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159M. Poblet (ed.), Mobile Technologies for Conflict Management: Online Dispute Resolution, Governance, Participation, Law, Governance and Technology Series 2,DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-1384-0_12, © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011
12.1 Introduction
During the past 10 years, we have witnessed how mobile phones and the simple functions of voice and text messaging (SMS) can empower citizens and affect the way citizens interact with each other and with the society as whole. Mobile phones are also thought to open up for a deepened democracy through citizen participation and insight into state affairs, through influencing the political decision making process, and helping in holding governments accountable. Is this the case?
Few African government institutions have adopted the idea of using mobile phones as a tool for service delivery and a way to communicate with its citizens. Drawing on secondary data, statistics, desk based research, and fieldwork carried out in Uganda in 2009–2010 (a number of interviews, meetings and focus group discussions with key stakeholders in East Africa where also conducted), this chapter describes a few interesting cases and pilots, focusing mainly on East Africa, where mobile phones and mobile applications have been used for improving governance, either independently or as a compliment to other methods and strategies. The chapter critically examines some of the challenges as well as the main opportunities for improving good governance through mobile phones and present ideas on how these projects could effectively be scaled-up.
J. Hellström (*)Department of Computer and Systems Science, Stockholm University, Stockholm, SE-106 91, Swedene-mail: [email protected]
Chapter 12Mobile Governance: Applications, Challenges and Scaling-up*
Johan Hellström
* This article is based on the draft discussion paper “Mobile phones for Good Governance: Challenges and Way Forward” presented at the W3C Workshop on the “Africa Perspective on the Role of Mobile Technologies in Fostering Social Development”, held in Maputo (Mozambique), on April 1–2, 2009 (http://www.w3.org/2008/10/MW4D_WS/).
160 J. Hellström
12.2 What Is Good Governance?
Governance encompasses the relationships between three actors – state, market, and civil society – and how these actors organise themselves and make decisions accord-ing to a set of informal and formal rules. Democracy is a mode of governance and there exists a symbiotic relationship between the concepts democracy and good governance. Good governance can therefore be seen as an umbrella term for a functioning democratic system where freedom of expression and a sound juridical system is in place.
The concept of good governance is not readily defined. UNDP, in a comprehen-sive policy document from 1997, states that good governance is characterised by participation, the rule of law, effectiveness and efficiency, transparency (built on the free flow of information), responsiveness, consensus orientation, equity, account-ability, and strategic vision. Similarly, the Asian Development Bank defines the four elements of good governance as accountability, participation, predictability and transparency (Coffey 2007). According to DFID, good governance centre upon three main concepts (DFID 2006):
State capability: the ability to get things done, to formulate and implement •policies effectively.Accountability: a set of institutionalised relationships between different actors •that might help bring about responsiveness.Responsiveness: when a government or some other public authority act on iden-•tified needs and wants of the citizens.
Why is good governance important? Simply put, poor governance will not lead to a society’s development. Inefficient use of state resources, corruption and unsta-ble systems will not lead to poverty reduction. Poor governance threatens not only the countries socio-political sustainability but also the environmental and eco-nomic sustainability. However, good governance is not the sole determinant of sustainable development but it sure makes a difference. Easterly states that “[b]adly governed countries are poor countries” and that “good governance tend to come together in packages, so it is hard to tell which one is causing economic development” (2006: 130–131).
It is proven that access to information and communication in its own right plays an important role in promoting good governance (Coffey 2007). Further, informa-tion delivery to public is a key task of government and it is their responsibility to keep citizens informed of what is happening around them. In a policy note, DCERN (Development Communications Evidence Research Network) concludes that if “we accept the view that governance requires an inclusive public space based on informed dialogue and debate – an environment in which voice and accountability are central – then it is clear, in theory at least, that communication must have a positive impact on good governance” (DCERN 2007: 5). Can mobile phones facilitate this inclusive public space, or at least access to it, where dialogue and debate are key?
16112 Mobile Governance: Applications, Challenges and Scaling-up
12.3 Rationale: Why Mobile Phones?
There is no need to re-emphasize just how appropriate information and communication technology (ICT) systems are for the capture, processing, storage, organisation and presentation of data and information. ICT used as a tool to improve governance, i.e. e-governance, facilitates openness and transparency and creates a freer flow of infor-mation between departments, institutions and layers within government. ICT, as seen in many developed countries, also facilitates a freer flow of information between gov-ernment and citizens and opens up for opportunities for citizens to participate more directly in influencing decisions that affect them.
In developing regions, where computer use and Internet access is low but mobile penetration is high, gives the potential to use mobile phones as a new interface between government and citizens and to make public services more accessible to citi-zens. Can slow government processes be combined with mobile phones that are ever-changing, quick and direct in their usage? Are mobile phones and services just another hype that often accompanies the latest technical breakthroughs? We have seen cases where mobile phones help to create an informative, connected, innovative, participative and converging society all over the world. Often quoted examples include the successful SMS chain letter campaign in the Philippines when Joseph Estrada was forced to resign from the post as the Philippines president (Salazar 2006) and in Iran, following the 2009 Iranian Election where Twitter and mobile updates was used as a rallying tool and as a method of communication with the outside world after the Iranian government blocked several other modes of communication.
What is the rationale for governments and institutions to use mobile phones for good governance in East Africa?
1. Access and reach. Penetration rate is ever increasing and even more have access through shared usage and ownership. Due to its mobility and network infrastructure, mobiles reach areas where there are infrastructure constraints and no other means to offer public services. Related to access is that mobile phones add the dimension ‘anywhere and any time’: due to their mobility and that mobile phones are switched on most of the time, meaning that public services offered via mobile phones are accessible everywhere and at all times. In cases of natural disaster as well as man-made crises like riots, election violence and land slides etc., mobile phones have often remained the only viable way to reach people (Hellström 2010).
2. Adoption. As mobile phones become an integral part of people’s lives, mobile solutions will be a normal way to interact with government institutions which will lead to an increased public demand for easy accessible and personalised services.
3. Interaction. Mobile phones make it possible for real-time, two-way dialogue as opposed to TV, radio, brochures, posters, etc.
4. Affordability. The relatively low cost of mobile phone ownership has lowered the entry barriers for poor people. Affordability is still a concern though – somebody needs to pay for the infrastructure, communication and services.
162 J. Hellström
5. Efficiency. Due to high access, its reach, good adoption and real-time interaction mobile phones offer efficient solutions to governments communication challenges.
6. No other option? In developing regions with poor infrastructure, going mobile may be the only viable option.
Table 12.1 shows the total number of subscribers, penetration rate (percentage of people with an active SIM card), percentage of the population covered with a mobile signal, monthly mobile expenditure as percentage of monthly disposable income, and number of mobile operators in each of the four countries.
Much as penetration rates are increasing, universal access is not yet achieved in East Africa. Operators do their best to close the market efficiency gap, i.e. move into new areas that are considered commercially viable. And organisations and compa-nies come up with innovative ideas to cut the total cost of ownership for the end user like village phones etc. However, the two dimensions poverty and geographic isola-tion do and will create an access gap. The issue of access is a strong argument why mobile phones can not be seen as the only solution for improving communication in governance. Traditional channels (physical visits and meetings, billboards, radio, information brochures, various e-government initiatives etc.) that build on an effec-tive back office still need to be functioning – mobile solutions just add an extra dimension.
However, looking at the main concepts of good governance described above, it builds on the concept of action: to create relationships, to listen, inform, act and deliver government services in a sustainable and transparent way. If implemented correctly, mobile applications can support these actions by creating a higher effi-ciency in information sharing and communications and to create access to the inclu-sive public space that is a prerequisite for good governance.
12.4 Mobile Applications for Good Governance
This section is divided into “what?” and “how?” “What” characterises the activities and applications that have been implemented that seem to work (in terms of sup-porting good governance trough mobile phone usage). “How” deals with practical considerations, experiences and how these projects could be scaled-up.
