Lessons Learned from Participatory Mapping Processes in Mathare in ...

Children, Youth and Environments 22(2), 2012

Youth and Digital Mapping in Urban Informal Settlements: Lessons Learned from Participatory Mapping Processes in Mathare in Nairobi, Kenya Jamie Lundine Primož Kovačič

Spatial Collective, Ltd. Nairobi, Kenya

Lisa Poggiali

Department of Anthropology Stanford University

Citation: Lundine, Jamie, PrimožKovačič, and Lisa Poggiali (2012). “Youth and Digital Mapping in Urban Informal Settlements: Lessons Learned from Participatory Mapping Processes in Mathare in Nairobi, Kenya.” Children, Youth and Environments 22(2): 214-233. Retrieved [date] from http://www.colorado.edu/journals/cye.

Abstract

There is growing interest in the integration of new technology and community development, particularly on the value that Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can add to community voices in setting development agendas. In the digital age, youth are emerging as leaders in capturing, packaging, and sharing information about their communities. Yet, there remains little documentation of the connection between in-depth field work with youth, new technology, and community development. To that end, this field report documents experiences of working with youth to map their community in the informal settlement of Mathare in Nairobi, Kenya. These youth created the first open data map of Mathare. The initiative— referred to locally as Map Mathare—offers key insights into how youth from urban informal settlements can utilize GIS technology to further their own development agendas. These youth can be engaged to work with community leaders and development practitioners to create valuable information to inform community development efforts. Keywords: participation, participatory development, mapping, GIS, technology, youth, Kenya, Nairobi, informal settlements, slums

© 2012 Children, Youth and Environments

Youth and Digital Mapping in Urban Informal Settlements: Lessons Learned…

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Introduction

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a combination of software and tools for capturing, storing, analyzing, and managing geographic information (Abbot et al. 1998). Participatory mapping is the application of participatory development principles to GIS; it encourages residents in local communities to create and manage geographic information. When participatory mapping also engages local community members in analyzing and preparing data for decision making purposes, it can be called Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS) (Abbot et al. 1998). In many cases, the two terms are used interchangeably; for the sake of clarity, we will use participatory mapping to refer to both concepts in this field report. Participatory mapping is a powerful tool for awareness, engagement, and advocacy that has been used across the world for decades (Abbot et al. 1998). In the past, communities made maps but these maps could not be shared widely, and thus remained out of the domain of policy and decision makers. With the advent of low cost mapping equipment, Internet technology, and open source tools, participatory mapping has become even more accessible and popular throughout the world. While previously used mostly in rural contexts, in the past decade digital mapping has emerged as an important tool for urban citizen engagement in city improvement and upgrading. Positioning the Authors Two of the paper’s authors, Primož Kovačič and Jamie Lundine, deepened their passion for participatory development and digital technologies through their work with youth in informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya. Primož and Jamie began managing digital mapping projects when they moved to Kenya in 2009—Primož from Slovenia and Jamie from Canada. Using GIS and new technology, Primož and Jamie have been training and supporting youth to document and share their experiences and advocate for change on behalf of their communities. Lisa Poggiali, a Ph.D candidate in Anthropology at Stanford University, began following Map Mathare because it aroused her intellectual interest in the ethics and politics of digital technology and urban space, and she started conducting ethnographic research on the project in February 2011. Overview In the fall of 2010, the authors of this field report worked with several organizations to facilitate and document a collaborative, participatory mapping effort in the urban informal settlement of Mathare in Nairobi, Kenya. This report describes our experience working with youth and community development practitioners to develop an open data map of Mathare; it is adapted from our blog posts and reports generated throughout the mapping process. In the field report, we first look at Mathare’s social and geographic landscape as the context within which this initiative took place; we discuss youth as a concept within the complex environment of an urban informal settlement. Next, we outline digital mapping efforts in informal settlements. We then narrate the process of participatory digital mapping as used in the Map Mathare initiative. Lastly, we


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describe lessons learned and provide recommendations for future digital mapping work in urban informal settlements.

