Jamii Forums core program support 2022 - 2024 Jamii Forums strategy support AMII FORUMS (JF) är en icke-statlig organisation registrerad under Tanzania
NGO-lag, som förespråkar och främjar medborgerliga och digitala rättigheter, social rättvisa,
Ansvarsskyldighet, demokrati och god förvaltning.
JF driver JamiiForums.com, Tanzanias mest besökta swahili-medborgarjournalistikinnehåll
plattform som grundades 2006 för att underblåsa en sociopolitisk rörelse för att stärka
ungdomar, ge röst åt de röstlösa och kämpa för kampen mot korruption i Tanzania.
Den når cirka 3 miljoner människor dagligen (i juni 2021). Det är den enda lokalt
utvecklat och drivit digital plattform över 15 års erfarenhet med dagliga användare
online diskuterar frågor som påverkar deras vardag.
Förekomsten av Jamii-forum bygger på tron ??att information är makt och är en
allmännytta som måste vara fritt åtkomlig för alla medborgare i världen och i USA
Republiken Tanzania. Det är också absolut nödvändigt att förstå att yttrandefrihet är en
grundläggande mänskliga rättigheter inskrivna i artikel 19 i den allmänna förklaringen om människor
Rättigheter. Detta kommer tillsammans med informationsfrihet, pressfrihet och frihet
uttryck. Tanzanias konstitution, artikel 18, garanterar uttryckligen att alla
har friheten att kommunicera, inklusive rätt till skydd mot ingrepp med
kommunikation samt en rätt att alltid bli informerad om olika viktiga händelser
människors liv och verksamhet och frågor av betydelse för samhället JAMII FORUMS (JF) is a Non-Governmental Organization registered under Tanzania
NGO act, that advocates and promotes Civil and Digital Rights, Social Justice,
Accountability, Democracy and Good Governance.
JF operates JamiiForums.com, Tanzania’s most visited Swahili citizen-journalism content
platform that was founded in 2006 to fuel a socio-political movement to empower the
youth, give voice to the voiceless and champion the fight against corruption in Tanzania.
It reaches around 3 million people on a daily basis (as of June 2021). It is the only locally
developed and operated digital platform over 15 years of experience with daily users
online discussing issues that affect their every day life.
The existance of Jamii Forums is found on the belief that information is power and is a
public good that has to be freely accessed by any citizen in the world and in the United
Republic of Tanzania. It is also imperative to understand that Freedom of Expression is a
fundamental human right enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. This comes along with freedom of information, press freedom and freedom of
expression. The Tanzanian constitution, Article 18, explicitly guarantees that everyone
has the freedom to communicate, including the right to protection from interference with
communications as well as a right to be informed at all times of various important events
of life and activities of people and of issues of importance to the society Firstlly Jamii Forums will invest in improving its platform security and operating environment. The JamiiForums platform comprises the following main components which are integrated to provide the existing functionality: Database housed in secure cloud-based servers, Content Management System (CMS), User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX). This platform is the foundation of the organization and that is the reason why it needs to be fully secure, operational and with guaranteed optimization. A primary objective of this strategy is to make sure the platform is fully functional at all times. Jamii Forums plans to invest significantly in making sure that it anticipates and successfully responds to any malicious attacks, interference from any authority, periodic or permanent surges in traffic growth, human (staff) error and skillset, technological obsolescence (servers, software updates) and other challenges. The ultimate aim is to maintain and enhance the implicit trust of JamiiForums users in the safety and security of their online engagement on our platform. In modern online industry, moderation tools are key to a fluid digital citizen engagement. Poor functioning tools pose as obstacle to content quality control. Over 80% of Jamii Forums audience visit the platform via mobile phones. According to Jamii Forums, the trend shows that the young adults are interested in services with sites which have modern mobile apps (Android and iOS); It is considered that a defective JF Mobile app will affect clients in terms of User Experience (UX) while engaging on discussions. Jamii Forums reports that its current User Interface (UI) was introduced in 2014, updated in 2016 and needs to be updated as most browsers do not render the site as expected. An Upgraded Web Servers including circumvention tools to the latest technology and availability of experts to oversee operations to ensure Jamii Forums keeps up with technological changes, have multiple secure backups for the platform and advocate for Civic Education strategy on Personal Data Protection will have a huge positive impact not only on Jamii Forums capacity but overal freedom and access of information agenda.

Secondly amplifying citizen voices through content management, curation and value addition. Unlike many other existing platforms in the country, the basic ingredient of JamiiForums is user-generated content in the form of threads and comments that engage with those discussions. A primary reason for JamiiForums popularity and reputation are because it provides citizens with uncensored ways to express themselves. With ambition to increase followers from existing 12m, Jamii Forums will focus more on value addition initiatives. According to Jamii Forums, a key new initiative will be to add value to JF through internally generated content. This echoes the Netflix strategy of commissioning original content for its movie platform.

Jamii Forums considers that, with a daily rate of over 15,000 posts from registered users on the platform, there is an increase demand for content quality control. The same applies for Jamii Forums Social Media outlets. Jamii forums assesses that due to strict laws over Online contents; there is a danger of facing lawsuits if content is not reviewed on time. JamiiForums views itself as an archive for future generations, if content is not well monitored and organized; there is a huge possibility of misleading the public at large. Jamii Forums has a special policy on content management (Editorial Policy); Is a tool that guides the team in decision making while a public accessible guideline for citizens on community engagement (Community Engagement Guidelines) helps in making sure that the public is aware of how their content is processed in order to foster transparency. At the same time Jamii Forums is planning to formulate a new strategy for Amplification of Citizen Voices especially on stories that are in the lines of Good governance, Accountability and Transparency Engage and cooperate with public officials, public and private institutions to participate in discussions raised by citizens to promote accountability and transparency. Jamii Forums will also strengthen citizen journalism in text, audio & video format (Value addition). JF will Promote textual and non-textual content by commissioning and curating photo, video and infographic content. This initiative will attract the young adult demography.

Third and last area of focus for Jamii Froums is influencing policy and advcocacy. JamiiForums will engage in policy advocacy at two levels. The first is general advocacy for a range of issues that are driven by the context and user content. Jamii Forums will also assist public bodies to raise awareness about policies or administrative initiatives requiring citizen knowledge and action (e.g., anti-corruption, public health, etc). This level will focus on advocating for a free and secure digital space that respects the digital/data rights of citizens, while securing the space for free expression. Jamii Forums assessment is that it is becoming widespread for many countries across the globe including some democratic states to try to control freedom of expression not only in ordinary life but also in a digital sphere.  Protection of 'national security or anti-terrorism is the favorite tool. Governments have mastered the art of tracking down their citizens to control what is said, watched and shared online. Dissents who refuses to play along, find themselves in trouble  always. It is assummed that Tanzania as well is not exempted from those practices. It is essential  protecting the necessary breathing space for the fruitful exercise of article 18 of the constitutional rights.