Digital technology can be a catalyst for positive change for forcibly displaced people if individuals have the requisite digital literacy to participate equally, meaningfully and safely in the digital world.

Historically, the essential role of digital literacy in forced displacement contexts has been underestimated, misunderstood and, at best, an afterthought.

However, with the increasing adoption of technology across society, there is growing recognition and understanding of the essential role that digital literacy plays in the digital inclusion and protection of forcibly displaced and stateless people. Although progress is being made, a concerted effort is needed to improve digital literacy interventions to ensure displaced communities and host communities can use technology effectively and safely, minimising their exposure to digital risk.

This article shares the growing evidence base on this topic and offers innovative examples of digital literacy interventions. It also reflects on common pitfalls, providing recommendations for rolling out digital literacy interventions more effectively in forced displacement contexts.

Defining digital literacy and skills

Digital literacy is a broad topic ranging from basic/foundational skills, like the ability to access the internet and search for content via internet browsers or apps, to more advanced digital skills, like digital content creation, coding and data science.

The lack of consensus on a standard definition of digital literacy and digital skills has made the design and implementation of interventions challenging. In humanitarian contexts this lack of clarity has contributed to ad-hoc approaches being taken to enhancing the digital literacy and skills of forcibly displaced populations, with missed opportunities for knowledge sharing and learning, often resulting in low-quality, ineffective digital programming.

So, how can we define the terms? ‘Digital skills’ broadly focus on the technical – ‘what and how’ – of using digital technologies whilst ‘digital literacy’ is more focused on the contextual and creative problem-solving elements – ‘why, when, who and for whom.’ Technological advancements and associated proliferating digital risks make it increasingly important for digital competencies to span beyond operational/technical skill sets, to ‘softer’ skills.

UNHCR and other organisations working with displaced populations are addressing this new reality by incorporating digital skills under the wider umbrella of digital literacy. USAID’s ‘digital literacy’ definition is applicable to low and middle-income countries and device agnostic (inclusive of mobile phones, a device sometimes disregarded in digital literacy definitions). Three-quarters of refugees live in low and middle-income countries where people primarily connect to the internet via mobile phones, making this definition well-suited to forced displacement contexts:

‘Digital literacy is the ability to access, manage, understand, integrate, communicate, evaluate and create information safely and appropriately through digital devices and networked technologies for participation in economic and social life.’ USAID, 2022.

Adopting such a definition can encourage humanitarian practitioners to incorporate the softer skills of digital literacy, including digital risks, into programming, in addition to the technical skills, which have traditionally been the sole focus. A more nuanced understanding of the topic can also encourage more consistent and considered approaches across the humanitarian sector, encouraging lesson sharing of good and poor practice on digital literacy.

Growing the evidence base on digital literacy

Until recently, there was a dearth of evidence to understand forced displacement communities’ digital literacy levels,[1] concerns, priorities and needs, despite this being a necessary place to start for any digital intervention.

In 2022, GSMA and UNHCR conducted research in Lebanon, Papua New Guinea (PNG) and South Sudan to better understand how displacement-affected communities were using mobile phones. A stand-out finding was that digital literacy and skills were a consistent barrier to digital inclusion for communities across all contexts.

In PNG, nearly two-thirds of phone users who did not use the internet cited the main reason for their digital exclusion as “not knowing how to use the internet by themselves.” Across all contexts, low literacy and digital literacy levels were particular barriers for older people and persons with disabilities. These findings are consistent with prior research with persons with disabilities in Nairobi, Kenya. In Sudan and PNG, low digital literacy and trust in mobile money systems led to fear over the security of funds and personal information, often resulting in limited use of digital financial services.

“I don’t know much about phones, [let] alone mobile money… I could try to find out [if only] I had a phone.” – Internally displaced woman, Bor, South Sudan.

The connection between digital literacy and protection

Beyond being a pre-requisite for digital inclusion, digital literacy is essential for digital protection[2]. Low levels of digital literacy and high exposure to technology put people at risk, particularly the most marginalised.

UNHCR research in Uganda found that refugees often feel powerless to protect themselves against online threats and digital risks. Research in Lebanon found aid-related scams common, and false information about humanitarian services made delivery and access to services more challenging. One-tenth of phone users targeted by a scam reported being harmed by that scam – for example, by paying to access fake resettlement schemes, wasting time, or pursuing false information on humanitarian assistance.

Such examples demonstrate that for the humanitarian sector to maintain its commitment to ‘do no harm’ principles, it must ensure that forcibly displaced and stateless people have the requisite skills and knowledge to minimise risks associated with technology. Failing to act will increase the risk of displaced populations falling victim to digital predators.

Guidance for implementing effective digital literacy interventions

As technology has become an integral part of daily life, more attempts are being made to train displaced populations on digital technologies. However, digital literacy interventions are not easy to do well and often the intended long-term outcomes of trainings (e.g. employment/livelihood opportunities, financial inclusion, improved online safety etc.) are not realised.

Examples of poor-quality training include ad-hoc, short-term training (often a few hours/days) delivered on a device (usually a laptop) which participants have no access to outside the training, teaching technical skills that are too advanced and/or irrelevant for the target audience.

Based on UNHCR’s assessments of interventions across numerous forced displacement contexts, there are a number of important factors to consider when designing and implementing effective digital literacy training.

1. Involve communities in co-creation, design and delivery of training
   Understanding of the existing skills, capacities and preferences of local communities is essential, particularly to ensure that existing organic skills-building through local digital pioneers, for example, can be leveraged.

