and implementation of complex international technical assistance programs, including extensive work in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. He is well versed in private sector development, agriculture, land use planning and international best business practices, with a strong track record for facilitating stakeholder relationships for tangible and practical results. He has a proven track record for impact with USAID, MCC, DFID and other donors, working as both a Team Leader, Chief of Party, or key member of a multi-disciplinary team on both innovative projects and winning proposals. Prior experience as Executive or Practice Area lead who helped grow technical, financial and human capital for firms/clients, including leadership of USAID projects valued at between US$25 – $75 million.
Elizabeth Ferris
Migration Expert and Advisor
Elizabeth Ferris is Research Professor with the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and an adjunct professor in the Georgetown Law School. From January-September 2016, she served as Senior Advisor to the UN General Assembly’s Summit for Refugees and Migrants in New York. She presently serves as an expert advisor to the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement.
From 2006-2015, she was a Senior Fellow and co-director of the Brookings-LSE Project on Internal Displacement where she worked to support understanding and protection of internally displaced persons. Prior to joining Brookings, she spent 20 years working in the field of humanitarian assistance, most recently in Geneva, Switzerland at the World Council of Churches. She has also served as the director of the Church World Service’s Immigration and Refugee Program, as research director for the Life & Peace Institute in Uppsala, Sweden and as a Fulbright professor at the Universidad Autónoma de México. Her teaching experience has included positions at Lafayette College, Miami University and Pembroke State University. She has written extensively on refugee, migration and humanitarian issues, including The Politics of Protection: The Limits of Humanitarian Action (Brookings Institution Press, 2011), Consequences of Chaos: Syria’s Humanitarian Crisis and the Failure to Protect, with Kemal Kirsici (Brookings Institution Press, 2016). Her latest book, Refugees, Migration and Global Governance: Negotiating the Global Compacts, with Katharine Donato, was published by Routledge in 2019. She received her BA degree from Duke University and her MA and PhD degrees from the University of Florida.
Quang Phan
Vietnam Country Director
Quang Phan has a 20-year track record of performance in running some of the most impactful projects in Vietnam and in the Mekong Region. These projects range from innovation and technology, sustainable public private policy dialogue and regulatory reform, and trade and investment facilitation. As an out of the box thinker, Quang has good judgement and a good sense of humour. He knows how to turn vision into ideas, and ideas into actions and results. He builds high performing teams and networks.
Quang has served as Integra’s Country Director in Vietnam since 2018 and leads the development and implementation of the USAID funded project in reforming PPP regulations and practices in Vietnam. Working with the home office and USAID/Vietnam, Quang has mobilized a team of international and local experts to work with the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the National Assembly, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the business community on developing the first PPP Law of Vietnam. The team has built the capacity of a public private partnership committee that advocates for good PPP regulations and practices in Vietnam and piloted a PPP pipeline development tool in two provinces.
Theresa Miles Director, Business Operations
Ms. Theresa Miles is Integra’s Director of Business Operations and leads contract administrative management and oversees project operations and financial management. She guides the development of effective project operations and financial standards and operationalizing structures for delivery, risk management, reporting, and forecasting. She is also serving as the Operations Manager for the Integra-managed USAID Learning, Evaluation, and Analysis project (LEAP III), a five-year project that supports USAID globally by providing independent high-quality analytical services; strategy and project design; monitoring and evaluation; training; and knowledge management.
Theresa has 25 years of experience in international development and project management in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and South Asia. She has split her career between home office project support and management roles and overseas roles. She excels at organizing and increasing efficiencies by examining operations, analyzing needs, identifying duplication of effort and tailoring policies and procedures to project, organization, and donor requirements.
She has long-term experience in Ghana, Uganda, Madagascar, India, Democratic Republic of Congo and short-term experience in Mexico, Egypt, Mongolia and Tanzania. Theresa holds an MA in International Policy from the Monterey Institute of International Studies and has a general understanding of Spanish and working knowledge of French. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her dogs, antiquing, and refurbishing old furniture.
