Annex6 State of the Art Review on African Childrens Information Hub: A Status Report

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Annex-6State of the Art Review on African
Childrens Information Hub A Status Report

• Prepared for Stakeholders Meeting Organised by
  African Child Policy Forum (ACPF)
• Presenter
• Hailemelekot Taye

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The Review

• Background The ACIH project
• Aims and objectives of the review
• Methodology and data collection techniques
• Research sites, sample size and selection
  criteria
• Ethical considerations
• Data analysis
• Limitations
• Key findings
• Recommendations

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Background The ACIH Project
African Childrens Information Hub (ACIH) Project
State of the Art Review
Data and Information
Informed Decision
Hub construction content devt

• Project aims
• To improve access to information on childrens
  issues in Africa by creating a platform of
  information (both existing and synthesized) that
  brings together categorized and easily
  accessible content
• To create and enhance networking and learning
  opportunities for actors in child-rights and
  welfare issues (including children).

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Background contd.

• Project objectives
• To build/develop web-based information on
  organisations, networks, movements, forums, etc.
  in Africa that are concerned with child-rights
  and welfare
• Create links to existing and relevant partners
  and other organisations
• Promote consistent sharing of relevant
  information and knowledge among actors
• Promote continuous research on African children
• Provide continuous information on produced and
  on-going research on child-rights issues in
  Africa
• Provide researched and synthesized information on
  impacts of policies and trends
• Provide information on upcoming events for better
  networking and action
• Translate and provide relevant and simplified
  information to children and youth
• Create a resource centre for easy access to
  information on the rights and welfare of the
  African child.

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Background contd.

• Project beneficiaries
• NGOs and local/regional initiatives, movements,
  etc.
• UN agencies (e.g. UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA, ILO, etc.)
• Government organisations/institutions (Ministries
  of Youth, Health, Education, Sports, etc.)
• National and international research institutes
• Researchers and consultants in Africa and
  elsewhere
• Civil society organisations (national
  governmental/non-governmental and international
  ones)
• Community based organisations, and youth and
  child-rights movements
• The media (journalists, editors, etc.)
• Children

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Aims Objectives of the Review

• Aim
• Generating information needed to make informed
  decision on the ACIH project
• Gather data which could form part of the content
  need to be available from the envisaged hub.
• Objectives
• Identify and provide a compiled and synthesized
  information on at least 100 agencies providing
  information service on child-rights and related
  issues focusing on Africa
• Describe and analyse the existing information
  providing mechanisms on child-right issues in
  Africa in terms of availability, accessibility,
  user-friendliness and adequateness (including
  what is there and missing, and what one can do
  with the provided information)
• Indicate existing gaps in mechanisms and content
  from the perspective of at least 20
  organisations, research institutes and
  researchers as users of the existing information
  

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Aim/Objectives contd.

• Investigate the information seeking behaviour of
  at least 50 people or organisations on a service
  tailored or maintained to their actual and
  potential needs
• Come up with possible actions and solutions by
  pinpointing the added value of the envisaged
  information hub.

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Methodology Data Collection Technique

• Type of research adopted
• Descriptive
• Evaluative
• Explorative
• Research objects
• Information providing sites
• Actual potential users of
• information on child-rights
• related issues
• Type of data sought
• Primary
• Secondary
• Qualitative
• Quantitative

• Data gathering
• Mail questionnaire
• Interview
• Site search content
• examination
• Literature search and
• review

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Population Sample Selection

• Research sites targeted/selected
• Northern Africa 3 countries (Egypt, Morocco and
  Tunisia)
• Western Africa 3 countries (Nigeria, Benin and
  Ghana)
• Central Africa 3 countries (Rwanda, DRC and
  Malawi)
• Eastern Africa 3 countries (Kenya, Uganda and
  Sudan)
• Southern Africa 4 countries (SA, Botswana,
  Zambia Zimbabwe)
• Population 55
• Sample selected 16 (29) SE39
• Technique Stratified and quota sampling
• Selection criteria
• -Equal regional representation with more focus
  on Sub-Sahara Africa
• -The level of development/underdevelopment
• -Magnitude of social problems
• -Concentration of actors (NGOs)

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Research objects targeted or selected
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Research objects targeted contd.

