Promoting Effective and Inclusive ICT Policy in Africa

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01Nov

ICT for Democracy in East Africa: Project Update

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By Ashnah Kalemera
Launched in May 2011, ICT for Democracy in East Africa (ICT4DemEA) is a network of organisations undertaking collaborative projects where Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is used in various ways to promote transparency, accountability and democracy.
The network, with seed funding from the Swedish Program for ICT in Developing Regions (Spider) comprises of organisations in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. These are the Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET); Transparency International Uganda (TIU); The Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA); iHub (Kenya) the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) and Tanzania’s Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance (CHRAGG).
The projects spearheaded by each organisation leverage on ICT with the aim to fight corruption, enhance the right to freedom of expression, monitor service delivery, hold leaders accountable and encourage civic participation. During the recently concluded Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Nairobi, September 27-30, 2011, the regional network partners met to discuss the progress of their projects.
iHub, Nairobi’s technical and solutions centre, is conducting exploratory research into the conditions for mobile as a successful tool for improved governance in Kenya. Desk research is underway to identify a Kenyan definition of “good governance” and the weakest areas of governance in Kenya. This is to be based on global indices and will engage the United Nations, Strathmore and Jomo Kenyatta Universities, Huduma and SODNET (Social Development Network), among others. This October, iHub is due to host a workshop with Kenyan Governance experts and iHub’s application developer community, conduct expert interviews as well as pilot questionnaires in five [yet to be decided] areas of Nairobi. Besides, iHub is studying the different mobile and web applications out there as well as lessons learned from existing mobile governance efforts.
KHRC’s has identified and sensitised grassroots based Human Rights Networks (HURINETs) in the use of social media. Through the HURINETs, databases have been developed for an SMS and crowd-sourcing platform. With little ICT expertise, KHRC is facing technological challenges and is in the process of identifying suitable platforms and contracting developers. In the meantime, it is exploring collaboration with iHub (technical) and CIPESA (policy) as well as synergies with CHRAGG.
In its pursuit to empower communities through ICT to demand for better health service delivery in Northern Uganda, TIU, with headquarters in Kampala officially opened its offices in Lira on July 25, 2011. Since then, the selection and formation of Voluntary and Accountability Committees (VACs) which incorporate previously existing Village Health Teams, Health Management Committees, District Health Teams and Baraza structures has been successful. The VACs empowered through ICT to monitor health service delivery in Lira and Oyam districts currently have 199 members and have so far made visits to eight health centres. During October, TIU will be gathering user needs and requirements for the development of a database to support a short code SMS application through stakeholder workshops. TIU is working in partnership with WOUGNET, THETA Uganda, Lira NGO Forum, Plan Uganda, World Vision, Platform for Labour Action and Uganda National Health Consumers Association.
On the other hand, to enhance Ugandan civic advocacy and engagement and increase government transparency and accountability, CIPESA has entered into memorandums of understanding (MoU) with two grassroots based centres. One of the centres, Busoga Rural Open Source & Development Initiative (BROSDI), is a non-profit centre working to improve rural livelihoods and the second is the local government-run Kasese eSociety. The MOUs provide for CIPESA’s training of centre staff in citizen journalism and the undertaking and reporting on surveys, focus group discussions and polls on prevailing governance, political and service delivery issues. The centres are responsible for mobilising organised groups to join a Network of users and advocates in the use of ICTs to improve citizen participation as well as reporting on the activities and developments in the work of mobilised network organisations. The contact details of centre visitors and collaborators are being collected to receive regular informative SMSs and emails from CIPESA on governance issues and how citizens can play a role in them.
An analysis by CIPESA of Ugandan policies and practices that enhance (or undermine) eDemocracy is well underway. The output of this will be briefing papers and fact sheets targeting policy makers and the media. Already published is a briefing note that explains the Open Government Partnership (OGP). The Partnership, launched on September 20, 2011 aims to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption and harness new technologies to strengthen governance. CIPESA’s Open Government briefing (available here) explains the OGP, looks at OGP indicators and prospects in selected African countries (Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa), and explores the role ICT could play in catalysing the achievement of open governance in Africa.
Similar to TIU, WOUGNET has also started its work to empower local people and communities in monitoring service delivery through ICTs. Its project is targeted at five districts in Northern Uganda: Apac, Oyam, Kole, Amuru and Gulu. The project, in its preliminary stages has so far seen mobilisation exercises undertaken in Gulu and Amuru. The sub-counties and parishes to work with in the two districts have been identified. WOUGNET is currently exploring a partnership with Track FM for radio talk shows to be conducted to discuss transparency and accountability in local languages.
In order to ensure citizens understand their basic human rights and the principles of good governance while dealing with the high complaints volume received, CHRAGG built a web based Complaints Handling Management Information System. However, the system is not accessible to citizens in remote areas and towns without CHRAGG branch offices. The Commission is currently developing and implementing additional features to the Complaint Handing System. The features via mobile phone platform are to incorporate text messages, image and video capabilities for informers or complainants. Additionally, the Commission is to send out information and also receive inquiries about its services through the platform. An MoU has been signed with the system design and development partner – Bessbrook International LTD. The Commission has also signed MoUs for collaboration with 10 non-government organisations.
Further information is available on individual organisations’ websites as well as the regional network’s social pages: Twitter ICT4DemEA and Facebook ICT for Democracy in East Africa.

