Human Rights in 2013

From the war-torn streets in Syria to the Olympic games in Russia, human rights are a constant topic in today’s news. But what are human rights, really? Who decides what is a right, and what recourse is there when human rights are violated?

More importantly, at Allversity, we often wonder how we can best work towards improving human rights in today’s changing, complex world. Everyone wants the world to be a better place, but where do we start?

Coming to Consensus on Human Rights

Over the years, there have been many different conceptions of what a right is, and although the concept is present in many ancient religions as well as Greek and Roman philosophy, it wasn’t until the Renaissance that human rights came to be thought of as a distinct concept in Europe.

Human rights were conceptualized by those in privileged positions; the philosophers, law-makers, and scientists. However, as demonstrated by the French Revolution, rights were implemented and enforced through the will of the populace. In fact, the ideals of the French Revolution (liberty, equality, and fraternity), became the foundation of many modern democracies. 

Shocked by the horrors of World War II, and determined to create lasting change, the United Nations drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948. This is widely considered to be the most comprehensive document detailing human rights, and guarantees such rights as freedom from slavery, equality regardless of background, and the right to freedom of thought and expression.

If you would like to learn more about the history and structure of human rights, check out our new course, Introduction to Human Rights!

Questions and Answers About Human Rights

Some claims to human rights are controversial: for example, the right of nations to self-determination. Or, when cultural or religious practices infringe on human rights, such as equality between men and women. Who decides what is right in these cases? And is it cultural hegemony to decide that every human, regardless of their cultural context, is entitled to certain rights?

These are complex issues, and generally, it is agreed that people should have the option to decide for themselves. Ultimately, it is considered to be a human rights violation when a government decides on rights-violating cultural norms for its constituents. Yet this is an area where activists tread lightly, respecting cultural and religious practices, while striving to ensure those practices are not harmful, and that decisions are made by individuals old enough to give informed consent and free from intimidation.

"Organize!” Photo credit: Beautiful Cataya

Who does one turn to when human rights are abused?

Sometimes it seems like the abuses need to reach monumental proportions before they are noticed. When abuses happen in your city, or your village, what can you do? The United Nations have been tasked with ensuring that human rights are upheld throughout the world, and they take on some of the world’s worst offenders. But there are also many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and charities that work to uphold human rights. Among them are Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, just to name a few.

Working for Human Rights in Today’s World

At Allversity, we believe that education, aside from being a right, is also the most powerful way to affect change in the world. Information changes everything, and although one voice is small, many voices can become large.

Working to spread the word about abuses in your community is a strong tactic for preventing or stopping those abuses. New Tactics in Human Rights is a wonderful resource, providing case histories, discussions, and strategies for building awareness and generating media buzz around your issues. Or, if you prefer to help out with an organization that already exists, there are organizations in almost every country who are working for human rights.

Turns out, protecting human rights can be as simple as talking to your neighbor, observing arrests or interactions with those in power, educating your children of their rights, or starting a community garden. How do you work to support human rights in your community?


Post by Sabra Melamed for Allversity

Understanding by Design and Design Thinking

Here at the Allversity office, we often discuss how to create education for today’s world. There are a lot of serious problems, and traditional education doesn’t always directly address those problems. How can we build courses that promote understanding of core concepts - not just memorization of details and facts? We like to think about two related, but separate ideas when we plan our courses: understanding by design, and design thinking.

What is understanding by design?

Understanding by design, also known as ‘backwards design’, is a curriculum-building and teaching practice that starts with fundamental understandings or learning goals. Instead of starting with materials (activities, textbooks, etc.), a teacher who practices backwards design identifies specific goals for the course and only then chooses the appropriate materials to help students reach those objectives.

In creating our courses, we use backwards design in the traditional sense, deciding how the course is structured, but also in determining which courses to create. Our process goes as follows: we carefully research the findings of professionals in the entrepreneurship, agriculture, health, and human rights sectors, identifying big problems. We then single out areas where a small amount of knowledge would go a long way. From smart agricultural practices to the basics of business, gaps in knowledge that prevent people from living life to the fullest exist everywhere. We then create a course that addresses this gap, and provide people with the tools they need to create a stronger society.
Photo credit: Dietmar Temps

   Photo credit: Dietmar Temps

What is design thinking? And can we use it to build education that addresses specific problems?

According to the folks over at IDEO, a renowned design firm that pioneered the development of design thinking, it incorporates a “more collaborative, human-centered approach that can be used to serve a broad range of challenges.” Emphasizing teamwork, optimism, and the wisdom of the crowd, design thinking is taking the world by storm. Allversity embraces this philosophy, which is why we nurture a broad range of creative partnerships. We love people who are passionate, and even more, we love teaming up and collaborating with folks to create courses that solve real-world problems.

