Monthly Voluntary Social Accountability Committee (VSAC) meetings continued in April, with prevailing bad governance and poor service delivery issues reported in the districts of Gulu, Amuru, Apac, Kore and Oyam and uploaded on the Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) Ushahidi platform.

Among the reports and follow up action:

• Stolen drugs and rude staff at the Chegere Health Centre II: the issues were brought to the attention of the assistant district commissioner and as a result, formal warnings were issued to the centre staff.
• At another centre, Kidilani Health Centre II, there were reports of staff shortages, bad maintenance, and poor staff housing. After the issues were elevated to the health centre’s management, full time nurses are back on duty and health centre surroundings have been cleaned up. VSAC members are undertaking mobilisation exercises in the community to fundraise for improved centre staff housing.
• Accountability for funds from the Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF) for constructing of teachers’ houses in Tar Ogali parish was also raised in the area’s VSAC meeting. Committee members followed-up with the school management and were given assurances that the construction work would soon be underway.

WOUGNET reports that the continued support of district and sub-county leaders, as well as CSOs, continues to encourage the work of VSACs.

Meanwhile, Transparency International (TI) Uganda has embarked on an awareness raising exercise for its toll free call centre which will enable citizens to log complaints about health service delivery in the region. Agreements have been reached with a number of health centres to allow for the painting of the toll free number on strategic public access points on the centre premises.

SMS for Human Rights

In Tanzania, the Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance (CHRAGG) in collaboration with Bessbrook International Ltd. of Tanzania completed the implementation of the SMS for Human Rights Management Information System. The system has been installed and is being tested in a working environment. User feedback and opinions are being collected on automated responses from the system.

However, the system has so far been unable to allow for multimedia messaging and content. CHRAGG and Bessbrook are working to rectify this. Full system deployment is pending an SMS short code provision from the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority and toll free services from leading telecos.

mGovernance in Kenya

During April, iHub Research conducted user-centred design workshops as a basis for strategising on building mobile governance applications from citizen users’ perspective.

Activity planning for fieldwork to explore the conditions for successful mobile phone enabled governance across Kenya is also underway. Through its extensive grassroots based Human Rights Networks (HURINETS), the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) will assist iHub Research in choosing appropriate field sites across the country and facilitate interaction with local communities. iHub Research is also anticipating to engage Mzalendo in its research. The blog platform for holding leaders accountable and rating their work will offer feedback on the research questions to be included in the full data collection exercise.

Meanwhile, the Social Development Network (SODNET) has also agreed to share their raw data on Huduma to enrich iHub Research’s work. iHub research will use these findings to identify their key thematic areas of focus based on feedback from the platform. Huduma is a mobile phone short code platform for Kenyan citizens to voice the difficulties they encounter in using public services.

iParticipate Uganda

The Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) published and disseminated a report entitled ‘How ICT Tools are Promoting Civic Participation in Uganda’. The report illustrates how Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are aiding citizen participation in Uganda, but also points to the challenges that need to be overcome for these technologies to have a wider impact on governance. Read the full report here.

CIPESA also finalised the Open Governance in Uganda study. The study sought to establish Uganda’s readiness for open data, capture citizen’s perceptions on open governance in Uganda as well as form a basis for advocating for increased government openness in Uganda. During the study, awareness about open government and its benefits was raised, highlighting an urgent need for open governance in Uganda. The reports produced will go toward CIPESA’s wider campaigns in promoting open governance in Uganda and the use of ICTs for democratic governance.

In April, CIPESA represented Uganda at the Internet Society (ISOC)’s Global INET event in Geneva, Switzerland. Furthermore, CIPESA attended the Digital Migration Workshop for Southern and Eastern African Countries. Insights from the workshop are available here.

Other news

In April, the ICT4Democracy in East Africa network participated in the Stockholm Internet Forum that aimed to deepen discussions on how freedom and openness on the internet can promote social and economic development globally. Participants included media, civil society, academia, telecommunications, national and international development agencies. Organised by the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Internet Infrastructure Foundation and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the forum took place on April 18 – 19, 2012.