Theresa Miles
Director, Business Operations
Ms. Theresa Miles is Integra’s Director of Business Operations and leads contract administrative management and oversees project operations and financial management. She guides the development of effective project operations and financial standards and operationalizing structures for delivery, risk management, reporting, and forecasting. She is also serving as the Operations Manager for the Integra-managed USAID Learning, Evaluation, and Analysis project (LEAP III), a five-year project that supports USAID globally by providing independent high-quality analytical services; strategy and project design; monitoring and evaluation; training; and knowledge management.
Theresa has 25 years of experience in international development and project management in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and South Asia. She has split her career between home office project support and management roles and overseas roles. She excels at organizing and increasing efficiencies by examining operations, analyzing needs, identifying duplication of effort and tailoring policies and procedures to project, organization, and donor requirements.
She has long-term experience in Ghana, Uganda, Madagascar, India, Democratic Republic of Congo and short-term experience in Mexico, Egypt, Mongolia and Tanzania. Theresa holds an MA in International Policy from the Monterey Institute of International Studies and has a general understanding of Spanish and working knowledge of French. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her dogs, antiquing, and refurbishing old furniture.
Penelope Norton
Associate
Penelope is an Associate at Integra, where she supports a variety of USAID and MCC-funded projects. She has more than five years of experience in operations and project management and provides backstopping support on activities. Responsibilities include managing activity budgets, providing logistical support, recruiting, contracts, and travel preparations. Other experience includes data collection, program evaluation, quality assurance, and two years of program implementation in Guatemala.
Penelope holds an MS in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University with a concentration in Prevention, Reconstruction and Stabilization, and a BA in International Affairs from James Madison University. When not working, Penelope enjoys international travel or camping in the amazing US National Parks.
Kethi Mullei
Learning and Evaluation Director
Kethi Mullei is a social researcher and qualitative analyst with over 15 years of experience working in development in Sub-Saharan Africa, primarily East Africa. Her most recent long-term position was with the BMGF CIFF & Hewlett – funded program, HCDExchange, serving as the Learning Lead. She recently joined Integra as Learning and Evaluation Director to support the USAID/Kenya & East Africa Mission.
Kethi is a passionate learner and researcher with a background in global public health and a keen interest in generating evidence on the value of applying simple, replicable yet rigorous human-centered and action-oriented methodologies for optimal application in improving the quality of global health interventions and outcomes in the Global South. She brings a great wealth of experience in health policy analysis & development, protocol & product development (learning agendas, practical guidance), literature/ desk reviews, knowledge management, and application of participatory and one-to-one learning methods in practice (e.g., capturing success stories, appreciative inquiry (AI), outcome harvesting). Having worked for 15 years collaborating with various stakeholders—civil society, research institutions, private sector, and funders/donors—she is an eager contributor to the broad field of global health.
Sarah Eissler
Evaluation Specialist
Sarah is an evaluation specialist with broad international experience designing, implementing, and analyzing mixed-methods research and evaluation projects addressing issues in agriculture, food security and nutrition, climate change, women’s empowerment, and the environment. Sarah currently works as an independent consultant to lead and support mixed-method evaluations for USAID, UN Agencies, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, among others. She has supported several Integra activities under the LEAP III project as a data analytics and research design specialist with specific attention to the design and analysis of qualitative data. Recently, she has supported a strategic review of USAID’s Partnering to Accelerate Entrepreneurship (PACE) Initiative, a portfolio performance evaluation of the former USAID Women’s Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) Initiative, a strategic review of USAID’s Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) program, and evaluations and assessments in Egypt and Ukraine. She has a dual Ph.D. in Rural Sociology and Human Dimensions of Natural Resources and the Environment, and dual M.S. degrees in Rural Sociology and International Agriculture and Development from Penn State University.
