ICT for Democracy in East Africa: January 2012 News

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SMS for Human Rights

In addition to Lindi, Mwanza and Iringa regions, the Tanzanian Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance (CHRAGG) extended its field studies to gather user requirements to Dar es Salaam. With a clearer indication of what citizens want, the Commission has now started work toward the system requirements and features design of the mobile phone based Complaints Handling Management Information System.

During December, CHRAGG undertook a study tour to the offices of the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC). The two organisations shared knowledge and information on the technology aspects of their ICT for Democracy projects.

Catalysing Civic Participation and Democracy Monitoring Using ICTs
The Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) in December undertook a mini survey to identify the knowledge, attitudes, and the needs of citizen groups and local governments regarding the utility, effectiveness, and security of ICT for democracy in the country’s western region. The survey involved focus group discussions at the Rwenzori Information Centre Network (RICNET) and individually administered questionnaires in the town centres of Kabarole and Kasese districts.

At Kasese e-Society, CIPESA’s western region grassroots based partner, staff were trained in the use of a collaborative workspace that will be used to document the centre’s activities related to the project. To improve its work in using ICT for enhancing civic participation, CIPESA provided to the centre  two desktop computers, a digital camera and monetary contribution toward its internet connectivity.

M-Governance: Exploring Conditions for Successful Mobile Governance in Kenya

 

iHub’s research team are undertaking work to ascertain the numerous mobile technologies out there in relation to governance. They are currently approaching governance application (apps) developers to seek permission to test their apps in a usability focus group during January. The aim of the tests will be to understand how various stakeholder groups would interact with the technology. The usability tests are to be carried out initially in Nairobi with the findings used for future  testing in other parts of the country.

In early February, iHub Research plans to hold a second workshop to disseminate the findings from the exploratory research and the Nairobi apps usability testing. The workshop will take on the same format as the one held last October.

Reforms through Citizen Participation and Government Accountability

The Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) is in the process of procuring ICT equipment for 10 community-based Human Rights Networks (HURINETs). Information and work from the HURINETs on the ground will feed into the crowd sourcing and civic participation website KHRC is developing.

Website development is nearly complete and KHRC is due to hold a press conference to launch its project. The HURINETs, upon receipt of the equipment, will be trained on how to effectively use ICT to engage citizens and hold their leaders accountable.

Promoting Social Accountability in the Health Sector in Northern Uganda

In December, Transparency International (TI) Uganda carried out health centre visits in Lira and Oyam districts. Talks with centre users and arrival logs for health workers indicated that whereas health centre workers were reporting to work on time (8am), service did not begin until about 10am.  TI Uganda staff advised patients that they would soon be able to log complaints about health service delivery through a toll free helpline.

Talks are underway between TI Uganda and one of Uganda’s telecommunications service providers to install a call centre before the end of February. TI Uganda is also in the process of organising a press conference to inform the community about its project in northern Uganda. The aim is to sensitise citizens about the ongoing work and seek their involvement and support.

Empowering Local People and Communities to Monitor Districts’ Service Delivery Through ICTs

The Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) conducted two awareness-raising workshops on good governance and effective service delivery in Apac and Kole district during December. An Ushahidi platform was launched for Voluntary Social Accountability Committees (VSACs) to report and map prevailing poor service delivery issues in the districts. Workshop participants were trained on how to upload content and access information.

ICT for Democracy in East Africa: November News

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SMS for Human Rights
The Tanzanian Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance (CHRAGG) in November started field studies to gather user requirements. Conducted through questionnaires and interviews, the survey was undertaken in the Mwanza, Lindi and Iringa regions. The results of the study, which will go toward the features design of the mobile phone based Complaints Handling Management Information System, are due to be published during December.

