Whenever we are collecting data, we follow our data protection policy which has been updated according to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (2018), the UK The Data Protection Act (2018) and the Kenya The Data Protection Act (2019). We have also endorsed the Principles for Digital Development.
Our motivation for high data protection standards is respect for participants who share their opinions with us, and sensitivity to their personal information.
We inform audiences about the purpose of gathering their opinions, and how their responses will be used. For radio projects, the radio host will read out this information as part of their script. When participants proactively send us an SMS in response to a question asked in a show or advert, we send an SMS consent flow where we repeat the information and offer every participant the opportunity to ‘opt-out’ of their answers being included in the research.
Despite our efforts to ensure participants know how their data is being used, we can never be sure that all of them fully understand the research process. Furthermore, there are instances when we cannot reveal the exact purpose of the research. This may be due to the nature of SMS communication and media engagement -which limits the level of detail we can provide- a potential impact upon people’s answers (e.g. biasing them), or more seriously for security reasons (such as a radio station being linked to a negatively perceived international NGO).
Our findings support our partners in a range of ways, including: to improve their communications with citizens, as baseline and formative research, to inform effective communication for social and behaviour change, to inform policy based on citizen-driven evidence, to measure their impact, and to gather citizen feedback for monitoring their programmes. Here are a couple of direct quotes from organisations we’ve worked with that illustrate examples of how our insights have been used:
“Africa’s Voices insights have fed into a larger baseline study, and will be used to inform the advocacy and campaigning approaches in different regions. This will also be used to inform dialogue with County and National Governments. After working with Africa’s Voices, we have definitely seen new opportunities to gather and incorporate citizens’ voices into our programmes.”
Wairu Kinyori-Gugu
Tax Justice Project Manager for Oxfam in Kenya
“Working with Africa’s Voices has opened a new world of insight and potential, hiding in data we already had but couldn’t interpret. To be able to decipher the collective meaning within our audience correspondence is like listening at the keyhole of a giant conversation. The new clarity this has given us, deepened and enhanced by the skilled professional support of the Africa’s Voices team, has helped us refine our purpose and our methods, and given us a powerful new account of the impact of our work.”
Rob Burnet
CEO at Well Told Story (Now Shujaaz Inc.)
“Africa’s Voices ability to stimulate inclusive dialogue and collect opinions of marginalised communities in local languages through simple technologies has been invaluable in informing how we engage with our target beneficiaries. The Africa’s Voices approach – where they combine the basic mobile phone “mulika mwizi” and community radio – has helped us gather knowledge levels and opinions of communities towards oil and gas exploration in Kenya. Africa’s Voices analysis has also helped us design targeted messages, which we are then able to track using their approach.”
Joyce Kaburu
Communication and Information Advisor at Oxfam in Kenya
This is a question we are often asked. With any innovative research approach, especially one that gathers and analyses digital data, the credibility of the data and insights is often scrutinised.
We start with agreeing that Africa’s Voices data is not representative of the whole of the population because participants self-select to participate. The data is therefore often skewed – male, younger, and more educated people are more likely to participate in public forums including radio and social media discussions. This reflects the realities of the audiences and where social influence and power lies in their society.
However, our approach also reaches and engages people at the bottom of the pyramid, so that their voices are also heard. Our approach has proven to be effective at reaching displaced populations, women and youth. We can identify biases in participation (e.g. overrepresentation of men) and take them into account when drawing conclusions about beliefs of different groups.
Our approach values the richness of diverse voices over statistical generalisations, so representativeness is not the main criterion to assess the validity of our findings. People who choose to participate in the discussions are heterogeneous, making it possible for us to identify collective ideas from different social groups, and how they change over time. Instead of pursuing quantitative aggregates of individual perspectives as done in traditional surveys, our research seeks to complement and strengthen qualitative analysis by understanding how opinions are shared – and vary – at the group level.
These credible findings are related to the robustness of our mixed-methods methodology, coupled with meaningful data that is gathered in a real context.