Geographic Context

Nairobi is a city of approximately 3.13 million inhabitants (Kenya National Bureau of Statistics 2009). It is the administrative, financial, and technological capital of the Republic of Kenya. The official government statistics of Nairobi’s population (and indeed, other areas of the country) are highly contested (Daily Nation 2012). Despite the lack of official government statistics on the percentage of Nairobi’s population that lives in informal areas, an inventory of Nairobi’s informal settlements conducted in 1995 put this number at 50 percent of the city’s inhabitants; they occupy approximately one-twentieth of the city’s area (Weru 2004). The 2009 census reported that approximately 65.3 percent of Nairobi’s households live in dwellings with ceilings made of sheet-metal (Kenya National Bureau of Statistics 2009). This means that in 2009, 641,974 households were documented as living in houses made of informal materials. Youth make up a growing number of residents in informal settlements; as of 2009, 78.31 percent of Kenyans are below 34 years old; 35.39 percent are between the ages of 15 and 34 (Njonjo 2010). Figure 1. Map of Africa, showing Kenya and Nairobi (source: OpenStreetMap)

Introducing Mathare The mapping work detailed in this article takes place in the Mathare Valley in Nairobi. Mathare is one of the oldest and largest informal settlements in Nairobi, a tangled mass of tin shacks sitting precariously alongside open drainage sites, heaps of trash, and half-completed roads. It is situated in Nairobi’s Eastlands area, in the


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Constituency of Starehe.i The area covers three square kilometres and at the time of mapping, was comprised of four wards. Mathare is primarily made up of informal housing, including tin shanty shacks, low-cost high-rise apartment buildings, and other non-permanent structures. It is home to approximately 230,000 people, although this number is contested; for example, official reports from the 2009 government census state that the entire Starehe constituency (11 sq. km) has a population of 274,607 people (Kenya National Bureau of Statistics 2009). Slum enumeration and data from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in the area put the population of Mathare alone closer to 230,000. Residents—and youth in particular—here have few opportunities for consistent employment and limited stable assets. Unemployment rates among urban youth have been consistently higher than other age brackets, and indeed higher than their rural counterparts; in 2008, 33 percent of urban youth were reported to be unemployed (Njonjo 2010). In Mathare, many residents rely on the daily allowance doled out by organizations in exchange for attendance at their workshops. In order to attract a community presence at their events, many NGOs provide daily “allowances,” and often a midday meal, to attendees. As part of a broader strategy of “hustling”—i.e., scraping together a living out of whatever they can find— residents often spend their days moving from workshop to workshop. Five hundred shillings (approximately $6) from USAID one day, 300 (approximately $3.50) from a local sanitation NGO another—and if they are lucky, a lunch of rice and beans. Youth within Nairobi’s Informal Settlements As numerous scholars have pointed out, “youth” is not an a priori designation that indexes a specific range of ages, but rather is a social category (Durham 2000; Hubbard 2007; Massey 1998) informed by politico-economic designations and cultural predilections. In sub-Saharan African, “youth” is often tied to employment levels and socio-economic status. As anthropologist Laura Hubbard (2007, 26) notes, “for many in African economies of decline youth is… a stage that they cannot escape, or has no end” (Durham 2000). “Yet, on the other hand,” she points out, youth can also “represent the possibility of new kinds of mobility, technology and the small remaining chance of leap-frogging across the lag in progress between those on the top and those on the bottom” (ibid., 26). While the legal definition of youth in Kenya is a person between the ages of 18 and 34 years old (Njonjo 2010), locally relevant understandings of “youth” are much broader; they are shaped by factors such as income level, employment status, marital status, and parental status. For example, a 33-year-old married man with a child can be socially recognized as a “youth” by virtue of the fact that he is poor and unemployed. Furthermore, because many development projects in informal settlements explicitly aim to attract “youth” (and this is particularly the case with regard to technology-oriented development projects), men and women of all ages capitalize on Kenya’s malleable understanding of youth in order to participate in such projects. For the purposes of Map Mathare, our definition of “youth” was guided by local understandings as expressed during our consultations in Mathare and during the first community forum as documented below.


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Digital Mapping Exercises in Informal Settlements

