Author: juliet

The 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT Opens

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The 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT opened today, Wednesday November 28, 2012 in Lisbon, Portugal. Under the theme Teaming-up for a strengthened and coordinated approach to foster Euro-African innovative cooperation on ICT, the two day forum will bring together European and African stakeholders in the public and private sectors involved in collaborative ICT research and ICT for development to share knowledge and experiences. Furthermore, discuss policy related issues.

The ICT4Democracy in East Africa Network is participating in the forum under the eGovernment & eDemocracy track.

Session chair: Angela Crandall, iHub Research
Panellist: Ashnah Kalemera, CIPESA

The objectives of this session are to understand the different eGovernment/ eDemocracy initiatives being undertaken, discuss the progress being made in governance through the use of mobile tools, and identify the challenges that need to be overcome in order to scale and sustain eDemocracy/ eGovernment initiatives.

The 5th in its series, the event is organised by the EuroAfrica-ICT initiative under the aegis of the European and the African Unions Commissions.

Read more about the forum here.

ICT4Democracy East Africa October Newsletter

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The October Newsletter of the ICT4Democracy East Africa Network can now be downloaded HERE. This brochure covers the activities of the network partners and focuses on how they are leveraging different ICT platforms to enhance transparency and civic empowernment. The utilized technologies include crowd sourcing platforms like Ushahidi; social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter; and digital and traditional media like websites and radio.

Highlights in the newsletter include details of KHRC’s human rights violations monitoring, CHRAGG’s progress with the complaints handling system, iHub Research’s MGovernance Field work update, TI Uganda’s toll free line, a report on citizen journalism training by CIPESA and ToroDev and WOUGNET capacity building activities during the month of October.

 

CIPESA At The Internet Governance Forum 2012

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The annual Internet Governance Forum (IGF) today opened in Baku, Azerbaijan. Taking place from November 6-9 2012, the main theme of this year’s meeting is Internet Governance for Sustainable Human Economic and Social Development.

An initiative of the United Nations, the IGF is a multi-stakeholder dialogue forum open to representatives from Government, NGOs, academia, private sector, as well as any other entities and individuals interested in Internet Governance issues.

CIPESA is participating in the forum with speakers in main sessions:

WS 187 Society before and after the Internet and digital media – Ashnah Kalemera (panelist)

WS 91 Technology, economic and societal opportunities and women – Lillian Nalwoga (panelist)

Furthermore, CIPESA is also participating in events organised by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), of which it is a member. Read more about APC’s participation at the IGF here.

Read more about the IGF here.

 

*This article was cross-posted from CIPESA blog

WOUGNET Mapping Social Accountability issues using Ushahidi platform

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In October 2012 WOUGNET held the monthly Voluntary Social Accountability (VSAC) Meetings and through this forum bad governance issues were raised and reported. WOUGNET has also been training its beneficiaries on using ICTs to monitor service delivery in their area. They taught skills ranging from using of computers to usage of digital cameras, mobile phones as well as reporting cases on the Ushahidi platform ( http://www.wougnet.org/ushahidi.)

In collaboration with ToroDev, the site contains reports based on issues in health, agriculture, education, public infrastructure, water and sanitation and governance. There are about 178 reports posted on the site since February 2012 and WOUGNET is actively training its beneficiaries on how to make reports on the site.

Lessons from the Field for BoP Developers

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We live in a bubble called Nairobi.

There has been a rapid uptake in adoption of mobile services and other web-based applications in Nairobi; however, away from Nairobi, many do not know of the existence of some of these applications and services or their usefulness. This is in reference to developers who are working on applications designed for those people at the base of the pyramid (people who earn less than 2.5USD a day (BOP))

iHub Research is carrying out a survey on the potential for technology in the water governance by finding out what the citizens’ thoughts on service delivery and if they have had any need for a mobile/web or other services as a medium to send and receive information between the citizen and the government/service provider in the water sector. From the 5th to 20th September 2012, researchers were out in the field collecting data. I had the privilege to join the research team at various points during the research.

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Online Dialogue on Internet Governance for African Civil society

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Organized by the African Civil Society Conversation on Internet Governance (APC), this dialogue conversation takes place from September 12th- 31st December 2012. Interested participants are invited to join the dialogue which will include among African civil society, media and other people who care about a free, open and accessible internet to share views and increase their understanding of current trends in internet regulation and governance.

