Catching the Voice of the Born-free Generation of Namibia Through Mobile Phones

This paper shares information about a project initiated by UNICEF, in partnership with the Southern Africa Development Community Parliamentary Forum (SADC PF), and the Namibia Institute for Democracy (NID) to enhance civic participation of the "born-free" generation in democratic processes. This term was coined by President Pohamba when speaking about the approximately 130,000 youths that first voted in 2009, as they were the first generation to grow up without the experience of brutal Apartheid oppression. In view of the popularity of mobile phones amongst the youth, a mobile-based platform was set up to gather opinions of the youth on a range of matters affecting them. Organisers say that the use of an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system was a big success and that feedback received indicates that people knew about the project, were excited about it, and were highly motivated to take part. 

The project involved a series of questions to youth who were invited to call into a phone-based Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system. Five topical youth specific issues were identified and within each a series of questions were created, which were open for response for a period of one week. Youth were able to call into the system and answer the series of questions by choosing a range of options via their mobile or fixed line phones. 

Overall, a total number of 19,513 calls were received over the five-week period during which the programme was conducted. Of these callers, a total of 14,684 (75%) made it to the last round of questions, while one-quarter of all callers (4,829) dropped out sometime during their call. The topic of the last week, "Your future, Your vision", received the highest number of calls, followed by the topic of Health. The drop-out rate steadily decreased during the course of the project, from a high of 31% in the first week to about 16% during the last, which may indicate that callers were getting more accustomed to the IVR project. Of all calls received, 55% came from female callers, while 45% came from male callers. 

Five topical youth specific issues, broadly categorised according to National Development Policies and the Millennium Development Goals, were identified according to which IVR content was programmed.
• Child protection - Callers were asked to identify the most important measures to ensure a comfortable and safe life for all young people in Namibia. Addressing violence against young people was highest on callers’ agenda, with 37% of all callers choosing this option. Option 2, addressing alcohol and drug abuse was also deemed important; together these two options were chosen by almost 70% of all callers. Improving birth registration services to ensure that every child is registered at birth were only considered by 3% of callers as being important. Of the 1,103 callers who felt that it was most important to address violence against young people in Namibia, the majority felt that teachers should provide protection for learners as the best means to protect young people from physical and verbal violence. Only 13% of callers felt that the best protection would be to speak openly to parents or adults about abuse.
• Education - Callers were asked to identify the most important measures for improving learning in Namibia. The absolute majority of callers (55%) felt that improving the quality of education would be the most important measure for improving learning, with a further 22% of callers indicating that quality of teaching should be improved. Addressing learner drop out was considered by 16% of all callers as being important, while having a better school environment was only identified by 7% of all callers as a solution. Of the 1,405 callers who felt that it was most important to improve the quality of education in Namibia, 39% of callers felt that more interesting subjects should be presented in schools, whereas the punctuality of teachers was identified as important by just under one third of all callers.
• HIV/AIDS - Callers were asked to identify the most important measures to combat HIV/AIDS in Namibia. Most callers (36%) felt that a better approach to prevention would be most needed today to combat HIV/AIDS in Namibia; 781 callers felt that finding a better approach to prevention would be the most important measure to tackle HIV/AIDS in Namibia. 41% of callers felt that this could be best achieved through the promotion of faithfulness to one partner, while finding a cooler way to promote condoms featured lowest in importance. Of the 388 callers who felt that improving information dissemination as means to combat HIV/AIDS in Namibia, up-to-date life skills education in schools and learning from same-age peer educators were regarded as the most important ways of such information dissemination. Telephone or SMS help lines were considered relatively low as means of information dissemination.
• Health - One third of callers felt that improving the HIV/AIDS response in the health system would be most important to ensure that Namibians generally are able to lead a healthy life. Improving the health system and its services generally was identified by 29% of callers as a priority, while tackling teenage pregnancies was identified by a quarter of all callers as a priority. The improvement of the quality of hospitals and clinics scored lowest in terms of importance. Access to information, both on reproduction and sexual health as well as on HIV/AIDS treatment, featured highest on the list of importance in all age groups, while callers seem to be satisfied with the current provision of confidential and private space at clinics.
• Your future, your vision - Callers were asked to identify the most important issue that would, in their opinion, lead to a satisfying future. Having basic opportunities for a healthy life was regarded by most callers (36%) as the most important issue that would secure a satisfying future, while finding employment followed a close second at 33%.
The organisers say that the drop-out rate of callers, although receding over the duration of the overall project, could, in future, possibly further be reduced through the pre-testing of all questions and sub-questions during focus groups. Such pre-testing can also ensure that there is not too much information, that menus are not too long, and that the voice prompts are easy to understand. The inclusion of further local languages could possibly ensure wider participation and a reduced dropout rate, as callers may not always have been able to follow the English language through to the final questions. 

The NID says it could make use of IVR technology in its ongoing programme working to increase the interaction between the public and elected leaders represented in Parliament. On policy issues of public concern, an IVR system can fruitfully be used to gather the opinions of the public on such issues and to forward data obtained to leaders and other relevant stakeholders for consideration in the law making process. The opinion of the public on a range of other topics could also be gathered through an IVR system.