Promoting Youth Participation in Governance Through ICT in Kenya
By Tracy Kadesa |
Youths have emerged at the forefront of online activism and citizen journalism in Kenya. During a December 2016 to March 2017 strike by doctors, young doctors shared their grievances online, ranging from lack of resources in government hospitals to inadequate staffing and poor compensation. One of the stories was that of Dr. Ouma Oluga, the secretary general of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union, who shared how he had to perform a caesarean section using a torch on his mobile phone due to a power outage. He was only 27 at the time.
Online Civility Will Matter More Than Ever in 2017
By John Walubengo | The 2017 electioneering period has really and truly kicked in. Is the country ready to deal with the discourse that is emerging in the blogosphere and spilling into the real world? With a large number of Kenyans, most of them young people, actively online, a large part of next year’s general election is likely to be fought online.
Unfortunately, the online agenda is likely to mirror the offline agenda, which is characterised by retrogressive, tried-and-tested tribal contours. As a generation that has failed to live up to the Kenyan Project, as Dr Ndii so provocatively described it, the least we can do is to try and inspire future generations to succeed where we failed.
ICT and Governance in East Africa: Kampala Dissemination
The State of the Use of ICTs in Governance in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania
Edited by Nanjira Sambuli & Varyanne Sika |
Late last year, I accompanied the Executive Director of Mzalendo when she went to deliver awards to some of the winners of Shujaaz Awards. The awards were part of an undertaking that recognized efforts by Members of Parliament whose activities in the House had the biggest positive impact on the Common Mwananchi. The winners were chosen via public voting that was conducted through Twitter. Read more
ICTS and Governance in East Africa: What Lies Beyond ‘the Hype’?
For the past year, iHub Research has been conducting a study on the impact of ICTs on governance in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Specifically, we set out to assess how ICTs are facilitating interaction between governments and citizens in the areas of civic participation (transparency and accountability), access to information, monitoring government service delivery (health, water) and tracking corruption.
We set out to interact with government institutions, civil society organizations and citizens alike. In Kenya, we conducted the study in Nairobi and Nakuru. In Uganda, we visited Kampala, Apac and Lira. In Tanzania, Dar es Salaam and Mwanza.
For Preliminary findings from all locations, click HERE.
Key findings of particular interest from the three countries are:
- Radios are the most common and trusted ICT tools used in many rural areas; many success stories were reported among the organizations that substitute passing information to the citizens through community based radio stations
- Service delivery tools are the most widely known and used by citizens in urban areas; this is due to reduction of queueing to get public services as well as reduced red-tape for citizens. Most service delivery ICT tools found were integrated with mobile payment services for utilities.
- ICT tools for Governance are not always designed based on the needs of citizens. This is illustrated by the fact that most of the tools that were discovered are not well known and are only visited by those who know of them when they have the need to.
We have also found interesting (de)motivations among the various stakeholders to using ICT tools. Even more interesting questions are emerging. Do developers/governments/NGOs involve citizens in designing applications and tools for the aforementioned purposes? Is there a need for apps, hackathons and other attempts at increasing the number of such tools to address governance? We therefore invite you to a conversationbased on our findings, conclusions and recommendations, as well as insights and experiences from citizens, civil society and non-government organizations, as well as government. Given that East Africa is lauded as a region with great promise in ICT across various sectors in society, we hope that this work, and such discussions can help us all get a better sense of what’s (not) working. This conversation will take place at the iHub, on Thursday 27th November, from 5pm.
ICT and Governance in East Africa: Preliminary Fieldwork Findings (Part 2) Mwanza, Tanzania
BY VARYANNE SIKA.
The last week of August 2014 was an opportunity for the iHub Research team to explore the various ways in which ICT tools have/can successfully facilitate or hinder two way interaction between government and citizens towards effective public service delivery, curbing corruption, enhancing access to information and increasing transparency and accountability in Tanzania. The team visited Mwanza and Dar es Salaam to identify some of the innovative ICT initiatives that have facilitated the interaction between citizens and government as well as the (de)motivations for utilizing ICT tools among the various stakeholders (citizens, governments, civil society). While in Mwanza region we visited Magu district and Ilemela district.
READ ON THE PRELIMINARY FINDINGS IN DAR-ES-SALAAM HERE.