Over the last decade, digital slum mapping has slowly gained popularity around the world. Fuelled by the advent of low-cost, consumer-grade, hand-held Global Positioning System (GPS) devices, the rise of web-mapping technology, and citizendriven and open source GIS, citizens, organizations, and informal networks have begun to put slums on the map. Such efforts have been documented in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (Lemma, Sliuzas and Kuffer 2006), Uganda (Makau, Dobson and Samia 2012), Tanzania (Hooper and Ortolano 2012), and elsewhere. The objectives of slum mapping exercises are diverse. Common themes include monitoring and raising awareness of slum conditions (Lemma, Sliuzas and Kuffer 2006), advocating for land tenure (Hooper and Ortolano 2012), planning “slum upgrading” activities (Makau, Dobson and Samia 2012), and uniting residents of informal settlements so they can better understand their environment (Berdou 2011). One of the most cited examples of slum mapping is that of Map Kibera. In the Autumn of 2009 and early 2010, 13 youth in Kibera, a well-known informal settlement in Nairobi, were trained and supported by members of the OpenStreetMap community to create the first open dataii digital map of their settlement. Primož and Jamie joined the team at Map Kibera as volunteers in December 2009 and March 2010, respectively. They gradually assumed more responsibility and a deeper involvement in the project and subsequently the organization, Map Kibera Trust. Map Kibera received international attention for its work in creating geographic information in open data format about the informal settlement. Map Kibera was unique in its focus on open data, open source software, and youth in Kibera. The project in Kibera used a global citizen-generated mapping database called OpenStreetMap (OSM). OSM is an open database of geographic information of the world, created by users who volunteer geographic information to the online OSM community. In early 2010, 13 youth were selected through a call for applications that was distributed among youth groups and community-based organizations in Kibera. With support from two local organizations, five females and eight males ranging in age from 19 to 34 were initially selected by the project’s founders, Mikel Maron and Erica Hagen (Hagen 2011). The youth were interviewed and chosen by the project team based on their interest in information technology and commitment to community development (Hagen 2011). Once selected, they were then trained by members of the OSM community in the use of handheld Garmin eTrex GPS devices for data collection. The youth were asked to define points of interest that were important to them, and to collect GPS points of community resources and significant landmarks. After collecting the points, they were then trained in various computer programs, including Java Open Street Map (JOSM), to digitize and geo-reference the information. The data were then uploaded to the OSM server for public reuse. In return for participation in the training and data collection, the volunteer youth received monetary allowances, a common form of remuneration in Kibera and other informal settlements in Nairobi.


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Between autumn 2009 and 2010 Map Kibera carried out several phases of mapping work and evolved from a project into a longer-term initiative. At the request of the youth participants, a local organization was established to support their work and provide a platform for further opportunities to build skills and secure funding. After an extended legal process, Map Kibera Trust was registered in Kenya in November 2010 to support the work of Map Kibera, Voice of Kibera, and Kibera News Network—three youth-focused programs which were incorporated under the umbrella of the Trust. Prior Digital Mapping in Mathare Before the autumn of 2010, Mathare had been mapped by several national and international and organizations. For example, the Government of Kenya and the Japanese International Development Agency (JICA) produced a map of all of the Mathare informal settlement—along with other parts of Nairobi—which was published and printed in March 2005 by the Survey of Kenya. The map was not made available for public consumption or redistribution by JICA. In 2000, Muungano wa Wanavijiji—a local poverty alleviation and housing organization— conducted participatory mapping and enumeration in a section of Mathare called Huruma (Weru 2004). In 2010, several organizations expressed a demand for an open data map of Mathare, including Cooperazione Internazionale and Rebel Film Board. These organizations approached Map Kibera Trust; specifically, they were interested in how the methodology applied in Kibera could be adapted to the Mathare context. The goal of mapping Mathare, as expressed by these organizations, was to generate data to inform their work and the work of other organizations in the area. Over a period of several months—starting in July 2010—we made countless visits to Mathare to meet with youth groups and community organizations. Together with youth members from Map Kibera Trust, we presented the work from Kibera. We explored ideas with the Mathare-based organizations and solicited feedback on the previous mapping activities. During separate conversations, Plan International Kenya approached our team and expressed interest in the creation of an open data map of Mathare to support their Urban Community Led Total Sanitation (UCLTS) work.iii Plan was (and is) working with a local partner in Mathare, Community Cleaning Services (CCS), to carry out UCLTS. Plan and CCS were specifically interested in creating a sanitation map of Mathare to support and monitor their work in UCLTS. They were also interested in the specific focus on youth and open data, as carried out by Map Kibera. Spurred by this local demand, Plan International Kenya, Map Kibera Trust, and CCS convened a planning committee, and soon thereafter proposed a plan for Map Mathare. In late 2010, the proposed project—dubbed Map Mathare by the local youth—was funded through Plan International Kenya.


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Table 1. Chart of participating organizations, Map Mathare 2011 Local Mathare-based organizations creating demand for map Organizations constituting the planning committee Funding organization Facilitating organization

Community Cleaning Services Community Transformers Cooperazione Internazionale Rebel Film Board Map Kibera Trust Plan International Kenya Community Cleaning Services Plan International Kenya Map Kibera Trust