28Sep

How ICT Could Drive Open Government in Africa

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By CIPESA Writer
Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) could be a key enabler of open government in Africa, in the wake of the September 20, 2011 launch of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), a multilateral initiative that aims “to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technolo¬gies to strengthen governance”.
The African countries currently eligible to join the OGP are Kenya, Liberia, Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda – and of them, by September 20, 2011, only Tanzania and Uganda had not indicated their plans to join the OGP. These countries derived their eligibility from their “demonstrated commitment to open government” in the key areas of budget transparency, access to infor¬mation, asset disclosure by politicians and officials, and citizen engagement.
An increasingly large number of people in Africa are accessing modern communication technologies such as the internet and mobile phones. Indeed, at the citizen-to-citizen level, a lot of conversations and actions are taking place via ICT. Many of these ICT-enabled interactions and discussions are empowering citizens, enhancing civic agency and promoting participation in various ways which democratic governments need to nurture.
In East Africa, more so in Kenya and Uganda, social media are hugely popular, and have been proved to be a great mobilising tool which open government promoters should promptly embrace. More generally, given the central role ICT can play in enabling the attainment of the key objectives of open government, Africa needs to enable more of its people to access mobile phones and the internet. And governments must take a lead in using ICT to improve openness, while also supporting civil society ICT-for-Open-Government initiatives.
Such initiatives, among others, include the Africa4All parliamentary initiative operational in Lesotho, Namibia, Tanzania and Uganda, which leverages on web 2.0 technolo¬gies to support collaboration and active engagement of MPs and citizens in the decision making process, and the East Africa ICT4Democracy programme that is working in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
Corruption, poor service delivery and undemocratic governance survive on systems that keep information hidden from the public, and bureaucracies which place near-unfettered power into the hands of the few public officials that control this information. Becoming open would require the currently closed African governments to briskly get online in service provision and in pro-actively placing a wide array of information in the public domain.
Moreover, citizens need to be empowered to hold their leaders and public service institutions to account. The countries which have taken a lead in this area recognise that freedom of information represents the citizens’ right to know; and that access to government information enhances public participation, while also enabling more robust scrutiny and discussion of government actions.
For Africa, passing and effecting progressive legislation that guarantees access to information is crucial. So is the need for public bodies to enter and respect citizens’ charters. Besides, concerted efforts to create civic awareness and to enable citizens’ active partici¬pation in fighting corruption and monitoring democracy will be crucial. And smartly embracing ICT would catalyse all these efforts.
Read CIPESA’s September 2011 Briefing on Open Government in Africa, here.

11Apr

EGov Africa

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Technology is becoming a key tool in the delivery of a wide array of government services and information. Today, eGovernance is a broad topic that deals with the broad spectrum of the relationship and networks within government regarding the use of ICTs.
While eGovernment programmes potentially have great benefits, many times they do not deliver the rosy results which their designers set out to achieve. For instance, some scholars have reported that “eGovernment studies consistently report a lack of the much hoped-for efficiency gains by reorganisation and cross-organisational integration, particularly at local level” (Grönlund, 2007). It is then important to explore the link between ICTs and successful implementation of governmental development programmes and improvement in efficiency and transparency of public sector operations. Besides, at CIPESA we view EGovernment programmes very much from the lenses of the citizen. Thus, we are keen to see how eGovernment directly involves and benefits the ordinary person.
CIPESA has started a programme to track developments in eGovernment in Africa, publish occasional papers and research highlighting success stories, advocate the adoption of inclusive and progressive eGov policies and practices, and offer advice to African governments in designing and implementing eGovernment plans and programmes.

04Apr

ICTs For Democracy: Connecting The Dots

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CIPESA is spearheading a multi-year programme that catalyses the use of ICTs in enabling and monitoring democracy. The programme, to be undertaken with various partners, is still under construction but will be multi-faceted. Initial work has started, such as a baseline study to establish the current state of play and the opportunities for intervention. Raising citizen participation in community/ public affairs via ICTs is central to this initiative. For more information about the initiative, please write to [email protected]

04Apr

Measuring e-readiness in Africa

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E-ready for what? E-readiness in developing countries: Current status and prospects toward the Millennium Development Goals 
This study considers the use and usefulness of e-readiness assessments, based on an in-depth evaluation of the e-readiness assessment initiative of the World Bank Information for Development Program (infoDev). Top-down, international initiatives waste money and effort on poorly conceived and under-supported e-readiness assessment programs and can be better targeted toward concrete development goals, such as the Millennium Development Goals. The focus needs to move from “how much bandwidth?” to “how much bandwidth is needed for remote diagnosis to reduce child mortality?” Even before this report made it to final publication, the infoDev e-readiness initiative was retired and many of the statements made in this report are now taken as a given.
Download the full report here.

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