In this article we highlight the preliminary findings from Mwanza, Tanzania. We interviewed Tandabui-Afyaradio, Action for Democracy and Local Governance (ADLG), Governance Link, Mwanza NGO Network, ForumSyd, Prevention and Combating Corruption Bureau (PCCB),CROMABU.
Governments, CSOs/NGOs and citizens all have a great role to play in matters of governance. However many citizens have an “I don’t care attitude,after all what incentive will I get out of it?” People don’t see the “incentive” component that comes with participating or rather getting involved in governance issues. This has partly been contributed to by insufficient and unsatisfactory action taken by the responsible authorities. When people report issues related to governance, there’s hardly any expediency in solving the issues raised. The end result is having frustrated citizens with little hope and interest to participate in governance processes. Challenges of using ICT
- Policy challenge: Mr. Kisengo from the Governance Link (a Non-Governmental Organization that is working on three linked thematic areas of Food Governance, Health Governance and Trade Governance) opines that government works in a bureaucratic manner which makes it hard for ICTs to trickle down easily to the local citizens. “It will take time unless the central government is ready to implement and monitor the rolling out of say e-governance”, he adds.
- Technical aspect: use of ICT in governance has to be demystified. For instance, when we talk of e-governance, people think of using very complicated systems (electronic gadgets), that are so computerized and advanced that they cannot be part of those who can embrace them. This belief is common among government staff (as stated by the PCCB representative)and the community in general. There has been a system for monitoring government expenditure but people have not embraced it partly because of a fear that it is complicated to use, coupled with unawareness among the citizens. There has also been some sort of “gate keeping”; the government is not ready to give out information, especially that which they deem can harm them never reaches the public. They (government) only give out the information that they feel is of no harm to them!! “You don’t expect to get information that could implicate a government officer”, said one of the citizens.
- Community members are not aware of their rights and responsibilities; little incentive for the community to demand for their rights. People don’t see the need to follow up or demand to know how services are being delivered in their localities. Demanding for, say, government expenditure has been of no value to many of the community members.
Figure 1: A section of participants during the focus group discussion at the Governance Linkoffices in Mwanza
How to make ICTs more effective?
- Having information centres to educate and create awareness among the community members on issues of ICTs and governance. For instance, in Magu district, many people are aware of ICTs (e.g. use of SMS to enquire on crop prices) due to the presence of CROMABU telecentre.
- Using local radio stations to educate and create awareness. People like listening to local radio stations (they trust radio more). These were sentiments from the executive director (Mr. Adam) of Mwanza NGO Network
- Having good governance; there should be effective policy tracking from the national level to the local level. In theory the policies are there, for instance, there is a lot of emphasis by the national government that ICTs can help save time, make work more effective but on the ground, there’s very little follow up towards enacting such views.
- Civil societies, CBOs, NGOs, FBOs also have a mandate; they should popularize e-governance and the use of ICTs in matters of governance. This is according to Mr. Kesongi from governance Link.
ICT and Governance in East Africa: Preliminary Fieldwork Findings (Part 1) Dar es salam, Tanzania
BY VARYANNE SIKA.
The ICT and Governance in East Africa study explores the various ways in which ICT tools can/have successfully facilitated or hindered two way interaction between government and citizens towards effective public service delivery, curbing corruption, rights/access to information, as well as increasing transparency and accountability. Further we are looking into the innovative ICT initiatives that have facilitated the interaction between citizen and government as well as the (de)motivations for utilizing ICT tools among the various stakeholders (citizens, governments, civil society).
READ MORE ON THE PROJECT HERE.
After successful interviews and Focus Group Discussions in Uganda which was the first country we visited to conduct fieldwork in July 2014, we visited Dar es Salaam and Mwanza in Tanzania. Read more on the preliminary findings in Uganda hereand here.
This article highlights some of the *findings from Dar es Salaam. (In part 2 of this blog post series, preliminary findings from Mwanza will be discussed).
