[kictanet] Governance debates Online - Using ICT to fight graft
Alice Munyua
alice at apc.org
Tue May 3 17:21:01 EAT 2011
Thanks Edith.
I came across this list of open government initiatives developed by
citizens
(http://shareable.net/blog/the-worlds-top-10-gov-20-initiatives).
Thought it would give inspiration to our developers and institutions.
*-The Australian Government* their open government policy framework
through initiatives like the government 2.0 task force, they even have a
gov 2.0 primer, which puts policy ideas and principles into action and
providing examples of where and how agencies can engage with the public
and release more data online.”
*-SeeClickFix*: a map-based citizen reporting platform that enables the
public to report and track non-emergency related issues via web and
mobile. Co-founder Ben Berkowitz developed the idea after getting
frustrated with city hall’s lack of response to graffiti in his local
neighbourhood. Governments can access a dashboard to acknowledge
outstanding issues and close the loop with constituents. The service is
similar to the UK site fixmystreet built by open government pioneers
mysociety.
*-Manor Labs* innovative use of online services. has run a gov 2.0
makeover for the City of De Leon and documented the steps to enable
other local towns to emulate its efforts in municipal government innovation.
*-Crisis Commons*: CrisisCamp movement of volunteers who collaborate to
develop open tools and aggregate crisis data to assist response
organisations in civil incident management.
*-Ushahidi* first developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after
the post-election fallout at the beginning of 2008. The site has grown
to become an important resource for citizen journalists in times of
crisis like the haiti earth quake, etc. It <http://vimeo.com/17863608>
provides tools for communities to crowdsource real-time information
using SMS, email, Twitter and the web.
*-Wikileaks*: has changed the Gov 2.0 game by exposing governments and
world leaders to the powerful forces of radical transparency and giving
citizens access to a body of evidence that can be used to scrutinise
critical decisions made in our name.
best
Alice
> 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.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> > FYI
>> >
>> > ----- Forwarded Message ----
>> > From: Agenda Yetu <admin at agendayetu.org
>> <mailto:admin at agendayetu.org>>
>> > To: eadera at idrc.or.ke <mailto:eadera at idrc.or.ke>
>> > Sent: Wed, April 27, 2011 1:05:41 PM
>> > Subject: High Cost of Living in Kenya
>> >
>> > Is the government doing enough to deal with the spiraling cost
>> of living
>> > in Kenya?
>> >
>> > Visit www.agendayetu.org
>> <http://www.agendayetu.org><http://www.agendayetu.org> to take
>> part in the
>> > discussion; and opinion poll; on “The spiraling cost of living in
>> > Kenya†.
>> >
>> > Change Kenya …………. Be the Voice
>> >
>> > Join the AgendaYetu Facebook page:
>> >
>> http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Agenda-Yetu/149981608349201
>> <http://www.facebook.com/home.php#%21/pages/Agenda-Yetu/149981608349201>
>> >
>> > Follow us on twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/agendayetu
>> <http://twitter.com/#%21/agendayetu>
>> >
>> > Agendayetu Blog: http://www.agendayetu.org/blog/
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
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>> --
>> With Regards,
>>
>> Phares Kariuki
>>
>> | T: +254 720 406 093 | E: pkariuki at gmail.com
>> <mailto:pkariuki at gmail.com> | Twitter: kaboro | Skype: kariukiphares
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