After lunch, iHub Research presented their M-Governance exploratory survey results, funded by SPIDER and conducted as part of the ICT4Dem Network.

A reoccurring theme throughout the conference was the development of local content.

Professor Nkoma of TCRA stated that challenges in Tanzania include lack of local content as well as last mile connectivity. Twitter followers on #istafrica2012 agreed that this is an issue not just in Tanzania but also in Kenya, Zambia, and across Africa. The question then arose, “Do people have the skills necessary to develop local content?” The KINU representative (an incubation hub in Tanzania) stressed the need for local capacity building in order to spur businesses and local content generation. Catherinerose Barretto (KINU) stated, “We need to foster innovation and creativity from an early age. In addition to mentorship and skills-based training on the job, we also need to teach students to question and think critically.”

It was raised during the conference that the East Africa community has already seen the need to come together and create communities to catalyze innovation. iHub together with The KINU, RLabs, and HiveCoLab were mentioned as examples of the local community coming together to build local content.

The conference was comprised of 3 days of paper presentations using a parallel stream approach with six on-going parallel sessions. Overall session topics included: Internet of Things; M-Health; EGovernment & eDemocracy; Broadband Access in Africa; TV White Space Spectrum; Living Labs; ICT Entrepreneurship in Tanzania; M-Learning; ICT for Environmental Risk Management.

An interesting presentation was a session on “Sensors, Empowerment and Accountability,” SEMA for short. All presenters during the session came from ITC from the University of Twente, Netherlands and spoke on different aspects of the 3-year project that they have recently launched. The SEMA project looks at enhancing the relationship between citizens and government agencies through mobile communications and web technology in Tanzania. One of the project managers, Jeroen Verplanke, spoke on “slow burn” versus crisis reporting. “Slow burn” issues are on-going over an extended period of time and don’t look to improve in the short-term. Verplanke noticed this phenomenon stating that daily needs that are not events do not often trigger app use because even if these daily needs are not met, coping mechanisms exist. On the other hand, a disaster or crisis situation is much more emotionally engaging as a reminder to report or act.

At the end of Verplanke’s presentation, he highlighted an often-repeated challenge that “technology can be an enabler, but you need the right processes and support in place.” This is so important to keep in mind in ICTD discussions; it deserves to be often repeated.

Based on the 24 ICT tools assessed, seven main categories of uses of tools were identified: Information provision; Election monitoring; Lobbying and activism; Voter registration; Elections reporting; Citizen policing; and Civic participation in the post-election period.

Innovations especially with mobile telephony and interactive mapping have showcased how ICT can help improve transparency and accountability in the delivery of public services. In the run up to Uganda’s 2011 general elections, ICT tools were used broadly, for campaigning, tallying results, monitoring the actions of political groups and the electoral body, for civic education, and for activism. The tools included mobile phones, automated calls, and crowd sourcing platforms, radio and television, as well as social media. They contributed to transparency of the polls – but probably not to voter turn-out.

However, the most immediate challenge to the adoption of these tools is that few Ugandans are embracing them. In Uganda, market penetration for voice stands at 45% with a population coverage of close to 100%. Mobile accounts for more than 90% of new connections, with 910,000 new subscribers being added each year. While this is providing a solid base in terms of numbers of those who can use the ICT, the figures do not tell the whole story. For example, studies show that nearly half of mobile phone subscribers own at least two SIM cards. Moreover, even among the phone-owning class, for many usage beyond voice (and, well, Facebook and radio) remains limited.

And there are yet more challenges. Limitations such as the cost of accessing and using the ICT, language barriers and low literacy levels mainly for the internet and mobile based platforms – as well as minimal attention by government to boosting usage of ICT in governance all hinder the effective use of these tools. This study finds that it is therefore crucial for organisations using ICT for participation and democracy to carry out extensive assessments before deploying the technology, to work with others rather than duplicate efforts, to create awareness and capacity among users, and to continuously assess the impacts the ICT initiatives are creating.