Table 12.1 Mobile statistics in East Africa
Country
Subscribers, Q4 2009 (millions)
Penetration rate (%)
Mobile coverage (population) (%)
Mobile expenditure of disposable income, 2007-08 (%) Operators
Kenya 18.5 46 84 53 4Rwanda 2.0 20 ~100 66 3Tanzania 17.5 43 N/A 29 6Uganda 11.8 36 ~100 49 7
Sources: Industry data, ITU (2010), CCK (2009), TCRA (2010), and Chabossou et al. (2009)
16312 Mobile Governance: Applications, Challenges and Scaling-up
12.4.1 What? Cases in East Africa
There is a very wide range of potential governance related services which can be delivered and communicated via mobile phones, including services relating to health care, agriculture, education, employment, transportation law and order, tax, judicial and legal systems, etc. In most cases, the mobile phone is used as a platform for infor-mation dissemination. Government news, information, updates, alarms and notifica-tions related to emergency and disaster management, elections, traffic and weather etc. A few application work on the concept of citizens-to-government communica-tion: applications that tries to open up an interactive channel between the citizens and the government. Mobile payments, now available in all East African countries, open up for even greater opportunities and possibilities for transactions: bill, loan, fine pay-ments, and a variety of public services like transport and school fees. However, inte-grating systems and back-end is complex. For example, how to go ahead in a country like Uganda where there is no functioning ID-system in place?
Table 12.2 summarizes, structures and map some of the existing initiatives in East Africa related to good governance (for a more extensive list, see Hellström 2010).
12.4.2 Anecdotal Usage
Mobile applications related to elections have been fairly well explored in East Africa and have been used in various ways to make elections more meaningful exercises. For example, in the run-up to the Ugandan elections 2006 and Kenyan elections in 2007, text messaging was used to advertise political parties. In Kenya, President Mwai Kibaki called potential voters who could then listen to his pre-recorded voice (Limo 2007). Mobile phones have been instrumental in encouraging better voter registration (in Kenya 2007) and voter turn out (in Uganda 2005 where the Ugandan Electoral Commission with help from the company SMS Media sent out 500,000 SMS to remind potential voters for an upcoming referendum). SMS technology has also been used for post-election monitoring like in Kenya 2007/2008. Also in Kenya, media houses provided election results via SMS at a premium rate and breaking news (Limo 2007). Mobile applications used for election observation and monitor-ing have so far not been tried out in East Africa but plans are under way to involve both accredited and trained observers as well as citizen reporting of elections in the 2011 elections in Uganda.
In Kenya, post election 2007, threats and misinformation was floating around using SMS. The government authorities intervened with the help of mobile operators and sent out a mass SMS stating:
The Ministry of Internal Security urges you to please desist from sending or forwarding any SMS that may cause public unrest. This could lead to your prosecution (AllAfrica 2008).
Another example using bulk SMS to communicate en masse was during the riots in Kampala in September 2009. Subscribers, mostly on the Zain network, received
164 J. Hellström
Tabl
e 12
.2
Mob
ile e
nabl
ed g
ood
gove
rnan
ce in
itiat
ives
in E
ast A
fric
a
App
licat
ion
area
Loc
atio
nPr
ojec
tW
hat?
Gov
ernm
ent n
ews,
in
form
atio
n,
upda
tes
Ken
yaR
oad
Safe
tyA
llow
s co
mm
uter
s to
rep
ort p
ublic
veh
icle
s co
ntra
veni
ng tr
affic
reg
ulat
ions
run
by
Tra
nspo
rt
Lic
ensi
ng B
oard
of
Ken
ya. T
he d
edic
ated
SM
S ho
tline
is 2
333.
Ken
yaE
-Ser
vice
D
eliv
ery
Proj
ect
Info
rmat
ion
on p
rogr
ess
of id
entit
y ca
rd (
text
203
1) a
nd s
tatu
s of
pas
spor
t (te
xt 2
032)
. The
go
vern
men
t will
exp
and
this
ser
vice
to c
over
oth
er k
ey a
reas
of
serv
ice
deliv
ery
such
as
land
an
d he
alth
. Run
by
Min
istr
y of
Mig
ratio
n an
d D
irec
tora
te o
f e-
Gov
.ww
w.e
-gov
ernm
ent.g
o.ke
/K
enya
Ele
ctio
n re
sults
Mob
ile P
lane
t pro
vide
d up
-to-
the-
min
ute
elec
tion
resu
lts b
y te
xt m
essa
ge in
200
2 an
d 20
07
Ken
yan
elec
tions
. As
the
resu
lts w
ere
talli
ed, s
ubsc
ribe
rs w
ere
sent
upd
ates
via
SM
S.w
ww
.mob
ilepl
anet
.co.
ke/
Ken
yaV
oter
reg
istr
atio
nIn
the
run-
up to
the
2007
Ken
ya e
lect
ions
, the
Ele
ctor
al C
omm
issi
on o
f K
enya
(E
CK
) la
unch
ed a
vo
ter
regi
stra
tion
serv
ice
whe
re y
ou c
ould
SM
S th
e re
gist
er b
y se
ndin
g yo
ur I
D n
umbe
r to
re
ceiv
e ve
rific
atio
n of
vot
er r
egis
trat
ion.
The
y la
ter
trie
d to
sel
l the
app
licat
ion.
Ken
yaC
omm
unity
New
sT
he c
omm
unity
new
s se
rvic
e is
dis
trib
uted
fre
e to
sub
scri
bers
in K
iber
a, K
ange
mi,
Kaw
angw
are,
M
atha
re a
nd M
ukur
u. I
t pro
vide
s a
chan
nel f
or s
endi
ng o
ut in
form
atio
n on
eve
nts
in th
e co
mm
unity
, sen
d ou
t ale
rts
in c
ases
of
fire
outb
reak
s an
d m
obili
sing
res
iden
ts to
take
par
t in
envi
ronm
enta
l cle
an-u
p ac
tiviti
es.
ww
w.m
obile
4goo
d.bi
z/se
rvic
es.h
tml
Tanz
ania
Vod
aFL
AV
ASt
arfis
h L
td. o
ffer
info
rmat
ion
on d
eman
d on
wea
ther
, tid
es, f
erry
boa
ts (
Dar
es
Sala
am, P
emba
, Z
anzi
bar)
, cro
ps, s
tock
exc
hang
e, n
atio
nal a
nd in
tern
atio
nal n
ews
head
lines
, exc
hang
e ra
tes.
Se
nd th
e co
rrec
t key
wor
d as
a S
MS
to 1
5500
.w
ww
.vod
acom
.co.
tzU
gand
aFa
rmer
’s F
rien
dM
ainl
y a
sear
chab
le d
atab
ase
for
agri
cult
ural
adv
ice
(cro
p an
d liv
esto
ck p
est a
nd d
isea
se c
ontr
ol
info
rmat
ion,
pla
ntin
g, s
tora
ge a
nd h
arve
stin
g ti
ps)
but a
lso
a re
gion
al th
ree
day
and
seas
onal
w
eath
er f
orec
ast s
ervi
ce. T
he te
chni
cal f
arm
ing
info
rmat
ion
for
the
serv
ice
Farm
er’s
Fri
end
is p
rovi
ded
by th
e N
GO
BR
OS
DI-
Wea
ther
rep
orts
are
pro
vide
d on
a d
aily
and
mon
thly
bas
is
by th
e G
over
nmen
t of
Uga
nda’
s D
epar
tmen
t of
Met
eoro
logy
wit
hin
the
Min
istr
y of
Wat
er
and
Env
iron
men
t.w
ww
.goo
gle.
co.u
g/m
obile
/sm
s/
16512 Mobile Governance: Applications, Challenges and Scaling-upA
pplic
atio
n ar
eaL
ocat
ion
Proj
ect
Wha
t?
