One of our goals with the Amplify program has been to bring new voices into the international aid conversation, and we're doing this in several ways. We're leveraging the OpenIDEO platform to engage designers, students, social entrepreneurs and grassroots community leaders in solving big development challenges, but we're not stopping there.

Truly human-centered solutions to poverty-related challenges must be rooted in the needs, desires and constraints of the communities themselves. In order to include those perspectives in our Amplify challenges, we must extend the OpenIDEO conversation to communities without reliable access to the internet. Enter: the Global Conversations project.

To bridge the communications gap, we’re relying on two types of technology—Interactive Voice Response Systems (IVR) and SMS messaging. Interactive Voice Response (IVR), similar to a customer service phone tree, allows us to capture stories in a dynamic way. Here’s how the system works:


 

The seeds for the Global Conversations project were planted with a pair of small-scale prototypes in Delhi, India during our Women’s Safety Challenge. For the Zero to Five Challenge we took things to the next level, launching two live prototypes that allow individuals in India and Tanzania to contribute to the Research phase. 

In order to help contextualize the contributions from the Global Conversations project, we’ve also brought on local Community Connectors—volunteers who add context to the contributions, post them to the OpenIDEO platform and translate and record comments from the platform to send back to those who submitted their stories.

The best part of our Global Conversations project is that it’s two-sided. Comments made on the posts will be translated by local volunteers and shared with the individuals who contributed the original story via SMS. 

Here are a few of our favorite posts from week one:

•    [Global Conversations] Help Empower Girls Today
    

•    [Global Conversations] The Value of Kids’ Time
    

•    [Global Conversations] Parents on Their Children’s Dreams



Get a closer look at one of the TV spots advertising our Global Conversations Project in Tanzania. [Click CC for subtitles in English]