Divided City: Information Poverty in Nairobi's Slums.

"I was born in a slum, I live in a slum, I will probably die in a slum, and if there is a slum in heaven, then I will most likely end up there too." These were the words of a member of the public who was invited to a forum organized by Kituo cha Sheria and the Kenya Human Rights Commission to discuss how the poor in Kenya can obtain access to justice. I was there because access to basic human rights is increasingly being linked to access to information, and exploring this link among Nairobi's urban poor was the focus of my post-graduate research.

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In the last few years, more and more development agencies have recognized that knowledge and information can mitigate risk and improve the livelihoods of the poor. Not knowing about their rights, what services they could access, plans for their areas, or the options for tackling certain problems put the poor at a disadvantage and increase their vulnerability. One study in India, for instance, found a high correlation between access to newspapers in a region and the ability to avert floods or droughts.

The Internet is also prompting a sea change in international development thinking. Many Governments, donors and multilateral organizations are radically reshaping their policies in the new information age, and this has led to the "informationalization" of development initiatives.

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are now seen as the key to economic development and as tools of political empowerment that can transcend traditional North-South, rich-poor divisions.

Nonetheless, there is also a growing debate among development practitioners about whether the claims for ICTs, and the Internet in particular, are exaggerated. The discussion centres on prioritizing needs: how important is the Internet in an area without safe water or telephone lines? Given a choice, will a rural hospital accept a free computer or free medicine? Some organizations are sceptical about prioritizing Internet access in an environment where access to basic infrastructure is a bigger problem.

The real question, however, remains whether access to ICTs will itself be a weapon against poverty. This is debatable, but evidence shows that when ICTs are placed in an enabling environment and adapted to the needs of those who use them, they can improve livelihoods. In Bangladesh, for instance, GrameenPhone Ltd. has helped thousands of poor rural women earn a living and improve mobile phone connectivity in the remotest parts of the country. In Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Viva Favela, a donor-and private sector-funded web site devoted exclusively to the interests of the slum dwellers, has enabled hundreds of impoverished youth to find employment and get the latest health information.

Because of their ability to raze geographical, social, economic and cultural barriers, ICTs have the potential of overcoming inequalities in society and becoming a catalyst for development. Sam Pitroda, India's visionary technologist, referred to ICTs as "the most democratizing tool ever devised".

However, while new information technologies have the potential for breaking social, economic and political barriers and for creating more egalitarian societies, they also have had the net effect of increasing political, economic and social divisions. The "digital divide" (between those who have and who do not have access to information technology) is getting wider, resulting in what Manuel Castells calls "the Fourth World"--large sections of the global population, concentrated mainly in Africa, Asia and Latin America, who remain untouched by the new ICT revolution and therefore continue to be passive victims of global forces rather than active participants or key players.

In many cities, the urban poor have to deal with another form of social exclusion. Language, education and infrastructure barriers continue to ensure that the poor in cities such as Nairobi remain untouched by the information revolution. Because connectivity and informational capacity will determine wealth and power in our time, the urban poor risk being even more marginalized and impoverished. Their poverty will not just be measured by their income or assets but also by their ability to generate, process, receive and disseminate information, or what I call their level of "information poverty".

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If access to information and communication can promote development, then it is important to know how the poor obtain information and what channels of communication are available to them. During my research, I found that contrary to popular perception, the urban poor in Nairobi are not as ill-informed or illiterate as we would like to believe. Ninety-six per cent of the slum dwellers I surveyed said they relied on radio for news. Although radio was the most important source of news and information for them, 75 per cent of those surveyed said they regularly read newspapers and 50 per cent watch television.

Subsequent interviews revealed that while few slum dwellers purchase newspapers, they do have access to them at their work places. Similarly, while few own television sets, they have access to them in their neighbourhoods, either at bars, community centres or police stations (which serve as community centres in some areas) or via television and video halls within slums, where residents pay a small fee per hour (an average of $0.25) to watch television or films. One respondent, who lives near a hospital, watches television in its visitors' lounge in the casualty ward, which is open 24 hours a day. However, when it came to a livelihood issue such as housing, the role of traditional mainstream media (radio, television and newspapers) became less important, although over one third of respondents still relied on these sources of information. In the case of housing, social networks (family, friends, neighbours, community and church members) were more important.

My findings also show that government institutions are not the main source of information on housing and other livelihood issues; the poor often have to rely on non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which take on the role of infomediaries or key informants, or their social networks to obtain accurate information on these issues. Central and local governments have played an insignificant role in directly providing news to slum dwellers, although they obtain news from State-owned radio and television stations. In fact, the Government is often seen as a source of misinformation, which can be a cause of suspicion and conflict.