Law
enf
orce
men
t/sa
fety
Ken
ya,
Tanz
ania
, U
gand
a
Lak
e V
icto
ria
Proj
ect
Enh
ance
mob
ile c
over
age
on L
ake
Vic
tori
a fo
r be
tter
com
mun
icat
ion.
Sav
es li
ves
on th
e la
ke in
ca
ll of
acc
iden
ts. R
un b
y Z
AIN
and
Eri
csso
n.w
ww
.gsm
wor
ld.c
om/
Ken
ya,
Tanz
ania
, U
gand
a
Mis
c. s
hort
cod
esE
ven
thou
gh d
esig
ned
for
voic
e th
ey a
re w
orth
men
tioni
ng: r
egio
nal n
umbe
rs a
re 1
12 f
or
emer
genc
y/po
lice/
SOS,
114
for
fire
and
115
for
am
bula
nce.
In
Ken
ya a
nd T
anza
nia
ther
e ar
e so
me
desi
gnat
ed s
hort
cod
es f
or ‘
Cri
me
Stop
pers
’ (1
11)
and
‘Ant
i-co
rrup
tion’
(11
3). I
n Ta
nzan
ia, i
f yo
u ca
ll 11
3 yo
u w
ill c
ome
to th
e Pr
even
tion
of C
orru
ptio
n B
urea
u (P
CB
). I
n U
gand
a, o
ne c
an le
ave
anon
ymou
s co
mpl
aint
s on
a s
peci
al h
otlin
e (3
4738
7) to
the
Insp
ecto
r G
ener
al o
f th
e G
over
nmen
t (IG
G)
“for
rap
id r
espo
nse
to c
ompl
aint
s” (
IGG
200
9). K
enya
A
nti-
Cor
rupt
ion
Com
mis
sion
(K
AC
C)
have
a s
imila
r sy
stem
in p
lace
.K
enya
Zai
n 91
1Z
ain
911
Rap
id R
espo
nse
Serv
ice
is a
Zai
n K
enya
initi
ativ
e in
con
junc
tion
with
sec
urity
firm
s K
K
Secu
rity
and
EA
RS.
The
hot
line
conn
ects
to th
e em
erge
ncy
resp
onse
team
s fr
om K
K S
ecur
ity
that
are
loca
ted
all o
ver
Nai
robi
and
res
pond
to a
ny e
mer
genc
y si
tuat
ion
like
resi
dent
ial
robb
erie
s, r
oads
ide
emer
genc
ies
incl
udin
g fu
el d
eliv
ery
and
ambu
lanc
e se
rvic
es. T
roub
le-s
pot
SMS
aler
ts a
re s
ent o
ut to
o to
sub
scri
bers
. Ser
vice
is a
vaila
ble
to a
ll Z
ain
subs
crib
ers
in th
e gr
eate
r N
airo
bi a
rea
only
. Oth
er u
rban
cen
tres
incl
udin
g M
omba
sa, K
isum
u an
d E
ldor
et w
ill b
e co
vere
d by
end
of
2010
. Mon
thly
rat
e is
KE
S 2,
500.
ww
w.k
e.za
in.c
omTa
nzan
iaA
lbin
o ho
tline
Polic
e ha
nded
out
fre
e m
obile
pho
nes
to 3
50 T
anza
nian
s w
ith a
lbin
ism
. “E
ach
phon
e co
mes
with
a
“hot
line
” to
the
polic
e. A
lbin
os te
xt in
thei
r lo
catio
n if
they
sus
pect
they
are
bei
ng tr
acke
d by
ga
ngst
ers
dete
rmin
ed to
kill
them
and
har
vest
thei
r bo
dy p
arts
.” (
The
Eco
nom
ist 2
009)
. V
odac
om o
ffer
ed f
ree
top-
up v
ouch
ers,
whi
le b
oth
Vod
acom
and
Zai
n of
fere
d eq
uipm
ent t
o th
e po
lice
to r
ecor
d in
com
ing
SMS
mes
sage
s. A
lso
anec
dota
l but
wor
th m
entio
ning
. Man
y al
bino
s ha
ve b
een
kille
d in
the
last
few
yea
rs (
espe
cial
ly in
Tan
zani
a an
d B
urun
di b
ut a
lso
in K
enya
and
U
gand
a) s
uppl
y w
itch
doct
ors
with
org
ans,
teet
h, li
mbs
and
hai
r.Ta
nzan
iaPu
blic
Ale
rt
Syst
emTa
nzan
ian
polic
e im
plem
ente
d an
SM
S al
ert s
yste
m to
allo
w f
or a
nony
mou
s re
port
s on
cri
mes
, w
rong
doin
g by
pol
ice
offic
ers,
or
requ
est e
mer
genc
y se
rvic
es. R
un b
y E
-Ful
usi a
nd T
anza
nia
Polic
e. N
o lo
nger
act
ive.
http
://po
lice.
eful
usi.c
o.tz
/
(con
tinue
d)
166 J. Hellström
Tabl
e 12
.2
(con
tinue
d)
App
licat
ion
area
Loc
atio
nPr
ojec
tW
hat?
Uga
nda
Em
erge
ncy,
Pol
ice
and
SOS
Opt
ion
of c
onta
ctin
g th
e po
lice
thro
ugh
SMS
to r
epor
t em
erge
ncie
s. A
vaila
ble
to W
arid
Tel
ecom
su
bscr
iber
s. S
MS
to 1
12 o
r 99
9.C
itize
ns-t
o-G
over
nmen
tK
enya
Bun
geSM
SE
mpo
wer
s ci
tizen
s to
influ
ence
loca
l gov
erna
nce
in th
eir
cons
titue
ncy
thro
ugh
the
use
of S
MS
and
web
. It i
nten
ds to
str
engt
hen
citiz
en-t
o-go
vern
men
t (bo
ttom
-up)
com
mun
icat
ion
in g
over
nanc
e.
An
SMS
to a
Mem
ber
of P
arlia
men
t (M
P) is
sen
t to
a de
sign
ated
num
ber
and
rout
ed to
the
Bun
geSM
S w
ebsi
te. O
n th
e B
unge
SMS
web
site
, it i
s m
appe
d on
to G
oogl
e M
aps
usin
g th
e U
shah
idi p
latf
orm
. Run
by
Mad
e In
Ken
ya N
etw
ork.
Sen
d SM
S to
345
4.w
ww
.bun
gesm
s.co
mK
enya
Bud
get T
rack
ing
Tool
The
Bud
get T
rack
ing
Tool
is a
col
labo
rativ
e pl
atfo
rm f
or g
rass
root
s co
mm
uniti
es to
pro
-act
ivel
y en
gage
in p
ublic
res
ourc
e m
anag
emen
t. It
ena
bles
citi
zens
to m
onito
r an
d tr
ack
both
dis
burs
e-m
ents
and
util
isat
ion
of d
evel
opm
ents
fun
ds, p
roje
cts
fund
ed b
y C
onst
ituen
cies
Dev
elop
men
t Fu
nd (
CD
F, w
ww
.cdf
.go.
ke/)
, Loc
al A
utho
rity
Tra
nsfe
r Fu
nd (
LA
TF,
ww
w.lo
calg
over
nmen
t.go
.ke/
), W
omen
’s F
und
and
You
th F
und.