We used semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions (FGDs) to collect our data in Tanzania. A summary of the methodology we are using for this study can be found here. In Dar es Salaam, we interviewed various Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) that work in the region, government institutions, a developer and conducted FGDs. Among the CSOs and Government Institutions we interviewed were:
1.Twaweza, ni Sisi on their ‘Sauti za Wananchi’ initiative
2. Ifakara Health Instituteon their ‘Sentinel Panel of Districts’ project,
3. Afya Mtandao,
4.Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance (CHRAGG)in Tanzania, one of our partner organizations in the ICT4Democracy EA network
6. e-Government Agency Tanzania
7. University Computing Center in Dar es Salaam
8.AfyaMap
Data for Governance
The Ifakara Health Institute runs a project called the Sentinel Panel Districts (SPD). SPD is a nationally representative sample of 23 districts (plus an additional 4) in Mainland Tanzania selected to provide national representative data on health and demographic indicators. It is a platform for evaluating health systems performance. The SPD was initiated in 2009 by Ifakara Health Institute, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOHSW), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR). The purpose of the SPD is to provide a sustainable source of reliable, national data to meet the monitoring needs of program managers, policy-makers and funding partners. In addition, it offers a national, integrated platform for impact evaluation and research. The SPD uses mobile phones and computers for data collection. SPD generates annual estimates of age and cause-specific mortality as well as other health demographic variables for organizations and government institutions interested in the data.
Twaweza (Twaweza is a Kiswahili word which means ‘we can make it’), is a ten year citizen-centered initiative that believes in the bottom-up approach to achieving lasting change. Twaweza has further initiatives within itself. This study was particularly keen on Twaweza’s ‘Uwazi’ initiative, Uwazi is Openness in Kiswahili. The Uwazi unit at Twaweza exists to provide information and analytical support to support the organization’s partnersand to avail data in a form that is easily accessible to key decision makers and actors in society. Uwazi further has three main initiatives: Sauti za Wananchi,Follow the Money, and Listening to Dar. We focused on the Sauti za Wananchi initiative which uses a combination of household surveys and low cost, high frequency feedback which is offered by mobile phones. Sauti za Wananchi (Voices of the Citizens) strives to collect data in inexpensive, fast and generally more efficient ways compared to traditional household surveys. The project was started to address the data gaps in the country, specifically to avail more data to the public and to provide regular reliable data on time sensitive issues such as drought, opinions about governance, quality of service delivery or citizens’ ability to exercise agency.** One Stop Center for Public Services
Figure 1: Screenshot of Tanzania’s Government Portalbuilt and managed by the e-Government Agency.
Tanzania’s one stop center for public services got a face-lift recently (figure 1) to a very user friendly website with links to various other government institutions such as the Tanzania Revenue Authority, the Prevention and Combating Corruption Bureau, Tanzania Police, Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange, and more online services. This one stop center however, is incomplete according to a few participants in the focus group discussions we had. According to the participants in the Focus Group Discussion, the portal has very scarce information. This was highlighted as a challenge to the smooth running and usefulness of the website by the e-Government Agency (eGA) which is in charge of the portal. The process of continuous data collection and aggregation for up-to-date of information on the portal depends on numerous ministries, institutions and organizations which is still being improved. Knowledge on the existence of the portal and its purpose is also being addressed through advocacy campaigns by eGA this final quarter of 2014. Demotivations for ICT use in Governance
Skepticism and apathy in some situations towards the general state of public affairs in Tanzania are key de-motivating factors for ICT use in Governance. The general belief is that no matter what channel is used to communicate with government, little or insignificant action is taken. This belief was shared by the participants in the Focus Group Discussions. Organizations with ICT for Governance initiatives, however, found that the poor infrastructure for ICT and inadequate resources to sustain ICT projects due to the geographical expanse of Tanzania were de-motivating factors for ICT use in Governance. There was also a lack of awareness by the participants in the Focus Group Discussions about the various ICT tools and initiatives for Governance in the country. The widely known ICT tools used for Governance were service delivery tools such as Tanzania’s Electrical Supply Company (TANESCO) which has a mobile payment system for payment of electricity bills. When ICT for Governance Works
Situations in which ICT for Governance works are those in which low cost technologies are used and those in which basic public services are simplified using ICT. For instance, in the case of Sauti za Wananchi, mobile phones are used to get information from citizens, and TANESCOplugs into mobile money to ease payment of electricity bills.
In-depth findings from Dar es Salaam as well as the other study sites in East Africa will be published in the final report which will be open for readership and download.
Our study on ICT and Governance in East Africa which is made possible by the generous support of SIDAand SPIDERand the support of the ICT4Democracy East Africa Network.
* Please note: These are not all or the official findings of our study. The final report which will be made available will contain comprehensive findings from our study from all the three East African countries.
