Citizen Participation through Mobile Technology

http://www.kaseseelibrary.orgwww.uchaguzi.co.ug

by M John Silco

Executive Director RIC-NET

Thursday, May 26, 2011 www.uchaguzi.co.ugwww.kaseseelibrary.or

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Key areas of RIC-NET/CEW-IT use of mobile technology in social accountability

Transparency and Accountability through access to Information.

On line district e-library www.kaseseelibrary.org

Information centres & e-society resource centre.

Interactive radio programme.

citizens access easily repackaged policies and gov’t guidelines, gov’t contracts, reports and budget estimates.

Facilitation of feedback from the citizens and the government.

Stake holders meeting on M&E reports.

Interactive community radio

Quarterly magazine

Online blog and website

After carrying out Independent budget analysis, public expenditure tracking and service delivery tracking.

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Citizens participation based on e-society

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Brief on uchaguzi platforms• Uchaguzi Uganda, www.uchaguzi.co.ug is a

collaborative platform by Citizens Election Watch - IT (CEW-IT), that allows citizens actively participate in observation of the election process.

• facilitates the citizens and observers to report incidents in real time, synthesizing, aggregating and displaying reports on the map.

• Observers report detailed account of issues on blog http://uchaguzi-uganda.blogspot.com/2011_02_01_archive.html

Thursday, May 26, 2011www.uchaguzi.co.ug www.kaseseelibrary.org

Information access to facilitate accountability

• District website, an e-library www.kaseseelibrary.org

a district blog, a civil society portal and CSO blog http://rwecovoice.blogspot.com

allows citizens access and share information with in the community. http://uchaguzi-uganda.blogspot.com/2011_02_01_archive.html

www.rwenzoripeoplesvoice.org

• Offline channels: feedback stakeholders meetings, Radio talk shows, quarterly magazine "the peoples voice” copies are on: http://www.ricnet.info/files/publications.html

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Issues discovered.• noted the rampant incidence of poor service delivery,

• widespread demand of bribe/ corruption,

• abuse of discretion,

• lapses in funds disbursement by public service providers

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challenges of social accountability• Social accountability is expensive and time constraining.

Governments find it difficult and expensive to consult the broad masses.

• Apathy on the part of citizens frustrates governments’ efforts to involve citizens in decision making processes.

• Consultation should be a continuous process and not a one-time thing along the chain of project design, implementation and evaluation.

• need for a non-partisan profile of those doing the budgeting and the need to build capacity of civil society groups.

• Claim of too much information whereas it is just too much repetitive information

• Unreliable internet connectivity in rural areas.

• Political interference.

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Beneficiaries:

• Government• Civil Society

Organizations/Private sector.• The General community

(Citizens).

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Thank you!

With Support from