The Civil Resource Development and Documentation Centre (CIRDDOC)
in Nigeria (Kabissa Profile) is an independent, non governmental organization committed to
the promotion of human rights (with focus on women's human rights),
gender equality, good governance and access to justice. We value
internet greatly and believe that without capacity in IT, an
organization cannot move with development. All our staff are internet
literate and receive yearly training on IT. The use of the internet has
contributed a lot to our advancement so we invest money in the training
of staff, maintenance of our website and we are able to maintain
contacts with our partners regularly. IT has facilitated the
achievement of our objectives and our mission. Our visibility on the
net has also helped in attracting partners, both national and
international to our work. Our staff are able to use website, email,
e-newsletter, mailing lists, list serves, etc. to communicate with
colleagues and partners and that has made interaction and collaboration
easier and less cumbersome.

Introducing CIRDDOC

The Civil Resource Development and Documentation Centre (CIRDDOC) is a national, independent, non-governmental and not-for-profit organisation established in 1996 and registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission in 1998 (RC 10,981). It is a non-membership organisation with a total of 23 full time staff, three interns, 2 volunteers and 5 consultants.

Organisational Vision
A world, in which human rights are guaranteed, protected and enforced on the basis of equality and non-discrimination.

Mission Statement
To promote human rights, good governance, rule of law and gender equity through the strengthening of civil society and the promotion of access to justice.

Objectives:

1. To promote human rights, women's rights, human resource development and good governance.
2. To facilitate access to justice and the rule of law and the enhancement of the level of legal literacy.
3. To build capacity of civil society to demand accountability through research, training and provision of library services.
4. To facilitate networking, collaboration and partnerships among civil society organisations, and between government and civil society organisations.

Our Program Focus Areas are Education and empowerment, Democracy & Governance, Human Rights, Gender, Conflict Resolution, HIV/AIDS and Violence.

Our Strategies are Awareness Raising and Capacity Building, Advocacy (Social and Legislative), Research Documentation & Publication, Legal Aid/Paralegal Services, Resources and Library Service, Monitoring and Evaluation.

Our Activities include Outreaches, Rallies, Workshops, Seminars, Conferences, Moot court Competitions, Research, Documentation and publication, Tribunals, Public Hearings and Civic Forum, Litigation, counseling and advice, Civic education and Voter Education.

The role of ICT

With the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), we are able to build relationships and maintain constant contact with them as well as with the communities, colleagues and development partners we work with. It is usually easier, faster, cheaper and more reliable to use ICT to maintain contact with these relationships, particularly at the international level.

We are a research and documentation organisation so we need constant access to the internet to obtain materials needed for the work we do. We are able to access information quickly and easily. This is because the internet is full of information which enables us to acquire more wealth of resources. The data we gather both through desk research and through other means such as FGDs, interviews etc. are disseminated to the wider public through the internet. Our work also involves advocacy for the promotion of women's rights so we use ICT to mobilise women's rights activists and other advocates towards any campaign we are undertaking as well as for communicating our positions to the stakeholders and change agents.

ICT is a fast means of communication and it enables us to communicate with people at a very low rate. Although it is still expensive to have access to the internet, the benefits outweigh the inconveniences. Internet also helps us to access and store information for easy retrieval from anywhere in the world. Our library and Resource centre which is open to academics, students and researchers depends on the internet for documenting materials in the centre and for managing data. It is easy to retrieve data for use by staff and other researchers.

CIRDDOC maintains an email listserve for each of the coalitions we facilitate such as the National Coalition on Affirmative Action (NCAA) currently working on the domestication of CEDAW, and the Coalition of Eastern NGOs (CENGOS). We use the medium to post information and initiate discussions on current issues. Our email mailing lists for the different groups are used to communicate information and invitations to programmes and post reports and publications. We also belong to several coalitions and we participate in discussions on these lists to put forward our views and opinions.