Creating an Open Data Map of Mathare Map Mathare was an initiative that adapted the Map Kibera experiences—building on the successes of the youth engagement through technology and open data—and integrated participatory development techniques. We hoped to improve the process of community engagement and create demand-driven, impactful information. With advice and leadership from staff at Plan International Kenya, we embarked on a journey of youth and community participation in mapping and media. As part of the proposed project, the planning committee set several goals for the mapping initiative in Mathare. There was clearly a demand for Map Mathare, as demonstrated during our many visits to the community. We determined, therefore, that community members would be central to the project. We wanted to set up a training program to transfer skills regarding how to create maps, report local stories, and document community information. We envisioned that the data generated during this training program could be used by Mathare’s myriad organizations in their planning and advocacy activities, and equip them with skills to continue participatory data collection in the future. Peer-to-Peer Knowledge and Skills Transfer The transfer of peer-to-peer skills and knowledge was one of the major goals of the project as set out by the planning committee. As such, in addition to staff representatives from Plan International Kenya, Map Kibera Trust, and CCS, the planning committee also included one Map Kibera youth, one Kibera News Network youth, one Voice of Kibera youth, and one Mathare community representative. While we had initially planned to have more representation from Mathare youth, we ultimately decided that singling out certain Mathare youths to represent the group would create an uncomfortable power dynamic among the Mathare youth participants and trainees. We had learned from our experience working in Kibera that we needed to train mappers in interpersonal skills, such as project management and facilitation, in addition to technical skills, in order to increase employment opportunities and maximize the effectiveness of the project (Berdou 2011). The short time frame between the Kibera and Mathare initiatives, as well as the limited funds allocated


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for training, meant that the Kibera youth had not received adequate support to develop techniques to train others.iv Tension developed within the group of Kibera mappers, as not everyone could be chosen to train the group in Mathare and receive the corresponding remuneration. Several Kibera mappers were more qualified based on their technical skill sets and other professional training. Others were threatened by Mathare participants, viewing them as potential competitors for future employment opportunities. All of these concerns had to be addressed. For example, in order to decide which Kibera mappers to hire as trainers, we devised an objective method to assess their skill sets. Between March and June 2011, we held a refresher training course for the Kibera youth; at its conclusion, the Kibera team members were individually evaluated based on their skills sets in four different areas (GPS data collection, use of JOSM, use of features on OpenStreetMap.org, and definitions of geographic features). These assessment tools proved useful, and we later used them to evaluate the skills of mappers in Mathare. Starting the Project: Community Outreach, Mobilization, and Recruitment In order to introduce the project and gather feedback from a cross-section of community stakeholders, we held an initial community forum on December 1, 2010. The forum was advertised by word-of-mouth through the youth and community groups that had expressed interest in Map Mathare. Approximately 130 community members attended the forum. We started the program with introductions by Simon Koyoko, the local Mathare project coordinator, and members of CCS. To communicate the significance of mapping, we facilitated a “map with your feet” exercise during which all participants got up and stood around the hall based on the villages in which they lived in Mathare. Participants were then asked a series of questions about the location of different services, including the number of schools and toilets in the village. Participants found it difficult to answer these questions. When asked about the understanding of mapping after the exercise, one participant remarked: “Mapping is knowing how your village is.” After the “map-with-your feet” exercise, the Kibera youth presented their work and explained the importance of mapping and new technology to the Mathare residents present at the forum. An important component of the forum was to generate support for the project from the local community. Without the permission of the opinion leaders and youth in the areas, the mapping and media activities could not go forward. As such, the forum brought together elders and youth to learn about the project, but also to discuss the opportunities and challenges that mapping and media work presented in Mathare. The main challenge discussed was tension between the youth and village leaders. We explored what it means to be a youth and the answers were: strength, energy, less experience, the future, and single status (although there was a debate and some participants said that this is not true, many youth are married). When asked “What does it mean to be an elder?” the responses were: more years, experience,


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carriers of stories, know their geography, parents/parenting, and methodical decision-making. The participants also discussed challenges such as unemployment, tension between local administration and youth, crime, corruption, poverty, and so on. Despite the challenges discussed, the general mood of the forum was positive and the attendees were excited to learn from the youth of Kibera and generate maps to address challenges expressed in the forum in order to inform local development processes. During the forum, we introduced the mapping exercise and invited youth and community members to participate in the mapping process. We announced the starting date as the following Monday, December 6, 2012, and the venue as Community Transformers youth group offices. All residents and youth were invited to participate in Map Mathare; we decided that self-selection into the program would allow us to identify those youth and residents who were most interested in the technology and the project as we were not paying allowance for participation. This method was informed by the success of past initiatives undertaken by Plan International Kenya and CCS, and also by the challenges of Map Kibera (see section on incentives for participation below). On the first day of the training, 45 youth and community members turned out to learn about mapping and new media for digital storytelling. Throughout the first week of the hands-on field work and training, we had between 45 and 65 people attend on each day. In December 2010, 84 different people attended the hands-on part of the program; the participants ranged in age from 17 to 43 years old and the average age was 26.2 years old. Due to this overwhelming demand (we had anticipated a maximum of 40 participants), we began to stagger the training days. Incentives for Participation We wanted to attract and establish a community of mappers committed to the idea of improving their community, yet we also recognized that Mathare residents had limited economic opportunities and needed to earn money in order to support their families. From our experience in Kibera, we learned that paying participants generated a group of people who were committed to earning a living, but not necessarily to mapping or community work (see Berdou 2011 for further discussion of the challenges and perceptions of the team in Kibera). We therefore decided not to pay mappers in Mathare, but limited the amount of field data collection and data entry time to a half day, three days a week. We made this decision in order to allow participants time to carry out income generating activities during the week, while also committing time to the mapping initiative. We used funds originally budgeted for participant allowances to pay youth from the Map Kibera Trust, who were hired to train their peers in Mathare. The stipend covered their transport and lunch and also provided a small living stipend.

