During the CeDEM14 held at Danube
University Krems, Austria from May 21st – 23rd, 2014,
Johnstone Baguma (ToroDev) and Wilfred Warioba’s (CHRAGG) participated and
presented project researched papers on e-participation for good governance and
promotion of human rights in Uganda, Tanzania (Eastern Africa), respectively. More so, Johnstone Baguma chaired a session on “Citizens’ Participation in Governance Processes through ICT in Eastern
Africa”. This is a presentation track that was lobbied for the
ICT4Democracy Network for East Africa by some partners from the network who
participated in the CeDEM13. The track was eventually included in the CeDEM14
and three projects from the network presented papers and were also published in
the annual edition of the CeDEM14 proceedings.
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| Some of the CeDEMI4 participants |
Mr. Warioba’s project paper
covered a conceptual and technical description of how mobile technology is used
to promote human rights advocacy and protection in Tanzania, through the work
of the Commission for Human Rights & Good Governance (CHRAGG).
Specifically, through the support of the Swedish Program for ICT in Developing Regions
(SPIDER), CHRAGG developed a mobile system to ease the reporting of human
rights abuses and feedback on cases reported in Tanzania by use of Mobile SMS.
The system has enabled the reporting of human rights cases more than double in
Tanzania. But also, Tanzanians are able to understand their rights and when to
report if encountered with any abuse. The paper shows cases of the potential of
ICT in promoting social and human dignity, but also encouraging accountability
as far as human rights protection is concerned in Tanzania and the entire
Eastern Africa.
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| Johnstone Baguma makes his paper presentation |
On the other hand, Johnstone
Baguma’s paper presentation described the relevance of ICT convergence approach
in Uganda and drew on other relevant and related experiences in Eastern Africa
region. In particular, the paper looks at the combination of ICT tools use and
how it has empowered rural communities in Western & Northern Uganda through
the SPIDER supported projects implemented by ToroDev and WOUGNET, respectively.
The citizens can now mobilize themselves by use of ICT tools to meet together
offline and intuitively deliberate on key issues pertaining improvement of essential
service delivery in their districts or localities – which was not the case
before the projects implementation. The ICT tools have also raised the sense of
responsiveness amongst leaders to adhere to the needs of the electorate/local
citizens. The assertiveness, engagement and public policy awareness among local
citizens and how it affects service delivery has also increased in western and
Northern Uganda. Moreover, their paper describes a steady improvement in the
ICT infrastructure in the Eastern African region and how it has contributed to
ICT uptake levels despite other socio-economic and political limiting factors. The
use of broadcast, online social media and mobile technologies to engage
government and the public in Kenya during the constitutional reform processes,
selection of public officials and contributing to a relatively peaceful and
fair electoral process in 2013, were also cases analyzed in Baguma’s paper
presentation. The presentation also highlighted findings of the study report
conducted by CIPESA on the ICT tools utilization for e-participation and
democracy monitoring in Uganda. Conversely, his paper also analyzes the
controversial policies and legislations in Uganda and other East African
countries that appear to be taking away what the “other hand” of the policies
give – therefore, causing confusion in understanding real commitment of
governments to advance the ICT for development agenda in the region.
The International Conference on
e-Democracy & Open Governance is a global forum that annually brings
together ICT practitioners, researchers, academicians, public officials, donors
and private investors to discuss new trends in using ICT tools to realize
improved citizen participation in governance processes and use of open
data/information for democratization. It presents an important opportunity to
the ICT4Democracy Network for East Africa partner members to showcase their
work on an international platform. ICT4Dem partners also learn experience and
challenges elsewhere in the world on how ICT for Development tools and
platforms are used to share data/information and knowledge for
transparency/open governance and enabling democratic practices to thrive
through citizen participation in the governance processes.
More information about the conference,
please go to http://www.donau-uni.ac.at/cedem
For related analysis and publication of the above
presentations, consider also this; http://digitalgovernment.wordpress.com/2014/05/21/democratic-engagement-through-ict-in-eastern-africa/
You may also listen to the Audio analysis of Johnstone
Baguma and Wilfred Warioba’s presentations at CeDEM14 here; http://digitalgovernment.wordpress.com/
or http://we.tl/32l2sRSb59
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