The 2012 Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch) reports have been published. GISWatch is a collaborative community committed to building an open, inclusive and sustainable information society, through collaborative monitoring of implementation of international (and national) commitments made by governments towards the creation of an inclusive information society.
Press statment on integrity and accountability in Kenya’s March 4, 2013 General Elections
The KENYA HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION (KHRC) has released a statement calling upon Kenyans to ensure the integrity of and accountability of candidates for the upcoming general elections, 4th March, 2013.
Below are the links to the press conference broken down into three segments:
1. Implications of the High Court ruling on the eligibility case against Uhuru and Ruto’s candidature.
2. KHRC’s Position on Integrity and Accountability of Candidates for the General Elections.
3. Q & A on Integrity and Accountability of Candidates for the March 4, 2013 General Elections.
Project Story: Empowered and Involved
Years after rebel insurgency in northern Uganda civil society organizations moved in to rebuild the region by improving service delivery and ensuring improved accessibility of resources and service delivery in different sectors, however the use of technology for people empowerment and engagement was hardly seen in the region.
The region was blessed to receive SPIDER health project in Lira and Oyam which widely uses ICT for people empowerment. The toll free call center was installed in May 2012 which has greatly improved health service delivery in northern Uganda through community empowerment and , engagement in monitoring health service delivery at their respective health centers; men and women have used the call center/technology by calling in to report challenges of late coming, absenteeism, drug theft, poor hygiene and poor work performance.
iHub Research releases Water Governance draft report
Use of mobile technology in promoting transparency issues in water governance
This report details our M-Governance study, which aimed to understand the use of mobile technology in promoting transparency issues in water governance. The report targets mobile developers, water sector specialists, key stakeholders involved in policy-making, regulation and water service development and provision in Kenya drawn from the government sector, civil society organizations, academia and the media.
Celebrations of the Human Rights Day in Tanzania
The Human Rights day which takes place on the 12th of December was celebrated in pomp and color with the guest of honor being Hon. Mizengo Pinda, the Prime Minister of Tanzania. The Chairman for CHRAGG, (Retired)Chief Justice, Captain Amiri R Mamento gave his opening address which focused on Human Rights and the prevention and combating of corruption.
ICT4Democracy Network at 2012 Africa-Eu Cooperation Week On ICT–e-Government & e-Democracy session
iHub Research and CIPESA attended the 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Week on ICT from Nov. 26-30, 2012 in Lisbon, Portugal to participate in the e-Government & e-Democracy session. Vasilis Koulolias of Gov2U and Angela Crandall of iHub Research moderated the e-Gov/e-Dem discussion session. Ashnah Kalemera of CIPESA represented the ICT4Democracy Network. The 90-minute session was attended by a range of stakeholders including the African Development Bank, academics from Europe, technology consultants from Africa and Europe, and government representatives.
ICT4Democracy East AFrica Workshop in Dar es Salaam
The ICT4Democracy East Africa Network is currently holding a two day workshop in Dar es Salaam Tanzania. This workshop aims to promote the Network’s activities where the partners will be presenting on the progress of their work.
The event was officially opened by Eng. Dr. Zaipuna Yonah, the Director of ICT, Ministry of Science and Technology in Tanzania. While addressing SPIDER(The Swedish Program for ICT in Developing Regions) and SIDA (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency), Dr. Zaipunah thanked the government of Sweden for supporting the development of ICTs in the developing world and indicated that the work of the ICT4Democracy in East Africa is already impacting lives of citizens living in the region.
Dr. Zaipuna also highlighted the work the Tanzanian government was doing in developing ICT infrastructure within the country and urged the members of the network to continue sharing the progress of their work. He completed his address saying that “Accountability should not only be in what we read and write, democracy is more about translating the intentions into realities”
To view the complete gallery of the ongoing workshop visit this link.
The presentations from the workshop will be uploaded later on this site.
The 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT Opens
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
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
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