Crowdsourcing citizen feedback on district development in Ghana using interactive voice response surveys

This practice paper describes research carried out by VOTO Mobile, a Ghanaian tech company and social enterprise, and CDD-Ghana, a non-profit organisation focusing on good governance. VOTO Mobile uses an interactive voice response (IVR) survey tool in its work, while CDD-Ghana has engaged with the United Nations Children’s Fund to develop the District League Table (DLT), a tool for measuring and highlighting discrepancies in local government service delivery in different sectors. Their research set out to examine: whether VOTO Mobile’s IVR methodology would be suitable for gathering data for future editions of the DLT; how far the DLT reflected the priorities of Ghanaian citizens; and how IVR could be adapted to maximise the response rate of rural women. The practice paper presents the findings and implications of the research, as well as reflecting on the challenges facing a tech provider and a civil society organisation in working together to develop tools for citizen engagement in local government monitoring.DFIDUSAIDSIDAOmidyar Networ

Lessons from Yowzit’s practitioner research and learning process

Making All Voices Count’s Research, Evidence and Learning component provides grants and mentoring support for real-time research, applied by tech for transparency and accountability practitioners, for project learning and improved practice. Practice papers document these grantees’ learning processes. Yowzit is a South African social enterprise that manages rating and review platforms for citizens to share their views on the quality of services provided by public and private entities. Through an innovation grant from Making All Voices Count, it developed ‘Yowzit for Governance’, a website with information on 41,102 public entities that members of the public could review. To understand the factors that drive interaction with such platforms, Yowzit conducted research about the users of this e-governance platform, with the aim of better understanding their experiences of offline engagement with public entities, their expectations of public entities, and their expectations of this platform. The research also aimed to encourage public entities to act upon citizen feedback, and to increase the overall usage of these platforms

Making coordination a catalyst for the Open Government Partnership in South Africa

Open Democracy Advice Centre, a South African civil society organisation working on transparency and accountability, has been heavily involved in the Open Government Partnership (OGP) since its inception. Through this work, it saw that poor interdepartmental coordination was hindering the South African government’s ability to implement its ambitious commitments to revitalise the public service, promote transparency, and use technology to strengthen governance. Making All Voices Count gave ODAC a practitioner research and learning grant to see what could be learned about how interventions like the OGP can enhance the potential for interdepartmental coordination. Using a conversational format, this Practice Paper discusses both the research findings, and the broader context for open governance reform in South Africa.DFIDUSAIDSIDAOmidyar Networ

It matters who produces data: reflections on two citizen-generated data initiatives

Development Initiatives (DI) and Development Research and Training (DRT) received a Making All Voices Count practitioner research and learning grant to examine the purpose, use and users of citizen-generated data in two case studies. One case study examined how citizen-generated data on the quality of schools and schooling was channelled to the Ministry of Education in Kenya. The other looked at the work of community resource trackers in five communities in Uganda and their role in providing unsolicited feedback to local government actors and other development partners. By reflecting on and contextualising the findings of the practitioner research, this Practice Paper looks at the evolution of the open data movement in Kenya and Uganda, and the growth of citizen-generated data initiatives; the advantages and disadvantages of formal feedback structures and the importance of barazas as spaces for accountability; the need for demonstrating the value of participating in social accountability mechanisms to citizens and the challenges of scaling up citizen-generated data initiatives.DFIDUSAIDSidaOmidyar Networ

Giving voice to clients of post-rape services: building and piloting a feedback mechanism in Tshwane

This practice paper reflects on the development of an appropriate and confidential feedback mechanism for users of post-rape services at Thuthuzela Care Centres / Rape Crisis Centres in Tshwane, South Africa. It discusses the disjointed approach to post-rape services, how centre staff were supported to act on client feedback, uneven access to high-quality post-rape care in Tshwane and client perceptions of services, and managing the tensions between anonymity, visibility and representation in gathering client feedback. It offers suggestions on how to get service providers to promote and engage with a new feedback mechanism, tips on how best to work with developers for organisations working to launch a mobile app for the first time, and advice for donors in the field of tech for transparency and accountability.DFIDUSAIDSIDAOmidyar Networ

Faith, empowerment, church and community mobilisation advocacy: insights from Tearfund’s partner in Uganda

Tearfund, a Christian faith-based international non-governmental organisation, has for 15 years supported local churches to mobilise communities through a process called Church and Community Mobilisation (CCM). The CCM advocacy pilot project in Uganda led to improvements in service delivery. In this paper, Tearfund and Making All Voices Count staff discuss recent research that examines the role of local churches, CCM and CCM advocacy in fostering transparency, citizen empowerment, inclusion and government responsiveness. The key themes they examine are social capital and the distinctive nature of faith-based mobilisation; faith and empowerment, both individual and collective; community mobilisation, strategic advocacy and shifting the power dynamics between local-level government officials and citizens; and scaling up local-level accountability successes to the national level.DFIDUSAIDSidaOmidyar Networ

Making All Voices Count Research and Evidence Strategy

Making All Voices Count is a citizen engagement and accountable governance programme. It aims to harness the transformative potential of unusual partnerships and innovative applications of communication technologies to contribute to fundamental change in the relationship citizens have with the state. An exceptional feature of Making All Voices Count is the inclusion of a significant Research Evidence and Learning (REL) component - led by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) - as an integral part of a mainly operational programme. This component offers an opportunity to build a unique base of evidence on what works in using technology for citizen voice, transparency and accountability, and on how and why it works. This document presents Making All Voices Count's Research and Evidence Strategy. It focuses on the most relevant and useful contributions the REL component can make, and outlines how the component will be delivered.DFID, USAID, SIDA, Omidyar Networ