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

How ICT Platforms Fit in the Social Accountability "Equation"

ICTs can play a role in nearly every aspect of the social accountability “equation,” represented below by the social accountability ecosystem.

Mouse over each aspect to know more about it. 

As seen above, there are four main stages in the social accountability ecosystem - data & information, strategic action, feedback, and response & redress. At each stage, ICTs play important roles in providing new opportunities for more effective and efficient engagement between government, service providers, CSOs, and the general public. All the steps are important, but from the CSOs perspective and activities, the second step - Strategic Action - becomes the most important since this is where many CSOs organize their work. Let’s take a closer look of the role of ICTs at this stage in the social accountability ecosystem.

Strategic Action is the area where many CSOs organize their work. There is a huge range of ICT platform can support CSOs to undertake their existing work more effectively and efficiently.

• For Mobilization: Using ICTs (e.g. social media, texting (SMS), and radio) to mobilize citizens and affected persons to pressure governments or corporations in support of a cause (e.g. anti-corruption, environmental conservation, human rights).
  To see this strategy in action, please see the following examples:
  • India
  • Global
• For Truth-based advocacy: Using ICTs to uncover new and/or surprising information as a means of triggering the attention of government officials and the general public (e.g. placing previously unavailable information in a user-friendly way on an online platform). “Data journalism” fits into this category - using and analyzing data and information available from government, find a story. This may be known as “citizen journalism”.
  To see this strategy in action, please see the following examples:
  • India
  • Philippines
• For Social monitoring: The collection of data and information can be "crowdsourced" to the public, so that individuals would be called to report via mobile devices or via the internet on events that they witness.
  To see this strategy in action, please see the following examples:
  • Corruption, India
  • Human rights, Cambodia
  • Elections, Kenya
• For Capacity building and empowerment: Employing ICTs to develop the capacity of government and citizens to understand their legal rights and various decision-making processes in order to engage effectively (e.g. decisions on allocation of resources, contracts, etc.).
  To see this strategy in action, please see the following examples:
  • Cambodia
  • India
  • India

All of Strategic Actions above can be provided through popular ICT platforms for discussion among geographically disparate citizen populations (e.g. Social Media such as Twitter and Facebook).