Digital lives in Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda

192 Pages·2015·2.94 MB·English

Digital lives in Ghana,
Kenya, and Uganda
Digital lives in Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda
The following Caribou Digital Authors wrote this
report: Savita Bailur, Jonathan Donner, Chris Locke,
Emrys Schoemaker, and Charlotte Smart.
Recommended Citation:
Caribou Digital, Digital Lives in Ghana, Kenya, and
Uganda (Farnham, Surrey, United Kingdom: Caribou
Digital Publishing, 2015.

www.cariboudigital.net
02 Executive summary
12 Chapter 1
Introduction and framing
22 Chapter 2
Crosscutting themes in digitally
enabled development
36 Chapter 3
Use in context: Voices from users
58 Chapter 4
Discussion: Digital Days
80 Appendix 1:
Supporting materials
98 Appendix 2:
Literature review
Contents
02

Executive
summary
Digital lives in Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda 03
Executive summary
In the last decade, the boom in mobile phone access and Specifcally, we argue that development programs with
use around the world has been nothing short of astounding, an eye on instrumental outcomes are well-served by
mobile/cellular devices have become not only nearly the cultivation of an understanding of broader digital
ubiquitous replacements for traditional fxed line telephones, practices—of people’s increasingly digital lives. Tis work
but also the most widespread means of accessing the explores not only what devices people use, but also how
Internet itself. they get online and what they do once there. Tese
representations of digital practices must be fuid and
Tere are burgeoning literatures emerging around this
current, given the rapidly changing landscape of Internet
boom. Some focus on the uses of digital technologies in
connectivity and digital services, and must identify
specifc purposive ways “for” development: for example,
opportunities for new inclusive business models and
exploring applications in mobile health, mobile learning,
behavioral interventions.
mobile money, even mobile agriculture and mobile
government. Other eforts look more broadly, capturing the Terefore, this report contributes to the evidence base for
wide range of human activities mediated by digital development practice and for theory in several ways.
technologies, from firting to entertainment, sharing to
1 • Chapter One ofers a sketch of Caribou Digital’s three-
religion. In this report we distinguish these frames as the
part overarching approach to understanding emerging
diference between “instrumental” and “non-instrumental”
digital practices in context, with an eye specifcally on
uses of technologies.
bridging the gaps between development and daily life,
Tis is, therefore, a moment of profound change for the and between the micro-level perspective of individual
community of practice for those who would seek to use users and the macro-level forces impacting the landscape
digital technologies in the service of socioeconomic of digital resources available to them.
development. Tanks to the mobile internet boom, the
possibilities (and risks) of digital connection, consumption, • Chapter Two details results from extensive interviews
and production computing are no longer limited to those with experts in the feld of Information and
with means to buy a PC, or those who can visit cybercafés in Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D)
libraries. Te possibilities (and risks) are, instead, literally in that help place the current M4D wave in the context of
the hands and pockets of a far greater array of people. Youth more durable past and future factors.
and the poor, urban and rural, men and women, all are using
mobile devices in increasingly dynamic and varied ways • In Chapter Tree, our reports on new primary research
in their own lives. Granted, and importantly, not all are with users in Uganda, Ghana, and Kenya yield a broader
doing so with the same skill, or intensity, or efectiveness, and up-to-the-minute story of how mobile technologies
but the shift to digital is underway even among are currently the center of users’ digital lives.
resource-constrained communities.
• Chapter Four concludes the report with a synthesis
With these new digital practices come new opportunities
of these two streams, suggesting that our portrayal
and challenges for traditional domains of development
of users’ “Digital Days” can provide a user-centric
practice; to be more efective, these domains (for example,
lens to understand how technologies and practices
agriculture, education, livelihoods, health, and participation)
are intertwined, how they vary between contexts,
must adapt to the changing landscape of communication
and how they might enable and structure
and digital connection. Such adaptations require up-to-the-
development interventions.
minute insights about technology use in practice. It is in
that spirit of open inquiry that this work was commissioned.
Trough dialogues with technology experts and with
interviews with users in three countries, this research
project explores how everyday practices around digital
technologies—particularly mobile technologies—
are changing, and how the development community
might begin to take greater advantage of these changes.
1 Jonathan Donner, “Research Approaches to Mobile Use in the Developing World: A Review of the Literature,” Te Information Society 24, no. 3
(2008): 140—59, doi:10.1080/01972240802019970.
