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| Departure on the learning visit with fly 540 |
Learning
is a continuous process and without new innovations and strategies then less
impact and relevance should be expected in this fast moving global world. In
the bid, to catch up with the ICT trends and to also make RIC-NET’s
interventions more relevant in the region, RIC-NET Executive Director,
Murugahara John Silco and Information Officer, Alice Mbayahi visited Twaweza (a
CSO) in Kenya and Tanzania to learn from their experiences on the use of
on-line platforms (Huduma) in amplifying citizens’ voices in service delivery.
Twaweza was chosen because of it’s reputable experience and results in the use
of the ICTs and citizens’ participation in social accountability. The learning visit that was conducted between
08.12.12 to 15.08.12 introduced the staff to new innovative ICT communication
platforms used in Tanzania and Kenya.
In
Tanzania and Kenya the team met with Justice Rutenge and Ali Hassan respectively.
They shared the different ICT platforms and strategies that Twaweza uses to
engage the citizens in social accountability.
First, they shared that Twaweza doesn’t directly relate with the
community but rather uses five established networks; media - radio, TV and
phones, fast moving consumer goods like pens, books and gum boots and already
established institutions dealing with large numbers of people like the teachers
unions and religious institutions.
Explaining
the use of frequent moving consumer goods, Justice and Hassan asserted that
they work with the companies that manufacture these goods to include a
particular message that they want to send out in the goods, although the type
of goods used also depends on who they are targeting at a time.
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| meeting Twaweza Staff in Nairobi in HIVOS offices |
Other
goods and channels that Twaweza is also planning to explore is the transport
sector; playing video documentaries in the buses and lobbying the airlines to
make larger tickets that will carry their messages on them. According to Justice, the channels in question
are used so that the consumer/citizen can get information at their convenience
without having to hustle looking for it.
Explaining
their work with the media, they noted that Twaweza signs media framework
agreements demanding that they –media tailor their reporting and programs to
community related news stories, and improving the quality of news by being
people/community centered and not the usual stories the media runs based on
prominent personalities only. Similary, the media is tasked to give media
alerts to Twaweza on any interesting and important community related stories
for further advocacy.
About
the type of information shared, Justice noted that their focus is only in the
three sectors of water, health and education. And that the information
disseminated to the community is usually packaged in an interesting and
challenging way; comparison and stories of change which are largely fictious.
This information is usually intended to annoy, challenge the citizen, give them
discomfort and task them to think of solutions to the problems raised and also
trigger them into action i.e to hold their leaders accountable; this is locally
called “citizen agency”.
Hussein
shared an example of the messages/information shared with the community; “45% of the children in Kenya drop out of
school even after the introduction of free/universal primary education”. Accordingly Twaweza doesn’t offer solutions,
it only provides you with the information that you need to know about your
community and possibilities. “We believe
that the people understand their problems better and as thus the solutions lay
within them” Hussein asserted.
Sharing
about the limited impact of the daraja/huduma platform previously used, Justice
blamed it on the fact that many people do not love texting or even others do
not know how to sms, due to illiteracy. Similarly, the availability of too many
short codes gets to confuse the people and they end up not responding to
anything when asked to, and lastly, the 350sh charged per sms also demoralized
the citizens because it was way too much compared to the usual 45sh charge for
other sms. He believes that if the charge is made a little lower than the usual
sms fee, then citizens could use this platform more often.
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| meeting TWAWEZA staff in Dar es Salaam |
In
addition to this, Justice mentioned the failure to measure the direct impact
their information is making in the community as one of the biggest challenges
faced; “tracking/monitoring the impact is
still a problem, however a survey is yet to be done country wide to establish
this” he remarked, while Hussan revealed that she is equally not sure of
what messages - negative or positive appeal/provoke the people more?
Other
organizations visited were HIVOs and SODNET in Nairobi and Get Real Training in
Dar es Salaam. SODNET shared with RIC-NET some ways in which the huduma
platform can be made more effective and relevant; Kip and Phillip noted that
the first step is building partnerships/public relations with large
institutions that offer public services everyday like national water and Local
governments. This is geared at gaining their trust and making them understand
why huduma and how it can make monitoring the impact of their interventions a
lot easier.
Similarly
Phillip and Kip suggested that an inception meeting of all key service
providers to introduce them to this platform and also create understanding why
they need it and how it works could also pave way for its effectiveness.
Talking
about their experience with huduma, the duo revealed that in the places where
huduma has been understood and embraced, a lot of improvement in assessing the
impact of interventions, evidence based reporting, citizen engagement and provision
of services to the citizens has been registered. Accordingly today signing of
performance contracts for civil servants in Kenya is now based on the use of
huduma; “huduma has proven to be a
planning, early warning and assessment tool”, they asserted.
From
the visit a number of lessons were learnt, these include;
- The
use of ICT/on-line platforms is one reliable and effective way of reaching
and engaging masses fast and easily because a large percentage of citizens
have phones, radios and TV sets, on the other hand they are a good channel
of amplifying citizens’ voices.
- An
effective bulk sms platform is one that has a feedback mechanism too;
because it is through this that one can receive feedback from or get the
opinion of the community. This basically guides interventions and also
informs one on the impact of his/her implementation.
- Whereas
citizens do not send messages because of the fee attached to them, it is
not wise to suggest that this fee should be scrapped off so as to have
more reporters, because on the other hand the attached fee ushers
ownership and attaches value to the platform. Maybe, the fee should be
made a little lower than the usual sms rates.
- If
the functionality of huduma platform is strengthened and fully embraced,
worries of limited citizen engagement, evidence based reports and timely
reporting will be erased because huduma provides all that with just a
click of the button.
In
a related development, some recommendations/action points were developed and
agreed upon by the visiting team;
RIC-NET
to hold an inception meeting with key stakeholders/service providers that they
work with to introduce the huduma concept to them and also strengthen
partnerships with them.
Additionally
RIC-NET to consider the printing and sharing of posters about huduma to offer
publicity and also create understanding on the platform amongst the users.
Ø In
future, RIC-NET will exploit the strategy of using frequent/fast moving consumer
goods because, they reach many people.
This was supported by the District
Chief Finance Officer (CFO) Mr. Segawa Godfrey who asked the CSOs to raise awareness about the project from not only the civil servants but the Political
leaders and the Citizens who own the District. He preferred that this
sensitization should be in local languages and embracing all the media
channels.
On their part, CSO representative
led by Ms Rose Nanyonjo from FRHI and Mr. John Silco from RIC-NET assured the
District civil servants leaders that their organization commit to develop a
dynamic website, e-library, a bulk sms platform, a citizens voice (feedback)
platform and support training of the District staff to maintain these
platforms. The domain name registrations and hosting charges for all theses
platforms will be met by the CSO with support from HIVOS and EU for 24 months.
The CSO asked the District to request for the originally Domain name www.luwero.go.ug from UCC so as the district
identify is continued. At this point a question was asked about the linkage
between this project and e-government initiative of the government to which CSO
members said that he two projects are complimentary.