 

Catalysing Civic Participation and Democracy Monitoring Using ICTS

One of the two grassroots based organisations that the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) has partnered with is eKasese. Because eKasese is a local government run centre, CIPESA has experienced delays in undertaking the Western region survey of the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAPS) to determine the ICT for democracy tools used, user and non-user profiles and their [de]motivations it had anticipated to carry out this month. The KAPS study, focus group discussions and citizen journalism training have been confirmed for early December.A Wiki, as part of CIPESA’s work to champion the development of a network of CSOs, media, citizens’ groups and local governments that use and promote usage of ICTs in governance is under development here.

An analysis of Ugandan policies and practices that enhance (or undermine) eDemocracy is complete. A briefing paper for this is in its final editing stages. Circulation is expected to start in January 2012, and the paper will form the basis for an advocacy campaign targeted at the media and legislators.

CIPESA attended the November 14 – 15 2011, Euro ICT Africa Conference held in Cape Town, South Africa.

M-Governance: Exploring Conditions for Successful Mobile Governance in Kenya
iHub’s research arm completed a literature review and exploratory study. The results are available here. The team will be performing a pre-test in January 2012 to understand the usability of the current Kenyan mobile governance applications. They will be hosting a second m-governance workshop with various stakeholders from government, academia, and tech in February 2012.

iHub has submitted a paper under the eGovernment & eDemocracy theme for the IST-Africa 2012 Conference and Exhibition. The conference is due to take place from 9–11 May 2012, in Tanzania.

iHub attended the UNDP Africa Civil Society and Governance Assessments Forum on November 10 -12, 2011 in Dakar, Senegal. Some insights from the forum are in a blog post here.

Reforms through Citizen Participation and Government Accountability
The Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) crowd sourcing and civic participation website is under development. KHRC has also identified a service provider for its bulk SMS system. However, due to various concerns expressed about data protection, the deployment of the bulk SMS platform has been delayed until December.

KHRC attended this November’s Africa human Rights Consortium on New Media and Human Rights held in Botswana. As a result, the Commission is developing an ICT policy for the various ICT based platforms in its project. The policy will draw on these guidelines.

Promoting Social Accountability in the Health Sector in Northern Uganda
The Transparency International (TI) Uganda team is currently concentrating on the project’s social media presence (see Stop Health Workers’ Absenteeism facebook page). A blog component is being added to TI, Uganda’s website to further increase the project’s visibility. During December, TI Uganda is to determine the requirements and specifications of its short code platform. The code is to be shared with WOUGNET. TI Uganda will next month also hold a press conference and publish articles about its project.

Empowering Local People and Communities to Monitor Districts’ Service Delivery Through ICTs
The Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET)’s mobilisation exercises have now covered 5 districts (Gulu, Amuru, Apac, Kore and Oyam). The next stage in the project is setting up Voluntary Social Accountability Committees (VSACs) in each district to report on poor service delivery. Once a chairperson and secretary for the committees have been identified, the committees are expected to sit monthly. Prevailing service delivery and governance issues are to be compiled as meeting minutes (without the specific details of the reporting individual) and mapped on a web platform being developed by WOUGNET’s technical team.

Other news

Preliminary program:
* Introduction. Spider and ICT4Democracy facilitator CIPESA
* Presentation. Photo gallery of m-Gov interventions in East Africa. Presenter TBC.
* ICT4Democracy panel. Moderator iHub. Panel participants: Kenya Human Rights Commission, Transparency International Uganda, WOUGNET, CIPESA, CHRAGG, iHub Research.

Incompetence of Support Staff (Porters and Watchmen) at health centers

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Transparency International Uganda

Porters and watchmen are employed at each health center in Uganda by Ministry of health. Porters are tasked to keep and maintain hygiene of surroundings of their respective health centers. Noticeably these support staff are recruited from the same locality of the health centers, none of them has ever experienced transfers. It has been noted that these individuals according to Health center in-charge at Agulurude Mr. Opio Daniel Patrick, have managed to draw the local community on their side to the extent at which when they are being urged or warned to improve their performance, they claim to the community that they are being witch-hunted; community members have ended up believing in them than acknowledging that the porters who are paid by the government have failed to perform their duties; failure to understand the roles of porters have made some patients’ care takers to participate in health center cleaning.