Digital lives in Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda 04
Executive summary
continued
The Study We use the term Internet Access Modalities to represent
the particular confgurations of technologies, business
Tis report has been prepared in partnership with
2 models, industry players, regulatory frameworks in place
Te MasterCard Foundation, a philanthropic foundation
to connect Internet users, via devices, over “last mile”
focused on promoting education, skills training, and
networks, to the services and systems on the broader global
fnancial services for people living in poverty, primarily in
Internet. When described this way, the most dominant
Sub-Saharan Africa. Although we have conducted our
Internet Access Modality—by far—is mobile handsets using
research keeping Te MasterCard Foundation in mind as
a cellular wireless protocol (like Edge, 3G, or LTE) to access
the central audience for the fndings, the results presented
the Internet via Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). Te
here are intended to be read by and useful to a wider range
same user would encounter a diferent modality when she
of practitioners and researchers in ICT4D and development.
comes in range of a Wi-Fi hotspot at a local community
3 center. Te afordances of the modality shift as she
Caribou Digital is a consultancy, founded in 2014, focused
transitions from a pay-by-the-bit plan with her MNO to
on projects that promote the strengthening of inclusive
a free 30 minutes ofered by the center, even if the device
digital economies in emerging markets. We do this by
is unchanged. Her modality might shift again if she goes
research, advisory, and delivery work with our partners. We
inside and sits down at a shared-access PC. In each case,
have decades of experience across the telecommunications
the afordances of the modality will create diferent
industry, development practice, and academia, and as a
Internet experiences.
result, have a particular perspective on ICT4D and the shift
to a digital world. Some of that perspective is in evidence in
Switching to the user level, we use the holistic term
this document.
Digital Repertoires to stress how individuals, households,
and organizations are not passive “benefciaries” or
Te MasterCard Foundation engaged Caribou Digital to
“audiences” in the shift to a digital world; but rather are
undertake the research activities supporting this project—
active participants, choosing, appropriating, and adapting
literature reviews, expert interviews, and the focus groups
platforms, content, services, and technologies in the ways
and interviews with users in Sub-Saharan Africa—between
that work best for them. One element of user choice involves
April and September 2015.
toggling between available Internet Access Modalities, but
practice is much broader than that, including also the skills,
Summary of Findings by Chapter
incentives, routines, and habits that each individual brings
Te remaining sections of this executive summary address
to her repertoire.
the main points of each chapter, in turn.
Finally, there is a crosscutting force infuencing both the
Theoretical Approach
shape of available Internet Access Modalities and the
We say this emphatically: the digital opportunity has never patterns of user repertoires. Tese Platforms are the large
been and will never be exclusively about handsets, mobile international information technology companies that have
phone calls, or text messages. Mobile is best understood come to dominate the consumer (and therefore the global)
as an important part of a broader tapestry of information Internet. Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft,
technologies, which includes everything from media and a few others ofer a host of interconnected services,
production and satellite infrastructures through to the exchange technologies, partnerships, and business models that operate
of USB sticks at a market stall and shared-access telecentres. across myriad devices and networks, binding together
people’s identities and experiences across multiple domains
To capture some of these contexts and interconnections, into proprietary platform ecosystems. Tese platforms have
Caribou Digital has developed an integrated approach become global giants in large part because they underpin
bringing together three domains of research: Internet the services that end-users care about. Posting photos to
Access Modalities, User Digital Repertoires, and Facebook, sending e-mail via Gmail, playing an iPhone
Global Ecosystems and Platforms. None of these is game, editing a Word document; it is these activities or tasks
mobile-specifc, however each allows for greater insights that users want to engage in that defne the user experience
4
into the centrality of mobile at this moment. for most people. When a new customer in Zambia walks
2 www.mastercardfdn.org
3 www.cariboudigital.net
4 Bryan Pon, Timo Seppälä, and Martin Kenney, “Android and the Demise of Operating System-Based Power: Firm Strategy and Platform Control in
the Post-PC World,” Telecommunications Policy 38, no. 11 (2014): 979—91, doi:10.1016/j.telpol.2014.05.001.
Digital lives in Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda 05
Executive summary
continued
This is, therefore,
another moment
of profound
change for the
Global
Ecosystem community of
Research
practice for those
who would seek
to use digital
technologies in
the service of
socioeconomic
development.