Community Leadership in Digital Mapping

Throughout the program we worked closely with Simon Kokoyo and engaged with local leadership. For instance, in September 2010—before the project officially began—our team and the project coordinator and a representative from CCS met


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the District Officer (D.O.) and Mathare elders for the first time. The D.O. and chiefs of Huruma and Mathare (there are approximately seven chiefs in the Mathare Valley area) expressed enthusiastic support for Map Mathare. Other chiefs were briefed on the initiative in a baraza (a community forum during which local elected leaders meet community members to discuss issues of importance in the community) in Mathare North. The D.O. suggested that all chiefs in the area display the maps in their offices; he thought the maps could be used to enhance their knowledge of the area and help them in decision making when working with development partners to plan water and sanitation interventions, for example. Digitizing Village Boundaries: Consulting Village Elders The largest informal areas in Nairobi (like Kibera and Mathare) consist of different villages. Before we began GPS data collection in Mathare we had to determine where these villages were located. This was important for many reasons, including that it would enable us to: 1) gain support for the community mapping work from opinion leaders such as village elders and chiefs; 2) determine the areas in which to carry out mapping activities; 3) plan how different data collection teams would operate, and providing them with the necessary security in high-risk areas; and 4) ensure that each village was represented in the mapping process (each team was assigned to one village). In order to determine the village boundaries, we printed out satellite imagery of Mathare that had been generously donated to the initiative by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Simon Kokoyo brought these print outs with him to consultations with elders, where he asked them to draw the village boundaries on the satellite imagery. These boundaries were then digitized and geolocated using the JOSM software and subsequently uploaded to the OSM servers. At that point, the data were available publicly for download and reuse. Figure 2. Mathare satellite imagery with boundaries drawn by village elders in consultation with facilitation team


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Figure 3. Mathare villages digitized in Java Open Street Map software, December 2010

Data Collection and Key Findings Building on the information about village boundaries gleaned from elders, Mathare youth participants began their mapping training by collecting important features in the area, such as roads, waterways and points of interest (hospitals, churches, schools, community centers, businesses, etc.). Over a period of 15 days, the youth produced a base map containing this information, which gave the team a general idea of the size of the villages and the geography of the Mathare Valley. The team divided Mathare into three areas: West, Central and East (see Table 2). The complete base map of Mathare took 17 days, during which 15 mappers (on average each day) collected and edited data for an average of 5 hours per day. In total, the base mapping took approximately 1,250 working hours. Table 2. Villages in Mathare Valley West Central East

Village 1, Village 2, Village 3A, Village 3B, Village 4B, Kosovo Mathare Number 10, Village 3C, Thayu, Mabatini, Mashimoni, Village 4A Huruma with all sub entities, New Mathare, Kiamaiko, Mathare North

For the base map, the mappers collected, edited and digitized 750 points, which represented features such as schools, health clinics and toilets; 41.3 kilometers of roads and paths, and digitized 24 Mathare villages, altogether an area of


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3.0064444 square kilometers. The mappers also digitized 138 buildings, which covered an area of 58,322 square meters. Other areas were digitized, including walled fields, football and recreational pitches and natural areas, which covered 360,602 square meters. After creating the base map of Mathare in December 2010, including Mathare North and Huruma, the mappers worked from January to April 2011 to create a map of building footprints and a sanitation profile of Mathare 10, Mashimoni, Thyuo, and Mabatini. At the end of April 2011, the printed maps were distributed to youth groups and organizations throughout Mathare. The D.O. and several chiefs have displayed the maps on the walls in their offices. CCS and Plan Kenya used the maps to advocate for the adoption of UCLTS by the City Council of Nairobi and the expansion of UCLTS to other wards in Nairobi. This ultimately took place in early 2012 and CCS credits some of this influence to the visual representation of the sanitation situation in the maps and data created by Map Mathare (Musyoki 2012). Image 4. Image of sample area of geographic information submitted to OpenStreetMap by youth mappers in Mathare