Meziane Menasria
Associate
Meziane is an Associate at Integra, where he supports the MCC-funded Togo project and several other USAID projects. He brings more than seven years of experience working for a global K-12 education non-profit organization where he contributed project management, business intelligence, team management, budget tracking, and recruiting. He is a fluent French speaker and conversational in Spanish and Polish. He holds a BA in Government & Politics from the University of Maryland, College Park. In his free time, he enjoys watching club and international football (soccer) and hiking in the great outdoors.
Julienne Kaman
Technical Advisor – Papua New Guinea
Julienne Kaman serves as the Technical Advisor in Papua New Guinea (PNG) under USAID’s Asia Emerging Opportunities mechanism. Ms. Kaman has spent more than 30 years in the teaching profession, researching and doing consultancies in several PNG universities. She has taken short-term consultancies with the PNG Government and Governments of other Pacific Island countries, namely the Republic of Nauru. Ms. Kaman has also worked with international organizations such as UNICEF, UNDP, UNESCO, and the Incentive Fund Program of the Australian Government and with international nongovernment organizations in the country, namely, Save the Children Fund and Asia Pacific Bureau of Adult Education (ASPBAE) and with local companies such as Tanorama. As a certified and experienced teacher in PNG, Ms. Kaman has also written several contextualized textbooks in the Social Sciences for teachers and students to use at all levels of education in PNG.
Mrs. Hoang Anh
Business Environment Sustainability and Transformation (BEST) Director – Vietnam
Mrs. Hoang Anh Do serves as the Business Environment Sustainability and Transformation (BEST) Director in Vietnam under USAID’s Asia Emerging Opportunities mechanism. Before joining Integra, Mrs. Anh Do had experience holding several positions in the developing world and private sector. She served as Deputy Project Director of USAID/Vietnam Competitiveness Initiative (VNCI), leading three impactful initiatives, including 1) Administrative Procedures Reform of the Government of Vietnam (known as Project 30) by the Office of the Government, 2) Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) for Ministry of Justice and other stakeholders, 3) Public Private Partnership under Ministry of Planning and Investment, and 4) Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) with Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI).
She also worked on legal and economic reform in the USAID/Sustaining Technical and Analytical Resources (STAR) project, which helped the State Bank of Vietnam, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Post and Telematics, the State Audit, different committees of the National Assembly to overwrite Vietnamese legal framework to implement Vietnam commitments under the US-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement.
In the private sector, she established and chaired health tech, agri-tech, and logistics companies. Her vast experience and network in Government and private sector are valuable for her work to accelerate the transformation of Vietnam’s business environment and sustainability.
Brenna Casey
Program and Business Development Manager
Brenna is a Program and Business Development Manager at Integra. She brings five years of experience in various project management and technical capacities across the USAID and MCC portfolios. Programmatic responsibilities include leading and providing task order oversight and support on contracts, recruitment, budgets, client and subcontractor relations, reporting, and quality assurance. Business development roles include strategic planning and pipeline development, market research, partner and proposal coordination, staffing, technical writing, and compliance. Technical capabilities include research and data analysis, including sectoral, political economy, and landscape assessments; performance evaluations; and trainings, workshops, and knowledge management engagements.
Brenna has managed several activities under Asia Emerging Opportunities (AEO) and the Learning, Evaluation, and Analysis Project (LEAP III), including the USAID/Middle East Bureau’s multi-year $1.7+ million buy-in for private sector engagement (PSE). This activity supported the co-creation and implementation of PSE Action Plans for the Bureau and Operating Units in the region, including Bureau and Mission learning events, remote and in-person private sector outreach, Private Sector Landscape Assessments (PSLAs), and a report on PSE opportunities coming from the Gulf region. She supports the kickoff of the USAID Europe and Eurasia Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning, and Decision Support (EE/MELDS) and MCC Economic Analysis BPA contracts.