Internet Access User Digital
Modalities Repertoires
Research Research
into a store to purchase their frst smartphone, they do 2015)—Jonathan Donner’s new book. After Access
not ask for a device based on its operating system, or which examines the implications of the shift to a more mobile
network protocols it can access. Tey instead ask for a device Internet for ICT4D practice, and provides the framework
that has Facebook and WhatsApp, and soon dive into a for much of Caribou Digital’s research. As a holistic set,
platform (or two). the three elements ofer interconnected wide-aperture lenses
on digital practice and the shift to a more digital global
In aggregate, these three research lenses are parts of a society. Tey allow a broader approach beyond “Mobile”
broader whole that engages with the intersections of but allow for an understanding of the centrality of mobile
development and digitization in new ways. Some of these (constraints and all) in people’s digital lives.
circuits are outlined in After Access (MIT Press, November
Digital lives in Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda 06
Executive summary
continued
Crosscutting themes in digitally enabled development • Experts raised concerns about other ongoing
We used semi-structured interviews with 26 experts in the diferences of usage due to diferences in the technical
academic, policy, practice, and technology communities to capabilities of various Access Modalities—that some
reorient discussions around the current and near-future confgurations and trade-ofs, like prepaid Internet
states of play for providing access. In these interviews, under or cached content, were “constrained connectivity”
the banner “Disruptive Internet Access Technologies by 2020”, relative to a full and open Internet
we invited experts to participate in “a conversation matching • And fnally, we synthesized the four preceding themes
new and emerging Access Modalities (like satellites and to dismiss any suggestions, strawman or otherwise, that
community Wi-Fi) with the broad digital needs and there is a single silver bullet waiting in the wings which
behaviors of resource-constrained people in Sub-Saharan will address the remaining access and post-access
Africa.” To augment the interviews, we reviewed secondary challenges. Te heterogeneity of responses we received
sources from the practitioner and scholarly literature. about what was coming next was itself good evidence
that we should be pursuing multiple, complementary
It is perhaps somewhat ironic that this framing invited a modalities rather than a single silver bullet.
global, decontextualized conversation about “technologies”
in the ideal and in the abstract. Indeed, the most Tis theme, in particular, helps place the anticipation
generalizable and important elements of the conversations around new “moonshots” like drones, stratospheric
became fve crosscutting themes, relevant to the evaluation balloons, and low earth-orbit satellites, into better
of almost any Internet Access Modality, and/or to most context. We suggest that development practitioners need
Information and Communication for Development to remain mindful of shifting narratives and changing
(ICT4D) projects. While not the only factors at play, business models, without discounting their exciting
these fve factors clearly can frustrate the best-intentioned prospects entirely.
ICT4D practitioner.
• We fagged “top-downism”—a confdence that digital Use in Context
outcomes can be prescribed or designed from above or Tis chapter explores trends in ICT use in Sub-Saharan
afar—as a signifcant threat to the success of potential Africa, and specifcally the digital repertoires and content
access disruptors. No one new innovation is likely to consumption patterns of young people in Ghana, Kenya,
solve all the remaining access challenges from the top and Uganda. Tese descriptions answer the foundational
down, even with the support of large and deep-pocketed question that drives this element of research—“what do
institutions, but nor are those institutions likely to digital repertoires, usage practices, and content consumption
succeed without community support and buy-in. patterns look like amongst young digital technology users in
Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda.” It transcends a divide between
• Several experts led us to ofer a suggestion to embrace
what is considered “instrumental” and “non-instrumental”
entertainment and leisure practices as part of a
use, by framing questions that aim to develop understanding
more holistic understanding of users’ digital lives
through focusing on users’ perspectives on the practices and
and repertoires. Understanding the way in which
patterns that characterize their digital lives.
entertainment plays into uses of digital technologies is
central to understanding the factors that drive uptake,
In each country, we frst undertook 10 focus groups, fve
development of digital skills, and the allocation of
with men, and fve with women. Each of the fve focused
constrained resources to digital services and devices.
on diferent themes—news, music, gaming, and two focus
• We identifed the persistence of what some in the research groups (oversampling) on skills and job-seeking. Te
5
community call “second level digital divides” —gaps demographic was broadly 18–24 year olds, living in peri-
in demand and diferences in usage resulting from limited urban areas, frst-generation urbanites (i.e., parents working
skills, literacies and availability of appropriate content. in agriculture, families still likely owning or working on
Tese gaps persist, indeed, may be amplifed, even after land), and an income of roughly under $2 a day.
the initial access challenges might seem to be addressed.
5 Eszter Hargittai, “Second-Level Digital Divide: Diferences in People’s Online Skills,” First Monday 7, no. 4 (2002): 1—20; Jan Van Dijk and Kenneth
Hacker, “Te Digital Divide as a Complex and Dynamic Phenomenon,” Te Information Society 19, no. 4 (2003): 315—26.
