Shifting Power?
Civic Explorations
Transparency and Accountability In a contribution to the Broker Future calling conversation Rob Ammandele reflects on the slow progress off global governance arrangements to curtail the enduring crises of food, fuel, finance and climate change. The quest is on to find and kill ‘the thing that feeds the other ills’. Well here’s a candidate: how about the growing global disconnect between 21st century citizens and the 20th century institutions that still governing their lives. In the previous two newsletters, we’ve explored a number of ‘revolt’ style on and off line responses. In this edition we shine our light on citizen-led efforts to promote Transparency and Accountability, in short TAIs. Thriving on masscommunication and in particular web 2.0 technology, TAIS such as budget tracking, citizen corruption watch and online vigilantism are taking the world by storm. Read on for an overview of the latest news in the TAI-field, its paradoxes and dilemma’s.
Assessing the Impact of TAIs Accountability and transparency initiatives, both aided and non-aided, have taken democratisation, governance, and development circles by storm since the turn of the century, but what are they achieving? Based on an extensive review commissioned by the Transparency and Accountability Initiative, Rosemary McGEee and Jogn Gaventa conclude that the emerging evidence base is both ‘sparse’ and ‘thin’. They explore theories of change, emerging results and methodological issues around the impact. TAIs will continue to gain prominence in years to come but it is unlikely that they will turn out to be the magic bullets for fixing global democracy. Yet, that doesn’t make them less interesting as an object of study, weapon of civic action or a strategy for outside intervention. An excellent paper for the state of affairs of the T&A field
Mapping for T&A
A T&A example: Uwezo’s ripple effects
The use of mapping tools for civic action is not exactly new. Social movements, NGOs and activists have long relied on mapping tools for analysis, advocacy and planning purposes. What’s perhaps less well known, is that tools like Google Earth outreach have brought the use of state-of the art technology well within almost no cost reach of any civic actor. If you want to make use of the rich and
growing collection of Google-maps and fit these with their own overlayers, have a look here at what’s possible. Platforms like Ushahidi provide excellent examples and services on how interactive real-time mapping, which is increasingly used for the monitoring of elections, natural disasters and violence. Check out for example, some of their conflict monitoring work in Syria and do get in touch with them to explore what they can do for your own T&A work, campaigns or research.
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Last year, Twaweza’s partner UWEZO delivered it’s second annual report about the state of Tanzanian basic education. It’s title: Our children are still not learning, pretty much covered its essence. There is no shortage of development reports. Yet this report stood out because it was built on large scaled quantitative comparative analysis from the grass-roots level up. This enabled Uwezo to provide solid, yet damning evidence on the quality of education. More and more children are attending school, yet many are not learning. With widespread popular press coverage and high level policy influence, the report sent shockwaves through Tanzanian society. And Uwezo didn’t stop there. It embarked
on similar exercises in Kenya and Uganda. Each of these studies confirmed that massive (donor-funded) investment may have polished up. MDG-related statistics and delivered some donordarling brownie points. Yet, they are failing to deliver the meaningful education outcomes that are deemed key to ‘real development’. More example of new style T&A initiative can be found on Twaweza.org
Transparency and accountability versus privacy
Is transparency and accountability the magic bullet? Malavika Jayaram discusses the ‘Dark Side’ of big data and biometric project on the Hivos website. She questions whether this sort of massive information collection should be done at all, and under which circumstances. Where does privacy end and transparency step in? “Big data” projects generally, and biometric schemes in particular, have faced intense scrutiny and opposition the world over. Apart from posing fairly obvious threats to civil liberties and constitutional freedoms, they are prone to more practical errors around reliability, security, accuracy and access. India is one example of a country on the cusp of a radical shift towards increasing digitisation and e-governance, seemingly without much thought being given to the potential dangers of such technocratic ambitions. Why do we need data projects? To put it very baldly, the argument often goes that the conservatives want to gather information allegedly for security reasons or to monitor deviant behaviour (the public order or national interest argument that often trumps individual rights and liberties); the liberals because they have figured out what is good for you and want to implement it whether you like it or not (the nanny state problem). In India, there is another high level goal, a laudable one if successfully achieved, and this is to eliminate or at least minimize the rampant and grotesque corruption that is endemic to Indian society. There is a desire to use data to expose the rot in the system, to disincentivize corrupt bureaucrats from taking bribes and siphoning monies, food grains and other public distribution away from their intended beneficiaries and recipients, as also to track and prevent misuse and fraud at the customer end. In an era of increasing pressure for governments and agencies to promote transparency, openness and accountability in India, it would be easy for privacy to fall by the way side. It is often the case that there is an uneasy tension between transparency and accountability on the one hand and privacy (and perhaps security) on the other. However, it is not quite the zero sum game that it is often portrayed as (i.e. you can have one or the other, not both). The issue can be better parsed if we think of transparency and accountability of state actors, versus the privacy of individuals and their sensitive personal information, and recognize that both serve important functions. In India, there are so many complex issues