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Image 5. Sanitation profile of Mathare 10, Mashimoni, Thyuo, and Mabatini showing building footprints, open drainage, toilets and toilet users, and open defecation areas

Lessons Learned

In Mathare, we stressed community engagement from the outset, making it a point to dialogue with chiefs, public health officers, community-based organizations, NGOs, and other interested community members. We engaged in a four-prong approach. First, we hired a Mathare-based project coordinator—Simon Kokoyo— with experience and knowledge of the local political, social, and cultural environment. The project coordinator was a key organizer and resource person and was invaluable to the team. The importance of this role for the project cannot be overstated. This is a key recommendation for anyone conducting community mapping and/or community engagement of any kind. Second, we held public community consultations that we then used to drive the mapping and media work. Decision making regarding the types of data to collect and use came directly from community stakeholders in these public forums and meetings. We then adjusted project goals and activities based on the feedback we received, which ensured that our work remained locally relevant. Third, we maintained an “open door” policy regarding participation in the project. In other words, we allowed mappers to join the team at any point during the four months of field work, mapping training, data collection, and data entry. Mappers and those interested in social media and video learned from one another as the


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work progressed. Some of the more active mappers joined the team after the initial recruitment in November and December 2010 and remained part of the team beyond the termination of program funding. Fourth, to encourage the participation of as many residents of Mathare as possible, we conducted the trainings in various geographically dispersed venues. This gave the mappers an opportunity to explain in detail to all interested parties—from elders to children—what they were doing and why they were there, often walking around with strange-looking equipment (GPS units). Further, different regions had different needs, and by spending time in each region, the mappers were better positioned to attend to these particularities when creating “thematic maps,” which showcased information about specific areas. Finally, by rotating the training venues, we ensured that all participants would have an equal opportunity to walk to the trainings that were closest to them, so they would not be forced to spend their money on public transportation. Challenges of Participatory Mapping in Mathare: Participation and Exclusion Map Mathare is unique in the region in that it made a “no pay” policy explicit from the start. The decision to refrain from paying participants was an informed one. After initiating a similar project in the informal settlement of Kibera, the facilitation team noticed an uncomfortable power dynamic had developed between themselves and program participants, whereby the latter understood mapping and related media activities purely as a form of employment (Berdou 2011). According to the facilitators, the resident mappers lacked initiative and failed to “own the project” (Berdou 2011). Upon starting the pilot project in Mathare, then, they were clear from the beginning that participation would be on a strictly volunteer basis. This strategy was successful in that it attracted individuals who were highly invested in learning the technological skills provided by the trainings, and were generally very enthusiastic about mapping their neighborhoods. It was clear that receiving monetary compensation for their efforts was not the primary motivation for sustained engagement with Map Mathare. While the decision to hire mappers on a “volunteer basis” can thus be assessed as one of most successful aspects of the project, it also generated a myriad of negative effects. First, while the initial community forum held to inform potential volunteers about the project attracted upwards of 200 participants, that number quickly dwindled to approximately 20 to 30 core members, most of whom had stable sources of employment outside of the mapping activities. Indeed, results of a qualitative survey conducted with members of Map Mathare who defected revealed that the primary motivation for ceasing mapping activities was the need to devote more time to securing income.v This meant that the project—by design—did not engage the most vulnerable members of Mathare’s population. Further, as mappers in Mathare began to “own the project”—taking the initiative to start a related blog in which they detailed pressing issues in Mathare, as well as promoting the project on their own and using it as a platform to engage with


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neighborhood NGOs and individual researchers—they also started to question why the facilitation team and members of the Map Kibera Trust team who were conducting trainings were getting paid, and they were not. The mappers envisioned their participation in the project as leading to a stable income, which never materialized. While the facilitation team did provide mappers with earning opportunities—by using their networks to link them to projects looking to hire people with digital mapping skills—this caused further tension within the general team of mappers, as rumors of non-transparent hiring practices and unequal financial opportunities swirled. Whenever money became available in Mathare, talk of someone “eating it” [keeping it for oneself through a corrupt act] followed. Resentment surrounding the distribution of employment opportunities only becomes intelligible against the broader cultural backdrop in Mathare, whereby doo (the term for money in sheng, the local slang) is more often than not exchanged for time (as in the model where NGOs provide “token” allowance for attendance at workshops), rather than demonstratable skills. Designing participatory work in the context of urban informal settlements, characterized by high unemployment and reliance upon casual labor, as well as an ingrained expectation that participants will receive financial remuneration through attending community events, provides a unique challenge in terms of defining and supporting participatory work. This is a key insight from this initiative that is applicable to both practitioners and researchers interested in participatory mapping, as well as participatory research and technology more generally.


