Mobile for Social Inclusive Governance (MSIG)

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 All Voices Matter, Speak up!

The All Voices Matter, Speak up Project is a Mobile for Social Inclusive Governance programme. The project seeks to influence government policy and planning to increase the participation of women, youth and people with disabilities (PWDs) in local governance. The project is being implemented in the following districts:

Currently, many barriers such as distance, access, mobility, cultural norms, social status, and political affiliation, impede the access of women, youth and PWD to engage with MMDAs.

The intended result of this project is for women, youth and PWDs to use a new communication pathway to contribute to MMDAs development planning processes for the allocation of public goods and services.

The project has identified 4 major milestones to achieving its result:

MMDAs and marginalized groups have therefore been trained in the use of VOTO technology/platform to register themselves in other to take part in surveys to be conducted by MMDA’s. The partners have assisted the MMDAs in creating a panel of 300 participants comprising women, youth and PWDs for each district to be the subject of these surveys. The registration process is as follows;

Step 1. Use your phone to dial 0236874163

Step 2. Hang up after the busy tone

Step 3. The system would call you back within a short time

Step 4. Follow voice instruction to register

 

By the end of the project, MMDAs will be proficient in using this technology and would have conducted 2-3 surveys in 3 quarters, for a total of 6-9 surveys with the target groups. We wish to use this medium to encourage women, youth and PWD’s in the selected districts to actively participate in the surveys when they are sent out to them. We want to also encourage others who have not successfully registered onto the platform to also get involve by calling the system number 0236874163.

The project is a collaboration between Savana Signatures, Amplify Governance, VOTO and the Ghana Information Network for Knowledge Sharing (GINKS), sponsored by STAR-Ghana.

 

Savana Signatures’ strategy is inspired by Ghana’s vision of a just and frees society as espoused by the 1992 Fourth Republican Constitution. Savana Signatures has a mission to equip youth, women and vulnerable groups with ICT skills to mobilize and interface state for transparent and accountable governance at local and national levels.

The organisation also has a vision of a society where relevant information, knowledge and skills for development are enhanced by equal access to and use of ICT, and everyone asserting their right to social services in a responsive policy environment.

The Mobile for Social Inclusive Governance is a project under the Gender and Social Inclusion Programme of Savana Signatures that has an objective of ensuring that Women are actively participating in local governance and the poor and marginalized are equipped with ICT skills to improve their livelihoods.

Amplify Governance

Amplify Governance’s vision is to see people flourishing through participation with governance systems that continuously improve their quality of life. Amplify works to support the development of a governance system that can adapt to the various challenges and complexities experienced within Ghana’s movement towards decentralization. We focus specifically on four areas of governance; 1) Developing adaptive leadership culture through creating learning opportunities for political and technocrat officials in positions of responsibility at Assemblies, 2) Enhancing local revenue collection systems with support for the technical and human capacities of property tax and business licenses, 3) Creating opportunities and incentives for citizen engagement in development and service delivery decision making, 4) Improving the efficiency of data collection, management and analysis systems to support people-centered decision-making.)

GINKS

Ghana Information Network for Knowledge Sharing (GINKS) was established in 2003 with the vision of a society where all have equal access and use of ICT for national development. The network promotes knowledge sharing among individuals and organizations on how to effectively use ICT and social media tools for interaction and communications.

The mission of GINKS is to provide information and knowledge that will facilitate capacity building for ICTs Products and Services, to create, identify, synthesize and disseminate information and knowledge on ICTs and development and to promote the use of ICTs throughout the Country.

Voto Mobile

VOTO Mobile is a Ghana-based social enterprise, with the mission to increase participation, transparency and accountability in the services delivered to citizens, and to empower communities to collect and share information to drive positive social change.  Taking advantage of the wide-spread penetration of mobile phones, VOTO makes it easy for public and social-sector service providers to gather feedback from their constituents.  VOTO’s platform focusses on voice feedback in local languages, so it is accessible to all people regardless of location, literacy, and language.  Using the VOTO platform, organizations can send messages, build polls, and offer menu-driven call-in services to connect people to the information they need.

Mobile for Social Inclusive Governance: All Voices Matter, Speak up!