Digital literacy in the spotlight
How UNHCR teams are thinking about and acting on the digital literacy needs and priorities of forcibly displaced and stateless communities.
By Jenny Casswell, Digital Literacy and Essential Digital Skills Specialist
Until recently, digital interventions in contexts of forced displacement rarely took digital literacy into consideration. However, this is changing, and there is growing recognition of the essential role digital literacy plays in the digital inclusion of forcibly displaced and stateless people.
UNHCR teams applying for the latest round of our Digital Innovation Fund have demonstrated this shift, with a high proportion of applications integrating innovative approaches to digital literacy and skills training into their proposals. We are also increasingly seeing digital literacy interventions being implemented successfully, with benefits across a variety of outcome areas.
Here, we’ll explore the latest trends in innovative digital literacy initiatives, as demonstrated by the Digital Innovation Fund applications, and identify key gaps that the Innovation Service is seeking to address.
This is the second instalment in a two-part series. Part 1 focused on defining digital literacy and its significance to UNHCR and refugees 👀
Innovative approaches to digital literacy
Colleagues from across UNHCR are driving more innovative approaches to digital literacy and skills interventions, demonstrated by the latest applications to our Digital Innovation Fund.
Our move away from straightforward digital inclusion and toward more innovative approaches involved discouraging proposals focused on traditional digital skills trainings. However, we were thrilled to receive many applications that included more creative and forward-thinking approaches to digital literacy.
Analysis of shortlisted applications highlighted the following key trends:
1 Nearly a quarter of full proposals included digital literacy as a core focus, while two thirds (21 out of 32 full proposals) included a digital literacy component.
Digital literacy and skills were a core focus of a number of applications across displacement settings, with new and creative approaches being put forward that go beyond basic digital skills training: from cybersecurity and digital risk trainings in Panama to innovation and learning hubs in Venezuela, and upskilling for digital employment in Indonesia. This illustrates the increased attention being paid to digital literacy as foundational to refugees’ ability to benefit from connected societies.
2 Digital literacy focused applications were relatively evenly split across UNHCR regions.
While Asia and the Pacific had the most applications focused on digital literacy, followed by the Americas, the focus on digital literacy was relatively evenly split across all regions (including EHAGL, Southern Africa, Europe, West and Central Africa, and MENA). Of course, different regions and communities within them have varying digital literacy and skills levels, and have unique needs and wants for digital competencies, thus requiring tailored digital skills trainings.
3 Nearly half of digital literacy focused applications include employment/income generation as key outcome areas.
Since the launch of our PROSPECTS Partnership initiative in 2022, we have seen an uptick in projects focused on digital labour platforms, and the associated digital skills required to maximise online work opportunities while mitigating risks. Projects with employment/income generation as a primary outcome propose a diverse range of partners, from university/educational entities, to private sector, nonprofits, social enterprises, and refugee-led organizations.
4 Career related competencies are the most common Digital Literacy Global Framework (DLGF) competency area focused on, with limited attention paid to digital safety.
UNESCO’s DLGF is a framework intended to serve as the foundation for the Sustainable Development Goal indicator 4.4.2: “Percentage of youth/adults who have achieved at least a minimum level of proficiency in digital literacy skills”.
In a mapping of UNHCR’s applications against DLGF’s digital literacy competency areas, career-related competencies are by far the most common focus, accounting for nearly half of proposals with a digital literacy component. Meanwhile, digital safety and problem-solving competencies are focused on the least.
The limited attention to digital safety, with only four of 32 full applications factoring this critical dimension in, has important implications for UNHCR, which is ramping up efforts in this area through its PROSPECTS programming. Digital protection is an essential part of ensuring UNHCR and partners can maintain their commitment to ‘do no harm’ principles and ensure forcibly displaced people have the requisite skills to minimise risks associated with technology.