Ms. Casey holds a MA in Political Economy from Georgetown University and a BA in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia. She earned an advanced certificate in Political Economy from the ULB Solvay School of Economics and Management in Brussels, Belgium, and a project management certification from the University of Virginia. She is also certified in project management by the Project Management Institute (PMI). Additional professional experience includes a graduate internship with the Development Finance Corporation and health policy consulting in Alexandria, Virginia.
Eleanor Roberts
Associate
Eleanor is an Associate at Integra, supporting the USAID-funded Asia Emerging Opportunities task order. She assists in managing and backstopping projects, including planning, organizing, coordinating, program execution, and monitoring. Responsibilities include project reporting, budget tracking, and analysis, research and data analysis, assisting with project recruitment, ensuring contractual compliance, and providing administrative support as needed. Additionally, Eleanor assists in developing communications materials for the firm, including authoring content for Integra’s website.
Before Integra, Eleanor worked at Meridian International Center as a Program Associate implementing the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) — the U.S. Department of State’s premier professional exchange. She holds a B.A. in Political Science and History from Denison University in Granville, Ohio.
Kate Fehlenberg
Director of Scaling Innovations
Kate Fehlenberg is an international development professional with over 20 years of experience across a dozen countries. She has designed, managed, scaled, and evaluated small and multi-million dollar programs in Public Health, Agriculture and Gender. With deep experience in coalition building, systematic assessments of new technologies, and strengthening local systems, Kate is uniquely skilled in Scaling sustainable solutions. Kate has worked for NGOs, researchers, and donors at headquarters and the field in over a dozen countries across Asia and Africa; sat on donor and fundraising committees; run hundreds of workshops, and trained and led teams in numerous countries. In her last overseas assignment (2015-2019), Kate managed a $15M USAID food security project across six countries in Africa. She established the SeedAssure Alliance, a public-private coalition to digitize commercial value chains in Africa to improve Ag technologies accessible to millions of farmers. She currently works with Integra as Director of Scaling Innovations, leading assessments of development investments for their market impact and sustainability potential. Kate has an MPH in Population in Family Health and Complex Emergencies from Columbia University, a Master’s in Civil Engineering from Ga Tech, and a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science from Samford University.
Paul Dodds
Enabling Environment Expert
Paul Dodds has a JD and over 25 years of experience in development consulting with MCC, USAID, DFID, the World Bank, AUS DFAT and ADB in over 15 countries. He has extensive expertise in legal analysis, policy reform and commercial due diligence, and experience working in AgCLIR analyses in varying capacities, with specific engagements for MCC in Tunisia, Philippines and Benin. In his AgCLIR work for USAID in Liberia, he focused on exploring the possible impacts of regulations restricting access to fresh markets for smallholder farmers and women traders.
Most recently, Paul brought technical expertise to the Integra team working in Bangladesh helping to design a support program for food safety and nutrition, and also on a detailed review of the new Vietnamese public private partnership law, providing background information to encourage the donor support needed for the law to succeed.
Paul studied Economics at Columbia and graduated from Harvard Law School. He spent the first decade of his professional career as a corporate lawyer and general counsel in Boston. He is now based in Little Rock, Arkansas where he owns and manages a growing portfolio of investments in renovated historic homes as his primary occupation. He speaks fluent German, serviceable French, Spanish and Russian and some Khmer.
Cynthia Mallory
Controller, Business Operations
Ms. Mallory has spent 20 years working with international development consulting firms. She currently serves as Integra’s Controller, and also manages Business Operations for the firm. She is an award-winning United State Air Force retiree who worked in forward locations during Operation Desert Storm and Desert Shield. She provided aid to supply officers, transportation commanders, fighter pilots and many more.