Examples of ICT tools and solutions used by CIRDDOC

Internet - Email

This is one of the important ICT tools we have constantly used. We refer to it as important because sometimes, it is difficult to work without it. It is not only very fast but also cheap. One of our objectives is to facilitate networking among CSOs and between CSOs and government. Internet helps us to achieve this objective by providing a forum for us to encourage CSOs to collaborate with each other and with government where possible. It is one of the means through which important and urgent documents are circulated or exchanged; and experiences and best practices are shared. Organisations get to know which individuals and organisations are relevant to the work they do and make contact with them. At CIRDDOC, we use the internet as a means of communication with our Development Partners. We send all our proposals, letters and reports through the internet. Postal system in Nigeria, although it has improved in recent times, is not very reliable and takes a long time to deliver. Internet has really made communication fast and easy. Whenever the Executive Director or any officer for that matter is out of the office, email is used to reach and communicate with them so that there is continuity in our projects even when the responsible officers are not physically present.

Yahoo Instant Messenger

Since the TTGO training by Oby Nwankwo, our Executive Director and Tope, several NGOs in Enugu have caught the bug of chatting in the internet. With the experiences acquired in Internet, we are able to use Instant Messaging to interact with people and get immediate response to pressing issues. Occasionally, we chat with other organisation but usually we use the IM to keep in touch with our executive director or any officer of the organisation that has travelled, any where they are in the world from the office. We are also able to use the blog to send out messages. Although we do not have a blog of our own, we always access others' when necessary to make contributions or input.

Website
Our Website at http://www.cirddoc.org is the ICT tool that has given CIRDDOC the most visibility internationally and nationally. Our website is active and updated quarterly with breaking news posted. We use our website to publicise our activities to the world. We post information on our organisation and the projects we implement on our website. It also portrays the organisation as a serious minded one. When we are looking for information about a particular organization, we visit their website and get the information. Guidelines for proposal writing and other requirements are also downloaded from websites. It also enables us to know more about a particular organization and their activities.

GSM
This is also one of the tools through which we access the internet in our organisation. We can check emails and get information from the internet from anywhere we are. Unfortunately, it disappoints a lot. We have discovered that we spend much more money on calls than on internet. Thanks to Kabissa time-to-get-on-line training, we understand the intricacies and complexities of internet better. A call made to a particular number often goes to the wrong person. This is always due to poor network. There are also times when text messages get to the recipient days after it was sent.

Barriers CIRDDOC had to overcome

One of the barriers to ICT use is the cost. Internet is still very expensive and unaffordable to many. One of the reasons is that telephone bills in Nigeria are still high. Furthermore, lack of skills and lack capacity of some internet service providers makes the service unreliable most of the time. For example, our internet provider in Enugu, Rainbownet, suddenly shut down its services and we got cut off from the internet. For several months now they have been trying to get it back on, but it is not working. It cost us a lot of very important mails that we did not receive.

We overcame it by falling back on our AOL address and also by quickly obtaining a yahoo address. This has solved the problem only to a limited extent because a lot of people still send mails to us through that address not knowing that it does not work.

Also the erratic and unreliable electricity supply is a big obstacle. The Power Holding Company takes away electricity without warning. This affects the computers and also the internet connections adversely. We try to overcome this problem by installing our own power generating system. Maintaining and running the generators are also very capital intensive too and there is the nuisance of noise and smoke that we have to contend with.

In the past we relied on web masters to update our website and it took several months sometimes to get them to update the website. Now, with the training we have got from Kabissa, we are our own web masters! It is easier for us to keep our website constantly maintained and updated.

Advice for fellow Kabissa members

Our advice to other organizations is that internet is a must for any organisation that wants to make progress. In the short run, it may seem too complex and expensive but in the long run, the organisation benefits. Organisations should invest money in training of their staff in IT and in establishing presence on the web. It will make the achievement of their mission quicker and easier. Communication will become less strenuous and cumbersome. It will also show the world that the organisation is serious and will attract patronage from other organisation and development partners. Visibility on the net is an inevitable tool for any organisation that wants international partnership. I advise them to apply for affordable Kabissa services.

With the use of internet, they will be able to achieve their set objectives with ease. Internet is not only a fast means of communication but also very cheap. It helps in various ways which includes networking. Through internet, an organization would be able to make itself and vision known to the public. It is also one of the means by which the activities of the organization are made public.