This research was made possible by funding from the Swedish Program for ICT in Developing Regions (Spider), which is supporting projects in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, in the areas of education, health, and governance. The results shall directly inform some wider actions in catalysing civic participation and democracy monitoring using ICT, which the ICT4Democracy in East Africa partners are undertaking.

Download the full report here:

ICT for Service Delivery in Northern Uganda

iParticipate Uganda

mGovernance in Kenya

SMS for Human Rights in Tanzania

ICT for Human Rights and Democracy in Kenya
The Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) trained 22 grassroots-based Human Rights Network (HURINET) members in the use of ICT, especially social media, for monitoring and reporting human rights violations. Installation of three ICT platforms – bulk SMS facility, a civic action website and an intranet to engage the HURINETS – are currently underway and could be ready during April.

ICT for Service Delivery in Northern Uganda

In March, the monthly Voluntary Social Accountability Committee (VSAC) meetings to report on poor service delivery and bad governance continued in five districts in Northern Uganda. Committee members were trained on uploading incident reports to the Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) Ushahidi platform. Some of the reports received related to poor water supply in Gulu district; Bribery and ‘ghost’ beneficiaries of a government piggery farming program; problems affecting schools performance in Apac District; and poor quality of road construction.

Following last month’s poor school governance reports (among them Boke Primary School in Apac district), VSAC members successfully lobbied the headmaster and Parents Teachers Association (PTA) chairman to hold a PTA meeting. Committee members also mobilised parents to put up temporary housing structures for two teachers and rental arrangements were made for a third teacher.

However, the work of the VSAC is facing a number of challenges. Whereas email accounts were opened for three committee members in Gulu district, others lack access to basic ICTs such as mobile phones. Support from local leaders is insufficient. In Toro Parish in Amuru district, a sub-county chief walked out of a meeting held to inquire about a government agricultural programme. The rainy season, which makes transportation difficult, and electricity blackouts, is also hindering the work of VSACs.

Meanwhile, in the health sector, health worker absenteeism persists. A visit by the Transparency International (TI) Uganda team to one health centre found that a staff arrival logbook installed by TI Uganda had gone missing as a means of destroying evidence. In Oyam district, government transfer of health workers without immediate replacements was found to hinder health service delivery.

The installation of a toll free call centre to enable citizens report absenteeism is due to be completed in April.

iParticipate Uganda

In March, the Collaboration on International Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) developed a citizen journalism and media training manual for planned trainings at its grassroots-based ICT for democracy and civic participation pilot centres (BROSDI, NUMEC and eKasese). The capacity building trainings are scheduled to take place during May 2012.

CIPESA also completed research to assess Uganda’s readiness for open government data. The research was welcomed by all organisations interacted with. Draft reports of the state of open data readiness and the citizens’ perceptions on open government in Uganda are available. This activity feeds well into CIPESA’s wider project to catalyse the use of ICT in promoting citizen participation in democracy and governance. With the availability of open data, citizens will be able to monitor different government programmes, hence demanding for more accountability.

mGovernance in Kenya

iHub Research conducted a second mGovernance workshop to disseminate findings from the exploratory research and the Nairobi apps usability testing to spur discussion on a sustainable approach to their research. The workshop took on the same format as the one held last October. Participants from academia, civil society, developers and civil service recommended that iHub Research’s study into the conditions for mobile as a tool for increased citizen participation in government and as a more effective public service method should be extended to regions beyond Nairobi, to marginalised communities and other stakeholders such as churches and NGOs.

Meanwhile, iHub Research attended the International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD 2012) in Atlanta, USA. Insights from the four-day conference are shared here: day 1, day 2, day 3 and day 4.

SMS for Human Rights in Tanzania

In partnership with Bessbrook International LTD of Tanzania, the Commission for Human Right and Good Governance (CRHAGG) has completed the development of its mobile phone based Complaints Handling Management Information System. The system has been installed and testing in a working environment is underway.

As a result of minor changes to the security requirements and specifications, additional security training for CHRAGG employees was conducted in March to build on February’s capacity and awareness training seminar. CHRAGG is continuing efforts to partner with the Tanzanian Communication Regulatory Authority for an SMS short code provision and telecommunications service providers for toll free services.