Digital lives in Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda 07
Executive summary
continued
Our guiding research questions for this activity focus Digital Days
on documenting multimodal usage practices under Te challenge and opportunity confronting this fnal
constrained conditions. What are the existing states of: chapter is to contribute integrative frames that help bridge
(a) digital technology usage practices, (b) digital content concepts operating across these levels and perspectives,
consumption, (c) hybridization between technologies and in a way that captures both the context-specifcity of
online/ofine (a digital/non-digital ecosystem), and (d) individual’s technology behaviors, as well as the broader
user innovation in Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda? forces at play in providing digital access and services.
Our research shows most users’ consumption of digital Our approach is the idea of a Digital Day. Tere is a digital
content is dominated by news, games, music, movies, and component to almost any human endeavor; it is not simply
social networking. Tese echo results of some previous about selling crops or buying bus tickets. It is also about
studies, but our fndings provide three additional themes expression and feeling good, spirituality and memory,
that go beyond the current literature and evidence base. connection and culture. Instrumental and non-instrumental,
• Firstly, we articulate the value of exploring non- these digitally enabled practices are intertwined and, thanks
instrumental use to reveal new insights about individual in no small part to the embrace of the mobile phone by
digital practices. Although many activities are non- younger generations, are transforming activities in every
instrumental in the strictly functional sense, the situated part of the day.
practices that surround and enable them reveal the extent
to which digital technologies are part of individuals’ As a means of representation, the Digital Day is a synthesis
everyday lives. Mobile devices, in particular, have become and adaptation of several methods and perspectives with
a part of the whole day, from waking to sleeping again, broad and established communities of practice, Participatory
as users are watched over by alarm clock applications. Rural Appraisal, User Centered Design, market research,
and the social sciences. Te Digital Days we portray in this
• Secondly, we fnd that these practices often mirror report are the results of a frst iteration of this approach,
those observed in societies where the digital transition is developed over the course of the overall project. Te specifc
further underway. Given that this is the case, we argue techniques we used to gather data and the exact graphic
that current global concerns about the implications of treatments of the Digital Days are ripe for further
these digital transitions for political engagement and refnement and calibration.
content production are applicable in resource-constrained
settings. Tis overlap broadens the scope of questions and Tere are six Digital Days shared in Chapter Four. We
challenges presented by the digital shift in these settings reproduce Nakato’s, below, as an illustration
beyond development into participation and inclusion.
• Tirdly, and perhaps most signifcantly, we fnd that
non-instrumental consumption practices are interlaced
with very functional tasks, as users exploit their digital
repertoires to fnd jobs, advance their education, and
increase their income. Tis interlacing of instrumental
tasks on social platforms ofers great opportunity to
develop interventions that “go with the grain” of intuitive
technology adoption and use, but carry their own set
of constraints and challenges, not least of which is the
reality that for most, online social network platforms by
default tend towards enabling interaction within ofine
social networks.
Digital lives in Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda 08
Executive summary
continued
Name
Nakato
Age
23
Location
Uganda
Using mobile data
Yes
Monthly income below $70
No
In school/college
No
Employment/education
Sales personnel in Ladies’ wear
Nakato, a 23-year-old sales assistant, describes her Itel 1520 In the evening, Nakato mostly uses her laptop to browse
smartphone as her “second friend” as it “tells me a lot.” She news and videos on the Internet. Many of these videos are
uses it for everything, from social networking and fnding from religious leaders and she views them as informative,
the latest music news to reading the Quran. For her, it is also providing her with information about “marriage, dowries
a way of saving money on costly newspapers. For Nakato, and business.” She also uses her phone to access social
data is “costless,” and she describes getting a lot from her networking services. Te ability to access this information
smartphone (in terms of information) without putting a lot makes Nakato feel “good.”
into it.
Te interview ends with Nakato ofering some of the
During the workday, Nakato describes how she uses her disadvantages of mobile Internet and her smartphone. Tese
phone when there are no customers in her shop, she uses include the addictiveness of her smartphone and the cost of
her phone to see what is being posted on social networking data, which contradicts her frst statement about data being
services or to look up information about her favorite music “costless.” She complains that she spends a lot of money on
artist. She also messages other shop attendants to fnd out mobile data.
how their stores are doing and plays games to relieve her
stress if she has just dealt with a rush of customers.