For example, we recently launched an exciting new course, Understanding Soil. Created with several experts and enthusiasts over two weeks at the Summer of Soil conference in Järna, Sweden, the course addresses the problem of global soil depletion. A collaborative project at its core, this course teaches several important understandings: that soil is living, but in danger. Most importantly, the course teaches specific practices to enable us to save soil.

Have something you’re passionate about? Want to collaborate on creating a course for Allversity? Get in touch!


Post by Sabra Melamed

One metric does not a society make!

Allversity visited the British Embassy last Friday. It was the first time we had been to this magnificent "emblem of pre-austerity Britain"[Matthew Taylor, RSA]. The reason: a debate hosted by Berlin Debates on the importance of GDP as a metric for economic and social success in a country. The outcome of the which is not important for the purposes of this blog post; needless to say, however, GDP was found wanting.

British Embassy in Berlin

One very interesting topic came out of the floor debate. Namely, the question of how we want to measure a society's success. Should it be, for instance, based on one metric of the economy? Or perhaps we should look to happiness of the country? Or even how equal the society is? In effect, the debate threw up the question of how we judge ourselves and our societies.

As an online learning platform, Allversity staff are constantly asking ourselves these questions. What are the metrics of a good society? And how can we make courses that help these metrics improve?

Social metrics

Many would consider the the state of public health in a country as a good metric. Others would point to  the sustainable use of resources. Others would say that upholding human rights is a good metric of a society's success. Bhutan, for instance, has been measuring the Gross National Happiness (GNH) of its country since 1972, when its fourth Dragon King, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, made an official announcement. The metric fits with strict Buddhist notions prominent in Bhutan. 

The Tigers Nest Monastery in Bhutan

Since then, many metrics have been designed to measure more holistic measures of society. Amartyr Sen's famous Human Development Index is now widespread in the UN's official statistics. 

Ultimately, I believe the real sign of a good society is one that has strong, cohesive and collaborative communities that provide for the needs of their citizens. Thus, health, sustainable use of resources and human rights are all measures that we can use to judge whether a society is doing right by its citizens.  

How does Allversity help these metrics?

Allversity's recent stratospheric increase in courses on the website (seven entirely new courses!!) focus on building community cohesion through improving health, enacting human rights and sustainability in agriculture.

The seven new courses include an introduction to permaculture, irrigation techniques, an introduction to human rights, understanding soil, preventing HIV and a family planning course. The courses are aimed at young community leaders and changemakers who want to improve the way things are done in their own communities. 

This huge relaunch comes at an important time of soul searching for our dear Allversity. Our usership is increasing, our reach is growing and we are fast becoming an organisation looked to to be responsible for the kinds of information we are disseminating to our growing student base. The orientation towards community support courses is one that has always been at the heart of the Allversity project, but one that perhaps is only just visible on the website. 

Take a look. Have a judge. And let us know your own metrics for a good society. Who knows, we may have something in common!


Post by Ysanne Choksey

800 Women Every Day

One of the first things I see as I walk into the Allversity office every day is our bright, red wall, filled with statistics relating to our four action areas: entrepreneurship, rights, agriculture, and health. As a developmental psychologist and a woman, I find myself returning again and again to the statistics on maternal and infant health around the world.

Every day, 800 women die during pregnancy or childbirth and 8,000 newborn babies die during their first month of life. 3 million infants die every year - mostly due to easily preventable or treatable causes such as infections, birth complications, or prematurity complications. This is a huge number that is often invisible to those of us living in Europe or the industrialized world, because 98% of those deaths happen in developing countries. Yet as global citizens, there is no excuse anymore to sit back and let this happen.

Together with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the international charity Save the Children recently released their 2013 report on the State of the World's Mothers. While great strides have been made in improving the health of the world's mothers and children, the report makes clear that there is still so much work to be done.


Dhaka, Bangladesh. UN Photo/Kibae Park

The study makes five recommendations for improving the health of mothers and newborns. Among these recommendations, one word keeps popping up: Education.

"Educated girls tend to marry later and begin childbearing later in life, when their bodies are more fully developed. They are also more likely to make healthy choices for themselves and their babies."

"Basic education for mothers about the importance of proper hygiene, warmth and breastfeeding for newborns. Increasing the use of these practices can prevent up to 3 out of 4 newborn deaths."