The
tool
can
be
acce
ssed
via
web
and
by
SMS
by
send
ing
a te
xt m
essa
ge to
700
2, e
.g. c
onst
ituen
cy#p
roje
ct (
wes
tland
s#w
ater
). I
t can
als
o be
us
ed f
or f
eedb
ack
in th
e fo
rmat
#co
nstit
uenc
ynam
e#pr
ojec
tnam
e#co
mm
ents
. The
tool
has
bee
n de
velo
ped
by th
e So
cial
Dev
elop
men
t Net
wor
k an
d de
sign
ed b
y In
fone
t.w
ww
.sod
net.o
rgw
ww
.ope
ngov
erna
nce.
info
Ken
yaM
artu
sM
artu
s is
an
onlin
e re
port
ing
tool
for
doc
umen
ting
hum
an r
ight
s vi
olat
ions
. It i
s op
en s
ourc
e, h
as
tight
sec
urity
to p
rote
ct th
e id
entit
ies
of in
divi
dual
s an
d or
gani
satio
ns, i
t is
encr
ypte
d on
bot
h th
e lo
cal d
rive
and
the
rem
ote
serv
er, a
nd r
ecor
ds a
re s
tore
d in
a d
istr
ibut
ed s
yste
m in
volv
ing
mul
tiple
ser
vers
. A S
MS
mod
ule
for
hum
an r
ight
s re
port
ing
and
feed
back
is d
evel
oped
in
Ken
ya to
fur
ther
incr
ease
usa
ge a
nd a
cces
s.w
ww
.mar
tus.
org/
Ken
ya28
88A
n SM
S se
rvic
e th
at a
llow
s K
enya
ns to
sen
d in
form
atio
n, s
ugge
stio
ns, c
ompl
aint
s et
c. v
ia S
MS
to
num
ber
2888
to th
e O
ffice
of
Publ
ic C
omm
unic
atio
ns. T
he a
im is
to in
crea
se th
e ci
tizen
-to-
gove
rnm
ent c
omm
unic
atio
n an
d se
nsiti
ze th
e go
vern
men
t spo
kesp
erso
n to
the
prio
ritie
s of
K
enya
ns. T
he s
ervi
ce w
ill a
lso
help
in tr
acki
ng a
nd a
ppre
hend
ing
corr
upt o
ffici
als
and
was
us
ed d
urin
g th
e fo
od c
rise
s in
200
9 as
a w
ay to
eas
e co
mm
unic
atio
n. L
aunc
hed
in J
une
2005
.w
ww
.com
mun
icat
ion.
go.k
e/
16712 Mobile Governance: Applications, Challenges and Scaling-upA
pplic
atio
n ar
eaL
ocat
ion
Proj
ect
Wha
t?
Uga
nda
Tra
ckin
g Sc
hool
A
ttend
ance
Twaw
eza
is c
olla
bora
ting
with
SN
V U
gand
a on
a p
roje
ct to
fac
ilita
te m
onito
ring
of
teac
her
and
pupi
l atte
ndan
ce a
nd a
bsen
teei
sm in
pri
mar
y sc
hool
s by
usi
ng a
n SM
S ba
sed
info
rmat
ion
syst
em. T
he p
roje
ct w
ill p
ilot a
n SM
S ba
sed
appl
icat
ion
that
gen
erat
es f
requ
ent a
nd d
etai
led
over
view
s of
teac
her
and
pupi
l atte
ndan
ce in
100
pri
mar
y sc
hool
s, s
elec
ted
in tw
o di
stri
cts.
The
in
form
atio
n w
ill m
ake
the
dyna
mic
s ar
ound
teac
her
abse
ntee
ism
tran
spar
ent a
nd w
ill in
form
di
stri
ct a
nd s
ub-d
istr
ict g
over
nmen
t offi
cial
s fo
r th
eir
appr
opri
ate
shor
t, m
ediu
m a
nd lo
ng te
rm
actio
n, a
s w
ell a
s no
n st
ate
acto
rs a
t (su
b) d
istr
ict l
evel
.ht
tp://
twaw
eza.
org/
Tanz
ania
Dar
aja
Dar
aja
is a
Tan
zani
an N
GO
that
aim
s to
dev
elop
tool
s an
d en
cour
age
citiz
ens
to r
epor
t wat
erpo
int
func
tiona
lity
in th
eir
area
s. T
he in
form
atio
n fr
om c
itize
ns (
via
SMS
or o
ther
mob
ile te
leph
ony)
w
ill g
o to
a d
atab
ase
that
has
wat
er p
oint
map
ping
info
rmat
ion
of th
e ar
ea. T
waw
eza
is
prov
idin
g su
ppor
t to
Dar
aja
to (
a) s
hare
info
rmat
ion
abou
t wat
er p
oint
fun
ctio
nalit
y to
the
publ
ic in
acc
essi
ble
form
ats,
pri
mar
ily th
roug
h th
e m
edia
and
(b)
ena
ble
citiz
ens
to u
pdat
e fu
nctio
nalit
y in
form
atio
n in
rea
l tim
e vi
a SM
S, a
nd (
c) a
naly
ze a
nd p
ublic
ize
resp
onsi
vene
ss o
f go
vern
men
t to
citiz
en n
otifi
catio
n.ht
tp://
twaw
eza.
org/
Em
ploy
men
t se
rvic
esK
enya
txte
agle
A m
obile
cro
wd-
sour
cing
app
licat
ion
laun
ched
by
txte
agle
and
Saf
aric
om. I
t ena
bles
peo
ple
to e
arn
and
save
sm
all a
mou
nts
of m
oney
by
com
plet
ing
sim
ple
task
s on
thei
r ph
ones
for
com
pani
es w
ho
pay
them
eith
er in
air
time
or c
ash.
Par
tner
ship
bet
wee
n tx
teag
le a
nd S
afar
icom
initi
ated
200
9.ht
tp://
txte
agle
.com
/K
enya
Kaz
i560
A jo
b in
form
atio
n se
rvic
e th
at a
llow
s em
ploy
ers
to p
ost j
ob li
stin
gs a
nd jo
b se
eker
s to
get
pe
rson
aliz
ed te
xt m
essa
ges
base
d on
the
kind
of
wor
k th
ey a
re lo
okin
g fo
r. It
off
ers
jobs
in
mor
e th
an 7
8 ca
tego
ries
fro
m m
anag
ers
to d
rive
rs. K
shs
10 p
er S
MS
rece
ived
. Run
by
Mob
ile4G
ood
and
One
Wor
ld K
enya
.w
ww
.kaz
i560
.co.
ke/
Uga
nda
Job
Plat
form
Em
ploy
ers
are
able
to a
cces
s th
e la
bour
for
ce a
nd r
ecru
it in
stan
tly th
roug
h a
SMS
serv
ice.
All
the
job
seek
ers
need
to d
o is
type
an
SMS
with
cre
dent
ials
and
ava
ilabi
lity
and
send
it to
a
desi
gnat
ed n
umbe
r fo
r a
cost
of
Ush
s 1,
000
per
SMS
(USD
0,5
). D
etai
ls w
ill b
e lis
ted
in th
e fo
llow
ing
Wed
nesd
ay’s
edi
tion.
Job
pro
vide
rs c
an s
end
thei
r de
tails
at t
he c
ost o
f U
shs
3,00
0 pe
r SM
S (U
SD 1
,5).
Off
ered
by
one
of U
gand
a’s
bigg
est d
aily
, Dai
ly M
onito
r, in
col
labo
ratio
n w
ith th
e va
lue
adde
d se
rvic
e pr
ovid
er T
rue
Afr
ican
.w
ww
.mon
itor.c
o.ug
(con
tinue
d)
168 J. Hellström
Tabl
e 12
.2
(con
tinue
d)
App
licat
ion
area
Loc
atio
nPr
ojec
tW
hat?
Dis
aste
r an
d cr
ises
m
anag
emen
tK
enya
, use
d w
orld
-w
ide
Ush
ahid
iC
row
dsou
rcin
g to
ol to
exc
hang
e an
d di
stri
bute
info
rmat
ion
via
mob
ile a
nd w
eb a
bout
nat
ural
, soc
ial
and
polit
ical
cri
sis.
The
pla
tfor
m a
llow
s an
yone
to g
athe
r dat
a vi
a SM
S, e
mai
l or w
eb a
nd v
isua
lize
it on
Goo
gle
map
or t
imel
ine.
