Kabissa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kabissa – Space For Change in Africa – is a non-governmental organization based in Washington, D.C. which provides civil society organizations in Africa with Internet services and training in order to help each one achieve their mission.
| Kabissa | |
|---|---|
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| Type | 501(c)(3) Non-profit |
| Genre | Internet Communication Technology |
| Founded | 1999 |
| Founder | Tobias Eigen |
| Headquarters | Washington, DC, USA |
| Area served | African Civil Society Organizations |
| Services | Internet Hosting, ICT Training |
| Employees | 3 |
| Website | www.kabissa.org |
Contents |
[edit] Introduction
Kabissa, meaning complete in Kiswahili, encourages the use of Internet and Communications Technology (ICT) by African civil society organizations.[1] Their services include the affordable Web hosting services, ICT training materials, a library of ICT resources, a monthly member newsletter, and extensive tools to encourage networking among members.
[edit] Current Programs
Kabissa's work is oriented around three programs, each taking into consideration the unique challenges faced in Africa, such as poorly maintained public infrastructure, government controlled information, and prohibitively high communications costs.
- Enabling Access - Kabissa provides African organizations – regardless of size – with accessible, affordable, and secure Internet services specifically designed to address the difficult working conditions they face. The services include Web site hosting, e-mail accounts, online newsletters, and discussion groups. Kabissa's web hosting services to member organizations are free of charge unless advanced features are required (which are offered for a modest fee.) Because their hosting services are only offered to members, Kabissa can provide direct personal support to every member.
- Empowering Organizations - Kabissa authors and publishes training materials to empower African organizations to fully integrate the Internet into their work. Their most comprehensive training material is the Time To Get Online program, available both in print and as a wiki. The program is structured around Kabissa’s "Steps to Success" methodology, which promotes the idea that organizations must gradually build their Internet skills and use those Internet tools most appropriate for their own priorities, communities, and environment. The materials on Kabissa's ICT Resource Center are specifically tailored to the needs of African civil society organizations and include reports, manuals, how-to-guides, links and various other learning resources.
- Encouraging Interaction - Kabissa creates opportunities for organizations to network, share experiences, and learn from each other. With a network of nearly 1000 members, Kabissa supports a wide variety of organizations who may or may not know about one another. That support strengthens ties between member organizations through Kabissa’s Member Profiles Directory, monthly eNewsletter, online discussions, and space for sharing opportunities from and for members. The Member Profile Directory enables organizations to research similar organizations, leading to collaboration and greater cohesion within African civil society. The monthly eNewsletter called the Kabissa Gong Gong covers ICT issues for African civil society. While written with its members in mind, the eNewsletter is availably online for public usage.
Encompassing all of Kabissa's programs is a consideration for how best to use Web 2.0 technologies to serve their member organizations. The social networking tools embodied in Web 2.0 are thought to be a powerful new opportunity for those organizations whose internet connections are often limited. Kabissa's first foray into this technology has been through the use of Wikis to transform their Time To Get Online training material into an open source and up-to-date resource.
[edit] Membership
Kabissa membership is free of charge and open to any civil-society organization working in or for Africa. Once an organization has applied and been approved for membership it has access to the full range of ICT programs Kabissa has to offer.
Kabissa's member organizations are extremely varied in nature and are thus an excellent indicator of overall African civil society sector. These members range from newly established localized organizations working in human rights and social justice to large, well established organizations doing far-reaching environmental work. Currently Kabissa's members work in each of the following sectors:
- Capacity building and Human Empowerment
- Education and Youth Development
- Health and Reproductive Rights
- Human Rights and Social Justice
- Media, Arts and Culture
- Micro-finance and Economic Development
- Social and Humanitarian Services
- The Environment
[edit] Kabissa's Charter
Kabissa operates under the following charter:
Mission
Kabissa’s mission is to help African civil society organization put information and communication technologies to work for the benefit of the people they serve.
Vision
Kabissa’s vision is for a socially, economically, politically, and environmentally vibrant Africa, supported by a strong network of effective civil society organizations.
Principles
Kabissa seeks to adhere to the following principles in its operations and governance:
- To work in close cooperation with partner organizations that can provide local expertise, support, and resources wherever possible
- To make its operations transparent to the Kabissa community and the general public
- To employ the services of companies that share Kabissa’s vision whenever possible. In all cases, the organizations will show professional integrity and provide the best value, so that Kabissa can pass on high-quality, affordable services to the Kabissa community
- To avoid any source of income derived from activities which indisputably conflict with our vision
- To be a highly-efficient organization, keeping overhead costs to a minimum
- To develop, use, and promote software and content that is freely available under open source licensing agreements
- To embrace a diversity of perspectives in our member community, our staff, and our board
[edit] History
Kabissa was founded in 1999 by Tobias Eigen with the idea that information and communication technologies could revolutionize the work of African civil society. Building on the years of consulting experience Tobias Eigen had with African civil society, Kabissa began as a virtual organization by providing African organizations with accessible, affordable, and secure internet services.
During the next three years Kabissa showed strong growth and gained increasing recognition. In June, 2002 Kabissa won the ICT Stories Competition, an initiative of infoDev and the International Institute of Communication and Development (IICD) which sought to capture the learning process that accompanies the introduction and implementation of ICTs for development. In September, 2002 Kabissa added a part-time Program Manager to its staff in order to meet the expanding needs of their growing membership. By November, 2002 Kabissa was awarded its first major grant from the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) for the pilot phase of Kabissa’s Time To Get Online training initiative. As of May, 2007 Kabissa had 950 members organizations in over 50 countries. These members ranged from internationally renowned human rights groups to small rural orphanages. Kabissa’s services now include formal capacity building programs and an expanding array of tools and services to help their members network and share information.
