- transparency and accountability as core values
- better coordination and program planning (internally and externally)
- reduced reporting burden (if donors agree to use IATI as a common tool)
- improved aid effectiveness
- collective learning in the aid sector
- improved legitimacy for aid agencies
- an opportunity to educate the donor public on how aid/development really works
- ‘moral ground’ for IATI compliant aid organizations to pressure governments and private sector to be more transparent
- space for communities and ‘beneficiaries’ to hold aid agencies more accountable for their work
- space for engaging communities and the public in identifying what information about aid is useful to them
- concrete ways for communities to contest, validate and discuss aid information, intentions, budgets, actions, results.
- Is IATI the right way to achieve the goal of transparency and accountability?
- Is the cost in time, money, systems, and potential risk of exposure worth the individual and collective gain?
- Is IATI the flavor of the month, to be replaced in 2-4 years?
- What is the burden for staff? Will it increase overhead? Will it take funds and efforts away from programs on the ground?
- What is the position of the US Government/USAID? Will implementing agencies have to report in yet another format (financial, narrative)?
- Much internal project documentation at NGOs/INGOs has not been written with the idea of it being published. There may be confidential information or poorly written internal documents. How will aid agencies manage this?
- What if other agencies ‘steal’ ideas, approaches or donors?
- What security/risks might be caused for sexual or political minority groups or vulnerable groups if activities are openly published?
- Isn’t IATI too focused on ‘upward’ accountability to donors and tax payers? How will it improve accountability to local program participants and ’beneficiaries’? How can we improve and mandate feedback loops for participants in the same way we are doing for donors?
- Does IATI offer ‘supplied data’ rather than offer a response to data demands from different sectors?
- technology’s impact on donor-sponsored technical assistance delivery, and
- private enterprise driven economic development, facilitated by technology.
Our meetings are lively conversations, not boring presentations – PowerPoint is banned and attendance is capped at 15 people – and frank participation with ideas, opinions, and predictions is actively encouraged through our key attributes. The Technology Salon is sponsored by Inveneo and a consortium of sponsors as a way to increase the discussion and dissemination of information and communication technology’s role in expanding solutions to long-standing international development challenges.
How should we engage the disenfranchised? The organization “Participación Ciudadana” is addressing this issue, aiming to involve Ecuadorian society in processes of social transformation. The approach is to inform citizens of news who are often forgotten about by the centric-national media. The project, Participación Ciudadana, is an electronic newspaper produced by regional news agencies in the provinces of Azuay, Guayas, Imbabura and Manabí. The newspaper is published online, featuring topics on politics, jurisdiction, legislation, elections, citizenry, the diaspora, and Latin America.
Participación Ciudadana allows the public to participate in the newspaper, accepting written articles, videos, forum discussions, and online surveys to stir debate in a society that struggles to find space for open criticism. The newspaper is deemed successful with its wide-range of readers seeking local information. A special feature that is popular is the live-streaming debates between experts and stakeholders on government policies.
Further steps are being made to keep the newspaper sustainable, by selling advertising space and seeking support from donors.
Instead of a post on how Malians are using social media to promote the now-delayed April 29th, 2012 presidential elections, we turn to see how social media has been used to spread information of a military coup on March 22, 2012.
By now, word is out that Malian army officers toppled President Amadou Toure’s government and suspended the constitution over the state’s handling of a Touareg rebellion in northern Mali. Something seemed amiss when the official Twitter account of Amadou Touré, the Malian President, denied a coup attempt and then went silent after days of consistent Tweets.
Most Malians may not use the Internet, but that doesn’t mean the Internet can’t provide the outside world with a glimpse of what is happening in the streets of Bamako. In fact, this marks the first time the world has been able to watch military leaders speak to the public immediately following a transfer of power. Within a day, videos from state TV were already on YouTube. To some degree, it is surreal to watch a group of Malian soldiers in fatigues calmly address a frightened nation after they eliminated democratic rule moments before. In the video below, the army explains why they felt a coup was necessary and then cites goals of empowering the army to unify all cities & organize free and transparent elections as soon as possible.
Since Wednesday’s coup, a handful of journalists, Malians, and media outlets have commented in real-time on events in Bamako. Kudos to CPJ for such quick analysis, MaliActu.net for such unique video, and Tommy Miles for his unmatched coverage:
- Perhaps the best review of how word of the coup spread online comes from Mohamed Keita, Africa Advocacy Coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists. He has written an in-depth look on how social media spread news of the coup, with dozens of sources. His conclusion: traditional media is limited in times of fast-breaking news.