AVF’s academic foundations continue to be central to our approach to research and analysis. We continue to work in or partner with academia and the following are some of the academic publications on our method:
Maxwell, D., Lentz, E., Wanjohi, K., Molla, D., Day, M., Hailey, P., Newton, C., Colom, A. (2021). Seeing in the Dark Real-Time Monitoring in Humanitarian Crises. Boston: Feinstein International Center Tufts University. It can be accessed by CLICKING HERE.
Riha, J., Lopes, C. A., Ibrahim, N. A., & Srinivasan, S. (2021). Media and Digital Technologies for Mixed Methods Research in Public Health Emergencies Such as COVID-19: Lessons Learned From Using Interactive Radio – SMS for Social Research in Somalia. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 1–23. It can be accessed by CLICKING HERE.
Srinivasan, S., & Diepeveen, S. (2018). The Power of the “Audience-Public”: Interactive Radio in Africa. International Journal of Press/Politics, 23(3), 389–412. It can be accessed by CLICKING HERE.
Abreu Lopes, C., & Srinivasan, S. (2016). Africa’s Voices Versus Big Data? The Value of Citizen Engagement through Interactive Radio. In O. Hemer & T. Tufte (Eds.), Voice and Matter: Communication, Development and the Cultural Return (pp. 155–172). Gothenburg: Nordicom, University of Gothenburg. It can be accessed by CLICKING HERE.
Abreu Lopes, C., & Srinivasan, S. (2014). Africa’s Voices: Using mobile phones and radio to foster mediated public discussion and to gather public opinions in Africa. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Centre of Governance and Human Rights. It can be accessed by CLICKING HERE.
We are sensitive to not being extractive, and do not want to gather data from citizens without giving back findings. As well as seeing this as part of respecting participants, we think that closing the feedback loop fosters accountability and supports greater citizen engagement in the future. Therefore, we are constantly seeking new ways that are accessible and engaging to feedback knowledge and insights to citizens.
The way that we feedback findings depends upon the nature of the project and audience. For radio projects, we will have an additional show at the end of a series that shares insights, addresses questions or misconceptions that have been raised, and informs the audience on how these findings will be used by our partner organisation when possible. We also share the insights back to participants directly via SMS. For social media projects, we might create an infographic that summarises key findings and then share online.
The approach that AVF has developed is highly scalable. Africa’s Voices combination of technology and social science research is designed to augment and scale up the way we meaningfully digest citizens’ feedback without compromising our human-centred approach to interpreting their views and our academic research standards.
It is possible to include more channels of engagement (e.g. more radio stations, or have multiple channels such as instant messaging or social media) and deliver a project over a longer period of time. We can also scale up to different regions and countries. In fact, scaling up our approach can be more cost-effective, as the cost of analysis does not increase proportionally with the level of participation – but insights get richer and deeper.
Access to technology is increasing rapidly, including in African countries. By using SMS as a data gathering channel, people can participate in our interactive forums with even the most basic mobile phones. All text messages sent or received are free for the participant.
That said, we know that our approach cannot reach everyone. As well as lacking access to communication technologies, many people in our target populations may be illiterate – both in writing skills and digital skills. There are also gender norms that influence phone ownership and confidence to text.
We check estimates of how many people in a given population have access to technologies and use this to inform our research design and what approach to take. It also means that we are aware of what percentage and sectors of a population we are not reaching. We triangulate our research with that of others whose methods are more representative to compare and contrast the different findings. This helps to generate a complete picture of a population and their views on an issue, at the deeper level of our qualitative insights as well as more quantitative insights from others’ surveys. See also answer to: How does Africa’s Voices ensure the credibility of its data and insights?
Although access to SMS technology is widespread in the countries where we work (in Kenya, for example, mobile connections constitute a 98% of the population based on the 2020 Digital report), access to social media and smartphones is still well below the levels of access to SMS. The reach of Internet-based messaging through social media platforms like Facebook or through instant messaging (IM) apps like WhatsApp continues to exclude half of the population, including the youth population, based on available data (2020 Digital, 2019 Kenya census). In June 2021, AVF conducted an SMS poll among a pool of our participants in Kenya (n=1716) and found that 44% of them do not have daily access to the Internet or to WhatsApp.