Ope
n so
urce
. Gre
w o
ut o
f the
pos
t ele
ctio
n vi
olen
ce in
Ken
ya in
200
8.w
ww
.ush
ahid
i.com
Ken
yaV
iole
nce-
Prev
entio
n To
ol
Invo
lved
in s
uppo
rtin
g m
obile
mon
itori
ng a
nd r
epor
ting
of p
ost e
lect
ion
viol
ence
. Cre
ated
a S
MS
Ner
ve C
entr
e; a
hub
for
rea
l-tim
e in
form
atio
n ab
out a
ctua
l and
pla
nned
atta
cks
betw
een
riva
l et
hnic
and
pol
itica
l gro
ups.
The
mes
sage
s w
ere
then
sen
t to
loca
l Pea
ce C
omm
ittee
s fo
r ac
tion
and
resp
onse
. Ini
tiate
d by
Oxf
am G
B w
ith h
elp
from
Pea
ceN
et.
ww
w.o
xfam
.org
.uk/
appl
icat
ions
/blo
gs/k
enya
cris
is/2
008/
02/p
ushi
ng_f
or_p
eace
.htm
lA
gric
ultu
re
serv
ices
: co
mm
odity
pr
ices
, mar
ket
info
rmat
ion,
aw
aren
ess
Ken
yaD
rum
Net
Tra
nsac
tion
plat
form
link
ing
smal
l hol
der
farm
ers
to m
arke
ts, fi
nanc
e an
d in
form
atio
n. D
rum
Net
pa
rtne
rs w
ith b
uyer
s an
d se
llers
(fa
rmer
s) o
f pr
oduc
e. S
tock
ists
of
farm
inpu
ts, f
arm
er
inte
rmed
iary
org
anis
atio
ns, b
anks
to p
rovi
de fi
nanc
e. R
un b
y Pr
ide
Afr
ica
sinc
e 20
03.
ww
w.d
rum
net.o
rg, i
na@
drum
net.o
rg
Ken
yaSM
S So
koni
SMS
Soko
ni is
a s
ervi
ce th
at e
nabl
es f
arm
ers
to r
ecei
ve m
arke
t pri
ces
in v
ario
us m
arke
t cen
tres
ar
ound
Ken
ya v
ia S
MS.
Run
by
Ken
ya A
gric
ultu
ral C
omm
odity
Exc
hang
e (K
AC
E),
whi
ch is
a
priv
ate
initi
ativ
e la
unch
ed in
199
7. T
heir
aim
is to
link
sel
lers
and
buy
ers
of a
gric
ultu
ral
com
mod
ities
and
pro
vide
rel
evan
t and
tim
ely
mar
ketin
g in
form
atio
n an
d in
telli
genc
e. W
orks
in
part
ners
hip
with
Saf
aric
om th
roug
h th
eir
Get
It 4
11 s
ervi
ces.
ww
w.k
acek
enya
.com
/w
ww
.saf
aric
om.c
o.ke
/inde
x.ph
p?id
=32
2R
wan
daeS
oko
Proj
ect
A p
latf
orm
use
d to
col
lect
and
dis
trib
ute
agri
cultu
ral m
arke
t pri
ce in
form
atio
n us
ing
SMS
and
web
. T
he s
yste
m is
bui
lt by
Gha
naia
n so
ftw
are
com
pany
Bus
yLab
. It a
llow
s fa
rmer
s to
acc
ess
pric
es
of a
gric
ultu
ral c
omm
oditi
es v
ia S
MS,
web
and
in th
e ne
ar f
utur
e vi
a IV
R (
voic
e). I
n R
wan
da
eSok
o Pr
ojec
t is
bein
g im
plem
ente
d in
201
0 by
the
eRw
anda
Pro
ject
and
Min
istr
y of
A
gric
ultu
re. T
hree
thou
sand
and
five
hun
dred
mob
ile p
hone
s w
ill b
e di
stri
bute
d to
far
mer
s th
roug
h co
oper
ativ
es a
nd a
t lea
st o
ne c
oope
rativ
e in
eve
ry d
istr
ict w
ill b
enefi
t fro
m th
e pr
ojec
t.w
ww
.eso
ko.c
om/
wils
on.m
uyen
zi@
rita
.rw
16912 Mobile Governance: Applications, Challenges and Scaling-upA
pplic
atio
n ar
eaL
ocat
ion
Proj
ect
Wha
t?
Ken
yaN
atio
nal
Agr
icul
ture
In
form
atio
n Se
rvic
e (N
AFI
S)
Inte
ract
ive
voic
e-ba
sed
serv
ice
that
con
vert
s te
xt to
voi
ce p
rovi
ding
agr
icul
tura
l inf
orm
atio
n in
E
nglis
h an
d K
isw
ahili
. Int
ende
d to
ser
ve f
arm
ers’
nee
ds in
rur
al a
reas
. Run
by
Nat
iona
l A
gric
ultu
re a
nd L
ives
tock
Ext
ensi
on P
rogr
amm
e (N
AL
EP)
of
the
Min
istr
y of
Agr
icul
ture
and
M
inis
try
of L
ives
tock
dev
elop
men
t. In
col
labo
ratio
n w
ith T
ekno
byte
(K
enya
), S
peec
hnet
Ltd
., Po
pote
Wir
eles
s, A
gric
ultu
re I
nfor
mat
ion
Res
ourc
e C
entr
e (A
IRC
), U
nive
rsity
of
Nai
robi
. Se
rvic
e ac
cess
ible
by
calli
ng 0
20-4
7NA
FIS
or 0
20–4
7623
47.
ww
w.n
afis.
go.k
e/w
ww
.tekn
obyt
e.co
.ke/
Uga
nda
CK
W S
earc
hA
ser
ies
of f
orm
s, p
rese
nted
in J
ava,
gui
des
the
user
thro
ugh
a m
enu
to s
earc
h fo
r ag
rono
mic
te
chni
ques
for
ban
ana
and
coff
ee p
rodu
ctio
n. C
onte
nt p
rovi
ded
by U
gand
a’s
Nat
iona
l A
gric
ultu
ral R
esea
rch
Org
anis
atio
n, U
gand
a C
offe
e D
evel
opm
ent A
utho
rity
, and
the
Inte
rnat
iona
l Ins
titut
e fo
r T
ropi
cal A
gric
ultu
re (
IITA
).w
ww
.gra
mee
nfou
ndat
ion.
appl
ab.o
rgU
gand
aIn
put S
uppl
ier
Dir
ecto
ryA
n SM
S-ba
sed
keyw
ord
sear
ch s
ervi
ce th
at g
ives
the
loca
tion
and
cont
act d
etai
ls o
f sh
ops
offe
ring
sp
ecifi
c ag
ricu
ltura
l inp
uts,
suc
h as
see
ds, p
estic
ides
and
fer
tiliz
er. C
onte
nt p
rovi
ded
by U
gand
a N
atio
nal A
gro-
inpu
t Dea
ler
Ass
ocia
tion
(UN
AD
A).
ww
w.g
ram
eenf
ound
atio
n.ap
plab
.org
Uga
nda
Agr
icul
tura
l M
arke
t In
form
atio
n Sy
stem
(A
MIS
)/A
caci
a II
It w
as im
plem
ente
d in
200
4 in
wes
tern
Uga
nda
by A
fric
an H
ighl
and
Initi
ativ
e fu
nded
by
IDR
C
thro
ugh
esta
blis
hing
IC
T-ce
ntre
s, te
lece
ntre
s an
d vi
llage
info
rmat
ion
cent
res
whe
re m
obile
ph
ones
wer
e us
ed f
or d
ata
colle
ctio
n an
d in
form
atio
n di
ssem
inat
ion.
