[liberationtech] National Violence Outbreak Early Warning System in Kenya

[Patrick Meier (iRevolution)]

Hi All,

The "system" uses the Ushahidi platform (among other technologies) and draws
on SMS as input. The text messages are auto-tagged and manually analyzed
using basic content analysis. Happy to expand further off list. If you're
interested in the field of conflict early warning, there is a lot of
literature on the topic. This blog may be a good place to start:

http://earlywarning.wordpress.com

All best,
Patrick




On Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 12:23 AM, Michael H. Goldhaber <michael at goldhaber.org
> wrote:

> Terry,
> Do you know what this system evaluates to warn of violence? In particular,
> would it also forestall non-violent protests? How would the two be
> distinguished?
>
> Best,
> Michael
>
> On Feb 28, 2011, at 9:49 PM, Terry Winograd wrote:
>
> > National Violence Outbreak Early Warning System in Kenya
> >
> > Effective early warning systems have been recognized as prudent
> > investments, and when coupled with early preparedness for early
> > response; they help in mitigating conflict and increasing stability.
> > Kenya’s post election violence of 2007/2008 cast a dark shadow in the
> > country as response options proved ineffective and wanting. While the
> > Intelligence Service seemed to possess actionable intelligence on the
> > likelihood of violence in many parts of the country, their
> > communication channels did not appear to reach to people on the ground
> > or civil society agencies (Commission of inquiry, 2008). Based on this
> > experience, the urge to develop a harmonized conflict early warning
> > system came to the fore.
> >
> > The National Steering Committee (Office of the President) in
> > partnership with UNDP-Kenya has since worked on the development of
> > such a System. Zab Vilayil was tasked to implement his concept of an
> > Integrated Conflict Early Warning mechanism into the context of Kenya.
> > The framework of the System applies the state of the art use of
> > technology, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Short Message
> > Service (SMS), Indicator-based Situation Reports, Media Reports as
> > well as other sources to cross-reference information. This system is a
> > hybrid mixture of public crowd sourcing and national structure
> > sourcing, which contribute in information cohesion. The customized
> > National Conflict Early Warning System for Kenya was launched on
> > November 25th, 2010 and is considered one of the most refined conflict
> > early warning information tools.
> >
> > Zab Vilayil is a human security practitioner and early warning systems
> > developer. He draws conceptual and practical insight from his
> > experiences in Iraq, Kuwait, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda,
> > India, Uganda, and Kenya. His work ranges from teaching in Edmonton to
> > research work on the Ssese Islands in Uganda. Vilayil is based in
> > Canada and most recently completed the development of the National
> > Conflict Early Warning Mechanism for Kenya under UNDP. He was awarded
> > the ‘Peace award’ by the National Steering Committee (Office of the
> > President) for his work on the Early Warning Framework in Kenya. His
> > recent work has generated interest with Foreign Affairs and
> > International Trade Canada (DFAIT), Canadian International Development
> > Agency (CIDA) and the Inter Governmental Authority on Development
> > (IGAD) in Africa.
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