USIP has teamed up with Digital Democracy to train women activists in Haiti to monitor and report violence in their communities.  Digital Democracy is a grassroots organization devoted to empowering civic engagement through mobile technology. Since 2010, Digital Democracy has conducted two workshops for Haitian women in Port-au-Prince on how to use cell phone and other forms of information technology to prevent conflict. 

The first workshop -- conducted in the Fall of 2010 in the lead up to the national elections -- focused on monitoring election violence.  Fifty Haitian women activists learned how to conduct mobile reporting, aggregate reports into crisis maps, and contribute to a shared blog.  After the workshop, trainees participated in a six-week program, employing their new skills to monitor and report on key issues and conditions in their communities through the shared blog, Fanm Pale.  When election day came, observers were surprised by the relatively low levels of violence, despite irregularities and prolonged uncertainty.

The second workshop, held in the Fall of 2011, focused on deepening the women’s citizen journalism skills and broadening their scope.  Staff of KOFAVIV (the Commission of Women Victims for Victims), a grassroots Haitian women's organization that works with victims of sexual violence, attended the workshop as well.  The workshop provided more hands-on training in photography, interviewing, blogging, Facebook, and Twitter.  Specific skills included embedding video clips into blog posts; adding hashtags, links, and photos to tweets; and protecting sources’ identities in reports.  More broadly, the training laid the groundwork for the women activists to expand their monitoring efforts beyond election violence to gender-based violence, post-earthquake reconstruction, and other issues related to the situation of women in Haiti.  Over the course of the workshop, participants identified key sources of insecurity in their communities, conducted local interviews, prepared and published firsthand reports online, and developed basic advocacy skills. 

At the close of the last training, participants wrote a collective statement describing their goals moving forward: “We are a group of women living in camps and communities who are fighting to have our voices heard and to share with the world the real situation of women in Haiti.”

Watch as KOVAVIV staff and other participants reflect on their experiences:

Learn More

• Read Digital Democracy's Field Report
• Watch USIP's December 2011 event on Reconstruction and Role of Women in Haiti
• Learn about USIP's Gender and Peacebuilding Center
• Learn about USIP's Haiti Program