Liesl Kim
Operations Specialist
Liesl has been an Associate at Integra for nearly two years, providing project management and operations support for USAID-funded projects. She serves as the lead Associate on the Learning, Evaluation, and Analysis (LEAP III) Project, spearheading reporting mechanisms. She manages many aspects from activity start up to close, including drafting concept notes and work plans; recruiting and managing consultants; tracking budgets; organizing field work logistics; reporting on findings; and designing infographics/presentations to disseminate lessons learned. Liesl also provides support to the Asia Emerging Opportunities (AEO) Project and has worked on more than 30 unique activities, serving as the Operations Lead on 16 activities to date. She has also contributed to performance evaluations, such as the evaluations of the USAID/OFDA LAC Regional Disaster Assistance Program and the Power Africa Transactions and Reforms Program. Prior to joining Integra, she interned at the Asian Development Bank North American Representative Office, assisting in outreach efforts with stakeholders and partner organizations.
She holds an MA in International Development Studies from the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University and a BA in Political Science and International Studies from Pepperdine University. She is a 5th degree black belt in Taekwondo and attributes the global sport as first attracting her to the realm of international relations.
Kaitlyn Turner
Data Analytics Manager
Kaitlyn leads Integra’s quantitative analysis and data collection work as the Data Analytics Manager. Prior to joining the Integra team in 2020, she worked in both project management, and programming and analysis of impact evaluations for a number of research-focused non-profit organizations. She has experience designing evaluation plans, managing quantitative data collection work, performing data analysis using Stata, and developing reports and other dissemination tools for internal and external stakeholders. She has spent the last three years living in Nairobi, Kenya and working throughout East Africa. She has worked in many sectors including global health, agriculture, and digital financial inclusion.
Ruta Aidis
Gender and Economic Development Advisor
Dr. Ruta Aidis is a leading expert in gender and economic development. She has more than 25 years of experience teaching, researching, consulting and publishing in the area of gender, women’s economic empowerment, entrepreneurship, innovation, institutional development and public policy. She is an award-winning author with over 50 published articles, books and reports. Dr. Aidis has conducted multiple gender-related assessments and consultancies for USAID and other international donor agencies. In 2019, she led USAID’s first global gender analysis of the recycling and waste management sector piloting both the Women’s Economic Empowerment and Equality (WE3) toolkit and recommendations for Women’s Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) initiatives.
As part of the LEAP III program, Dr. Aidis is serving as the deputy team lead for USAID’s portfolio performance evaluation (PPE) of the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) initiative’s Round 1 funded activities. Previously she acted as the team lead for the 2020 Strategic Review of USAID’s Partnering to Accelerate Entrepreneurship (PACE) initiative.
Dr. Aidis is also a Senior Fellow at the Schar School for Policy and Government, George Mason University and founder of ACG Inc. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Amsterdam, an MA in International Development from the Institute for Social Studies and a BA from the University of Maryland.
Tim Schur
Chief Executive Officer
Timothy Schur is leading the company into the future by building on a foundation laid by Bob Otto, the founder of the firm in 2010. With more than 30 years of experience in advisory and consulting services, Timothy has filled wide-ranging roles in corporate finance, strategy and innovation, impact investment, business development, and business practice leadership. For the last decade he has been supporting International Development programs and investments for the United States, United Kingdom, and Australian governments as well as direct investments by governments across the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Throughout his career, Timothy has been a champion for performance-based contracting, impact investment and capital mobilization, systems enablement and knowledge sharing through technology, and program designs that result in durable solutions for economic independence.
Leading Integra is a return to the small business roots of Timothy’s career where client centric, nimble business solutions deliver impact for the investment stakeholders, beneficiaries and the individuals applying their expertise and experience to delivery. From a vantage point versed in traditional international development investors, cognizant of the capital constraints, and grounded in results measurement as the key to enduring impact; Timothy is positioning Integra as a key resource for government, private sector, and NGO clients seeking to capture and enhance both the financial and social return on their investments into emerging economies.
