USER GROUP 1: WOMEN COMMUNITY MEMBERS
“It depends on how urgent and necessary the topics are to that community. If they still prefer the conventional channels and could not see benefits of technology in that aspect, it would be very challenging to find the interest.”
“I think the platform should be user-friendly as most residents along or around Mekong River still live under the poverty line. Despite carrying a (smart) phone each, technology still looks strange to them. So the more our Khmer language is used to inform or educate them, the more access they gain to reveal and promote their stories. Also, the more visuals, the better on the selected content, be it on a website, a social media platform, an artwork or a video.”
One informant clearly delineated four groups of women:
“Women live near river bands whose livelihoods rely on rivers (use water for daily life, farming, fishing…etc). Even in this group also divided in small groups like ethic group (Khmer people, Cham people) or majority group (Kinh people). They are more close to rivers and know well about rives. However, their capacities in technologies may be not good enough.
Women -Local staff in different levels (commune, district, province, state). They know about rivers and implement policies in water management. They are quite good in technology.
Women in social- economic organizations such as in women association, they are active in activities related to women.
Women work in university. They are researchers and deeply understand that.”
Community women, living along or near the Mekong, depending on the river in some way for livelihood activities have been identified as the primary target audience and beneficiaries of this project, particularly if the platform aims to be truly inclusive. However, these women have been difficult to engage in the co-design process because of language barriers. It is likely that there will continue to be a reliance of English-speaking community partners to represent them in the co-creation process.
These women are the source of an incredible amount of knowledge and stories that have received limited recognition and validated through existing water governance-related processes and mechanisms. Often, these women speak only ethnic languages and/or Mekong country languages.
In developing any tool, platform, or solution, the recognition that access to technology and connectivity has gender dimension or is often non-existent. Furthermore, as discussed in the State of Knowledge – Women and Rivers Mekong Region paper, the ability to ‘speak out’ also can be made difficult because of gender norms within a community or challenges around agency. Subsequently, women may require some support in order to better be able to ‘speak out’ or craft messages.
Simplicity and ease of entry were identified as key requirements for engaging this user group in any technology platform. A simple three-button design was proposed as a prototype for getting these women into the system (provided below in figure 3 as a mobile application prototype).
Each of the three ‘areas’ of the app would need to be designed in consultation with partners and women community members to be able to best suit their requirements, however, the following features were suggested by the informants:
- Share: A simple application that allows for providing and accessing stories, photos, artwork, and citizen-collected Mekong data and observations as a ‘feed’ of content. The option to geo-reference the content could be a feature option. Content would be tagged and categorized by ‘campaign for’, content type, and possibly also to ‘report’ violations or issues of concern.
- Learn: Access to core tools, news, and trainings as curated content to support key water governance priorities as identified as by a steering committee and/or user beneficiaries.
- Connect: The option for members to directly connect with one another in a ‘safe space’.
Figure 3: Mobile Application Prototype
Subsequent discussion with project partners has identified three distinct audience segments: Thai women leaders, Cambodian community women, and regional women stakeholders. These different audience segments are described more in Section V below, and they are also considered as users in the ‘share’, ‘learn’, and ‘connect’ components described in the subsequent sections.
USER GROUPS 2 & 3: WOMEN MEKONG RESEARCHERS & WOMEN IN NGOS
A secondary user group was identified by a number of informants: women Mekong Researchers. Most researchers already have existing networks and platforms to support collaboration. However, women conducting research on the Mekong are very interested in being involved in order to build stronger connections with local actors, particularly given the restrictions on travel and fieldwork imposed by COVID-19. In addition, some women also expressed the desire to be able to find ways to better support community-based women and local NGOs through remote volunteering opportunities.
This secondary user group, ideally, would want to be able to ‘plug into’ whatever solution is developed to support the community-based women (primary beneficiaries, described above) to provide this support. Women who work in NGOs can also be invited to ‘plug into’ the platform being developed for community women, but for both of these other user groups, it is not recommended to build an independent technology solution to support their needs.
Many of these women would belong to the initial target audience of the platform, the women who have participated in the Women and Rivers Asia Congress, held by Oxfam and International Rivers in 2020. These women and how they would engage the platform are considered in the subsequent sections under the regional audience segment.
DISCUSSION
Developing a platform that engaged community women and local NGO workers to share their stories, experiences, and photography of life related to the Mekong – through a map-based interface, ideally – emerged as the ‘innovative’ features, and as features not already in existence. The challenge is not in the development of the platform to do this, it is in soliciting the stories and images to populate the platform, and the effort required to legitimize the platform and the knowledge that it will contain.
For all user segments, the issue of privacy, safety, and security remains a key issue to be addressed. The issues surrounding how to govern the platform and ensure a strong ethical approach, using – for example – Free, Prior Informed Consent (FPIC), will need to be determined by the governing structure, policy, and Code of Conduct.
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