"New frontline health workers, [midwives, and birth attendants] need to be recruited and trained, and those who are already practicing need opportunities to update and improve their skills."

At Allversity, we hear these recommendations loud and clear. That's why we're proud to be partnering with the award-winning Global Health Media Project to spread the word about their short, accessible training videos. With courses like Newborn Care for Professionals, Family Planning, and Child Nutrition, Global Health Media is a vital resource to front-line professionals, parents, and students around the world. They work every day to put critical information into the hands of those who need it most.

As we roll out of beta mode and get ready for our launch, we are working hard to make this information accessible offline, taking advantage of explosive growth in smartphone usage. Downloadable courses can reach anywhere a trainer can travel, internet connectivity or not. There is still much work to be done- translating courses into other languages, creating new segments to address other aspects of human health.

To see how you can get involved, check out our feedback and support link. Consider making a small donation to support our work, or donate to Global Health Media. The solution to this problem is out there. Together we can make it happen.

Author: Sabra Melamed, Fundraising and User Experience Specialist at Allversity.org

Breakfast with a Side of Soil

This morning, accompanied by a butter croissant and a mug of freshly brewed peppermint tea, I set about my work for the day: watching videos. On the menu, a 15 minute and 46 second video about composting.

Whilst crunching down on my delicious baked good I learnt that there are 10 steps to composting. I learnt that there is a layering technique used by composters to ensure balance between carbon and nitrogen deposits in the heap, a balance essential to produce the most fertile compost. I learnt that there are “red wrigglers” (or slimy worms) and microorganisms that work hard to break down household waste into fine, dark, healthy soil; and I learnt that with the help of nature and a bit of patience it’s possible to turn arid or semi arid soil into rich dark fertile soil that can sustain food production.

I learnt all of this from a video accessed for free on the internet created by Garden Africa. The video is the first created as part of a series on sustainable farming techniques. It is designed to teach small scale farmers how to optimise their soil by creating environmentally non-degrading, resource conserving, technically appropriate and economically acceptable farming systems.

Garden Africa is part of a new movement towards the use of online videos as part of  training courses. Online learning resources are fast becoming the new platform for organisations to exhibit their material in an open and vastly more accessible medium. For instance, Garden Africa estimates that their online videos reach an audience three times the size of their more conventional methods of training.

The videos are based on the idea of the “living classroom” that practices ‘learning by doing’, a process of hands on learning engaging pupils with both issues and solutions in tandem. There is little innovative about this technique, it seems like something humans have practiced for millennia; however, innovation lies in the medium. Garden Africa have taken an ancient concept and updated it for the modern era.

A recent internal study showed that the knowledge gained from watching the videos went up from an average of 24% knowledge about compost, to 78% after watching the video. This was further increased to 92% knowledge when the film was accompanied by a trainer. Even more staggeringly though, when asked about practicing the techniques shown to them, over half (56%) said that they would take up the techniques shown to them. This went up to 92% when the video was accompanied by training. Clearly, there is a place for online learning in demonstrating skills based training.

In his 2006 study on the effectiveness of video learning for skills based teaching, Paul Van Mele pointed out that the best case examples were videos that took inspiration from in depth local interactions and multi stakeholder consultations. This ensured that the videos were regionally relevant and geared towards issues and solutions that were both locally doable and locally inspired. Garden Africa’s regionally relevant technique uses a well known ‘storytelling’ device widespread in the intended area that livens up the dialogue and further engages the viewer.

Allversity will soon be creating its very own videos for various subjects. In this pursuit, it is of significant value that the materials be as effective and culturally appropriate as possible. Our brand new entrepreneurship course, planned for development in Kenya in the coming year, will be the first created of its kind at Allversity. We will be taking inspiration from our partners at Garden Africa and Global Health Media Project to produce regionally relevant, engaging material for the next generation of entrepreneurs in Kenya.

The course will incorporate practical information in how to set up and sustain your own business, as well as fostering client and investor networks and helping your business bloom. The course is aimed at passionate innovators both young and old who want to set up their own business, but just don’t know where to get started. As well as this, we hope to have a collection of real life examples from entrepreneurs in Kenya who can tell their own fascinating stories.  

Skills based learning has traditionally been practiced rather than preached through traditional mediums of workshops and one to one training. However, with new developments in universal access to video content on the web, there is no longer a reason for it to stay that way. Demonstrations of skills are not only possible in person but also now on your PC, smartphone or laptop.

As for my own experience this morning, I hope to be in that 56% of people who watch the video and take up practical action in composting, though that is a tale for another time.

Author: Ysanne Choksey, Project Manager at Allversity