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Table 3. Summary of lessons learned during participatory digital mapping in Mathare • Engaging a local Mathare-based coordinator(s) is key to mobilizing participants and community leaders, and ensuring local ownership. • Continuous engagement of partners, community leaders, and government representatives through forums and meetings raises awareness and gives credibility to the program within the community and among stakeholders. • Decision making regarding the type of data to collect and use must come from the community, stakeholders and participants through forums and community meetings. • Rotating venues enables the participants to bring the program into their communities and puts them in the forefront of interacting with their community. • When selecting participants, the process of self selection is preferred but is more challenging logistically (time, communication, funds). • Data collection can be led by the youth participants with the help of stakeholders and other community members. • Establish roles for non-technical mappers—community leaders and elders who guide mappers around areas with which they are less familiar. • Collecting information is not enough; participants need to become advocates of information. • Maintain an “open door” policy for participants from Mathare to map different villages. • Provide the maps and information on and offline. Paper maps are available at several resource centers in Mathare and have been supplied to some key stakeholders, including local government officials in Mathare. • Although the programs started on a volunteer basis, over the long term this is not sustainable for the participants nor the program itself. • Using new media in communities requires a flexible approach. Some technologies may be embraced while others are not, which requires the coordinating team to improvise and respond to community needs.

Conclusions and Recommendations

Mapping and digital media are means to create information and initiate discussions about challenges and opportunities in a community. The mapping initiative was successful in creating open access data and a comprehensive base map of Mathare. The geographic information is available online at Openstreetmap.org and can be reused by individuals and organizations in Mathare and around the world. The project created a strong team of youth mappers who are enthusiastic about giving back to their community. The products of this work (maps, blog posts, videos, etc.) were, however, not the end goal. Our aim in Mathare was to create an empowered group of youth and community members, armed with deep knowledge about their community. Such information can be used for powerful social and political effect. As the Mathare project coordinator, Simon Kokoyo, stated, “By knowing what we have we will be in a position to engage our government!” Government representatives were informed and enthusiastic about the mapping work, but still lack the skills and policy framework to integrate the community-generated data into official government


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systems. Beyond hanging the maps on the walls in government offices and select advocacy efforts by CCS and Plan International Kenya with the City Council of Nairobi, it is difficult to trace further positive, concrete applications of the data thus far. Based on the foregoing, recommendations include sensitization around the issue of translation and related power dynamics, as well as an open, ongoing discussion around money. One way of tackling the language issue would be to have a designated translator stand with the facilitation team at all trainings and meetings, and translate each line verbatim. Further, budgeting for language training of the management team is advisable; while the majority of Kenya’s population does have excellent English skills, residents of the informal settlements are certainly an exception. Communication is a vital component to such an initiative. As such, maintaining a high level of communication and openness—through written communication of decisions to all team members, keeping in mind the language with which they are most comfortablevi—will be implemented in future activities. A greater emphasis also needs to be placed on developing soft skills, such as public speaking, training and management skills. Sufficient time and resources should be allocated to activities that build such skills. Repeat evaluations should be conducted in order to ensure that mappers have an opportunity to improve their skills, and thus be eligible for future work. This would help to change the understanding of the way in which money is distributed by NGOs in the informal settlements; rather than being equated solely with the time spent performing an activity, income can be reconceptualized as being equivalent to a skill set. Changing this mindset is just as important as imparting useful skill sets in helping residents of informal settlements gain economic opportunities.

Endnotes i.

In line with the new constitution of the Republic of Kenya, new boundaries are currently being demarcated by the Independent Electoral Boundaries Commission (IEBC). The IEBC is in the process of organizing discussions of the new boundaries in Mathare, and Mathare will in all likelihood become its own constituency once the process is complete.

ii. According to the Open Knowledge Foundation, open data “is data that can be freely used, reused and redistributed by anyone—subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and share-a-like” (2012, 6). This definition of open data means that the information collected and shared can be used for any commercial or non-profit purpose. iii. Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) is a participatory methodology developed in 2000; it focuses on behaviour change and collective community action for eliminating open defecation. Recognizing the unique challenges posed by the urban environment. UCLTS is an adaptation of CLTS for urban contexts. iv. In November 2010, the mappers participated in a three-day training workshop on Inquiry Led Learning, facilitated by Aptivate. Despite the learning by the team, it was


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insufficient to prepare the mappers for training their peers in Mathare. See Berdou 2011 for further details about the workshop. v. The second most popular reason given for leaving was the language barrier. The facilitators of the project spoke English exclusively during informational and training sessions, and many potential members did not have the adequate English skills to follow along. While other members assisted them by translating, the non-English speakers expressed feeling marginalized and generally unwelcome. vi. In the informal settlements, written documents—which are associated with “official business” such as certificates of participation in workshops and title deeds for homes— carry special significance, and are viewed as far more “legitimate” than verbal confirmation.