- Mali Actualités, a Malian news site has released recent video from state TV ORTM onto YouTube. Six videos totaling 6,000 views have been uploaded since the coup (one is embedded at the top of this post).
- Tommy Miles, a self-described “West Africa watcher” has created a list of 20 Twitter accounts to follow for news about Mali. He has posted and re-tweeted more than one hundred pieces of information. Especially interesting are how the Mauritania government supposedly supports the Malian coup, transcripts from TV announcements, and links to media articles.
- GlobalVoices has posted a dozen or so Twitter reactions from Malian citizens. The consensus: great surprise by the recent events.
- Phil Paoletta, an American living in Bamako has provided a steady stream of observations. One of the most interesting is how state TV so casually alternates from military speech to music videos.
- Jules Cavendish, a reporter for a variety of international publications, happens to be in Bamako and has provided poignant commentary on the situation (ie. “Could the irony of Toure’s legacy be that democracy only lasted as long as he was around?”)
- Martin Vogl, freelance journalist working for the BBC and AP, was considered one of the most credible resources for international media to cite.
- Fabien Offner, a West African journalist, made a couple of updates, including how one presidential candidate’s home was vandalized.
- Bruce, an expat living in Bamako, has posted detailed accounts of his past couple of days on his WordPress blog, including insights from the US Embassy.
- MaliJet has extensive coverage of the news, plus dozens of reactions and some images as does Journal du Mali.
- Hashtags have included #Bamako #Mali #ORTM #SanogoShow.
The military claims to have formed a transitional council that will organize elections. The group also plans to restore power to a democratically elected leader, but a date has not been set. A shame, considering democratic elections were only a month away…
Note: Although state television and state radio were taken over (as is protocol for African military coups), the Internet was not explicitly shut-down.
Does ‘openness’ enhance development?
This was the question explored in a packed Room 3 (and via livestream and Twitter) on the last day of the ICTD2012 Conference in Atlanta, GA.
Panelists included Matthew Smith from the International Development Research Center (IDRC), Soren Gigler from the World Bank, Varun Arora from the Open Curriculum Project and Ineke Buskens from Gender Research in Africa into ICTs for Empowerment (GRACE). The panel was organized by Tony Roberts and Caitlin Bentley, both pursuing PhD’s at ICT4D at Royal Holloway, University of London. I was involved as moderator.
As background for the session, Caitlin set up a wiki where we all contributed thoughts and ideas on the general topic.
“Open development” (sometimes referred to as “Open ICT4D“) is defined as:
“an emerging area of knowledge and practice that has converged around the idea that the opening up of information (e.g. open data), processes (e.g. crowdsourcing) and intellectual property (e.g. open source) has the potential to enhance development.”
Tony started off the session explaining that we’d come together as people interested in exploring the theoretical concepts and the realities of open development and probing some of the tensions therein. The wiki does a good job of outlining the different areas and tension points, and giving some background, additional links and resources.
[If you’re too short on time or attention to read this post, see the Storify version here.]
Matthew opened the panel giving an overview of ‘open development,’ including 3 key areas: open government, open access and open means of production. He noted that ICTs can be enablers of these and that within the concept of ‘openness’ we also can find a tendency towards sharing and collaborating. Matthew’s aspiration for open development is to see more experimentation and institutional incentives towards openness. Openness is not an end unto itself, but an element leading to better development outcomes.
Soren spoke second, noting that development is broken, there is a role for innovation in fixing it, and ‘open’ can contribute to that. Open is about people, not ICTs, he emphasized. It’s about inclusion, results and development outcomes. To help ensure that what is open is also inclusive, civil society can play an ‘infomediary‘ role between open data and citizens. Collaboration is important in open development, including co-creation and partnership with a variety of stakeholders. Soren gave examples of open development efforts including Open Aid Partnership; Open Data Initiative; and Kenya Open Government Portal.
Varun followed, with a focus on open educational resources (OER), asking how ordinary people benefit from “open”. He noted that more OER does not necessarily lead to better educational outcomes. Open resources produced in, say, the US are not necessarily culturally appropriate for use in other places. Open does not mean unbiased. Open can also mean that locally produced educational resources do not flourish. Varun noted that creative commons licenses that restrict to “non-commercial” use can demotivate local entrepreneurship. He also commented that resources like those from Khan Academy assume that end users have a computer in their home and a broadband connection.