2. Draw from existing digital literacy/skills curricula

A broad array of digital literacy training courses have already been tried and tested. It’s important to avoid reinventing the wheel by designing these from scratch every time. Scoping national approaches to digital literacy building is also important.

3. Tailor content and training to the specific needs and lives of communities
   Digital literacy training is only effective if it is of relevance to people’s daily lives and needs. This includes a nuanced understanding of the types of outcomes they want to achieve with digital skills. Training local individuals to deliver training and partnering with expert organisations to develop and tailor training to specific groups can support this.

4. Consider in-depth how to successfully deliver training to marginalised groups
   Have you generated an in-depth understanding of all segments of your audience and their digital literacy level, needs and learning preferences? Digital divides are often larger in humanitarian contexts and therefore digital skills programmes need to be specifically designed with these groups in mind. Digital literacy interventions for marginalised groups are only effective when detailed needs assessments are conducted to inform appropriate tailoring for specific target audiences.

5. Incorporate digital safety into your training
   Groups already at enhanced risk of harm will likely face greater risk (e.g. abuse of personal data, cyberbullying, misinformation, scams/fraud, etc.) if digital safety elements are not incorporated into digital interventions.
6. Develop an effective monitoring and evaluation framework

It is important to understand whether your training is effective and if participants are improving their digital skills and confidence levels. Go beyond assessing attendance or satisfaction levels by applying criteria to measure reaction, learning, behaviour and results (see Kirkpatrick model of evaluation).

7. Consider how to make the training sustainable
   Adopting digital tools and services requires multiple opportunities for users to learn and partake in refresher activities. Time-bound interventions offer lower value compared with continuous and iterative digital literacy programming. Working with partners, governments, civil society and the private sector can create longer-term, more sustainable trainings that extend beyond individual programmes.

Innovative approaches to digital literacy

Organisations operating in humanitarian contexts are beginning to put these considerations into practice. UNHCR is driving innovative approaches to increasing digital literacy through the Digital Innovation Fund. In Indonesia, UNHCR and partners are demonstrating how to tailor digital literacy curriculums to needs by facilitating co-creation workshops with refugee communities. The project is embedding the curriculum into established learning centres, capitalising on existing resources and expertise while also increasing sustainability. More advanced digital skills, such as web development, are being taught in partnership with GoMyCode in Tunisia, complemented with career orientation sessions to smooth the learning-to-earning pathway.

Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT) and GSMA also offer successful examples of digital literacy training. Both organisations understand the value of identifying and training local individuals as trainers to maximise the sustainability and impact of initiatives. DOT leverages community leaders and digital ambassadors in their programmes. For example, in Rwanda, community members are being trained as digital career counsellors to support refugees to access online scholarships and jobs.

GSMA works with mobile operators who leverage mobile money agents in local communities to deliver training based on GSMA’s Mobile Internet Skills and Training Toolkit (MISTT). MISTT is a set of free resources that use a ‘train the trainer’ approach to teach people the basic skills they need to access and use mobile internet, including sections on navigating digital risks. MISTT-based content has been used in more than 27 countries to train over 65 million people on digital skills. In partnership with the WFP, GSMA leveraged MISTT content to improve women’s digital financial skills in Somalia and Burundi.

Recommendations

The following recommendations are provided to boost digital literacy levels among forcibly displaced communities.

Adopt a consistent definition of digital literacy

Adopting a consistent digital literacy definition that acknowledges the importance of the softer skills required to use technology safely and effectively, such as understanding digital risk, is essential. This will ensure humanitarian practitioners go beyond delivering digital interventions that solely focus on technical skillsets, broadening approaches to achieve longer-term outcomes such as digital employment or financial inclusion.

Pay attention to common pitfalls and learn from best practice
Ad-hoc approaches to boosting digital literacy exist across the development and humanitarian sectors, with interventions making the same mistakes time and again. Pay attention to common pitfalls and the guidance outlined in this article when designing training. Additionally, learn from industry peers who are demonstrating innovative examples of enhancing forcibly displaced individuals’ digital literacy levels, leading to broad-ranging positive outcomes.

Ensure digital literacy is integral to digital strategies
Digital programming must go beyond ensuring access to connectivity, digital devices, and digital services, to support the development of digital literacy among communities. With most humanitarian organisations implementing digital strategies, digital literacy must be an integral part. For example, UNHCR recognises digital literacy is a pre-requisite to all three outcome areas in its Digital Transformation Strategy 2022-2026 (Digital Inclusion, Digital Protection and Digital Services), investing resources into this critical topic.

Ultimately, the transformational benefits of digital inclusion for forcibly displaced and stateless people will only be realised if digital literacy is placed at the forefront of digital humanitarian interventions and is no longer just an afterthought.

 

Jenny Casswell
Digital Literacy Specialist, UNHCR
jennycasswell@gmail.com  X: @jencasswell

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1] Historically, many assessments that touch on displaced communities’ technology adoption emerged from media development and intersections with humanitarian action, including concepts of communicating with communities, community engagement, and accountability to affected people. Digital literacy components were seldom included in spite of the important correlation with channels, trust in information sources etc.

[2] UNHCR defines digital protection in their Digital Transformation Strategy, aiming to ensure communities can exercise their human rights online and are protected from digital risk, enabling them to have access to trusted channels, avoid harm and have agency in decision-making.