CHRAGG has also embarked on an awareness raising campaign. The Commission has met with Tanzania’s Constitutional, Legal and Public Administration Parliamentary Committee to discuss ways to target the youth. Discussions are also underway with the country’s Legal Sectoral Reform Programme for funding to improve The Commission’s now ageing ICT infrastructure. Furthermore, an invitation has been sent out to the President of Tanzania to be the guest of honour at the launch of SMS for human rights system later this year. The launch is due to coincide with global human rights day celebrations on December 10, 2012.

The major theme of the conference centered on how mobile communication could be used for development, presentation from different panelist provided knowledge sharing, giving success stories on how ICT is being used for community empowerment. It was noted that technology alone cannot solve world development challenges but rather the proper use of these technologies to enhance project interventions.

Spider panel presentation involved all network (ICT 4 Democracy in East Africa), the network which consist of different projects in East Africa under Spider funding. All project officers presented their respective ICT projects; the network attracted some of participants who thereafter made approach towards future partnership and knowledge sharing. Within the network, synergies in program implementation were identified with WOUGNET interested in sharing TIU call center to reach out their to target communities in Northern Uganda. Organizations are destined to create a sustainable results for project inventions when they work together and actively involve target beneficiaries to own program results.

Mobile communication in its self can be used beyond communication where mobile phones in Africa are being used for money transfers, SMS knowledge sharing and accessing of educative literature from internet. Organizations venture in different ways to ensure that mobile technology supports implementation of the different program activities and at the same time selection of these technologies for community development should be carefully done putting into consideration the dynamics of community capacity to use the technology.

ICT for Democracy in East Africa consist of skilled project staffs that can provide any assistance to anyone globally for any ICT based community intervention; the network therefore is open to any person who would like to learn or share their expertise/knowledge.

The Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) this February continued with its awareness campaigns on good governance and effective service delivery in Northern Uganda. During the Voluntary Social Accountability Committee (VSAC) meetings held to report on poor service delivery in the districts, discussions were dominated by the issue of poor school governance. Participants reported that some primary schools remained closed for up to three weeks after the start of the new school term. For others, due to insufficient space, pupils of different classes were combined in a single teaching room, while poor teacher housing facilities meant that teachers shared accommodation with students. Poor sanitation was also reported. These problems have been reported by WOUGNET to the school management and local district education officials.

WOUGNET also conducted citizen journalism capacity building workshops in Amuru and Gulu districts. Participants were introduced to the Ushahidi platform and the use of blogs and the mobile phone (beyond voice) to report and access information on prevailing poor service delivery in the districts.

Meanwhile, patients continue to experience long delays in service delivery in health centres in the northern districts of Lira and Oyam. The installation of Transparency International (TI) Uganda’s field office call centre in Lira is due to commence in early March. A contract has been signed with one of the country’s telecommunications service providers to install voice services after the communications hardware installation. Patients are expected to be able to log voice complaints about health service delivery through TI Uganda’s toll free helpline by mid march.

Researching Mobile Governance in Kenya

At the end of January, iHub Research conducted usability tests on three governance-related mobile apps in use in Kenya. The apps were:  Mzalendo, a blog platform for holding Members of Parliament accountable and rating their work; Msema Kweli, an android-based application for tracking community development funds; and Huduma, a mobile phone short code platform for citizens to voice the difficulties they encounter using government services.

The methodology for the usability tests included focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with different stakeholder groups – researchers, developers, and the public. Various indicators and functionality measures were determined. iHub Research’s initial findings indicate that there are gaps between the technology and direct citizen-leader interaction. In addition, participants raised privacy and security concerns, and data protection issues. The full results are being documented and will be shared at a stakeholder workshop during March.

SMS for Human Rights in Tanzania

The Tanzanian Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance (CHRAGG) has commenced the development of its SMS complaints system. An internal awareness seminar was conducted to update the 220 CHRAGG employees across the country on how the system will work. The Commission is seeking support for short code provision from the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority. Furthermore, meetings are scheduled for March with the country’s telecommunications companies to solicit partnerships.