Ineke spoke next, noting that ‘open’ doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Sometimes power relations become more apparent when things become open. She gave the example of a project that offered free computer use in a community, yet men dominated the computers, computers were available during hours when women could not take advantage of them, and women were physically pushed away from using the computers. ‘This only has to happen once or twice before all the women in the community get the message,’ she noted. The intent behind ‘open’ is important, and it’s difficult to equalize the playing field in one small area when working within a broader context that is not open and equalized. She spoke of openness as performance, and emphasized the importance of thinking through the questions: openness for whom? openness for what?
[Each of the presenters holds a wealth of knowledge on this topic and I’d encourage you to explore their work in more detail!]
Following the short comments from panelists, the room split into several groups for about 15 minutes to discuss points, tensions, and questions on the concept of open development. (See the bottom of the wiki page for the full list of questions.)
We came back together in plenary to discuss points from the room and those coming in from Twitter, including:
- Should any research done with public funds be publicly open and available? This was a fundamental values question for some.
- Can something be open and not public? Some said that no, if it’s open it needs to be public. Others countered that there is some information that should not be public because it can put people at risk or invade privacy. Others discussed that open goods are not necessarily public goods, rather they are “club” goods that are only open to certain members of society, in this case, those of a certain economic and education level. It was noted that public access does not equal universal availability, and we need to go beyond access in this discussion.
- Is openness fundamentally decentralizing or does it lead to centralization? Some commented that the World Bank, for example, by making itself “open” it can dominate the development debate and silence voices that are not within that domain. Others felt that power inequalities exist whether there is open data or not. Another point of view was that the use of a particular technique can change people without it being the express intent. For example, some academic journals may have been opening up their articles from the beginning. This is probably not because they want to be ‘nice’ but because they want to keep their powerful position, however the net effect can still be positive.
- How to ensure it’s not data for data’s sake? How do we broker it? How do we translate it into knowledge? How does it lead to change? ‘A farmer in Niger doesn’t care about the country’s GDP,’ commented one participant. It’s important to hold development principles true when looking at ‘openness’. Power relations, gender inequities, local ownership, all these aspects are still something to think about and look at in the context of ‘openness’.
The general consensus was that it is important to fight the good fight, yes, but don’t lose sight of the ultimate goal. Open for whom? Open for what?
As organizers of the session, we were all quite pleased at the turnout and the animated debate and high level of interest in the topic of ‘open development’. A huge thanks to the panelists and the participants. We are hoping to continue the discussions throughout the coming months and to secure a longer session (and a larger room) for the next ICTD conference!
Note: New Tactics is discussing “Strengthening Citizen Participation in Local Governance” this week. There are some great resources there that could help to ground the discussion on ‘open development’.
Visit the ‘does openness enhance development’ wiki for a ton of resources and background on ‘open development’!
Today South Africa is celebrating Human Rights Day. We’re celebrating the long road to democracy covered with sticks and stones leaving apartheid’s oppression behind us. The path we’ve tread has been a long one, but 18 years into our democracy we enjoy rights many others around the world are still denied. Freedom of speech and media freedom are some of the most important rights we’ve gained.
Internet censorship is one arm of media censorship. (image: bestvpnservice.com)
However, if you look at Reporters Without Border’s annual freedom index released earlier this month, many African governments still deny democratic media coverage. Many journalists cannot report openly on what is happening in their country.
Technology could play a crucial role in helping journalists get the message out of what is happening in their countries. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of five programs journalists can use to get their stories out:
This email service allows you to send emails without the government monitoring your actions as the connection is encrypted. Journalists need safe and secure access to correspondents abroad if they want international media coverage of possible local atrocities.
Government official knocking on your door as you’re working on a confidential file? Eraser allows journalists to secure delete files and invisible recoverable files from their computer should their laptop be seized.
This Mozilla Firefox-based browser allows users a secure tunnel to the internet, hiding your digital online identity in case you’re being monitored. There’s a portable edition available which users can run from a flash drive.
This program works on the same basis as file-sharing program Dropbox. Running in the background, users can quickly and effectively back up their data. Journalists can encrypt and decrypt files with this program if ever confidential files were to get ‘lost’.
Free open-source instant messenger allows users to connective to several instant messaging accounts and services. However, with the Off-the-Record (OTR) plugin, journalists can chat online with others truly ‘off-the-record’ as you enjoy a secure connection.
Nico Gous
Kayode Fayemi, Governor Nigeria’s Ekiti state, has declared yesterday his administration is ready to integrate fully Information and Communications Technology (ICT).