Recent slum-upgrading initiatives in the city are a case in point. The authorities often failed to inform residents of the plans for their areas, which led to violence and protests and even riots in which people were killed Odindo Opiata, a lawyer working with Kituo cha Sheria, told me that the lack of information flow between the authorities and slum dwellers in Kenya's major cities threatens to polarize residents even further and results in more disputes.

Internet access, as expected, remains low in Nairobi's slums, but those who do have access gain it through their work, mostly with NGOs and civic education bodies. This shows that organizations working in poor communities can be the catalysts for promoting ICT access within these communities.

An analysis of language and imagery among slum dwellers provided some clues on how they view themselves. Slum dwellers in Nairobi use the Kiswahili word "kijiji", which means village, when referring to the place where they live.

When asked, no one said "Nairobi"; all mentioned the slum area, even if it was located within an officially-recognized constituency of the city. For instance, even though residents of Kibera are located within the Langata constituency of Nairobi, none of them said they lived in Langata. This can mean one of two things: dwellers view the living conditions of slums as being similar to village life, and therefore do not make a distinction between their degraded urban lifestyle and the impoverished rural one they left behind; or they do not view themselves as citizens of the city, as they are excluded from the basic services that characterize urban life. Hence, they see themselves as living "outside" the city. By calling themselves villagers, they are reminding themselves of what they are not--city dwellers. This is ironic, because Nairobi's 1.8 million slum dwellers constitute the majority (60 per cent) of the city's population.

My research concluded that social capital plays a key role in determining who is and who is not informed in slum settlements, particularly on livelihood issues. Although the reliability of the information obtained can be questioned, there is no doubt that this form of capital plays a significant role in the lives and livelihoods of the poor. Slum dwellers who work with and are linked to various NGOs are also more likely to have access to ICTs and use them for their own and their community's betterment.

In most informal settlements, there are a multitude of local associations and networks on which the urban poor rely to obtain information, and which can be mobilized so that the communities can gain access to land, resist eviction, provide themselves with water, manage savings and credit, or raise funds for a particular project. The associations can be formal or informal, religious or ethnicity-based, and can manifest themselves through kinship ties, religious organizations, city-based federations, NGOs and even political parties. These networks serve to fill the communication and information gap between slum dwellers and the authorities, and are often an indicator of the level of poverty and deprivation in a district. Communities with strong social networks tend to be better informed than those where such networks are non-existent or have broken down.

My research concluded that slums-the most obvious manifestation of urban poverty--could be the sites of digital inclusion or exclusion. The sheer concentration of people in slums and their proximity to infrastructure, such as electricity and telephone lines, make them an ideal target for ICT development initiatives. Any intervention is not only likely to affect large numbers of people but also have a multiplying effect. ICTs can be a powerful tool when implemented as part of larger development plans, as opposed to being in isolation.

Slum-upgrading initiatives offer a unique entry point into improving the overall development of slum communities, including ICT access. Improving access in those areas may seem like a luxury in an environment where access to basic water, sanitation and electricity is a still a major obstacle.

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For this reason, most upgrading initiatives tend to focus more on improving the physical condition of housing, as well as water and sanitation facilities, than telecommunications systems within slums. However, this approach is short-sighted and risks further marginalization. Provision of telecommunications infrastructure in slum settlements must, therefore, be part and parcel of upgrading projects.

Non-governmental and civil society organizations often provide a vital link between the urban poor and people who have power, influence, authority or resources. Their catalytic role as infomediaries makes them ideal advocates and implementers of ICT initiatives. Organizations working with them should therefore be empowered and encouraged to fill the information gap between the urban poor and the authorities, and to introduce ICTs in their own development projects, with a view to making them self-sustaining.

At the national and local government levels, a lot more advocacy is needed to encourage institutions and organizations to incorporate and prioritize ICT into development plans, in line with the agenda of the New Partnership for Africa's Development. Apart from making public investments in education and training in ICT research and development, the Government must dismantle barriers to promoting telecommunications. Not doing so will mean running the risk of being marginalized even further in a globalizing economy and being doomed to what Castells calls a "dark urban age".

Rasna Warah is a writer and journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya, where for many years she was the Editor-in-chief of Habitat Debate, the magazine of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat). She recently completed her Masters thesis entitled "Divided City: Information Poverty in Nairobi's Slums" at Malmo University's School of Arts and Communication, Sweden. This article is based in part on her own research.

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