South Eastern Europe in review: Where citizens are the experts
More than 2,500 people are now using the “Be Responsible” grey economy-tracking mobile app in Montenegro
Whenever I discuss the governance challenges in South Eastern Europe, the discussion quickly boils down to one issue: (anti) corruption.
At the recently organized SELDI policy advocacy workshop, we went back to the basic principles of “good governance.”This opened up a wider debate indicating that now may be the time to both reframe the issue and bring in some new approaches.
Both of these were featured in a presentation I recently produced on how citizen participation can contribute to addressing the governance challenge.
My goal is to unpack three broader concepts: good governance, innovation, and collaboration.
1. Good governance – An honest and responsive government was at the top of the list in the global post-2015 consultations. Talking about the good governance challenge is difficult and can be controversial.However, the fact that UNDP enumerated a set of principles that appear in much of the literature, helped frame the presentation. These five principles inform much of our thinking of what makes governance actually ‘good’
2. Innovation is a popular buzzword these days but we also know that it is not really about invention; rather, it’s about using innovative tools and approaches in promoting citizens’ participation.
It’s also about reframing certain issues and long-held assumptions, finding different approaches to doing things, and capitalizing on the opportunities that an increasingly digital era is creating.
3. Collaboration with some unusual new suspects such as NESTA, Edgeryders, Futurescaper, and Digitalizuj.me led to bold initiatives such as toolkits, labs, camps, competitions, and websites.
Interesting projects were created in close cooperation with local organizations and communities that have enabled different – potentially more effective – approaches to dealing with the good governance challenge.
Half of the money in fines charged from citizen reports in Montenegro goes to public services like this children’s centre
I’d like to highlight three projects in particular:
In Serbia, the Youth Sleuth project, is engaging the youth to fight corruption through investigative journalism and social media.In partnership with NGOs and an anti-corruption agency, we are supporting the training of young men and women in investigative journalism, social media, and digital publishing. Participants write and disseminate stories, case studies, and investigative articles on corruption topics such as asset declaration of public servants and patients’ rights.
In Montenegro, crowdsourcing solutions to issues of transparency has resulted in the creation of Be Responsible.
This mobile app allows anyone to report a range of issues from illegal waste dumps to misuse of government-owned vehicles. Operating on a very simple ‘capture and send’ principle, the mobile app had amassed more than 1,000 active users in its first month, when it caught the attention of the Ministry of Finance, which decided to make it the principle tool in their project tackling the grey economy.
It became clear that an army of citizen reporters equipped with this mobile app is an invaluable resource, and the results have been pretty remarkable.
As of June 25, 2014, there were more than 1,800 civic reports of grey economy, and over 560,000 Euro of imposed fines. Furthermore, half of the money levied from the fines has been invested in five socially responsible projects chosen by the communities themselves.
In Kosovo* we’ve got a similar initiative utilizing the KALLXO.com online platform for reporting corruption. As of June 2014, it has resulted in over 3,500 complaints submitted to authorities for investigation.
These projects are evidence that citizen participation can compensate for the lack of institutional capacity, lead to more accountability and transparency, and improve institutional performance.
Citizens can and should be reporters, experts, service designers, and active participants.
Technology can facilitate, enable, and stimulate the participatory democracy, but it is the entrenched rules and the mindsets that need to change.Judging by initial results, initiatives of this kind seem to be a step in the right direction.