Kayode Fayemi, Governor Nigeria's Ekiti state, is happy about future the preliminary success of the Ekiti state's website. (image: file)
He even launched a new official website for the state. The new website will enhance accountability and transparency in governance he believes. The website is also expected to be interactive, easing access to government by providing diverse information on government activities.
The website also linked to Social Media sites like Facebook, Slideshare, Google Plus, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube, as well as mobile applications for Android and Blackberry devices, while Nokia and iPhone versions will be released within a month. Since its’ launch, the website has become the second most visited in Nigeria.
Ekiti is said to be the first state to have Quick Reference (QR) Codes integrated into its website. Fayemi also disclosed that his administration was providing laptops for students in public secondary schools.
While, the Ekiti State University (EKSU) is expected to be fully connected to the internet in two months time to allow students access to e-library. The site is expected to serve as an interactive platform between the people of the State and the government to get feedback and as means of engaging the younger generation.
Segun Adekoye
Eleven Ghanian government departments and agencies will commence with e-government projects to improve service to its citizens, the government said on Wednesday.
William Tevie, National Information Technology Agency (NITA) Director General, encouraged members to get the discussions out of the way to get procedures underway. (image: flickr.com)
These agencies include Food and Drugs Board, National Communication Authority, Births and Death Registry, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional integration, Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Passport Office, National Health Insurance Scheme, National Information Technology Agency, Minerals Commission and Registrar Generals Department.
William Tevie, National Information Technology Agency (NITA) Director General, disclosed this at the stakeholders’ meeting on e-payment system implementation on Tuesday in Accra.
He said the meeting aimed to tackle issues concerning the online payment for government e-service being deployed in the varying stages of the implementation process. The e-government project ensures the presence of important and relevant government information on the web be noted.
The e-services being developed are a Content Management System (CMS) for managing hosted content on the government portal, a payment gateway allowing portal applications to receive payments from customers, e-forms and a document management application. The project is expected to provide a free flow of information between department and agencies, service providers and the public.
He also stated that NITA played a central role in the government e-service such as the geGov currently being used by the Registrar Generals Department and the Ghana Revenue Authority, which was a Public Private Partnership. “An e-justice system, e-immigration, e-parliament, e-passport and e-Government Procurement system are envisaged,” he added.
Tevie urged the participants to use the meeting to deliberate and come out with recommendations that would help establish an effective online payment system that would be of benefit to the economy.
Segun Adekoye
Image credit: http://www.myweku.com
This post is an update of October 2011′s list of African leaders with a Facebook presence. The numbers and a couple of links have been adjusted. Stats from July 2010, December 2010, March 2011, and June 2011 are still available.
As always, the challenge is determining what share of fans of these pages are diasporans. A solid number of nations – most notably Liberia, Senegal, and Gabon – have seen extraordinary Facebook fan page growth in the past 4 months. Pages for leaders in these nations have shown 144%, 110%, and 92% growth rates, respectively, in the number of fans. Abdoulaye Wade’s fans have grown tremendously in advance of this month’s presidential elections. Cameroon’s Paul Biya witnessed similar interest on his Facebook page last year during the election season (his page has grown by 18% since). Other updates for February 2012 include:
- Burkina Faso: Blaise Comparoré has a very official-looking page, even if it may not be official.
- Rwanda: The widely-popular unofficial page for Rwanda’s Paul Kagame is gone – it boasted nearly 20,000 fans. Perhaps this was a move by leadership to reduce confusion?
- Zambia: We found the official page for Zambia’s Rupiah Banda.
- Gabon: Ali Bongo’s page continues to grow by huge margins after becoming official less than a year ago.
- Egypt: Added community page for Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, although there is limited social interest around him.
- Madagascar: Added community page for Andry Rajoelina.
- DRC: The “official page” for Joseph Kabila, with previously 4,000 fans, has been removed. A profile with that many still exists however.
- Chad: One of the two public profiles for Idriss Deby has been removed.
Growth trends & countries of interest:
- Median fan growth rate: 10% over 4.5 months (was 15% for 4 months from June-October 2011 and 23% for 3 months from March-June 2011)
- Given a consistent page, only the leaders of DRC and Seychelles lost fans over the time period.
- Fan count growth of leader pages with greater than 10,000 fans has slowed substantially since last October. Growth is positive, but is only in the 5-10% range: Algeria 14% (was 17%), Ghana 8% (was 10%), Kenya 4% (was 5%), Morocco 2% (was 5%), Nigeria 7% (was 13%), Tanzania 9% (was 8%), Zimbabwe 3% (was 3%).