In Lira District Amach health center IV and Barr Health Center III are under poor hygiene due to outstanding indiscipline of porters, the porters want always to be seen as medical/health workers but not cleaners; they feel belittled to be cleaning the health center while community members see them; yet that wasn’t what they first considered when they first applied for the job. Mr. Okwir Joe according to the health center In-charge  (Michael) of Amach health center has continuously failed to change and perform his duties as expected.  The next step he/Michael together with health management committee are hoping for is to write a warning letter to Okwir Joe and copy it to District health officer, the chief administrative officer and Transparency International Uganda. TIU pledged to follow-up and see into it that action is taken by the relevant authorities.

In oyam district, Ameny Ambrose and Ojok Tonny who are both porters  together with Ayini Dickens (Watchman) at Agulurude health center III have repeatedly abandoned their duty, as a result the health management committee convened a meeting on 28th November 2011 and collectively wrote a letter to the DHO  (Dr. Owiny) complaining of “very poor work performances of support staff”, the letter was copied to the culprits, CAO and Sub County Chief Loro. TIU got reach of this document during health center visits and is engaging district health authorities to take actions.

TIU within its program activities is going to empower communities by conducting radio talk-shows in one of the local FM stations in Northern Uganda once every week. The talk-show will involve participation from community health users (calling in), district health officers, health workers, support staff, partner organizations and local leaders together with TIU to have joint contribution towards attaining results.

Empowering communities through ICT to demand for better health service delivery

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Transparency International Uganda (TIU) is empowering communities in Northern Uganda to demand for better health service delivery, Oyam and Lira districts are the project implementation area; a total of 6 sub counties were selected out of the 24 sub counties in the two districts. After nearly five years of insurgency in Northern Uganda, health care systems remains under dilapidating situation, with collective rehabilitation programs by civil society organizations to improve livelihood of the people, the project shares this goal of  contributing  towards improvement of health service delivery in Northern Uganda.  The project acknowledges that health service human resource is under staffed, and even the few are always absent from their duties but continues to get pay for what they have not worked for, this practice of absenteeism therefore besides being corruption puts the lives of health users at a risk and violates health rights.

Under the project; there is much effort being put in stopping health workers’ absenteeism so as to improve health service delivery, and this will be greatly achieved in the coming months (starting month of January and February 2012) when TIU deploys toll free call center and free SMS for community empowerment and involvement monitoring and improving health service delivery . Before deploying ICT tools the project underwent the processes mapping stakeholders, creating partnership, mapping health center accessibility, selection of voluntary accountability committee (VAC) members, training voluntary accountability committee members,

Patients at Barr health center III (Lira District -Northern Uganda)

The Left Photograph: Patients at Barr Health Center III (Lira district- Northern Uganda).

A young kid seating with her mother as they await to be attended to. It was clear here that the health users do not understand their rights, even if they did, they had no avenue of reporting, demanding and ensuring that delay in health services in their health center is dealt with.

The project will therefore provide them with tool free call center hot line to always report irregularities. The technology will be handled and managed directly by TIU. Telephone calls will be recorded and replayed to generate reports, reports are then shared with partners  and government (district health office) to demand for positive changes tailored towards improving health service delivery.

 

Patients at Amach Health Center IV (Lira District)

 Health center Visit conducted on 06th-12-2011 at Amach Health center IV
It was yet another day of field work, the project officer arrived at Amach health center IV at 9:15am and was welcomed by the security guard, no health worker had yet started working at the Outpatient wing, found 15 patients seated waiting for health service.

By 10:20am there were 78 patients had lined-up, The project officer shared and empowered patients about their health rights and need for better health service delivery; sensitized patients on the need to jointly help Transparency International Uganda to monitor and report late arrival and absenteeism of health workers. Patients could not hide their disappointments on how they felt in delay of accessing health service.