around open data (for e.g., people’s caste, religion and exact place in the social hierarchy can be revealed by something as simple as their name) and many instances of misuse. People with access to electoral databases have targeted and committed atrocities and hate crimes against a particular ethnic group or religious minority. Information about HIV positive residents of a village have led to great ostracism as such data is not anonymized. While some presumed benefits of the Indian biometric and Big Data schemes appeal to nations paranoid about national security, immigration and porous borders, or seemingly offer a magic wand to clean up corruption, fraud and malaise – laudable goals, all – implementing them without the requisite checks and balances by way of privacy laws, data protection principles, informed consent and a robust public debate would be at best foolish, and at worst, dangerous. To proceed with the naïve view that Indians, for example, simply don’t care about privacy when their basic needs of food, shelter, clothing, employment and healthcare are not met, is not a tenable or compelling argument against being guarded and proportional in the use of open data and the drive towards greater accountability and transparency. On the contrary, in a country that is still struggling with crippling poverty, disparity, discrimination, ossified social structures and illiteracy, those in a position of power have an even greater responsibility to design systems to be privacy preserving by default, to protect those who are incapable of the sophistry or ease around technology to make decisions about the use of their data. Unless the citizen is put back in the centre of the discourse, the very logic of open data collapses. Transparency is not a value in and of itself; humanizing systems and focusing on the real people behind the numbers and metrics is of paramount importance. 2
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Consent of the Networked
Seekers, Finders, Keepers
Tech-inspired initiatives have dominated the headlines in developments around the T&A field. Yet, the case of MAZDOOR KISAN SHAKTI SANGATHAN(MKSS) in India demonstrates that there is more to innovation than just technology. A key driving force behind the right to information movement in India, MKSS has over two decades of experience in using low-tech cost effective strategies to achieve large numbers of citizens in the remotest areas of India. They have done this for example, by painting budget performances and public work schemes on walls all over Rajasthan. on the site you can find plenty of examples of other effective strategies. In the article, Shriya Mohan describes how their transparency initiatives are promoting accountability.
The right to information Act is capable of transforming lives. Yet, with a few more stubborn examples, Mohan leaves us with an important point: Social change remains a matter of struggle. And as with other strategies of social action, the effectiveness of T&A inter ventions probably strongly depends on the broader social mobilization dynamics in which they take place.
Rebecca MacKinnon has launched her new book: Consent of the Networked. The book is a call to action and shows that it is time to stop arguing over whether the Internet empowers peo-
ple, and address the urgent question of how technology should be governed to support the rights and liberties of users around the world.
Intangible world of Anoymous
The tension in the growing disconnect between citizens and institutions becomes clear when one looks atAnonymous. They are leaderless and intangible but see that world as a place where the riot police
attacks citizens with impunity and democracy is corrupted by greed. The group gives voices to the grievances felt by ‘powerless’ individuals around the world and regains power by holding those accountable, by sometimes unorthodox actions. Their
Also see
21st Robin Hood character is applauded, but the online vigilantism where Anoymous is hunting down individuals, raises many questions. Find out more in this CNN clip.
In South Africa there are some interesting transparency and accountabilit y actions taking place to fight for the Right to Information and battle corruption. The Right to Know Campaign is trying to stop the Protection of Information Bill, also known as the Secrecy Bill and Corruption Watch is asking South Africans to take a stand against corruption. 3
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Coming up
Future calling is a Hivos led initiative that explores the future of INGOs in a globalizing world. Have a look at our website for the latest publications and do participate in our debate at the broker online. Regional brainstorm events are being planned In Guatemala (March 2012) and India (2012). Do let us know, if you wish to contribute! The next edition of this newsletter revisits the aftermath of Wikileaks and similar phenomena that have emerged recently. The Civic explorations programme will organize two regional knowledge explorations in Kenya (July) and Bolivia (November). We’ll keep you updated on dates and themes.
Contact us
If you wish to be involved in our deliberations for follow-up research or dialogues or if you have ideas for additional publications or other contributions then please get in touch with Remko Berkhout or Fieke Jansen. More information on the Hivos Knowledge programme can be found on www.hivos.net
About
Citizen action for social change terrain is currently witnessing fundamental changes that are challenging academics, policy makers and practitioners alike. On the surface, the Arab Spring, a global summer of protest and the Occupy movement are indicating a new wave of social mobilization. Beyond the headlines, global crises, technology, demography and the evolution of the hegemonic neo-liberal paradigm are fuelling fundamental shifts in the way in which citizens are organizing and claiming their rights in an increasingly interconnected world. ‘Civic Explorations’ explores this evolving context and facilitates the processes of networking, exchange and online dialogue between different actors. 4
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Civic Exploration February 2012 © Hivos Knowledge Programme Editors: Remko Berkhout & Fieke Jansen Contact: info@hivos.net Please share any comments or feedback on our initiative and format. Powered by:
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