Since this is due to a range of factors, such as affordability of phones and data bundles, network connectivity, literacy, or gender norms, using these Internet-based communications will help to reach specific (possibly more urban and affluent groups) but risk excluding those more disadvantaged, which are central in AVF’s work. However, access to internet-based platforms will grow and Africa’s Voices is already using or exploring some of these options. Currently, at AVF we are able to use Telegram as part of our current infrastructure and we are exploring the potential for using WhatsApp as long as it does not compromise our data protection and ethics policy.
AVF integrated Facebook in its infrastructure in 2020 so that we are able to analyse comments to our posts. We are still using it with caution to ensure alignment to our data protection and ethics policies. Engagement in Facebook so far has been valuable as a complement to interactive radio but remains biased towards male and urban participants who can afford a smartphone and data.
AVF continues to innovate and keep abreast of the new ways in which citizens engage but we do so alongside our value of data protection and research ethics.
In week one, 798 participants sent in a total of 1523 messages in response to the question. Responses from citizens ranged from current approaches to aspirational ones. The most common aspirational theme was unity with nearly a fifth of respondents mentioning the importance of brotherhood, solidarity, and clan unity because of their shared Islamic identity.
Greetings to Mudug media, peace can be achieved through unity.
It can be resolved when clans become united for the sake of God strengthening local authorities.
It’s to unite all clans.
In week two, 683 participants sent in a total of 1399 messages in response to the question. Community organisation was mentioned by nearly a third of participants. Unity, brotherhood within the community, and the fact that nothing good comes out of war were highlighted often.
Conflicts resolutions can be improved by uniting the clans and making them understand that nothing good comes out of war.
Conflicts in the community can be resolved if everyone works on solving these conflicts and I believe that if the people are united these conflicts can be resolved.
The biggest step to be taken to improve conflict resolution is to create social organizations that work on social issues in the community.
Our findings support our partners in a range of ways, including: to improve their communications for development, as baseline and formative research, to measure their impact, and to gather citizen feedback for monitoring their programmes. Here are a couple of direct quotes from organisations we’ve worked with that illustrate examples of how our insights have been used:
Africa’s Voices insights have fed into a larger baseline study, and will be used to inform the advocacy and campaigning approaches in different regions. This will also be used to inform dialogue with County and National Governments. After working with Africa’s Voices, we have definitely seen new opportunities to gather and incorporate citizens’ voices into our programmes.
Working with Africa’s Voices has opened a new world of insight and potential, hiding in data we already had but couldn’t interpret. To be able to decipher the collective meaning within our audience correspondence is like listening at the keyhole of a giant conversation. The new clarity this has given us, deepened and enhanced by the skilled professional support of the Africa’s Voices team, has helped us refine our purpose and our methods, and given us a powerful new account of the impact of our work.
Africa’s Voices ability to stimulate inclusive dialogue and collect opinions of marginalised communities in local languages through simple technologies has been invaluable in informing how we engage with our target beneficiaries. The Africa’s Voices approach – where they combine the basic mobile phone “mulika mwizi” and community radio – has helped us gather knowledge levels and opinions of communities towards oil and gas exploration in Kenya. Africa’s Voices analysis has also helped us design targeted messages, which we are then able to track using their approach.
Our findings support our partners in a range of ways, including: to improve their communications for development, as baseline and formative research, to measure their impact, and to gather citizen feedback for monitoring their programmes. Here are a couple of direct quotes from organisations we’ve worked with that illustrate examples of how our insights have been used:
Africa’s Voices insights have fed into a larger baseline study, and will be used to inform the advocacy and campaigning approaches in different regions. This will also be used to inform dialogue with County and National Governments. After working with Africa’s Voices, we have definitely seen new opportunities to gather and incorporate citizens’ voices into our programmes.