Robert Otto
Founder
Mr. Otto has more than 25 years of experience in international development and project management. He is highly experienced in providing consulting services and managing complex projects in private sector development, economic restructuring, and institutional development. Earlier in his career, Mr. Otto served as Chief Private Sector Officer, Financial Analyst, Project Development Officer, and Chief Environment Officer for the US Agency for International Development. Mr. Otto holds a MS in Management from MIT and a MS in Technology of Management from American University.
David Quinn
Chief Technical Officer
Mr. David Quinn is Integra’s Chief Technical Officer, where he oversees all company projects and activities. He has 15 years of experience working in international development projects and specializes in managing multiple-country, multiple-activity, mechanisms.
Currently, he serves as the Chief of Party for the Integra-managed USAID Learning, Evaluation and Analysis project (LEAP III), a five-year project that supports USAID globally by providing independent high-quality analytical services; strategy and project design; monitoring and evaluation; training; and knowledge management.
Mr. Quinn has conducted over 80 assignments across 23 countries. His technical expertise includes economic growth, policy and enabling environment reform, private sector engagement (PSE), and public-private partnerships (PPPs). In addition to his passion for international development (and Integra), he is an avid Liverpool Football Club fan.
Deanna Gordon
Director, Development Analytics
Dr. Gordon is Director of Development Analytics, as well as Chief of Party for the Asia Emerging Opportunities mechanism at Integra. She is an Agricultural Economist with a long track record in international development. Prior to joining the Integra team, she was with USAID as a Foreign Service Officer from 2005-2019. Her expertise is rooted in monitoring and evaluation, quantitative and mixed methods analysis, and impact evaluation. She has served in a variety of positions at USAID, including as Senior Agriculture and Food Security Advisor for USAID/BFS, Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor at USAID/FFP, and Office Director for the Office of Economic Growth at USAID/DRC. She speaks French, Spanish, and Portuguese with professional proficiency and holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from UC Berkeley.
Kent Ford
Director, Private Sector Engagement (PSE)
Kent Ford is a pioneering international development professional with over 25 years of experience in successfully leading and delivering a range of private sector-focused programs in emerging and developing markets. Under the Learning, Evaluation and Analysis Project III (LEAP III), Kent leads Integra’s Middle East Private Sector Engagement Activity supporting the adoption of USAID’s Private Sector Engagement (PSE) Policy in the USAID/Middle East Bureau and associated Missions. This includes inter alia, writing a Strategic Vision for the Middle East Bureau, leading the development of a ThinkPiece envisioning the future of PSE in the MENA region, developing and leading monthly training webinars widely broadcasted throughout MENA and USAID/Washington, and creating an actionable approach to engaging the private sector in the work of USAID.
Kent has broad and proven strategic management and leadership experience as well as economic, political and cultural understanding from having worked in nearly 60 countries. Mr. Ford is a two-time entrepreneur, most recently as co-founder and Managing Director of Global Development Solutions, where he directed the establishment, growth and leadership of a global network of staff and consultants spanning four continents.
Kent co-developed the integrated value chain and market analysis methodology used by the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and sovereign governments to rigorously analyze agriculture and non-agriculture value chains to determine areas where foreign and domestic investment, access to finance and technical intervention would enhance the competitive position of entire market systems. He designed and spearheaded regional Trade and Investment initiatives by bringing together governments, private sector actors, NGOs, municipalities and development agencies—an innovative approach designed help businesses access new markets leading to millions of dollars in trade, investment, and market linkages. He has spent a total of eight years living in, working on and leading in-country private sector development project teams in the West Bank/Gaza, Albania, Kosovo, Nigeria and Uganda.
David Townsend
ICT Sector Advisor
Mr. Townsend is an international expert in ICT policy and economics and the leader of GBI’s Universal Service and Access Fund Support Program. For more than 25 years, Mr. Townsend has been a leading contributor to the evolution of the communications sector worldwide, and has advised governments in more than 40 countries on economic issues and policy options for ICTs. He has been one of the pioneers in the design of Universal Service Funds in numerous countries, and has worked extensively with the World Bank and the UN, among others.
