mobile phones for good governance – scaling-up issues johan hellström [email protected] world...

Mobile phones for good governance – scaling-up issues

Johan Hellströ[email protected]

World Bank Workshop onMobile Innovations for Social and Economic Transformation:

From Pilots to Scaled-up Implementation September 16, 2009

Johan Hellström UPGRAID

what is good governance?

relationships between three actors: state, market and civil society

three main concepts: state capability: the ability to get things done accountability: institutionalised relationships responsiveness: to act on identified needs and

wants of the citizens (DFID, 2006)

role of information and communication


why mobile phones?

useful tool with huge potential access reach adoption interaction costs efficiency no other option?


what is m-governance?

mobile phones for good governance m-government interaction, reaction, action bottom up participation empowerment


examples from East Africa

government news / information updates law enforcement / safety employment services agriculture services health projects financial services crises management education services mobilisation, empowerment


the Kampala riots

21 dead, 96 injured, +550 arrested radio stations closed down, TV shows censored, networks

jammed, public transportation down asynchronous, biased information Twitter: #kampala www.ugandawitness.net (Ushahidi.com) Government sending texts to reassure people?

"Dear Ugandans, our city is safe. Do not be intimidated or alarmed by hooligans. Today is a normal working day. For God and my Country"


huge potential, but...

why are there so many pilots and yet so few that have been scaled-up?

why do many projects start from scratch instead of building on existing solutions?

why are there many subscribers but yet so few users of existing applications?


identified challenges

infrastructure limited network coverage, network quality,

electricity issues funding and affordability

pricing sensitivity, innovative business models and billing plans, total cost of ownership

content creation, management and relevance


identified challenges

surrounding supporting systems trouble shooting, capacity building, user

uptake, language and literacy issues existence of an enabling environment

laws, policies, regulation other challenges

segmentation, market strategies lack of documentation and collaboration


policies and regulation in East Africa

deregulated market fairly levelled playing field ICT policies and regulatory regimes are

currently being harmonised in EA innovation ↔ regulation powerful operators customer care


scaling-up definitions

”to efficiently increase the socioeconomic impact from small to a large scale of coverage” (World Bank/Hancock, 2003)

a process and an outcome scaling-up: (Jain and Brown, 2000)

expanding coverage and organisational size increasing activities broadening indirect impact enhancing organisational sustainability


vertical/horizontal

regional/global

national

local

more family/kin/ morecommunities neighbours communities


2 other approaches

universalist: universal generalisations that can be replicated, directly expanded, or adopted elsewhere with a simple set of rules examples?

contextualist: tailor made to address context-specific conditions examples?


scaling up – success factors

design phase too many solutions looking for problems? do the homework end-user driven (needs) fit into already existing patterns consider open standards/content involve right stakeholders from the start and

use local capacity


scaling up – success factors

implementation phase viable business model / predictable funding

flows involve end-users in content creation where

applicable educate the end-user proper marketing critical mass time


scaling up - conclusion

design itself should have scale in mind don't be afraid of failures pilots scaling-up? away from projects a service delivery

approach documentation is key


finally...

m-government m-governance penetration usage usage impact scale success

Thank you!

Johan Hellströ[email protected]

www.upgraid.comwww.dsv.su.se

mobile phones for good governance – scaling-up issues johan hellström [email protected] world...

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