Acknowledgements

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1023337. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Jamie Lundine is a Co-Founder and Partner at Spatial Collective, Ltd. Jamie’s background includes health and social geography, youth and new technology, and action research. She has experience in participatory methodologies and documenting trends informal settlements. She is currently leading Spatial Collective’s work in documenting and sharing lessons and contributing to participatory research programs internationally. PrimožKovačič is a Co-Founder and Partner at Spatial Collective, Ltd. His background includes GIS and land surveying, as well as community mapping, with a focus on the different elements of data collection, data management and creative visualizations. He is currently pursuing a Masters in Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. He holds an MSc of Geodesy/Surveying and Geoinformation from the Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Lisa Poggiali is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Anthropology at Stanford University. Her research interests concern the socio-spatial, epistemological, technical, and aesthetic politics of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in urban Africa, with a focus on Kenya. She is currently conducting two years of ethnographic research on digital cartography in the capital city of Nairobi, where she is examining both the technical and cultural practices through which digital maps are produced, as well as the socio-spatial and political effects of their use. Lisa is a recipient of numerous fellowships and grants, most recently from the National Science Foundation, Social Science Research Council, Fulbright-Hays, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.


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References Abbot, Jo, Robert Chambers, Christine Dunn, Trevor Harris, Emmanuel de Merode, Gina Porter, Janet Townsend and Daniel Weiner (1998). “Participatory GIS: Opportunity or Oxymoron?” Participatory Learning and Action Notes 33. Berdou, Evangelia (2011). “Mediating Voices, Communicating Realities: Using Information Crowdsourcing Tools, Open Data Initiatives and Digital Media to Support and Protect the Vulnerable.” Institute of Development Studies. Available from: http://www.dfid.gov.uk/r4d/PDF/Outputs/Misc_InfoComm/IDS_MediatingVoices_Fin alReport.pdf. Daily Nation (2012). “MPs Demand Release of Census Results.” Available from: http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/MPs+demand+release+of+census+results+ /-/1064/1335806/-/8dhu6gz/-/index.html. Durham, Deborah (2000). “Introduction: Youth and the Social Imagination in Africa.” Anthropological Quarterly 73(3): 113-120. Hagen, Erica (2011). “Mapping Change: Community Information Empowerment in Kibera.” Innovations 6(1): 69-94. Hooper, Michael and Leonard Ortolano (2012). “Motivations for Slum Dweller Social Movement Participation in Urban Africa: A Study of Mobilization in Kurasini, Dar es Salaam.” Environment and Urbanization 24, 99-114. Hubbard, Laura (2007). “Idol Hopes: Media Dream Worlds and the Politics of Youth Futures in Zambia.” Berkeley: University of California. Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (2009). “Population and Housing Census.” Available from: http://www.knbs.or.ke/detailed_population_results.php. Lemma, Tsion, Richard Sliuzas, and Monica Kuffer (2006). “A Participatory Approach to Monitoring Slum Conditions: An Example from Ethiopia.” Participatory Learning and Action 54: 58-66. Makau, Jack, Skye Dobson, and Edith Samia (2012). “The Five-City Enumeration: The Role of Participatory Enumerations in Developing Community Capacity and Partnerships with Government in Uganda.” Environment and Urbanization 24(1): 31-46. Massey, Doreen (1998). “The Spatial Construction of Youth Cultures.” In T. Skelton and D. Valentine, eds. Cool Places: Geographies of Youth Cultures. London: Routledge, 121-129.


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Musyoki, Samuel (2012). “A New Dawn for Urban CLTS in Nairobi.” CLTS Blog. Available from: http://www.communityledtotalsanitation.org/blog/new-dawnurban-clts-nairobi. Njonjo, KatindiSivi (2010). “Youth Fact Book: Infinite Possibilities or Definite Disaster?” Institute of Economic Affairs and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. Available from: http://www.ieakenya.or.ke/publications/books. Open Knowledge Foundation (2012). “Open Data Handbook.” Available from: http://opendatahandbook.org/pdf/OpenDataHandbook.pdf. Weru, Jane (2004). “Community Federations and City Upgrading: The Work of Pamoja Trust and Muungano in Kenya.” Environment and Urbanization 16(1): 47-62.

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