Kimberly Hamilton
Director of Operations, MCC / Business Development Manager
Having joined Integra in 2012, Kimberly has provided technical and operational support for over 20 projects at the firm over the past decade. Currently, she serves as the Director of Operations for Integra’s Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) portfolio, working alongside technical staff and MCC representatives to ensure projects and deliverables meet client expectations and contractual requirements. She also serves the dual role of Business Development Manager, working directly with the CEO and CTO to pursue, manage, and execute partnerships and proposal efforts. This includes potential opportunities with a variety of USG-funded clients such as USAID, MCC, and the World Bank, among others.
Kimberly also provides operational and technical support on projects. This includes her current role as Operations Manager and Researcher for USAID’s performance evaluation of the U.S. Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative, the first government-wide effort to advance women’s economic empowerment. She also provides operational oversight of Integra’s two-year-long engagement with USAID to support Vietnam’s development and implementation of public-private partnerships. In previous positions, she conducted field research for a variety of agricultural, M&E, and political economy activities, mostly in Southeast Asia and East Africa. Her favorite assignment to date was conducting field research for an agricultural market assessment in the Philippines for MCC, specifically focused on the value and supply chains of processed mango products. In addition to interviewing and analyzing data from smallholder farmers, mango traders, and exporters to inform MCC’s investments, mango tastings were a nice perk of the job.
Pin Thanesnant
Director of Operations, USAID Portfolio
Ms. Ganyapak (Pin) Thanesnant currently serves as the Director of Operations for Integra’s USAID portfolio. She brings ten years of experience in project management and operations, resource mobilization, and policy and market assessments, specifically in areas of food security and the business enabling environment. She has managed projects and implemented reform efforts across twenty countries in Africa and Asia. She oversees all operations and finances of Integra’s flagship contracts: USAID’s Learning, Evaluation, and Analysis Project III (LEAP III) and USAID’s Asia Emerging Opportunities (AEO). Under both contracts, she ensures rapid responses to rigorous, independent, and high-quality analytical services to USAID.
In just three years of LEAP III, Pin has managed over 50 activities across 30 countries and multiple sectors. In addition to project management, she also provides technical support on activities—most recently, serving as the Policy Expert for USAID’s Bangladesh Agriculture Policy Assessment, as well as the Evaluation Expert conducting an ex-post evaluation of USAID/Zambia’s Production, Finance, and Improved Technology Plus (PROFIT+) program and a mid-term evaluation of USAID/Belarus’ I3 program.
Prior to joining Integra, Ms. Thanesnant worked with Heifer International, managing all funding efforts in East Asia and Southern/East African countries through donor relations, contractual negotiations, and development and review of technical and cost proposals. Prior to this, she worked at Fintrac, Inc., where she was responsible for providing analytical services under USAID’s EAT Project. Pin holds an MA in Public Anthropology and International Development from American University and a BA in International Studies from the University of Richmond.
Brenna Casey
Operations Specialist
Brenna Casey joined Integra as an Associate in November 2018. She performs project backstopping for USAID and Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) projects, including but not limited to development of SOWs/concept notes; consultant recruitment and contracting; budget development, reporting and analysis; quality assurance and contractual compliance; travel coordination and logistics; project reporting; and project launch and close out activities. Other responsibilities include contributing to technical desk research and report writing. She also supports new business development, including responding to SSNs and RFIs, and past performance write ups, RFP/RFQ compliance, recruiting and personnel matrices, and coordination with partners and preparation of teaming agreements and cost information for proposals.