- Less than 5% growth in Benin, Guinea, Mauritania, Somalia. Benin, and Guinea also were in this range last year.
- The page for Libya’s Col. Gaddafi grew by another 23%
- Mauritania still only has 4 fans of the community page for Ba Mamadou Mbaré. Guinea-Bissau is not much better with 14 fans for Malam Bacai Sanha.
- Solid (40%) growth in Angola, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mali.
- Ethiopia’s fan base has doubled from 700 to 1,400 since June 2011 suggesting either a growing interest in politics by diasporans or a domestic adoption of Facebook.
- In order of sheer fan base there is no change in order: Nigeria (699k), Kenya (98k), Morocco (86k), Zimbabwe (67k), Tanzania (35k)
The list as of February 25, 2012:
| Country | President (or other title) | Facebook Page Type (hyperlinked) | # of Likes | % Change since October 2011 (4.5 months) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Algeria | Abdelaziz Bouteflika | Official Page | 23071 | 14% |
| Angola | Jose Dos Santos | Community Page | 3067 | 40% |
| Benin | Thomas Yayi Boni | Official Page | 6577 | 4% |
| Botswana | Seretse Khama Ian Khama | Unofficial Page | 8237 | 25% |
| Burkina Faso | Blaise Compaoré | Unofficial Page | 10167 | 8% |
| Burundi | Pierre Nkurunziza | Community Page | 355 | 13% |
| Cameroon | Biya Paul | Official Page | 11393 | 18% |
| Cape Verde | Pedro Pires | Community Page | 958 | 10% |
| Central African Republic | Francois Bozize Yangouvonda | Personal Profile? | 191 | 7% |
| Chad | Lt Gen. Idriss Deby | Public Profile 2 | 612 | 16% |
| Comoros | Ahmed Abdallah Sambi | Community Page | 82 | 9% |
| Congo, Republic of | Denis Sassou-Nguesso | Official Page | Private Profile | 7254 / 1244 | 10% / -2% |
| Congo, Democratic Republic of | Joseph Kabila | Private Profile | 4003 | -4% |
| Cote d’Ivoire | Alassane Ouattara | Unofficial Page | 16132 | 9% |
| Djibouti | Ismail Omar Guelleh | Unofficial Page? | 4626 | 7% |
| Egypt | Mohamed Hussein Tantawi | Community Page | 286 | n/a |
| Equatorial Guinea | Brig. Gen. (ret) Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo | Community Page | 98 | 27% |
| Eritrea | Isaias Afeworki | Unofficial Page | 7658 | 5% |
| Ethiopia | Meles Zenawi (PM) | Community Page | 1435 | 38% |
| Gabon | Ali Bongo Ondimba | Official Page | 13023 | 92% |
| The Gambia | Yahya Jammeh | Unofficial Page | 6241 | 7% |
| Ghana | John Evans Atta-Mills | Unofficial Page | 21782 | 8% |
| Guinea | Sékouba Konaté | Unofficial Page | 3702 | 2% |
| Guinea-Bissau | Malam Bacai Sanha | Community Page | 14 | 27% |
| Kenya | Mwai Kibaki | Unofficial Page | 97765 | 4% |
| Lesotho | King Letsie III (King) | Unofficial Page | 5303 | 6% |
| Liberia | Ellen Sirleaf Johnson | Community Page | 2698 | 144% |
| Libya | Col. Mu’ammar al-Qadhafi | Unofficial Page | 9199 | 27% |
| Madagascar | Andry Rajoelina | Community Page | 484 | n/a |
| Malawi | Bingu wa Mutharika | Community Page | 269 | 37% |
| Mali | Amadou Toumani Toure | Unofficial Page | 322 | 46% |
| Mauritania | Ba Mamadou Mbaré | Community Page | 4 | 0% |
| Mauritius | Sir Anerood Jugnauth | Unofficial Page | 860 | 8% |
| Morocco | King Mohamed VI (King) | Unofficial Page | 86353 | 2% |
| Mozambique | Armando Emilio Guebuza | Official Page? | 4044 | 15% |
| Namibia | Hifikepunye Pohamba | Community Page | 714 | 20% |
| Niger | Salou Djibo (Head of Military Junta) | Unofficial Page | 1380 | 5% |
| Nigeria | Dr. Goodluck Jonathan | Official Page | 699073 | 7% |
| Rwanda | Paul Kagame | Community Page | 2184 | n/a |
| Sao Tome & Principe | Fradique De Menezes | Community Page | 14 | 17% |
| Senegal | Abdoulaye Wade | Unofficial Page | Community Page | 1882 / 1263 | 107% / 115% |
| Seychelles | James Michel | Public Profile | 4750 | -2% |
| Sierra Leone | Ernest Bai Koroma | Community Page | 1448 | 13% |
| Somalia | Sharif Ahmed | Unofficial Page | 3594 | 4% |
| South Africa | Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma | Community Page | 5411 | 37% |
| South Sudan | Salva Kiir Mayardit | Community Page | 910 | 21% |
| Sudan | Omar Hassan al-Bashir | Community Page | 158 | 14% |
| Swaziland | King Msati III (King) | Community Page | 76 | 15% |
| Tanzania | Jakaya Kikwete | Official Page | 34727 | 9% |
| Togo | Faure Gnassingbe | “Fan Club” | 4684 | 6% |
| Tunisia | Fouad Mebazaa | Unofficial Page | 46 | 18% |