Pro
ject
is n
ow h
ande
d ov
er to
the
Nat
iona
l Agr
icul
tura
l Adv
isor
y Se
rvic
es (
NA
AD
S), w
hich
is a
pro
gram
of
the
Gov
ernm
ent o
f U
gand
a pu
t in
plac
e to
incr
ease
the
effic
ienc
y an
d ef
fect
iven
ess
of a
gric
ultu
ral
exte
nsio
n se
rvic
e.w
ww
.naa
ds.o
r.ug/
Hea
lth p
roje
cts
(sel
ecte
d pr
ojec
ts w
here
th
e M
inis
try
of
Hea
lth is
in
volv
ed)
Ken
yaB
lood
Ban
k SM
SB
lood
bank
SM
S w
as d
evel
oped
to im
prov
e th
e co
mm
unic
atio
n be
twee
n lo
cal d
istr
ict h
ospi
tals
and
K
enya
’s c
entr
aliz
ed b
lood
ban
ks. T
he s
yste
m e
nabl
es m
edic
al w
orke
rs a
t the
loca
l dis
tric
t ho
spita
ls to
pro
vide
info
rmat
ion
abou
t the
ir r
emai
ning
blo
od s
tock
dir
ectly
to th
eir
cent
raliz
ed
bloo
d ba
nk.
http
://ep
rom
.mit.
edu/
bloo
dban
k/
(con
tinue
d)
170 J. Hellström
Tabl
e 12
.2
(con
tinue
d)
App
licat
ion
area
Loc
atio
nPr
ojec
tW
hat?
Ken
ya,
Uga
nda
Epi
Surv
eyor
Ope
n so
urce
mob
ile d
ata
colle
ctio
n sy
stem
that
ena
bles
use
rs to
eas
ily c
reat
e a
hand
held
dat
a en
try
form
, col
lect
dat
a on
a m
obile
dev
ice,
and
then
tran
sfer
the
data
bac
k to
a s
erve
r or
lapt
op f
or
anal
ysis
. Mos
tly u
sed
in h
ealth
, for
exa
mpl
e by
Min
istr
y of
Hea
lth o
ffici
als
in K
enya
to c
olle
ct
data
abo
ut v
acci
ne p
rogr
amm
es. R
un b
y D
atad
yne
and
Min
istr
y of
Hea
lth s
ince
200
3.w
ww
.dat
adyn
e.or
gR
wan
da,
Tanz
ania
Phon
es f
or H
ealth
Supp
ort f
or c
omm
unity
hea
lth w
orke
rs in
var
ious
hea
lth in
terv
entio
ns. I
t use
s co
mpu
ters
and
m
obile
s to
est
ablis
h a
natio
nal e
lect
roni
c re
port
ing
syst
em th
at e
ases
del
iver
y of
pub
lic h
ealth
ca
re a
t the
vill
age
leve
l. Im
plem
ente
d by
Vox
iva,
GSM
A D
evel
opm
ent F
und,
the
U.S
. Pr
esid
ent’s
Em
erge
ncy
Plan
for
AID
S R
elie
f (P
EPF
AR
), A
ccen
ture
Dev
elop
men
t Par
tner
ship
s,
Mot
orol
a an
d M
TN
. Min
istr
y of
Hea
lth R
wan
da a
nd M
inis
try
of H
ealth
Tan
zani
a in
volv
ed.
ww
w.p
epfa
r.gov
/c21
414.
htm
Rw
anda
NA
CC
Hot
line
A f
ree
natio
nal h
otlin
e fo
r in
form
atio
n on
HIV
pre
vent
ion,
car
e an
d su
ppor
t ser
vice
s pr
ovid
ed b
y N
atio
nal A
IDS
Con
trol
Com
mis
sion
(N
AA
C).
The
hot
line
wor
ks f
rom
7 a
.m. t
o 8
p.m
. on
3334
an
d 33
35.
ww
w.c
nls.
gov.
rw/h
otlin
e.ph
pR
wan
daH
ealth
Wat
chA
dis
ease
sur
veill
ance
sol
utio
n ru
n by
Vox
iva.
Hea
lthW
atch
is a
n in
tegr
ated
sur
veill
ance
pla
tfor
m
used
by
the
publ
ic h
ealth
age
ncy
to s
uppo
rt in
tegr
ated
dis
ease
sur
veill
ance
, syn
drom
ic
surv
eilla
nce,
and
coo
rdin
ated
res
pons
e.w
ww
.vox
iva.
com
/Ta
nzan
iaIM
CI,
HIV
/AID
S,
TB
, Dia
bete
s,
Com
mC
are,
M
alar
ia,
Rep
rodu
ctiv
e H
ealth
Run
s a
num
ber
of p
roje
cts
all b
ased
on
a de
cisi
on s
uppo
rt s
yste
m f
or h
ealth
wor
kers
to c
heck
pa
tient
s’ c
ondi
tion
befo
re g
oing
to s
ee d
octo
rs. A
sys
tem
of
prot
ocol
s, th
at a
re d
eliv
ered
fro
m
mob
ile p
hone
s, a
llow
s co
mm
unity
hea
lth w
orke
rs to
del
iver
hig
h-qu
ality
and
eff
ectiv
e ca
re
whe
re th
ere
is n
o do
ctor
. The
mob
ile p
hone
s ta
ke th
e he
alth
wor
ker
step
by
step
thro
ugh
the
diag
nosi
s an
d tr
eatm
ent o
ptio
ns f
or a
ran
ge o
f ill
ness
es. I
mpl
emen
ted
by D
-tre
e In
tern
atio
nal
toge
ther
with
Ope
nRO
SA, M
inis
try
of H
ealth
am
ong
othe
rs.
ww
w.d
-tre
e.or
g/
17112 Mobile Governance: Applications, Challenges and Scaling-upA
pplic
atio
n ar
eaL
ocat
ion
Proj
ect
Wha
t?
Uga
nda
ICT
4MPO
WE
RT
he p
roof
of
conc
ept p
roje
ct “
ICT
4MPO
WE
R”
aim
s to
incr
ease
the
effe
ctiv
enes
s of
the
Uga
ndan
he
alth
sys
tem
and
em
pow
er C
omm
unity
Hea
lth W
orke
rs f
or b
ette
r he
alth
out
com
es o
f th
e ru
ral
popu
latio
n. T
his
will
be
achi
eved
by
deve
lopi
ng a
n al
l com
pass
ing
elec
tron
ic h
ealth
rec
ord
and
refe
rral
sys
tem
, uni
que
clie
nt I
D s
yste
m a
s w
ell a
s st
rate
gic
deliv
ery
of e
Lea
rnin
g an
d te
le-c
onsu
ltatio
n. R
un b
y M
inis
try
of H
ealth
, SPI
DE
R, M
aker
ere
Uni
vers
ity, K
arol
insk
a In
stitu
tet.
http
s://s
ervi
ce.p
roje
ctpl
ace.
com
/pub
/eng
lish.
cgi/0
/163
1306
53U
gand
aM
OH
Mal
aria
M
onito
ring
Pl
atfo
rm
Syst
em to
allo
w c
linic
s se
nd in
thei
r w
eekl
y di
seas
e an
d m
alar
ia d
ata
via
a m
ulti-
SMS
repo
rt. T
his
invo
lves
rep
laci
ng th
e M
inis
try
of H
ealth
for
m w
ith a
“SM
S-ab
le”
pape
r ve
rsio
n. W
eb
dash
boar
d pr
ovid
es o
verv
iew
of
dise
ase
burd
en, i
nclu
ding
spe
cific
mal
aria
trea
tmen
t and
di
agno
sis
data
and
AC
T d
rug
leve
ls to
hel
p re
port
sto
ck o
uts.
Usi
ng th
e R
apid
SMS
syst
em.
Run
by
FIN
D D
iagn
ostic
s, E
arth
Ins
titut
e, M
inis
try
of H
ealth
Uga
nda.
