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Connecting Citizens: Twaweza’s Rakesh Rajani on Public Accountability in East Africa
March 30, 2010
Has technology boosted the ability of citizens in African countries to influence their governments? This week, I’m joined by Rakesh Rajani, founder and head of Twaweza, an initiative that promotes transparency and accountability in Tanzania and other countries in East Africa. His organization has made good use of both new and old technologies—cellphones, TV, and radio broadcasts—to expand the ability of citizens to access government information and hold their leaders accountable.
Rakesh tells me that cellphone use has exploded in the last decade in Tanzania, rising from perhaps 200,000 users to over 14 million today. Except for the most remote areas of the country, he says, just about everyone can access a mobile phone. That new connectivity, Rakesh explains, has opened new channels for reducing corruption in government.
“Government leaders now can no longer get away with lying to the public, because the public has different ways of getting information. The level of control that local officials can exert over populations is much more limited,” Rakesh says.
Official development programs in Tanzania continue much as they have for decades: plenty of meetings to plan poverty reduction strategies and discuss new interventions designed to foster good governance. But, according to Rakesh, the real strides towards a better functioning society are being made in the explosion of new means of communication.
“You have the paraphernalia of development– you have lots of new buildings, you have lots of new people hired. But you scratch the surface and not much is happening on that side of life. However, on this other side, this vibrant media ecology side, people are getting on and making things happen.”
Twaweza (which, to be fair, gets quite a bit of its funding from donor agencies) seeks to promote and expand this new model of citizen engagement. Rakesh describes some of the ways the new organization is leveraging access to information. For example, Twaweza has persuaded Tanzania’s major cellphone service providers to donate millions of SMS messages, which Twaweza is using to disseminate information on school funding and other government services. Twaweza is also helping radio stations to expand their ability to do investigative reporting, and has assisted them in broadening their reach into rural areas.
Rakesh visited CGD to participate in the launch of our new book, Cash on Delivery: A New Approach to Foreign Aid. Near the end of our conversation, you’ll hear his thoughts on how the COD Aid model could dovetail with Twaweza’s approach to citizen-driven development.
Have something to add to our discussion? Ideas for future interviews? Post a comment below. If you use iTunes, you can subscribe to get new episodes delivered straight to your computer every week.
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3 Responses to “Connecting Citizens: Twaweza’s Rakesh Rajani on Public Accountability in East Africa”
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April 24th, 2010 at 1:54 am
It’s a delight to hear about an organization that’s paying attention to citizen involvement in their own governance. Many democracy-building programs involve training of public officials and institution-building, but the real incentives to govern well must come from the citizens–the ones with the power to kick poor performers out of office. As Twaweza has recognized, information is key to mobilizing citizen engagement. But we know relatively little about how information affects accountability and I hope that rigorous evaluation of their programs will help us learn.
July 19th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
I think this is good. I know from my own experience at GlobalGiving.org (trying similar stuff) that the experience of the end user – in this case a regular citizen in Tanzania – matters a lot on whether it works. Think about why people go to city hall meetings, and what such a meeting would feel like on your cell phone.
Getting the user experience right matters!
February 25th, 2011 at 12:45 pm
Hi Mr Rakesh ,,Mimi ni Valerian Najua ni ngumu sana kunikumbuka lakini nitajaribu kukukmbusha, Nimefanya kazi na wewe kwa muda wakati ulipo kuwa pale kuleana. ninachoweza kukwambia kweli umebadirisha mtazamo wa watanzania kuelekea elimu. pia umetoa mwanga zaidi kwa haki maana kuanzia haki za watoto, nao wamekua wakielewa haki zao. kwa maana hiyo umeleta mtazamo mpya wa kimaendeleo kiakili.kwa kufuata nyayo zako mimi nimeanza radio vision fm hipo bukoba na inasikika mkoa wa kagera baadhi ya maeneo ya shinyanga musoma mwanza na nchi jirani kama mbalala masaka hii ni uganda. ninacho omba ni ushirikiano.