**Read more about the Sauti za Wananchi approach here.
ICT and Governance in East Africa: Preliminary Fieldwork Findings (Part 2)- Apac and Lira
By Albert Otieno,
This is a brief summary of our preliminary findings from interviews and focus group discussions on thoughts of ICTs in governance from the CSOs, NGOs and the citizens in general in Apac and Lira, two towns in northern Uganda. One of the research questions sought to understand the challenges facing the society and how ICT tools can be used to address them.
Among the CSOs we interviewed were Citizen Action Platform (by The Apac Anti-Corruption Coalition), Kubere Information Centre, Concerned Children and Youth Association, Transcultural Psychosocial Organization, Corruption Brakes Crusade and Lira NGO Forum
For preliminary findings in the other Uganda study site, click here.
Lack of information brought about by high levels of poverty is one of the major challenges facing the society in the two regions (Apac and Lira); according to the participants of the focus group discussion in Lira district (Uganda), poverty remains a ‘killer disease’ affecting many people in the society. Poor people are ignorant even of their rights. A poor person has no access to a radio or the phone which means that access to information is also limited. Poor people cannot go to school. Service delivery is poor because people are poor; “The police complement the little salary they get by asking for bribes”,commented one of the FGD participants. This is in relation to the poverty levels experienced by the police officers and the fact that the citizens lack information on their rights.
Figure 1: A section of participants during the focus group discussion at The Apac Anti-Corruption Coalition (TACC) offices
The importance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in solving issues affecting the society cannot be overruled. ICT has been raised as a new feature in Northern Uganda in sectors such as education, health and agriculture. Radio is one of the popular and quickest means of reaching the wider public with information. Many NGOs such as The Apac Anti-Corruption Coalition (TACC) and Transparency International Uganda have exploited the use of radio to reach a critical mass with anti-corruption messages given that it is the only electronic form of communication that is widely accessible and affordable for the rural communities to access information.
Figure 2: A section of participants during the focus group discussion at Amach Health centre in Lira
Daniel Okello from Lira NGO Forum notes that ICTs are important tools in promoting good governance in the society; however, they have to be made cheap and affordable for access. “I have observed that people tend to make calls on the radio stations at night when call rates are extremely low. This has prompted us to start a toll-free line in order to enable everyone to raise complaints and compliments on issues affecting them without fear of running out of credit”, says Mr. Okello.
Scenarios where ICT has been useful:
- The Government of Uganda started an initiative to develop Northern Uganda through a project dubbed Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF) where goats were bought for the locals with an aim of supporting livelihood investment. “At one time some officials bought a goat and exaggerated the price to be 500,000 UGX while in the real sense the goat would have cost 3 UGX!”, exclaimed one of the FGD participants. Through ICT (use of radios and TV) the matter was brought to the limelight and the culprits had to face the rule of law. This is after the citizens raised complaints over the radios. The president received the news of the malpractices going on and commanded that action be taken against the perpetrators (those involved in the goat scandal).
- According to the respondents in Apac, the use of ICT in governance has borne some fruits; problems have been minimized through the use of ICTs; there is transparency and power has been brought closer to the people e.g. the use of toll-free lines has elicited courage and strength among the citizens in reporting issues to do with service delivery in the hospitals, schools and other important sectors. (See ‘Governance is for Non-Urbanites’, from part 1 of this blog post series for an interesting contrast). At the same time ICT has created fear among teachers, health workers and other government employees and as such majority try to do their best not to be caught by the ‘hook’, a fact that was attested by one teacher who was part of the FGDs in Apac.
Motivations to use ICTs in Governance
The citizens are motivated by the fact that one does not need to travel to go and report-”You can report the case wherever you are”, says one of the FGD participants. The use of ICT has further washed away the fear of getting victimised; this has boosted the morale of the citizens to continue using ICT in reporting issues affecting them in the society. The fact that the organizations mandated to oversee transparency in service delivery are quick to respond also motivates the citizens a lot to continue reporting the cases whenever they come across issues that require attention of such organizations. This was true for both the citizens in Apac and Lira. The idea of using toll-free lines is also serving as a motivation to many of the citizens across Apac and Lira. Many organizations have realized the need for the same (toll-free lines) and have either implemented or are in the process of implementing them.