| Uganda | Lt. Gen. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni | Unofficial Page / Profile | 7085 / 1332 | 10% / -1% |
| Zambia | Rupiah Banda | Official Page? | 3332 | n/a |
| Zimbabwe | Robert Gabriel Mugabe | Community Page | 7962 | 48% |
| Zimbabwe | Morgan Tsvangirai (PM) | Official Page | 67190 | 3% |
The above table lists all top African heads of state (usually President) and provides a link to the one or two most popular Facebook pages, groups, or profiles for a given leader. The final column shows how many users are interested in the particular leader. Loose definitions of the page-types:
- Official page: A page run by the actual leader.
- Public profile: A presidential account with a public wall and information about the leader.
- Private profile: An seemingly real account without a public wall or information about the leader.
- Unofficial page: A user-created page that serves as the leader.
- Group: A user-created group dedicated to a leader.
- Community page: A placeholder courtesy of Wikipedia for cases when no user-generated page exists.
This is a guest post from Jamie Lundine, who has been collaborating with Plan Kenya to support digital mapping and governance programming in Kwale and Mathare. The original was published on Jamie’s blog, titled Information with an Impact. See part 1 of this series here: Digital Mapping and Governance: the Stories behind the Maps.
Mapping a school near Ukunda, Kwale County
Creating information is easy. Through mobile phones, GPS devices, computers (and countless other gadgets) we are all leaving our digital footprints on the world (and the World Wide Web). Through the open data movement, we can begin to access more and more information on the health and wellbeing of the societies in which we live. We can create a myriad of information and display it using open source software such as Ushahidi, OpenStreetMap, WordPress, and countless other online platforms. But what is the value of this digital information? And what impact can it have on the world?
Youth Empowerment Through Arts and Media (YETAM) is project of Plan International which aims to create information that encourages positive transformation in communities. The project recognizes young people as important change agents who, despite their energy and ability to learn, are often marginalized and denied opportunities. Within the YETAM project, Plan Kenya works with young people in Kwale County (on the Coast of Kenya) to inspire constructive action through arts and media – two important channels for engaging and motivating young people.
Information in Kwale County
Kwale County is considered by Plan International to be a “hardship” area. Despite the presence of 5-star resorts, a private airport and high-end tourist destinations on Diani beach, the local communities in Kwale County lack access to basic services such as schools, health facilities and economic opportunities. Young people in the area are taking initiative and investigating the uneven distribution of resources and the inequities apparent within the public and private systems in Kwale County.
As one component of their work in Kwale, Plan Kenya is working with the three youth-led organizations to create space for young people to participate in their communities in a meaningful, productive way. There are different types of participation in local governance – often times government or other agencies invites youth to participate (“invited space”) as “youth representatives” but they are simply acting to fill a required place and are not considered within the wider governance and community structures.
Youth representation can also be misleading as the Kwale Youth and Governance Coalition (KYGC) reports that “youth representatives” aren’t necessarily youth themselves – government legislation simply stipulates that there must be someone representing the youth – but there is no regulation that states that this person must be a youth themselves (they must only act on behalf of the youth). This leaves the system open to abuse (the same holds true for “women’s representative” – you can find a man acting on behalf of women in the position of women’s representative). Plan Kenya and the young people we met are instead working to “create space” (as opposed to “a place”) for young people in community activism in Kwale County.