Lea
rnin
g an
d ed
ucat
ion
(con
tent
, ex
amin
atio
n re
sult)
Ken
yaE
xam
inat
ion
resu
ltsK
enya
Cer
tifica
te o
f Se
cond
ary
Edu
catio
n (K
CSE
) na
tiona
l exa
min
atio
n re
sults
and
ord
ers
of
mer
its c
an b
e ac
cess
ed b
y ca
ndid
ates
and
par
ents
thro
ugh
SMS.
Typ
e K
CSE
(Fu
ll In
dex
Num
ber)
and
sen
d to
222
8. R
un b
y K
enya
Nat
iona
l Exa
min
atio
ns C
ounc
il an
d M
inis
try
of
Edu
catio
n.w
ww
.exa
msc
ounc
il.or
.ke/
http
://kc
se.in
fo/
Rw
anda
eNot
a Pr
ojec
tA
mob
ile b
ased
sys
tem
that
will
allo
w s
tude
nts
(pri
mar
y le
avin
g an
d se
cond
ary
leav
ing
stud
ents
) to
acc
ess
thei
r na
tiona
l exa
min
atio
n re
sults
via
thei
r m
obile
pho
nes.
Im
plem
ente
d by
e-
Rw
anda
, Min
istr
y of
Edu
catio
n an
d R
wan
da N
atio
nal E
xam
inat
ions
Cou
ncil
(RN
EC
).w
ww
.rne
c.ac
.rw
/
(con
tinue
d)
172 J. Hellström
Tabl
e 12
.2
(con
tinue
d)
App
licat
ion
area
Loc
atio
nPr
ojec
tW
hat?
Tanz
ania
Bri
dgeI
TB
ridg
eit c
ombi
nes
mob
ile p
hone
and
TV
to d
eliv
er d
igita
l, m
ultim
edia
mat
eria
ls to
teac
hers
and
st
uden
ts. I
n pr
actic
e, te
ache
rs u
se m
obile
pho
nes
to a
cces
s a
libra
ry o
f sc
ienc
e, m
ath,
and
E
nglis
h vi
deos
. Onc
e se
lect
ed, v
ideo
s ar
e do
wnl
oade
d vi
a G
PRS
to th
e ph
one
whi
ch th
en is
co
nnec
ted
to a
TV
in th
e cl
assr
oom
. Ope
ns u
p fo
r di
stan
ce le
arni
ng p
rogr
ams.
Pub
lic–p
riva
te
part
ners
hip
betw
een
Min
istr
y of
Edu
catio
n, I
nter
natio
nal Y
outh
Fou
ndat
ion,
Nok
ia, V
odac
om,
Pear
son
and
FAW
E.
ww
w.m
oe.g
o.tz
ww
w.iy
fnet
.org
/doc
umen
t.cfm
/751
Uga
nda
Exa
mSM
SU
NE
B in
con
junc
tion
with
SM
SMed
ia la
unch
ed a
reg
istr
atio
n an
d ex
am r
esul
ts S
MS
plat
form
in
Dec
embe
r, 20
09. S
tude
nts,
par
ents
and
gua
rdia
ns w
ill b
e ab
le to
che
ck th
eir
resu
lts v
ia th
eir
mob
ile p
hone
s by
typi
ng a
key
wor
d e.
g. P
LE
<sp
ace>
Ind
ex N
o an
d se
nd th
is to
660
0. E
ach
SMS
sent
will
cos
t Ush
s 50
0 an
d av
aila
ble
on M
TN
, ZA
IN, a
nd U
TL
Net
wor
ks.
ww
w.u
neb.
ac.u
g/w
ww
.sm
smed
ia.u
g/
17312 Mobile Governance: Applications, Challenges and Scaling-up
at least two text messages urging people to calm down. Both sent on Saturday the 12th of September 2009:
Dear Ugandans, be reassured Kampala is safe. All hooliganism and thuggery has been stopped. Enjoy your weekendDear Ugandans, our city is safe. Do not be intimidated or alarmed by hooligans. Today is a normal working day. For God and my Country
The riots continued the whole of Saturday and it was not safe in the capitol Kampala until Sunday. This example highlight the complexity of using bulk SMS to communicate: not all Ugandans received the text and those who did receive it did not trust the source, i.e. the sender of the messages “UGANDA”.
Even though these are anecdotal examples they are interesting and shows that the state and the operators do work together in the event of crises. According to Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), operators are obliged in the interest of public safety to operate their networks in such a manner as to alleviate a state of emergency as well as provide access to emergency services free of charge. However there is still need to define clear operational procedures in case of an emergency looking at the Uganda laws of the country.
A question that must be asked is if only because it is technically possible, do you have to do it? For example, are Governments really interested in hearing from each and every citizen? The president in Uganda tried it out some few weeks prior the 2007 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which Uganda hosted. As an engaged citizen, you could mail/post or SMS question’s and concerns “directly” to the President. He simply re-invented the black hole (i.e. no replies) and the service was disabled when CHOGM was over. To create this window of citizen involvement using SMS as a mean of providing feedback to many government leaders is tempting but failure rate high!
There has been a number of political actions taking place in East Africa using the mobile phone as a complementary tool. Nairobi People’s Settlement Network used mobiles to get organised against evictions in Kibera, Nairobi. BBC reports: “[t]hey used what we would call flashmobbing to call people from across the many different and rival settlements together where big evictions were planned, and threatened to sit down in front of the bulldozers” (Mason 2007). Yet another exam-ple of political mobilisation was the Save Mabira Forest campaign in Uganda, where the Anti-Corruption Coalition Uganda (ACCU) played an instrumental role together with other civil society organisations in mobilising the citizenry to oppose government plans to give away one third (roughly 70 km2) of the Mabira Forest to the Sugar Corporation of Uganda Limited (SCOUL), owned by the Mehta Group (which to 51% is owned by the Government), for sugarcane plantations. The most successful part of the campaign was to urge people, through SMS, to boycott sugar produced by the company (ACCU 2008). The blogger Abubaker Basajjabaka writes: “Over the weekend, packets of Lugazi Sugar have been piling up in super-markets besides some business owners withdrawing them from their stalls” (Basajjabaka 2007). The government consequently suspended the idea of giving away the forest.
174 J. Hellström
12.4.3 How?
How to design a successful mobile governance project? Donner et al. (2008) list a set of choices that the ICT4D literature identifies as being correlated with project success:
Evolutionary (vs. revolutionary)•Embed the mobile component into an already ongoing initiate (vs. being on •its own)Use existing practises as a starting point (vs introducing totally new behaviours •or patters)Basic skills (vs complex and/or additional skills needed)•
The applications and services listed in Table 12.2 more or less fall into this success template. Most of them are evolutionary and are being part of an already ongoing initiative. Existing practices are used as the starting point and no addi-tional skills are needed (only a few exceptions). Further, the applications/services listed are mainly used for information gathering and sharing and for coordinating actions (i.e. more targeting a mass-public and breadth). Mobile applications for policy and other political deliberations (in depth) are complex and not that common. Many of the projects have a strong local technological partner, which makes it easier to manage, integrate and sustain the application. Successful m-governance applications rely on a functioning, effective backend for content and support. Partnering with a local technological firm makes the adoption of technologies much easier, the responsible body running the service hardly needs to know more than the end-user.
The identified m-governance applications all have a decentralised approach where the retrieval of information is decentralised rather than a centralised. This must be considered good since an information society cannot be centrally planned. However, an information society can be centrally facilitated and coordinated, which is generally not the case in the East African countries (Rwanda being an exception). A decentralised, uncoordinated approach makes it extremely hard to identify proj-ects and initiate collaborations and partnerships. For the end user, i.e. the citizen, this is extremely problematic – there is no central m-governance hub or portal. How can a citizen know that a particular service exists? There is no search function and no short code that gives meta information about available services run by other ministries, organisations and companies. And running campaigns promoting every new service is way too costly.