Working with Africa’s Voices has opened a new world of insight and potential, hiding in data we already had but couldn’t interpret. To be able to decipher the collective meaning within our audience correspondence is like listening at the keyhole of a giant conversation. The new clarity this has given us, deepened and enhanced by the skilled professional support of the Africa’s Voices team, has helped us refine our purpose and our methods, and given us a powerful new account of the impact of our work.
Africa’s Voices ability to stimulate inclusive dialogue and collect opinions of marginalised communities in local languages through simple technologies has been invaluable in informing how we engage with our target beneficiaries. The Africa’s Voices approach – where they combine the basic mobile phone “mulika mwizi” and community radio – has helped us gather knowledge levels and opinions of communities towards oil and gas exploration in Kenya. Africa’s Voices analysis has also helped us design targeted messages, which we are then able to track using their approach.
This is a question we’re often asked. With any innovative research approach, especially one that gathers and analyses digital data, the credibility of the data and insights is often scrutinised.
We start with agreeing that Africa’s Voices data is skewed – male, younger, and more educated people are more likely to participate in public forums including radio and social media discussions. This reflects the realities of the audiences and where social influence and power lies in their society.
However, our approach also reaches and engages people at the bottom of the pyramid, so that their voices are also heard. We can identify biases in participation (e.g. overrepresentation of men) and take them into account when drawing conclusions about beliefs of different groups.
Our approach values the richness of diverse voices over statistical generalisations, so representativeness is not the main criterion to assess the validity of our findings. People who choose to participate in the discussions are heterogeneous, making it possible for us to identify collective ideas from different social groups, and how they change over time.
These credible findings are related to the robustness of our methodology, coupled with meaningful data that is gathered in a real context.
For more on this topic, take a look at this segment of a presentation given by our Head of Research, Claudia Lopes.
Access to technology is increasing rapidly, including in African countries. By using SMS as a data gathering channel, people can participate in our interactive forums with even the most basic mobile phones. All text messages sent or received are free for the participant.
That said, we know that our approach cannot reach everyone. As well as lacking access to communication technologies, many people in our target populations may be illiterate – both in writing skills and digital skills.
We check estimates of how many people in a given population have access to technologies and use this to inform our research design and what approach to take. It also means that we are fully aware of what percentage and sectors of a population we are not reaching. We triangulate our research with that of others whose methods are more representative to compare and contrast the different findings. This helps to generate a complete picture of a population and their views on an issue, at the deeper level of our qualitative insights as well as more quantitative insights from others’ surveys. See also answer to: How does Africa’s Voices ensure the credibility of its data and insights?
In media forums, we include clear messages that inform audience members about who we are, why we are collecting their opinions and demographics, and how this data will be used.
We explain that by volunteering to participate in the discussion, audience members are providing consent to their SMS data being collected and analysed. We take particular care that consent is given when data is sensitive in nature, for example if it includes people’s political opinions or medical information.
We assess the threats and vulnerabilities of each project based upon the media channel, technology and software being used. After a thorough assessment, we develop tailored risk reduction strategies and guidelines.
For all projects, we anonymise data and remove personal identifiers (name, telephone number, address, etc.) at the earliest stage possible. Once the dataset is anonymised, it is no longer subject to data protection legislation.
We transfer and store data securely, and protect it with encrypted passwords where possible to ensure only authorised access. Data is not kept for longer than is necessary for the purposes of the project and destroyed after this time.
From the outset of each project, we develop a contract with organisations to make explicit data protection issues, guidelines and responsibilities. At this point, we identify the exact purposes of the data so that this information can be clearly communicated to potential participants.
We also ensure high standards of data protection are practised by our media partners, such as radio and TV stations. To support this, we provide training to journalists so that they understand their responsibilities in collecting and handling data, as well as monitoring the project as it is delivered.
Africa’s Voices stays up-to-date with data protection legislation, continuously refining our policy and practices accordingly.