5 Intermediate digital skills are most commonly targeted, followed by basic digital skills.
ITU identifies three categories of digital skills across a continuum: basic, intermediate, and advanced skills. While several innovation proposals focused on basic digital skills, providing the foundation for using digital technology, the majority targeted intermediate skills. People require different sets of intermediate skills depending on their goals and needs, and their vocation. Projects seeking to enhance intermediate skills ranged from digital content training and digital marketing in Kazakhstan, to digital storytelling skills training for internally displaced people in Nigeria, to training refugees to be mobile money agents in Uganda.
Gaps in digital literacy interventions
Although the quantity and quality of applications focused on digital literacy and enhanced attention being paid to this topic is a step in the right direction, there is much scope for improvement when considering how to deploy and operationalise digital literacy interventions in forced displacement contexts.
Key gaps identified across digital literacy focused interventions — both from an assessment of the Digital Innovation Fund applications and, more broadly, from an informal review of the humanitarian sector — are:
1 Participatory involvement with communities on co-creation, design and delivery of training. Understanding and acknowledging 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 Knowledge on how to 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 literacy and skills.
3 Learning from and using existing digital literacy/skills curricula. A broad array of digital literacy training courses have already been tried and tested. It’s important to leverage and tailor these existing resources and avoid designing materials from scratch every time.
4 Sustainability built into the design of interventions. Adoption of 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.
5 Detail on how to deliver trainings for specific groups (despite references to Age, Gender and Diversity (AGD) agendas). Digital literacy interventions are only effective for marginalized groups when they go beyond being a tick box exercise and conduct detailed needs assessments to inform appropriate tailoring for specific target audiences.
Best practices in action
Despite these identified areas for improvement, we are seeing some successful and inspiring digital literacy interventions across our operations.
In Indonesia, UNHCR and partners demonstrated how to successfully tailor digital literacy curriculums by facilitating co-creation workshops with refugee communities. The project also embedded the curriculum into established learning centres, helping to capitalise on existing resources and expertise while also increasing sustainability.
In Lebanon, UNHCR and Anera facilitated community-led digital risk trainings with overwhelmingly positive responses from refugee communities, many of whom went on to share the information with families, friends, and community members, demonstrating the opportunities and benefits of organic digital skills building through communities.
We look forward to sharing more best practices and lessons learned as our latest Digital Innovation Fund cohort gets started, and as the previous cohort concludes their pilots.
How we’re accelerating digital literacy
Despite the dismantling of one barrier to digital literacy programming — with mindsets shifting on the importance of digital literacy for refugees’ digital inclusion — such programming is by no means easy to get right.
This is why UNHCR’s Innovation Service is offering varied support to country operations and implementing partners to more effectively roll-out and sustain digital literacy interventions. This support includes:
1 Building capacity by developing guidance, delivering digital risk training, and creating new partnerships:
📜 Developing guidance around digital literacy for UNHCR country operations, partners, and the broader humanitarian sector to help forcibly displaced and stateless people gain foundational digital literacy and skills competencies.
⚠️ Delivering digital risk training to UNHCR staff and communities, starting off with a Digital Risk Training Workshop in November 2023, conducted with the European Centre on Privacy and Cybersecurity.
🤝🏽 Creating new partnerships: Partnering with digital literacy training or service providers to adapt existing material (e.g., curricula) to contexts of forced displacement.
2 Investing in digital literacy innovation: Providing holistic support to test innovative and sustainable approaches to digital upskilling through several Innovation Funds and other funding opportunities. These include initiatives designed to directly support refugee- and community-led organizations, to drive community-based approaches to skill development.
3 Building a network of digital literacy champions advocating for the digital inclusion of forcibly displaced people in broader efforts.
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This multifaceted approach to digital literacy is intended to accelerate mindset shifts on the importance and relevance of digital literacy and to ultimately boost the digital literacy levels among people forced to flee.
The transformational benefits of digital inclusion will only be realized for forcibly displaced and stateless people if digital literacy is placed at the forefront of digital humanitarian interventions.
Read Part 1 in this series here. Learn more about UNHCR’s Digital Innovation Programme and access UNHCR’s Digital Transformation Strategy.
