Literacy Bridge
To follow up on my set of questions in yesterday’s post, Implementing and Managing the Talking Book Program, here’s a summary of one option we are exploring with our partners in Ghana:
A new nonprofit organization (or NGO, Non-Governmental Organization, as it is more commonly known in Ghana and most other developing countries) is established within Ghana. It might be called Literacy Bridge/Ghana. (NOTE: we may find in some countries that it makes more sense for there to be more than one of these organizations in each country; so that each org can address a region within the country.)
The purpose of this NGO would be to implement and maintain the Talking Book System and to coordinate with counterpart organizations in other countries and with the Literacy Bridge (the international org). The Board of Directors (or Executive Council, as it is sometimes known in Ghana) that governs this Literacy Bridge/Ghana would be composed of a majority of Ghanaian citizens. One of the directors (ideally, one of the Ghanaian directors) will serve on both the Literacy Bridge (international) board and the Literacy Bridge/Ghana board. Other than that overlap, there would be no control of the international organization over the in-country org. Another possibility is that Literacy Bridge (international) becomes a membership-based organization, with each in-country org having membership in the international org with rights to elect a director. This would provide a more formal relationship between the two orgs while structuring it such that the international org is driven by the member local orgs, not the other way around.
The Literacy Bridge/Ghana NGO could also be a membership-based organization, allowing for participating government agencies, businesses, and other NGOs to guide the organization according to their needs as parts of the system. This may or may not be practical for members who have a limited means of communication. As long as Literacy Bridge/Ghana is functioning towards its objectives, as stated in it’s organizing documents, there is a lot of flexibility in how the organization is run. The stated objectives would simply limit the organization to activities that serve to promote and improve the implementation and management of the Talking Book System.
The founders of Literacy Bridge/Ghana should probably include a director of Literacy Bridge (international). On one hand, it would be nice for the local organization to be entirely autonomous from the start; but on the other hand, the link to the international org might be helpful in getting things up and running. In any case, we still have the requirement that the local org is run by a board composed mainly (or maybe entirely) of local citizens.
An organization like Literacy Bridge/Ghana might be responsible for any of the following areas:
- providing businesses and NGOs with information on how to import Talking Book devices, kiosks, and associated power and network systems and spare parts
- purchasing and installing kiosks and the associated network systems
- coordinating the catalog of audio content/messages that are distributed in the kiosks
- providing feedback to Literacy Bridge (international) on experience with products or future requirements
- hiring a full-time executive director and small staff to address system issues that are not managed by any single NGO, business, or government agency
- resolving any disputes between participants in the Talking Book System
- certifying particular audio content authors as being endorsed authorities on types of content, such as health, agriculture, literacy, etc. Or, instead of certifying these authors, Literacy Bridge/Ghana may certify other groups that certify the authors.
- working with Literacy Bridge (international) on any technical issues involved with importing/exporting audio content in/out of their country’s content network
Literacy Bridge (international) would be responsible for the following areas:
- research and development of Talking Book (and follow-on) products
- startup funding of Literacy Bridge/Ghana and other country organizations
- facilitating shared stories and lessons learned among local Literacy Bridge organizations
- connecting with other international NGOs that are interested in partnering with the Talking Book system (although any partnership with the local org, like Literacy Bridge/Ghana, would have to be approved by them)
- coordination of audio content that is useful to import/export from one country to another
There’s obviously much more detail to add, but I’ll stop here. These are really early thoughts and are likely to drastically change over the next six months as we learn what works best in our first countries of Ghana and India.