The 5 weeks we spent in Kwale were,the beginning of a process to support this on-going work in the broad area of “accountability” – this encompasses child rights, social accountability and eco-tourism. The process that began during the 5 weeks was the integration of digital mapping and social media to amplify voices of young people working on pressing concerns in the region.
To create the relevant stakeholders and solicit valuable feedback during the process of the YETAM work on digital mapping and new media, our last 3 days in Kwale were spent reviewing the work with the teams. On Thursday November 10th, we invited advisors from Plan Kwale, Plan Kenya Country Office, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and officers from the Constituency Development Fund to participate in a half-day of presentations and feedback on the work the young people had undertaken.
By far the work that generated the most debate in the room was the governance tracking by the KYGC. The team presented the Nuru ya Kwale blog which showcased 28 of the 100 + projects the youth had mapped during the field work. They classified the 28 projects according to various indicators – and for example documented that 23 of the projects had been completed, 1 was “in bad progress”, 2 were “in good progress” and 1 “stalled.”
The CDF officers (the Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer of the Matuga CDF committee in Kwale County) were concerned with the findings and questioned the methodology and outcome of the work. They scrutinized some of the reports on the Nuru ya Kwale site and questioned for example, why Mkongani Secondary School was reported as a “bad” quality project. The officials wanted to know the methodology and indicators the team had used to reach their conclusions because according to the representatives of the CDF committee, the auditors gave the Mkongani Secondary School project a clean bill of health.
One important message for the youth based on feedback on their work was the need to clearly communicate the methodology used to undertake the documentation of projects (i.e. what are the indicators of a project in “bad” progress? how many people did you interview? Whose views did they represent?).
There is significant value in presenting balanced feedback that challenges the internal government (or NGO) audits – for example the data on Kenya Open Data documents that 100% of CDF money has been spent on the Jorori Water Project mentioned above, but a field visit, documented through photos and interviews with community members reveals that the project is stalled and left in disrepair. This is an important finding – the youth have now presented this to the relevant CDF committee. The committee members were responsive to the feedback and, despite turning the youth away from their offices the previous month, invited them to the CDF to get the relevant files to supplement some of the unknown or missing information (i.e. information that people on the ground at the project did not have access to, such as for example, who was the contractor on a specific project, and what was the project period).
Kwale youth with staff from Plan Kenya, officers from the CDFC and the local Youth Officer
Samuel Musyoki, Strategic Director of Plan Kenya who joined the presentations and reflections on November 10th and 11th, reported that:
“The good thing about this engagement is that it opened doors for the youth to get additional data which they needed to fill gaps in their entries. Interestingly, they had experienced challenges getting such data from the CDF. I sought to know form the CDFC and the County Youth Officer if they saw value in the data the youth were collecting and how they could use it.
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The County Youth Officer was the most excited and has invited the youth to submit a business proposal to map Youth Groups in the entire county. The mapping would include capturing groups that have received the Youth Enterprise Fund; their location; how much they have received; enterprises they are engaged in; how much they have repaid; groups that have not paid back; etc. He said it will be an important tool to ensure accountability through naming and shaming defaulters.
The 5 weeks were of great value — talking to quite a number of the youth I could tell — they really appreciate the skill sets they have received-GIS mapping; blogging; video making and using the data to engage in evidence based advocacy. As I leave this morning they are developing action plans to move the work forward. I sought assurance from them that this will not end after the workshop. They had very clear vision and drive where they want to go and how they will work towards ensuring sustained engagement beyond the workshop.”
The impact of digital mapping and new media on social accountability is still an open question. Whether the social accountability work would have provoked similar feedback from duty bearers if presented in an offline platform (for example in a power point presentation) instead of as a dynamic-online platform is unknown.
The Matuga CDF officers were rather alarmed that the data were already online and exposed their work in an unfavourable light (in fairness, there were some well-executed projects as well). There is a definite need to question the use of new technology in governance work, and develop innovative methods for teasing out impact of open, online information channels in decision-making processes and how this is or isn’t amplifying existing accountability work. There is definite potential in the work the young people are undertaking and the government officers consulted, from the Ministry of Youth Affairs and local CDF Committee (CDFC) stated that they were “impressed by the work of the youth”.
Within the community development systems and particularly the structure of devolved funding, there is a gap in terms of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) that the CDF committee to date has not been able to play effectively. As Samuel Musyoki stated the youth “could watch to ensure that public resources are well utilized to benefit the communities.” The Youth Officer even invited the youth to submit proposals for assistance in buying GPS gadgets and computers to strengthen this work.