At 10:25am, the health educator Ogwang Ray of Amach health center arrived joined the project officer in sensitizing patients on issues concerning primary health care and stopping health workers absenteeism. The health educator was requested by the project officer to help in stopping late arrival of health workers and also be the voice of patients at the health center. It was at 10:30am that actual process of attending to health needs of patients started by Ogwal Vincent who is the clinical officer.

The success story here is that, Health workers were briefed about the need to stop absenteeism and late coming, work together as a team and improve service delivery. By TIU actively involving health center in-charge and health workers to ensure early reporting and serving the patients, the following day the health center opened early with early commence of patience treatment.

ICT for Democracy in East Africa: October News

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SMS for Human Rights

The Tanzanian Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance (CHRAGG) is due to undertake field studies to gather user requirements this November. The results of the study will go toward the features design of the mobile phone based Complaints Handling Management Information System.

Catalysing Civic Participation and Democracy Monitoring Using ICTS

IT support equipment has been procured for the two grassroots based centres that the Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) entered into MOUs with last month. A needs assessment including survey of the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAPS) to determine the ICT for democracy tools used, user and non-user profiles and their [de]motivations is scheduled for November and December. CIPESA’s analysis of Ugandan policies and practices that enhance (or undermine) eDemocracy is also to be finalised in November.

M-Governance: Exploring Conditions for Successful Mobile Governance in Kenya

The literature review as part of iHub’s exploratory research into the successful conditions for mobile governance in Kenya is complete. The review that aims to identify a Kenyan definition of good governance is to be circulated pending final edits. A workshop to identify issues in Kenya’s governance structures with an emphasis on stakeholder roles and relationships was held at iHub on October 27, 2011. The workshop also explored ways in which technology could facilitate and potentially enhance good governance. Further information is available here. Expert interviews and pilot questionnaires are scheduled for November and December.

Reforms through Citizen Participation and Government Accountability

The Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) has contracted a web developer for their human rights issues crowd sourcing website. Information and work from Human Rights Networks (HURINETS) on the ground is to feed into the website using the Ushahidi crowd-map platform. One of the HURINETS working in partnership with KHRC is the KURIA Human Rights Network. The initiative, under the western region Kuria Reform Agenda Consortium, seeks to address systematic insecurity in the Kuria constituency. KURIA’s recently set up crowd mapping platform can be found here.

Promoting Social Accountability in the Health Sector in Northern Uganda

Transparency International (TI) Uganda in October held a workshop where Voluntary and Accountability Committees (VACs) members of Oyam districts were trained on how to report health worker absenteeism and poor service delivery. So far, the project has seen a slight indication of improvements in health service delivery in Lira and Oyam district. Based on arrival logs, health centre workers are recorded as reporting to work on time. For more information, visit TI’s Stop Health Workers’ Absenteeism facebook page.

Empowering Local People and Communities to Monitor Districts’ Service Delivery Through ICTs

Following the Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET)’s mobilisations exercises in Gulu and Amuru districts held last month, similar exercises were undertaken in Kole, Oyam and Apac districts during October. The exercises, which involved community meetings, informed stakeholders on how ICT can enable effective service delivery. As per the project scope, the mobilisation targeted more women than men (ratio of women to men being 70:30).

Other news

  • A number of organisations have inquired about possibilities of working with the regional network and/or different projects within. Partner organisations are exploring ways in which to collaborate with the interested organisations.
  • During the upcoming International Conference on Mobile Communication for Development (M4D2012), the East African ICT for Democracy network will hold a workshop for stakeholders in the ICT for democracy field. The open session will engage practitioners in experiences and opportunities in the mobile component supporting democracy and governance.

 


 

M-Governance Exploratory Survey

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After a comprehensive literature review and an informative workshop conducted last month (October 2011), the iHub Research team ventured into the field to find out whether wananchi’s (Swahili for citizens) reality on the ground matched the theory and rhetoric. The team conducted a brief exploratory survey from November 1st – 4th, 2011. The survey was conducted to better understand Nairobi citizens’ point of view on governance in Kenya and to have a clearer picture of avenues of service delivery and government-citizen interactions that are currently occurring. This initial information will help to formulate the indicators to be studied as part of the larger M-Governance field research that is scheduled to begin January 2012.