De-motivations to using ICTs in Governance
The key de-motivating factor when it comes to the use of ICTs in Governance is in regard to the cost. This was unanimous for both citizen respondents in Lira and Apac. Generally, the participants in both FGDs strongly felt it was somehow expensive to maintain the phone regularly. This is caused by the fact that many houses are not connected to the grid and as such majority of the citizens are compelled to charge their phones from the shops which costs 500 UGX. Toll-free lines have been a motivation to many citizens to engage with various initiatives. However, not all the organizations have rolled out this system; citizens are therefore compelled to use their airtime in order to engage with some of the initiatives (SMS and phone call-based ones). This, therefore, limits the ICT engagement levels between the citizens and the organizations since many citizens can’t afford the extra airtime cost.
Having successfully conducted our first round of fieldwork in Uganda we are now planning similar fieldwork in Tanzania (Dar-es-Salaam and Mwanza) where we hope to engage with citizens, government officials and the CSOs/NGOs on ICTs in governance.
Our study on ICT and Governance in East Africa is made possible by the generous support of SIDA and SPIDER,
*Please note: These are not all or the official findings of our study. The final report which will be made available will contain comprehensive findings from our study from all the three East African countries.
ICT and Governance in East Africa: Preliminary Fieldwork Findings (Part 1) Kampala and Fort Portal (Uganda)
The ICT and Governance in East Africa study explores the various ways in which ICT tools can/have successfully facilitated or hindered two way interaction between government and citizens towards effective public service delivery, curbing corruption and increasing transparency and accountability. Further we are looking into the innovative ICT initiatives that have facilitated the interaction between citizen and government as well as the (de)motivations for utilizing ICT tools among the various stakeholders (citizens, governments, civil society).
READ MORE ON THE PROJECT HERE.
Uganda was the first country we visited to conduct fieldwork in July 2014. We visited four sites: Kampala, Fort Portal, Lira and Apac. (Find a brief article on how the study sites were selectedhere).
This article highlights some of the *findings from Kampala, the Ugandan capital, and Fort Portal, one of the towns in the Western part of Uganda. (In part 2 of this blog post series, preliminary findings from Apac and Lira in northern Uganda will be discussed).
We used semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions (FGDs) to collect our data. A summary of the methodology we are using for this study can be found here. In Kampala, we interviewed various Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Kampala, a government institution (Uganda Human Rights Commission) and various developers and managers of the ICTs used in governance in Kampala. Among the CSOs we interviewed were U-Report which is a UNICEF initiative, DevTrac which is also a UNICEF initiative, Parliament Watch Uganda and some of our partner organizations in the ICT4Democracy EA network.
The ICT and Governance in East Africa study explores the various ways in which ICT tools can/have successfully facilitated or hindered two way interaction between government and citizens towards effective public service delivery, curbing corruption and increasing transparency and accountability. Further we are looking into the innovative ICT initiatives that have facilitated the interaction between citizen and government as well as the (de)motivations for utilizing ICT tools among the various stakeholders (citizens, governments, civil society).
A Screenshot of one of the projects we interviewed, DevTrac which is a UNICEF initiative.
Major Challenges
The issues raised as being the most pressing on governance by the respondents in the focus group discussions, primarily ordinary citizens, were youth unemployment and corruption. These two issues were therefore the main drivers of any kind of engagement the FGD participants said they would engage with government, whether using ICT tools or otherwise.
Discussion at Hive Colab in Kampala
Governance is for ‘Non-Urbanites’
Despite Kampala being the capital of Uganda and therefore enjoying more ICT infrastructure, the participants at the FGD which we held at HiveColab (one of Kampala’s ICT hubs and a coworking space) were not as aware of existing ICT tools used in governance as the participants at Fort Portal (Western Uganda) were. The group of participants in Kampala have better access to ICTs given the fact that they frequent an ICT hub and live in an urban area which has better ICT infrastructure. On the other hand, Fort Portal, a small peri-urban town has less developed ICT infrastructure in comparison to Kampala, however, despite this fact, participants in Fort Portal were more aware of ICT tools used for governance in the country compared to the participants in Kampala. The group of participants in Kampala have better access to ICTs given the fact that they frequent an ICT hub and live in an urban area which has better ICT infrastructure. On the other hand, Fort Portal, a small peri-urban town has less developed ICT infrastructure in comparison to Kampala, however, despite this fact, participants in Fort Portal were more aware of ICT tools used for governance in the country compared to the participants in Kampala.