Related is another challenge in that East African economies generally have only to a limited extent been controlled by governments. The majority of the East Africans citizens survives through the informal sector. A citizen can spend a whole life without being involved in any formal sector transactions. There is a clear need for government–citizen interaction but do citizens want to deal with the govern-ment? How can trust be built and awareness of citizen rights and state obligations best be communicated? How to protect your identity when airing opinions and sending inquiries to the government?
17512 Mobile Governance: Applications, Challenges and Scaling-up
Other identified challenges regarding adapting and implementing m-governance applications include but are not limited to (Hellström 2009, 2010):
Costs, payment, and revenue sharing: who should pay for the services?•Content, who should produce and update content? Can this also be done by ordi-•nary citizens? Generally, people tend to be consumers of the available services and applications rather than provide and create content themselves.Usability issues and the limitations of mobile phones – small screens, short mes-•sages, complicated commands. Advanced phones with bigger, colour screens that are data enabled are still too expensive for the East African masses.Some services are tied to a specific operator – interoperability issues between •operators and roaming between countries must be solved. Compatibility and a variety of platforms are related challenges.How to promote mobile penetration and increased accessibility in areas that are •not commercially viable? Universal funds and rural communication funds are used but they are not efficient enough.Regulation and legal aspects of mobile applications and use of the services are •lagging behind in East Africa. The content providers are far ahead.
Most of the applications in Table 12.2 are very harmless, non-political and for personal information needs. Could it be that mobile phones challenge the traditional means of service delivery and existing power structures? If so, how to go around it and implement applications that really empowers the citizen, even if it is at someone else’s expense? People with power will not let it go that easy.
This leads to the question of ICT double potential for control and freedom. ICT may empower not only citizens but also the state – for good and for bad. As East African regimes learn how to manage and engineer information flows, promotion of and protec-tion of free speech becomes really important. In Uganda for example, there has been a long discussion regarding the Interception of Communications Bill which seeks to authorise security agencies to intercept phone, email and postal communications with the motive to fight terrorism and make the country safer. It is a controversial suggestion from the Government and the opposition from Members of Parliament are worried about the real intentions of a Big Brother executive. Operators are concerned about the costs involved of purchase and implement the wire-taps and the costs related to register-ing each subscriber. Journalists are concerned about the threat to sources. Civil liberty groups that defend the individual right to privacy are just concerned in general. Even Uganda’s regulator, the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), means that if passed in its current form it will violate the Constitution and the UCC Act. Maybe we must be more realistic about the true extent of ICT transformational potential.
12.5 Scaling-up
There are many governance related pilots and implementations in East Africa but still few successes at scale. Scale is important for impact reasons and for sustain-ability issues – scale reduces the unit cost and makes the intervention more cost
176 J. Hellström
effective and efficient. Having scale in mind is of extra importance when designing m-governance applications meant for national, inclusive, public services to make sense – there is a need to get away from pilots and projects and rather promote a service delivery approach. How to go from successful pilots to national scale?
Some ideas have already been mentioned: a central body that facilitate and coor-dinate m-governance activities and make them visible. Marketing and awareness campaigns are highly needed and lacking at the moment. Citizens are often not aware of existing applications and there is no information regarding where to find the existing services.
Also, an innovative billing plan and a sound business model is needed for m-governance to become sustainable. Cost factors and affordability issues consti-tutes major challenges in East Africa. For example, most of the subscribers in East Africa are on a prepaid scheme where they top-up (load airtime) when they need to make a phone call, beep or SMS. Most of the time there is no credit on the phone which means that if the system is designed in a way where the citizen are supposed to pay for the service, the completion rate will be low. The billing platform only works if there is money on the subscribers’ phone but no money, no service.
Sustainability needs to be designed into the end product from start and the simpler the merrier – low complexity of business model and the technical solution has proven to be a success factor (Hellström 2010). There are many costs during implementation phase too, see Tactical Technology Collective’s checklist of possible costs when implementing a project involving mobile phones (www.mobiles.tacticaltech.org/).
So, despite of all the rapid developments in mobile applications, there is a lack of scale. Analysing mobile applications for social and economic development, a number of success factors have been identified (Hellström 2010):
Do the homework and avoid re-inventing the wheel•End-user driven and look at needs•Fit into already existing patterns•Consider open standards/content and build a user community•Focus on usability and design with the end user in mind – applications addressing •poorer segment of the society should work on existing phones to ensure accessInterface richness should correspond to the task at hand – there is no need for •extravagance to display simple information for exampleInvolve right stakeholders, forge strong partnerships and use local capacity•Collaborate with other organisations doing similar interventions•Documentation is a key element throughout the project and to share lessons •learned, successes as well as failures, benefit all
In the implementation phase:
Set measurable goals•Have a viable business model and/or predictable funding flows•Involve end-users in content creation where applicable•Use technology that align with the needs of the program it is designed to support – •try to keep it simpleImplement a decentralised solution rather than centralised•
17712 Mobile Governance: Applications, Challenges and Scaling-up
Cross network instead of working only with one operator when possible, however, •close partnership with operators seems to be crucial for most applicationsEducate the end-user•Have a proper marketing to get a critical mass of users•Let it take time•
When designing m-governance applications an important aspect of the architec-tural framework is to really understand and capture the existing knowledge about processes and work-flows. What is working, what is not working, how could things be done better? Next step is to map the solutions into an abstraction that then can be translated into applications. Too often a mobile “solution” is designed for a problem that never existed in the first place (and too many solutions looking for problems). Applications should be developed having the end users point of view, not the appli-cation as such.
Government ministries and agencies related to the planned m-governance applica-tion should be highly involved in the planning and implementation phases. This will ultimately lead to a change in attitude towards provision of services and transform their models of providing public information to citizens.
12.6 Conclusions
There is a lot of hype surrounding m-governance and its potential to transform the society and make it more dynamic, participatory and democratic. The mobile appli-cations identified in East Africa will at this stage not open up for a deepened democ-racy and create inclusive public spaces. Government institutions are not really sharing information or giving insight into state affairs, at least not trough mobile applica-tions. Few of the identified applications will influence the political decision making process and help in holding governments accountable. However, governance is a complex phenomenon, so is implementing innovative mobile phone applications in its right context. It will take time to find a good, sustainable, scalable match. There are many challenges in regard to good governance, there are also many small solu-tions ready available – imagination, innovation and courage is the limitation.
Do mobile phones empower citizens? Technology does not empower anyone, citizens empower themselves. And with right and better tools, this will become easier. M-governance is about identifying and solving real problems, come with realistic solutions involving the state, market and civil society state in order to improve the way people live. Many, small solutions together will eventually empower the citizens. Applications do not work in isolation, the more services available, the more active end-users and transactions, the better the mobile ecosys-tem of stakeholders will be. This is a mutually re-enforcing process.
Do mobile phones affect the way citizens interact with each other and with the society as whole? The ever popular and totally unpredicted beeping culture in East Africa is a good example on how mobile telephony has changed the way people communicate. The concept of “anywhere and any time” has made the society more
178 J. Hellström
flexible and to some extend, more responsive. Do mobile phones open up for a deepened democracy? Observing cases from East Africa, the general public is usu-ally not responding too well to initiatives. There could be many reasons to this but three reasons stand out; (1) if the solution is offered at a premium or even at a mini-mum cost it must bring clear, direct value for the end user, (2) if the solution is not marketed and promoted enough no one will use the service, (3) citizens have little trust in government services and do not feel engaged, and do not think that the government will become more transparent, accountable, obedient etc.
References
ACCU (Anti-Corruption Coalition Uganda). 2008. Annual Report January–December 2007. Retrieved September 1, 2008, from http://www.anticorruption.or.ug
AllAfrica. 2008. Kenya: Campaigns benefit from technology boost. Retrieved September 1, 2008, from http://allafrica.com/stories/200801080868.html
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