Data, Information, and Adding ICTs to the Social Accountability Equation

Overview

Citizens, together with Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), like yours, should have access to government-held information so they can hold governments to account. Technological developments can provide the means to use and reuse public data and information, which can help you not only to be able to know about your government's activities, but also to participate and interact with that information.

This module will focus broadly on how ICT platforms can link to social accountability activities. It will also cover the four strategic areas where ICTs can impact the work of CSOs in the fields of transparency, accountability, and participation. Then, the module will focus on some of the enabling factors for ICT platforms to be used effectively, so you can think about how these tools can fit to your country context. Moreover, you can also examine whether there are opportunities for obtaining data and information to transform them to become useful for citizens.

For the purposes of this module, ICTs can be defined as a combination of telecommunications, computing and broadcasting. This covers any product that will store, retrieve, manipulate, transmit or receive information electronically. From radio to cutting edge technology, they all have the potential to improve information sharing and therefore, they can produce an impact on social accountability.

This module is composed of 4 main topics:

1. First, we will provide an introduction to how ICTs can link to social accountability activities.
2. Second, we will review the importance of access to information and the mechanisms for access.
3. Third, we will introduce the concept of open government data.
4. Fourth, we will explore the notion of open government data and the concept of implementing ICT tools to reuse that data.

Learning objectives By the end of this module you will:

• Understand how ICTs link to social accountability initiatives from a CSO perspective
• Identify the main principles of the Access to Information (ATI) and open government data movements and their importance for social accountability