‘Toll-Free’ Governance
One of the most dominant ICT tools for governance that we found in Kampala (second to radio in Uganda generally) was toll-free numbers, which are mostly government-led initiatives such as the Uganda Human Rights Commission’s toll-free number, the National Water and Sewage Corporation’s toll-free number, UMEME’s (Uganda’s power and lighting company) and the Police’s. The numbers are widely publicized in newspapers, on billboards, television and radio. The general feedback from the citizens who use or have used the numbers, however, is that the toll-free numbers work, but it is difficult to get someone to listen to one’s complaints or concerns.
De-motivation to using ICTs in Governance
The key de-motivating force that prevents use of the ICT tools made available for interaction with government, is the lack of action on issues raised by the citizens. This was unanimous for both citizen respondents in Kampala and Fort Portal. Generally, the participants in both FGDs strongly felt it was no use trying to communicate with the government because nothing would change. We got a general sense of apathy and lack of faith in the effectiveness of citizen interaction with government from the citizens with whom we spoke.For tools deployed by non-government actors such as UNICEF’s U-Report, respondents were of the opinion that the tool is effective enough as far achieving its technical objectives, however they did not know which changes the tool had brought about in the country.
When ICT for Governance Works
There are situations in which ICT tools worked to facilitate two-way interaction between citizens and government. Generally, these were cases in which citizens were taught how to use the technologies and situations in which simple and low-tech tools had been deployed. Examples of these include U-Report which uses SMS, community radio such as TracFM which has interactive talk shows and digital cameras to take pictures of the debilitating state of public service delivery like in the case of the Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) project on Voluntary Social Accountability. WOUGNET’s social accountability project involves a group of 15 selected members in a district who are given digital cameras to report cases of poor public service delivery such as poorly maintained hospitals or schools, but they also share cases of successful public service delivery.
Our study on ICT and Governance in East Africa is made possible by the generous support of SIDA and SPIDER,
*Please note: These are not all or the official findings of our study. The final report which will be made available will contain comprehensive findings from our study from all the three East African countries.
ICT and Governance in East Africa: Methodology
By Varyanne Sika.
Our study on ICT and Governance in East Africa which is made possible by the generous support of SIDA and SPIDER, explores the ways in which ICT tools can/have successfully facilitated or hindered two way interaction between government and citizens towards reducing the cost of delivering public services, curbing corruption and increasing transparency and accountability. We are also looking into the innovative ICT initiatives that have facilitated the interaction between citizens and governments, as well as the (de)motivations for utilizing ICT tools among the various stakeholders (citizens, governments, civil society and the general public).
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY CAN BE FOUND HERE.
his study is a qualitative audit of ICT initiatives and tools used in governance in East Africa. We are particularly focussing on the following four areas of governance:
– Access to information
– Service Delivery by Government
– Tracking Corruption
– Civic Participation (transparency and accountability)
A DISCUSSION ON THE STUDY SITES CAN BE FOUND HERE.
Our study began with an exploratory study to gather data on which ICT tools and initiatives exist in East Africa and categorized them according to the stakeholder behind or driving the initiative, the purpose of the tool and the country in which the tool is found. This was done through crowdsourcing on social media and online spaces, and within the iHub networks as well as the ICT4Democracy East Africa Network. The matrix below contains the tools and initiatives we found in the exploratory study.
CLICK HERE FOR A PDF VERSION.
Note: These tools and initiatives were identified through crowdsourcing. We will share the final matrix of tools and initiatives that we will have identified in this study in our final report. If you know of more tools that we should look into, please share with us through this form.
The findings from the exploratory study informed our collection of primary data from the three East African Countries.
We are using semi-structured interviews to collect information from both CSOs and Government institutions or departments that are running some of the ICT tools and initiatives we identified both through crowdsourcing and desk research. In each country we aim to conduct at least 10 interviews with CSOs and at least 3 interviews with Government institutions. Further, we are conducting at least 2 focus group discussions of at least 8 participants each in each of the three East African countries.
Findings from this study will be disseminated to the East African governments, Civil Societies, developers and citizens. Recommendations based on the findings will be drawn and shared with relevant stakeholders in ICT for Governance in the region.
Having successfully conducted our first round of fieldwork in Uganda (Kampala, Apac and Lira), we will soon be sharing our preliminary findings from interviews and focus group discussions with Ugandan citizens.