[kictanet] Governance debates Online - Using ICT to fight graft

Edith Adera eadera at idrc.or.ke
Tue May 3 13:07:19 EAT 2011 

Alice/Bwana Ndemo,

I can't agree with you more that ICTs can make a difference in addressing poor governance.

Alice you raise a critical issue about digital disparity while Bwana Ndemo points to convergence of all ICT medium to allow all to participate including via sms which can help reduce this disparity. The greatest challenge is to converge all media and also incorporate multilingual capability...people must be able to express themselves in the langauge they are comfortable in.

With AgendaYetu platform we  attempted this - I must say it's not easy! So I join Bwana Ndemo in challenging the techies to come up with a fully converged mulitlingual platform that will mobilize ALL Kenyans to fight graft! and demand for governance reforms and monitor implementation of Agenda 4.

See attached some interesting research findings of work IDRC funded on how Kenyans are using ICTs in the governance field (within the context of Agenda 4). It includes what their thoughts are on how ICTs can be used to fight corruption. This research was done after the post - election violence and just before the promulgation of the constitution in 2010. Read the section on "what did we find" after you've quickly perused the background of the study.

So, I believe it's possible to mobilize Kenyans around a platform to fight corruption. which agency is ready to take the lead?

Edith
________________
Edith Ofwona Adera
Senior Program Specialist
ICT4D Program and Climate Change & Water Program
International Development Research Centre | Centre de recherches pour le développement international
Regional Office for Eastern and Southern Africa
Tel: +254202713160 | Fax/Téléc: +254202711063 | Skype: edithadera
eadera at idrc.or.ke<mailto:eadera at idrc.or.ke> | www.idrc.ca<http://www.idrc.ca/> | www.crdi.ca<http://www.crdi.ca/>
________________________________
From: kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.or.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke [kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.or.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Alice Munyua [alice at apc.org]
Sent: 02 May 2011 21:26
To: Edith Adera
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Governance debates Online - Using ICT to fight graft

Agree a great idea. As social media enables participation access, collaboration and even transparency and has great potential to enhance governance processes by way of facilitating participation from broad based stakeholders/constituencies.  Some of the features can be used/applied to many aspects of governance, including feedback on anti corruption initiatives, maintaining participation, direct involvement in policy processes, deliberations, etc.

However, there are some fundamental limitations  we must keep in mind  and deal with. To begin with, the  disparity in internet access with social media services still reflects an education and/or class bias. Additionally, folks tend to join most networks as a means to an end, for example joining some lists knowing that they are more likely to get the ear of the service provider and/or government and this over reliance would in the long run ends up undermining efforts that require commitment and follow through, for those who have been members of this list will bear witness to this particularly when it comes to policy processes.

So are social networks the  magic bullet to participation?  I also tend to think that social media sites have not really been developed for  governance in the way we may be thinking, for example face book has a person cap, further, most of these sites were designed in ways to encourage participation to serve advertising revenue so perhaps we would need our very talented developers/skunks etc to begin to think about developing Social media platforms suited to our governance, anti corruption etc needs. A good example remains ushaidi.

Best

Alice



This is actually a brilliant idea. Especially aggregating information on Social Media platforms. We already have some companies (e.g. www.gotissuez.com<http://www.gotissuez.com>) who report on such matters (corruption, poor service etc). We additionally have social media monitoring platforms that would be able to get random information on twitter about certain topics (e.g. you can monitor what people say about brand X or brand Y), many companies are already this sort of thing in place as it offers feedback on both the negative and positive aspects (many times, what is being done right is ignored). Additionally, consistent feedback that there is a problem in a particular area will point the anti corruption agencies in the right direction.

Many companies use this information to monitor brand equity and customer complaints. It's just an issue of doing the same thing for the government...


On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 8:05 PM, <bitange at jambo.co.ke<mailto:bitange at jambo.co.ke>> wrote:
Lusters,
I spent most of the day at KIA with other colleagues, civil society,
religious groups and KEPSA to discuss strategies for fighting corruption.
It was evident that as we get closer to election, the level of corruption
goes up (read sugar).  There was a sense of frustration that we are not
making much progress.  There was a dim of hope in the sense that where we
have automated, revenues are up and less corruption.  It was also clear
that we (civil service) had sufficient delegated authority to
significantly change the future of our nation.  In areas where social
media has been put to use, up to 60% of graft can be detected even before
it is concluded.

If we scale up the use of social media, a senior KACC official tells me
that they would gladly embrace it.  In this list we have many smart
people.  I need suggestions how we can integrate SMS, Twitter, Facebook
and any other tool to assist in the fight against this scourge.  In my
considered view, the anwser lies in technology.

However, One of the presenters said that the western method of fighting
corruption through courts could be the problem.  If you recall in 2008 at
the height of the post election crisis in Mombasa, one businessman did not
have to go to court to recover his goods opting to see a witch doctor.

Any views would be highly appreciated.


Regards


Ndemo.





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