Promoting Citizen Participation in Uganda

The survey analysis of the knowledge, attitudes, and needs of citizen groups and local governments in western Uganda regarding the utility, effectiveness and security of ICT tools used in participating in governance processes, is complete. The survey undertaken by the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) in Kabarole and Kasese districts involved focus group discussions and individually administered questionnaires. During April, CIPESA will conduct surveys in the Northern and Eastern regions of the country in order to provide a comparative analysis.

In addition to the Busoga Rural Open Source and Development Initiative (BROSDI) and Kasese eSociety, CIPESA has entered into a memorandum of understanding with another grassroots based centre – the Gulu-based Northern Uganda Media Club (NUMEC). The media club works to revitalise the media terrain within the region and helps to catalyse reconciliation, resettlement, and recovery in a region that experienced two decades of armed conflict.

Furthermore, in February, CIPESA commenced an assessment of Uganda’s readiness for Open Government Data.

Engaging Grassroots Networks in Human Rights Monitoring

ICT support equipment has been acquired for the 10 grassroots Human Rights Networks (HURINETS) the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) has partnered with. The equipment includes computers, power back-up systems, and cameras with which the HURINETs will report information and work from the ground into the crowd sourcing and civic participation website KHRC is developing. HURINET members have successfully set up Facebook and Twitter accounts which they are currently using to discuss human rights, governance, and service delivery issues.

The HURINETs will in March, be trained in basic ICT skills to access and share information for more effective results in their work.

The user experience pre-test conducted by iHub Research looked at three applications that have been developed to encourage communication with the government through mobile and web platforms. These applications enable citizens to review their leaders (Mzalendo), comment on difficulties they encounter using government infrastructure through a USSD short code *318# (Huduma), as well as monitor constituency development funds through an Android application (MsemaKweli).

The pre-test comprised of a Focus Group Discussion with five participants and 2 in-depth interviews. The aims of the pre-test were to investigate whether or not the data generated by the two (2) methods produce unique, useful data; and to identify the major platform functionalities to be tested for the full-scale study. In order to conduct the user experience pre-test, the research team engaged seven individuals: four men and three women. The criteria for selecting the participant were: availability on testing date; gender balance; balance between creative, developer, “other”; and Kenyan nationals. There was 1 developer, 5 creative’s and 1 “Other” – content developer and photographer. The focus group discussion took about an hour with the time divided equally through the three mobile governance tools that were being tested. The in-depth interviews took approximately 30-45 minutes each. The participants were briefed on the purpose of the study and allocated an opportunity to make any inquiries before the study began.

To conduct the study the research team provided 5 Nexus One mobile phones to the participants and gave them sample scenarios to tackle as they interacted with the application.

The user experience test left several questions to be answered:

1. Are in-depth interviews and focus group discussions the only way to collect this information?
2. Is the feedback received sufficient?
3. Are the applications we looked into giving u a true picture of the interaction with government through mobile applications?
4. Will this method for data collection work on a wide-scale basis?

We look forward to tackling these questions as we move forward to design the wider scale study. Your comments are always welcome!

This exploratory study formed the basis for our accepted paper to the IST Conference (to be held in Tanzania in May 2012). We will be presenting these findings at the conference.

A one-week of exploratory fieldwork was conducted in Nairobi in November 2011 , with the aim of investigating citizens’ opinions on the best methods to interact with government. The focus was on how Kenyan citizens understand governance and how they currently interact with the government. The initial write-up can be found here. The information that was gathered is important as a first step to studying the potential role of technology in Kenyan governance.

The purpose of the study was to seek answers to the following core questions:

• What are Kenyan citizens’ understandings of governance?
• What services do citizens receive from service providers or the Kenyan government?
• Do citizens feel they are able to raise issues or complaints to the government or service providers?
• What do citizens want to talk to the Kenyan government about?
• What methods do citizens believe are best to give information to government/service providers?