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ToroDev Engages Kyegegwa District Local Leaders on Service Delivery Issues

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Description and Rationale of Meeting

On Wednesday, 19th September, 2012, ToroDev staff held a consultative meeting with local leaders in Kyegegwa District aimed at identifying gaps in service delivery and finding appropriate interventions for improved livelihoods since government services like roads, schools, markets, health centers, NAADS, etc. directly affects the livelihoods of the local people.

This follows ToroDev interventions since 2011 aimed at improving service delivery in the seven districts of Rwenzori Region. The organization has been conducting lobbying and advocacy campaigns, training rural grassroots’ populations in service delivery monitoring and conducting live radio talkshows on HITS FM and Better FM aimed at improving the state of service delivery through engagement with local leaders and awareness creation.

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ICT4Democracy in East Africa at a Glance: June 2011 – July 2012

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The ICT4Democracy in East Africa network is premised on the recognition that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enhances communication and the right to freedom of expression, as well as the right to seek, receive and impart information. In this respect, ICT has the potential to increase citizens’ participation in decision-making processes, thus strengthening democratisation.

In this publication, we give you a peek into the initiative’s activities, projects progress and the network partners’ experiences during the last half of 2011 and the first half of 2012 in leveraging on ICTs to hold leaders accountable to citizens, as well as to fight corruption, monitor service delivery, and contribute to building a democratic culture in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

Read the full publication here.

ToroDev trains rural youth and women (rural monitors) in online advocacy for improved service delivery

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ToroDev has started training rural women and youth leaders in the seven districts of the Rwenzori Region in using online tools to monitor service delivery. The maiden residential 2 days training involving ten participants was held on 16th – 17th of August, 2012 at ToroDev resource center in Fort Portal, Uganda. The training which is supported by ToroDev in partnership with SPIDER/Stockholm University was facilitated by Milton Aineruhanga from WOUGNET.

ToroDev will train 210 rural monitors and advocates in online/ Web 2.0 tools to collect, document and disseminate online public accountability for improved serviced delivery issues. They will particularly oriented on how to interact with the “Ushahidi” online platform and other relevant open-source software. The monitors were also trained in online social media tools, human rights, governance and democratic engagement.

The monitors were highly trained to be independent local citizens that will keep updating the community and project team at ToroDev about the status of service delivery and identifying communities own service delivery needs.

They will further go ahead to mobilize and encourage regular meetings and focus group discussions (FGDs) among the 14 Advocacy Forums in the region on issues of service delivery monitoring.

Rural Monitors will also advocate for quality and timely public accountability from local leaders.  They will use 11 radio stations in the Rwenzori region as a major tool for distributing/disseminating all the information accessed through online/internet and mobile phones.

This information will be converged on the FM radio stations as a way of sharing information with the rest of grass root citizens in the region, who may not necessarily have the skills and afford town or access internet based knowledge tools. The rural FM radio will be used a hub for the convergence of all ICT tools for effective service delivery monitoring in the Rwenzori Region.

Some of the sample articles posted by the rural monitors on the Ushahidi platform.

http://wougnet.org/ushahidi/reports/view/59

http://wougnet.org/ushahidi/reports/view/66

http://wougnet.org/ushahidi/reports/view/62

http://wougnet.org/ushahidi/reports/view/64

http://wougnet.org/ushahidi/reports/view/56

http://wougnet.org/ushahidi/reports/view/51

Documented by Solomon Akugizibwe

 

 

SPIDER Stories 2011

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Foreword

“Our vision is an interconnected world built in the spirit of digital solidarity for future generations. Spider has supported since its inception.”

What difference does ICT4D make? And what difference does Spider make in ICT4D? In this publication, we hope to give you a better idea of some of our activities during 2011. This report is not exhaustive, nor particularly detailed; it is not scientific, nor bureaucratic. Those who wish to read a more formal account of our activities in 2011 are welcome to read the Spider Annual Report 2011, which is freely available on our web site. This publication aims to give you a different insight into our work, and especially the efforts of our collaborating partners who are using their time and effort to build a better future with the help of ICT.

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