• Selection criteria
• Relevance
• Experience
• Popularity
• Visibility
• Accessibility
• Role
• Status
• Age
• Education

Targets by research group NGOs, UNA, CS,
CBOs 22 Government offices 16 70 Research
establishments 16 The media 16 Children 30
30 Total 100
Response Rate Mail questionnaire 14
(10) Interview 117 (35) Aggregate 45
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Ethical considerations

• Briefing about the research
• Aims
• Objectives
• Who it is for
• Potential benefits
• Selection of participants
• Protecting anonymity confidentiality
• Consent
• Voluntary participation
• Information about the right not to partake or
  withdraw at any stage of the research was
  provided
• Consultation with school principals and parents
  to ensure childrens participation in the research

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Data Analysis
Coding responses to close ended questions
Interview schedule Mail questionnaire
Data entry into SPSS
Analysis using statistical functions
Examining and categorizing responses to open
ended questions
Analysis
Interpretation
Content examination categorization
Description
Information providing sites
-Availability -Accessibility -User
friendliness -Adequacy -Currency
Define evaluation criteria
Evaluation
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Limitations problems

• Small sample size
• Low response rate
• Email delivery problems
• Manual evaluation
• Limited use of browser technologies

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Key findings

• Existing information providing mechanism in all
  regions is found to be a combination of
• Physical systems (libraries, information,
  documentation and resource centres holding print
  and non-print materials)
• Virtual systems (information rich sites,
  community sites, online databases)
• Both proactive and reactive approaches to service
  delivery are being practiced
• E-zine/magazines
• Newswires/newsletters
• Email alerts/updates
• User-to-user communication, networking
  information exchange
• Distribution of book/document reviews/catalogues
• Content developed and kept at a certain site or
  center waiting users to come and utilise it

Reactive approach is widely practiced than
proactive approach
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Key findings contd.

• Accessibility and user friendliness
• All the information providing sites covered in
  the study can be accessed using one of the
  popular browsing technologies, Internet Explorer
  that has adequate support for images, tables,
  flash scripting
• In all cases users/visitors can login without
  being asked username and password, but for some
  services/content such as discussion forums,
  community profiles, email updates etc. membership
  or registration is mandatory
• Majority (72) of the sites studied load quickly
  (with less than a minute), and the rest (28)
  took 1 to 2 minutes. The latter found to have
  large pictures as part of their content.
• 7 out of 10 sites failed to provide alternatives
  for visually-impaired and other handicapped
  (disabled) users (e.g. an option of viewing a
  text only page or links with text labels that
  popup when the cursor rolls over the link)
• Although all the sites maintained adequate
  internal links, it is very common to find link
  labels lacking clarity

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Key findings contd.

• Accessibility and user friendliness
• Dead links as well as absence of links to
  external sources is observed only in a few cases
• The practice of providing a drop-down menu of
  links within links at home pages is not commonly
  observed.
• The provision of a feedback form or an email link
  to Web Master was also not considered in the
  content of most of the sites studied but contact
  details are available almost in all cases
• Out of the 130 information sites covered in the
  study the number of a multi-lingual sites is
  found to be very insignificant
• The home pages of most the sites lack important
  contents like Help, FAQ and Site Map links
• Although majority of the sites have their own
  search facility, only a few provide a description
  of how to search the database with examples
• Due to data congestion/overload (pictures, text,
  animation, etc.), moving around some sites easily
  found to be difficult

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Key findings contd.

• Adequacy of available content

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Key findings contd.

• Adequacy of available content

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Key findings contd.

• Adequacy of available content

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Key findings contd.

• Adequacy of available content

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Gaps

• Lack of integration
• Incomplete content
• Limited information service
• Absence of relevant service to children
• Currency of information
• Absence of a system for monitoring, identifying
  and filling information gaps

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Recommendations

• The involvement and participation of all actors
  in the area is key to the success of the ACIH
  project and ensure its sustainability
• Information personnel or knowledge workers at
  organisations
• Taking inventory of existing information at
  organisations
• Training need assessment

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