Respondents were asked for their understanding of the term, “governance.” Majority of the citizens interviewed understand governance to do with government and leadership. Other popular words to define governance were people, service, management, involvement, and resources, among others. Below is a word cloud based on frequency of the words used to describe governance.

The initial findings reveal that Kenyans believe governance is all about the government. This suggests a perception that governance is top-down and originates from government. Only 5% (n=3) of the respondents stated that governance involves both government and citizens in decision-making. This popular mind-set that governance is something that is done by the government and others in leadership needs to be amended if a more participatory role is to be taken by citizen stakeholders. Civic education and other programs to inform citizens of their rights and responsibilities may help to alter the view that governance is something implemented by government leaders.

Data on citizen interactions with government service providers reveals that the respondents on the whole had more negative experiences than positive experiences. This indicates that there is room for improvement in Kenyan service delivery. Further investigation using a larger sample size should be done to understand which specific sectors Kenyans believe would benefit most from technology applications.

Regarding topics that people would like to discuss with the government, the following findings were obtained:

When the interviewees were asked whether   they feel they are able to raise issues or complaints to the government or service providers, they gave the following opinions on effective and not effective methods of communicating with the government:

One of the most important findings from this research came out of citizens’ opinion on the most effective communication methods for engaging government. While the mobile telephone was still considered one viable method, it was not the most popular. In fact, the feedback from citizens revealed the limitation of using the mobile phone to call, SMS, or USSD. Further research must be done to test the viability of mobile phone applications. Also important to note is that the exploratory study was limited to residents of the capital city, Nairobi where it is much easier to have face-to-face interactions with Ministries and service providers. In contrast, it is much less viable for citizens in rural communities that can be over nine hours away from Nairobi to meet face-to-face with Ministries. It will be important to include these rural communities in the larger sample study to be conducted in 2012.

For more information: Contact : Angella Crandall  (angelac@ihub.co.ke ), Leo Mutuku (leo@ihub.co.ke)

What Have We Been Up to Lately

One of the earliest and easiest platforms that the project deployed is social media. While the KHRC already had Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts, they had not really been well utilized. However, since the commencement of the project, things have been turned around such that information published on the website can now be pushed further by sharing through Facebook and Twitter. For instance, in August 2011, the KHRC published a book on corruption and impunity of past injustices. The book, titled “Lest We Forget: The Faces of Impunity in Kenya,” was launched through the traditional mass media and sold out. The online copy hit a record 1,000 downloads on the day it was first uploaded and 13,780 downloads in the first month. There was a Facebook link created for it as well which helped further push the publication but also drew public interest in dialogue. It is a document which the public can use to audit who should not be eligible for elections based on corruption records.  The book is available for download here.

The KHRC has also been sharing documentary videos through YouTube as part of educating the public on human rights and governance issues. Recently, during the celebrations of the 2012 International Human Rights Day (IHRD), the KHRC held a series of community outreaches in Nairobi which included public forums and legal aid clinics. This culminated in the Annual Human Rights Lecture whose theme was “Judiciary, a Bastion for Constitutionalism”. Snippets of the event were uploaded on YouTube with the hope that it will stir up conversations about the implementation of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010, a process which is currently under siege from anti-reform forces in and outside the Government.  One snippet features judicial and legal experts as well as some human rights activists while the other features the views from the participants during the question and answer session. The snippets are available here.

Finally, the KHRC was privileged to host a team from the Commission on Human Rights and Good Governance (CHRAGG), which is the national human rights institute of Tanzania. The team from Tanzania visited in order to learn how the bulk sms system works. The KHRC system is not yet up however we were able to have our service provider conduct a demo for the Tanzanian team. This was a shared learning experience for the two organizations as it was a challenge for the KHRC to ensure its own deployment is up in order to be able to share with CHRAGG how the system works.

Wilfred Warioba, (centre) Head of ICTs at CHRAGG together with his colleagues pay close attention as George Mburu, bulk sms service provider demonstrates how the system works 

The Learning Curve

Since the project began, it has been an exiting journey of learning a lot of lessons. It is also interesting to note that there are quiet a number of individuals and organizations interested in the project and an opportunity for the KHRC to showcase this new area of work, should it succeed. So far KHRC has been able to learn a lot while implementing the project. As an organization that is not technologically oriented, the project required quite a bit of research in order to find out what technologies to deploy. This has been through workshops and bi-lateral cooperation with other organizations and individuals.

