Developing Countries - Transparency through Technology
The citizen media training initiative of Global Voices Online recently opened their new Transparency website. The site's aim is to provide a resource to map and evaluate technology projects promoting transparency, accountability, and civic engagement around the world - primarily outside Europe and North America.
There are currently four case studies available documenting grassroots online technology projects. Each of the cases studies concentracts on either:
- transparency of government information
- accountability of elected officials,
- or civic engagement in the political process
Current projects include:
- ADOTE UM VEREADOR - a site encouraging Brazilian citizens to blog about the work of their local elected officials in order to hold them accountable.
- SITHI - a Cambodian human rights portal aiming to crowdsource and curate reports of human rights violations
- MZALENDO - tracking the performance of Kenya's Parliament by tracking votes, publishing records, and providing analysis and context
- VOTA INTELIGENTE - providing Chilean citizens with more information about their elected officials
- ISHKI - a complaint brokerage which collects and organizes complaints from local citizens about the public and private sector
The Open Government and Gov 2.0 movement is progressing steadily in Western Europe and North America. It is reported on extensively in the media, through blogs and various social networking sites. The situation outside of these advanced democracies, however, is less well understood and discussed. As such, the Global Voices site provides a necessary portal to highlight advances in democractic accountability and transparency in developing countries.
For more on this worthwhile initiative, visit http://transparency.globalvoicesonline.org/.
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