The pilot project will be trialing how ICT – and particularly the use of mobile – can play a role to support the traditional, human-centric tribal processes and enable greater local participation in democratic processes.

The originality of this project is that we do not aim at implementing an ICT tool without looking at the traditional role of chiefs in the local politics.  Rather, we want to incorporate these [ICT] tools within the traditions and not look at only online tools but the offline world as well.

About Kheira Belkacem

Kheira Belkacem is Assistant Programme Director at eGovlab, and is currently completing her PhD in Political Communication at the University of Leeds UK. Her experience in the European Parliament, when working closely with the Director General of the Directorate-General for Innovation and Technological Support in 2008-2009, left her with a strong expertise of parliamentary systems and adoption of new technologies in democratic institutions. She also spent a summer internship at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) on the e-Governance Programme in 2008.

In 2010, Kheira worked as a research assistant for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford and in 2010-2012, she taught modules on communication theories and new media group project as a teaching assistant at the Institute of Communications Studies. She is currently the Assistant Programme Director of Botswana Speaks and is involved in other projects run by the eGovlab.

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Episode links and resources

• Botswana Speaks website, on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
• The Parliament of Botswana
• eGovlab of Stockholm University / Department of Computer and Systems Sciences (DSV)
• Gov2u
• Swedish Trade Council
• Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA)

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In this wide-ranging episode, Don challenges many assumptions such as the use of online/social tools; “public” vs “citizen” engagement; and the role of citizens as well as policy-makers in the co-design process.  Don also overviews the “Co-design Community Engagement Prototype” developed this year with Australian Federal and Local Government organisations.

I think there’s a growing awareness, especially among public servants, that the processes we have are not adequate – we need public engagement as a way of dealing with complexity, but it’s still perceived to be a risky business.

About Dr Don Lenihan

Don Lenihan is Vice President, Engagement at the Public Policy Forum in Ottawa, Canada. He is an internationally recognized expert on democracy and public engagement, accountability and service delivery. From 2009 – January 2012, he led the Public Engagement Project (PEP), a research and capacity-building project involving some 500 public servants from nine federal, provincial/territorial and municipal governments, and the Government of Australia.

Don is also the author of “Rescuing Policy: The Case for Public Engagement” , a new book published by Public Policy Forum, which is the result of the Public Engagement Project, a two-year dialogue and capacity-building project on public engagement that involved nine federal, provincial and municipal governments in Canada, the Government of Australia and some 500 public servants. Its premise is that as public policy issues are becoming increasingly complex, the process by which governments make decisions about them has not kept pace.

Don has over 25 years of experience in the field as a project leader, writer, speaker, senior government advisor, trainer and facilitator. Throughout his career, he has developed and led many research and consultation projects involving senior public servants, academics, elected officials, journalists and members of the private and third sectors. He is the author of numerous articles, studies and books, a former columnist with the Hill Times newspaper in Ottawa, and is a regular columnist for iPolitics. He earned his PhD in political theory from the University of Ottawa.

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Episode links and resources

• About Don Lenihan
• Public Policy Forum Canada
• Final report on the Australian Government’s Co-Design Community Engagement Prototype Building a Strategic Design Capacity for Co-Design
• Municipal Association of Victoria on the Co-Design Prototype project
• Don’s latest book “Rescuing Policy: The Case for Public Engagement”
• Interview with Tiago Peixoto on Participatory Budgeting
• Public engagement papers from the Public Policy Forum

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• Tags: #demopart #participation #engagement #codesign

A successful participatory budgeting program is one that delivers what has been decided… It is very fashionable right now to use technology to engage with citizens, but you’re not able or willing to respond to citizens, then don’t engage with them.

Tiago also emphasises the escalating impact of mobile technologies to enable a more inclusive participatory budgeting program:

One of the things that you see is… the power of using mobile phones for citizen participation…We’ve been in areas where citizens walk further to charge their mobile phones than they walk to get water!

About Tiago Peixoto

Tiago Peixoto is an Open Government specialist in the ICT4Gov program of the World Bank Institute.  Having worked for 10 years as a practitioner and researcher in the field of ICT and participatory governance, Tiago is currently an open government specialist at the ICT4Gov program of WBI’s Open Government cluster. Prior to joining the Bank, Tiago has managed projects and worked as an advisor and consultant for various organizations in the field of participation and technology, such as the European Commission, OECD, the United Nations, and the Brazilian and UK governments. He is also research coordinator of the Electronic Democracy Centre, a joint venture of the European University Institute, the University of Zurich and the Oxford Internet Institute of the University of Oxford.

About the World Bank Institute

The World Bank Institute (WBI) is a global connector of knowledge, learning and innovation for poverty reduction. It is part of the World Bank Group, and connects practitioners, networks and institutions to help them find solutions to their development challenges.

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Episode links and resources

• World Bank Institute
• Project overview of Participatory budgeting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Recent Participatory Budgeting conference in New York
• Participatory Budgeting Facebook Group
• Non-exhaustive map of Participatory Budgeting Cases Around the World. Markers in red indicate cases of e-participatory budgeting (ICT facilitated)
• Article on mobile phones and Participatory Budgeting
• Mobile Participatory Budgeting in South-Kivu
• La Plata Multi-Channel Participatory Budgeting including PDF Case study
• Belo Horizonte’s (Brazil) e-Participatory Budgeting (PDF)
• ICT facilitated Participatory Budgeting in the DR Congo
• Brief report of NYC Participatory Budgeting Process, prepared by the Community Development Project at the Urban Justice Center (PDF)
• World Bank / Open Government Partnership webinar on “ICT for Citizen Engagement”

Videos

Participatory budgeting project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Participatory Budgeting and CrossVoice

Mobile Participatory Budgeting in South Kivu

La Plata (Argentina) Multi-Channel Participatory Budgeting

Belo Horizonte Participatory Budgeting

Recife Participatory Budgeting

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• Tags: #opengov #edem #demopart #pbconf