Continuing the on and offline integration
As discussed, the work in Kwale on various issues is dynamic and evolving. The 5 weeks we spent with the teams were meant to provide initial trainings and support and to catalyse action that would be continued by the youth in the area, with support from Plan Kenya. Not only did we provide training to the young people, but Plan Kwale staff were also involved in the process and started documenting their work through the tools and techniques introduced by our team. With these skills, the Plan Kwale staff will support the on-going field mapping and new media work. We are also available to provide remote assistance with questions about strategies and technical challenges.
Some of the future activities include:
- Holding a “leaders forum” during which the youth interact with a wider cross-section of stakeholders and share their work.
- Continuing work on their various websites – updating the sites with results from social auditing work to be carried out throughout the last weeks of November, as well as digitizing previous information collected during historical social auditing.
- Validating the data by revisiting some project sites and documenting projects that haven’t been done yet, gathering stories from some of the Project Management Committees, taking more photos, and potentially conducting surveys within the communities to get more representative views on project evaluations.
- Each group also needs to develop a more structured advocacy strategy to direct their activities in these areas.
- All teams expressed interest in developing proposals to submit to the Ministry of Youth Affairs, through the Youth Enterprise Fund and CDF Committee, based on the suggestion of potential funding for this process. Plan Kwale staff, as well as some of the Country Office advisers offered to support the youth in developing these proposals.
- Most importantly, the teams want to consult the wider community in their respective areas to demonstrate the relevance of YETAM, including the skills they have gained, to the community stakeholders (beyond the relevant government authorities
The potential of new technologies, including digital mapping to promote accountability, is only as powerful as the offline systems into which it is integrated. Without offline engagement, existing community systems of trust and recognition will be threatened and thus undermine any online work. The youth must remain grounded within their existing work and use new technology to amplify their voices, build their network, share their stories and lessons and learn from and engage with others.
Sierra Leone has carried the momentum from the October 2011 landing of the ACE fibre cable in Freetown and is off to a progressive start to 2012.
We must all be ready now to embrace change, change in our attitude towards one another, change in our attitude to our work and responsibilities. All of those changes should translate positively into progress and development for our country.” – President Ernest Bai Koroma, 2008.
What’s happened in the mobile and Internet industry this year? Thanks to great reporting by Sierra Express Media, we have quite a few stories to be excited about as Sierra Leone positions itself as a regional ICT leader:
- The government (including President Koroma) launched Transparency Sierra Leone, an online portal to increase its level of openness. (More on this below)
- GoSL announced plans to revise the existing Telecommunications Act to reverse the monopoly of Sierratel over the GoSL international internet gateway before the ACE cable is operational later this year. (A study by the GSM Association in February 2007, citing Kenya, Nigeria and Egypt as case studies, showed that competition in the international gateways market can reduce call prices by up to 90 percent and double call volumes.)
- Airtel launched 3G service on February 3rd (Africell began offering 3G access in 2011).
- The Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL) launched an online system to manage system contains mineral rights, export licenses, and related payments.
The transparency portal encourages interaction and collaboration between citizens and the government. Citizens may ask questions and read about government projects. In return, the government can be expected to implement suggestions and remain honest about how the nations’ resources (ie. people’s taxes) are spent. In fact, Dr. Kelfala Marrah, Chief of Staff in the President’s Office, made some excellent points at the launch event:
- people will pay taxes without hassle when they see how their money is spent
- the village square is now the internet
- impose attacks and you will be rewarded for imposing attacks
The site has a very clean layout with large text. Homepage slides are uncluttered. Registries allow for quick filtering based on region. The color scheme (green, white, and blue) even matches the flag!
Click to enlarge. {Transparency Sierra Leone}
Also positive:
- a focus on national issues and not political debate
- collaboration between regulator, finance ministry, infrastructure authorities, broadcasters, and journalists
- the idea centre allows for user submissions (only one has been added as of writing)
- a blog is frequently updated with news of projects
- social share buttons in the footer
- FAQs explain how to participate and even how to comment on posts
- the president has created a YouTube video (viewed 200 times since January 20th)
- ‘Agenda for Change’ is prominently displayed as a PDF link, as are links to government websites
The nation is now busy preparing for the operation of the ACE cable later this year. After all, capacity is useless if there is no demand or if the cost structure doesn’t make sense for consumers. Profits from the ACE gateway are expected to contribute to Sierra Leone’s economic progress. The government is clearly not taking any chances is missing this tremendous opportunity.