Four locations in Nairobi were chosen for the exploratory survey based on factors such as sampling variety, ease of access, and targeted respondents: the Bishop Magua Building, the Central Business District (CBD), the Kibera slum and the University of Nairobi main campus. Two members of the team visited the sites on each of the four days with a minimum target of 15 respondents per location. The brief questionnaire contained seven open-ended questions on perceptions of governance and service delivery as well as existing and preferred channels of communication between the government and citizens. One interesting feature of the survey was that the team piloted Open Data Kit (ODK) mobile data collection software. ODK allowed the field researchers to input the questionnaire responses while in the field using a mobile phone running on Android. As soon as the phones were on Internet, the field team was then able to send the data back to a cloud server, which is accessible in real time from the office using a laptop computer. Therefore, researchers in the office were able to begin seeing and analyzing the results while the field team sent the data from various locations around Nairobi!

A major obstacle encountered was unwillingness to be interviewed, seen in all locations, but especially in the CBD. The unwillingness to give consent to be interviewed might be attributed to mistrust of strangers and fear of reprisals on talking ill about the government. This mistrust had been anticipated by the team, who, in order to counter it, worked hard to establish a rapport with interviewees and make it clear that anonymity was guaranteed. Another challenge was language translation, with most of the interviews having to be carried out in Kiswahili although questionnaires were originally written in English. Some terms in English, such as governance, are difficult to accurately translate without losing the original or intended English meaning. This challenge revealed the fact that “governance” as we know it does not exist in the culture and lingo of most Kenyan people. The closest Swahili word to “governance,” is more closely translated to “rule”, “leadership”, or “government.” Thus, there is a need to continue to develop creative instruments to highlight what “governance” means to Ken

From the brief four-day exploration, the team managed to gather the ideas of over 60 “Nairobians” on governance matters. The insights from the exploratory survey will facilitate the construction of a more “customized” and “Kenyan” framework within which to conduct the wider field research. The data is currently under analysis and additional insights will be published here as soon as analysis is complete.

Launch of the Information Economy Report 2011 in Uganda

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What role are Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) playing in enabling private sector development in developing countries? And what are countries in Africa and other developing regions doing to enable ICT play a greater catalysing role in national development? These were some of the questions discussed at the launch in Kampala of the Information Economy Report 2011, themed ‘Information and Communication Technologies as an Enabler for Private Sector Development (PSD).

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Governance Workshop at iHub Research

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iHub Research hosted a governance workshop on Thursday, October 27th, 2011, bringing together governance stakeholders from academia, government, civil society and the technology community. The purpose of the workshop was to identify important issues within Kenyan governance structures, especially looking at different stakeholder roles and relationships. The workshop also explored areas where technology may be able to facilitate and potentially enhance good governance.

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Gender, Youth and Digital Democratic Processes in East Africa

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The Arab Spring has demonstrated a couple of things namely the power and importance of social media, the ability for technology to unite crowds of people in the shortest amount of time no matter the location, and the increased blurriness between the local and global entities with the use of tools like Twitter and Facebook. The role social media have played in the revolutions in countries such as Tunisia, Egypt and Libya is well documented. That youth in particular are recognized as the major players behind the use of these platforms is largely undisputed.

In this article the composition of youth is scrutinized to acquire an understanding of which youth actually have the opportunity to partake in democratic and public fora. The concept of youth and their use of social media for democratic processes is not sufficiently discussed with regards to heterogeneity. The complex layers comprised of the term ‘youth’ is an important point of consideration so as to ensure that all youth are engaging in democratic processes. This article considers differences among youth from a gender perspective, specifically the differences between young men and young women with regards to digitally mediated democratic processes.

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What is the ICT for Democracy Network

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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.