1 / 10

Leveraging Mobile Technology to Combat Corruption in East Africa

Explore how mobile technology is used to increase transparency, fight corruption, and empower citizens in East Africa. Discover case studies, challenges, and strategies for promoting accountability and good governance.

kvinson
Download Presentation

Leveraging Mobile Technology to Combat Corruption in East Africa

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Johan Hellström johan@upgraid.org Mobile technology as a means to fight corruption in East Africa M4D2010 SPIDER Workshop - Increasing Transparency and Fighting Corruption through ICT November 11, 2010

  2. Johan Hellström UPGRAID Wide definition of corruption • abuse/misuse of public office for private gain • usually illegal and must be kept secret • quite corruption - inefficiency, failure to deliver services, malpractice of frontline providers, absenteeism, low level of effort • No matter how corruption is defined, it weakens societies and impacts and hinders social and economic development.

  3. Johan Hellström UPGRAID Corruption trends • Indicators: reduced corruption in EA 1999-2009 • The result of government interventions, higher salaries, donor strategies... • Alternative explanation: the very presence of a decentralised information and communication network produces demands for better public services • Shrink the veil of secrecy that shields corrupt • Hypothesis supported by Bailard (2009)

  4. Johan Hellström UPGRAID Use the mobile to: • record voice and take pictures • call or SMS corruption hotlines or for whistle-blowing • call-in radio shows • receive/send Bulk SMS • information campaigns • direct the user • ...

  5. Johan Hellström UPGRAID Projects • There are a number of promising initiatives looking at citizen-to-government accountability using mobile solutions in East Africa: • CU@SCHOOL (Uganda): tracking teacher and pupil attendance and absenteeism • Budget Tracking Tool (Kenya): helps citizens to monitor and track disbursements and utilisation of developments funds • Ugandawatch2011 (Uganda): monitoring election fraud and malpractices

  6. Johan Hellström UPGRAID 3 questions • Do you know of any other example where mobile technology is used as a means to fight corruption? • What would you say are the major challenges in using mobile solutions to increase transparency and reduce corruption? • How can anonymity be secured in situations when anonymous submissions and leaks of sensitive information are communicated?

  7. Johan Hellström UPGRAID Challenges • infrastructure, content, funding and affordability • anonymity and privacy: increased control and central monitoring, non-functioning whistle-blowing protection • few linkages between citizens and above the lowest level of local governments • people tend to see government services as a favour rather than their right

  8. Johan Hellström UPGRAID What else?

  9. Johan Hellström UPGRAID References • Bailard, 2009. Mobile Phone Diffusion and Corruption in Africa. Political Communication • Shleifer and Vishny, 1993, Corruption, The Quarterly Journal of Economics • Svensson, 2005, Eight Questions about Corruption, Journal of Economic Perspectives. • World Bank, Africa Development Indicators 2010: Silent and Lethal: How Quiet Corruption Undermines Africa’s Development Efforts

  10. Johan Hellström johan@upgraid.org Thank you! http://upgraid.wordpress.com/

More Related