Brenna also currently serves as Private Sector Engagement (PSE) Specialist under Integra’s PSE practice area. She serves as Operations Lead for a $1.5M+ PSE Activity under the USAID LEAP III contract, where she works with a team of 12+ consultants in the co-creation and implementation of PSE Action Plans for the Middle East Bureau and nine Operating Units in the region. Activities include Bureau and Mission workshops and trainings, a listening tour, development of Mission PSE portfolio reviews and integration analyses, a PSE thought piece, and remote and in-person private sector outreach. Under this activity, she participated in a 2-week field visit across four cities in Morocco and interviewed private sector actors representing five key sectors, as well as 1-week of PSE brainstorming sessions with USAID/Egypt staff in Cairo for their PSE Action Plan and CDCS. Her favorite experience to date was leading the PSE brainstorming session with the Basic Education technical team in Cairo. As PSE Specialist, Ms. Casey has also provided technical support to the USAID/Egypt 2020 Private Sector Landscape Assessment (PSLA).
Ms. Casey holds a BA in Foreign Affairs and Psychology and a minor in Religous Studies (Islam) from the University of Virginia. She is professionally certified in Project Management from the University of Virginia and the Project Management Institute. She is currently applying to pursue her graduate studies in Washington, D.C. In her free time she loves reading a good book on the Rappahannock River in Urbanna, Virginia.
Ms. Cazier serves as an Associate at Integra, providing project management support for the USAID LEAP III and AEO projects, as well as business development support for new opportunities. Prior to joining Integra, Isabella worked on the Programs team at World Learning, managing international youth exchange programs across the Americas. She has worked extensively in Latin America on youth development programs, and credits this opportunity with shaping her interest in international affairs. Isabella is PMI certified, and holds an MA in International Affairs and Development from The George Washington University, and a BA in Anthropology and Russian Literature from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.
Isabella started at Integra in February 2020, and has worked on a range of projects, including the Tiger Matters Knowledge Management events which coincided with World Wildlife Day, the assessment of Democracy, Rights and Governance in the Pacific Islands region and the Mid-Term Evaluation of USAID/Rwanda’s Hinga Weze program. Working at a small business like Integra means that employees have the opportunity to develop professional skills very quickly, and the expertise on the team always leads to fascinating conversations around the virtual lunch table.
Isabella moved around a lot growing up, living in four countries before moving to the United States for college.
Ganyapak (Pin) Thanesnant Director of Operations
Ms. Ganyapak (Pin) Thanesnant currently serves as the Director of Operations for Integra’s USAID portfolio. She brings ten years of experience in project management and operations, resource mobilization, and policy and market assessments, specifically in areas of food security and the business enabling environment. She has managed projects and implemented reform efforts across twenty countries in Africa and Asia. She oversees all operations and finances of Integra’s flagship contracts: USAID’s Learning, Evaluation, and Analysis Project III (LEAP III) and USAID’s Asia Emerging Opportunities (AEO). Under both contracts, she ensures rapid responses to rigorous, independent, and high-quality analytical services to USAID.
In just three years of LEAP III, Pin has managed over 50 activities across 30 countries and multiple sectors. In addition to project management, she also provides technical support on activities—most recently, serving as the Policy Expert for USAID’s Bangladesh Agriculture Policy Assessment, as well as the Evaluation Expert conducting an ex-post evaluation of USAID/Zambia’s Production, Finance, and Improved Technology Plus (PROFIT+) program and a mid-term evaluation of USAID/Belarus’ I3 program.
Prior to joining Integra, Ms. Thanesnant worked with Heifer International, managing all funding efforts in East Asia and Southern/East African countries through donor relations, contractual negotiations, and development and review of technical and cost proposals. Prior to this, she worked at Fintrac, Inc., where she was responsible for providing analytical services under USAID’s EAT Project.
Pin holds an MA in Public Anthropology and International Development from American University and a BA in International Studies from the University of Richmond. While Ms. Thanesnant has spent over eight years in Washington, D.C., she was raised in six countries before coming to the United States to pursue her undergraduate degree. She is fluent in Thai and English, and conversational in French. She enjoys cooking, swimming, and going on hikes with her German Shepherd, Havana. More details can be found here.