One key area of learning has been in the area of policy development. Any organization venturing into ICTs as a tool for engagement with the public ought to have an ICT or social media policy. This is crucial because the dynamic of how one runs an individual’s own account is different from those of how runs or manages an organization’s online presence and a simple mistake can have a serious impact on how the organization deals with its publics. For instance, there are all sorts of people out there and when an individual or organization joins any of the social media platforms, one should be prepared for all manner of responses and attacks from the people. There people who speak from a point of ignorance while others are just out rightly rude, arrogant or malicious. It is imperative that the organization has a policy that provides guidelines for online behavior of the staff managing the platforms it uses otherwise it is easy to be drawn into unnecessary exchanges that can give the organization a negative image.

Since ICT4D is a relatively new area of work for most civil society organizations, there needs to be a lot of information sharing within the civil society so that the sector can embrace the changing engagement landscape. Besides information sharing amongst the CSOs it is also important to have multi-sectoral forums which include developers, CSOs (user side), development partners and beneficiaries in order to identify gaps and best practices that can be related.

As an organization, we have learnt too that when utilized well, ICT4D can complement the traditional methodologies and cascade its work. A case in point is using YouTube to share videos, where we have learnt that it helps drive traffic to our website and vice-versa. However we have also learned that long videos take long to download thus not too many people watch them, especially if they are not necessarily entertaining, thus we are working on getting shorter versions of key messages even though it is not easy to reduce complex human rights issues on documentaries to  two-minute versions.

Finally, we look forward to having all our platforms up and running soon where we expect more public dialogue to take place. For example, the citizen participation website  once complete will further help the public debate issues that the human rights networks raise in a community paper called Mizizi Ya Haki (Roots of Rights) that now will be uploaded on the site. This is indeed very exciting as now much of what we do shall be scaled up to reach audience not reached before and therefore we must exploit every opportunity it has afforded us.

Hurinet regional Mizizi Ya Haki editors planning for the next edition in Nairobi at the National editorial meeting. Through ICT4D, the community newspaper will find a wider audience than it currently does

“If you are not on these platforms (social media and other web tools), where are you?” – Ally Khan Sachu, a Nairobi Economist, commenting  during a TV interview on reports that Kenya is top in use of Twitter, only second to South Africa,  AFRICA: Kenya is second most active on twitter.

The ICT training workshop attracted over 100 participants comprising of the Community Based and Civil Society actors,Local communities, Local Government Officials including the District Speakers, Town Clerks, Community Development Officers and Parish Chiefs among others.

The training focused on issues like the general introduction to various use of ICTs in Information collection and dissemination, use of mobile phones and SMS applications/ platforms to send and receive messages and the Launch of Ushaidi platform for mapping poor service deliveries. Participants were also taken through advocacy skills to demand for accountability, and civic engagement in policy process monitoring

The training was conducted under the project “Empowering Local people and Communities to Monitor District Service Delivery through ICTs” which falls under the broader project “ICT4Democracy in East Africa” which has seed funding from the Swedish Program for ICT in Developing Regions (SPIDER) which encourages democracy actors within the three countries with a view to catalyzing the role ICTs can play in enhancing civic empowerment and improving Governance. It was also premised on the recognition that Information and Communication Technology enhances Communication and the right to freedom of expression, as well as the right to seek, receive and impart information.

The ICT training workshops in Amuru and Gulu Districts were also graced with the presence of the new WOUGNET Coordinator, Ms. Violet Akurut Adome. During Violet’s session, participants were able to share experiences on how they have used their civic competence to report and follow up with cases of poor service delivery within their communities and later, the participants were taken through the different ways through which they can use the available ICT tools to document cases of corruption and poor service delivery within their communities

By
Moses Owiny
Information, Youth & ICT4D Officer, WOUGNET