Report highlights need, relevance and importance of leveraging mobile technology for good governance - Identifies 11 NGOs/social businesses leveraging mobile technology to address diverse governance challenges across the country
Continuing with its endeavour to bring the subject of governance using mobile technology to the forefront, the Vodafone Foundation today launched “The Rule of Thumb – Mobiles for Governance in India”, areport that explores India’s governance challenge across six dimensions: voice and accountability, political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law and control of corruption.
Against each of these challenges, the report describes the enabling role of mobile technologies using examples of m-governance initiatives on the ground, by non-profit organizations and the government. These illustrate how marrying the ubiquity of mobile technology with governance systems and processes is producing great benefits for citizens and the government alike. In addition, the report profiles 11 promising non-profit organizations and social businesses that are harnessing mobile technology to strengthen governance in India.
M-governance utilizes mobile technology such as mobile phones, pagers, laptops, tablets, personal digital assistants and two-way radios to improve benefits for citizens, businesses and government. With over 930 million connections and 13% of the global mobile users, India has a unique opportunity to leverage mobile technology to take good governance to its citizens across the country, states the Rule of Thumb – Mobiles for Governance in India report.
While being optimistic of mobile telephony’s impact in transforming societies, the report points out that India is battling other developmental issues like economic cyclicality, weak infrastructure, poor education and health outcomes amongst others. It recognizes the urgent need of reinventing these symptoms of inherited governance structure. Mobile governance will thus play an important role.
Presently, m-governance is being used to monitor and improve elections and project implementation, optimize traffic flows, prevent crime, discourage corruption, encourage citizen participation, pay bills, democratize media, mobilize citizens and build dialogue between the government and the people. Governance anytime, anywhere is already around us – now it needs to catch up with the sheer scale and social complexity of our population.
Compiled by Dasra, this report is based on the internationally recognized standard of Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGIs) developed by World Bank and Brookings Institute.
Speaking on the occasion, P. Balaji, Director – Regulatory and External Affairs, Vodafone India, said, “Mobile technology has been a transformational catalyst to good governance and in delivery of public services. Through this report “Rule of Thumb – Mobiles for Governance in India” we haveexplored India’s governance challenges and the enabling role of mobile technologies, illustrated through examples of m-governance initiatives on the ground, both, by non-profit organizations and governments themselves.
The actual reach of mobile phones and thus m-governance is higher than the 63% mobile penetration as mobile phones are often acquired not by individuals but by households. Further, the uptake of m-governance will be propelled due to the demographic advantage as youngsters are more likely to use smartphones, access internet and transact online, going forward. Hence, m-governance in India is a developing story, and the realization of its full potential will require all stakeholders – private sector, non-profits, and government – to play their part.
At Vodafone, we are committed to facilitate the adoption and adaption of m-governance initiatives to address the pressing socio economic challenges that India faces and realize the vision of Digital India”.
Commenting on the report, Neera Nundy, Partner & Co-Founder, Dasra, said, “With over 900 million mobile subscriptions, India’s mobile revolution presents an unprecedented opportunity to address the governance deficit and bring good governance to the most remote corners of the country. The report ‘Rule of Thumb’ makes a case for m-governance and re-imagining the ways in which governments and citizens function, transact and interact with each other.”
11 NGOs/social businesses leveraging mobile technology to address diverse governance challenges in India
| Sr. NO | Organization | What does it do? | Result | What Next? |
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Association for Democratic Reforms | Research on background of electoral candidates and work of political parties to influence public opinion around electoral and political reforms | Got 30,000 requests per day to access information about contesting candidates.
Google election hub during Lok Sabha election used ADR data for voter education |
Use celebrity voice-over for information dissemination – basis the success of voice messaging from Amir Khan during Lok Sabha elections
Effective use of SMS to disseminate information to the large number of offline citizens to generate awareness |
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Awaaz De | Provide voice-based applications platform for social messaging to non-profits and other private players to reach people that lack access to information.
70% of social messages provide information about public service on issues like health and livelihood |
Facilitated 4.2 million calls, reaching 411,000 people
65% repeat users Completed 100 projects |
Aim to reach 10 million users in next 3 years
Focus on good content and sell the low cost social messaging service to private players |
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Digital Empowerment Foundation | Promotes use of mobile technology for better governance | Reached more than 1 lakh direct beneficiaries and 3 lakh indirect beneficiaries
Sochna Seva programme being implemented in 5 backward districts , affecting 20,000 households |
Complement provisions for access to all public services through mobile under National e-Governance Plan launched in 2012 |
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eGovernments Foundation | Built software and solutions for collections, financial accounting and budgeting, employee information and master data management | Waiting time for birth and death certificates reduced by 4-5 days to 1 day. 47 lakh certificates issued through eGov created systems
eGov grievance redressal systems enabled registration of 22 lakh citizen complaints |
Develop new product features like – Open source software solutions to bring in best practices, Create a dashboard / network operating feature to enable municipalities to make data driven decisions |
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Graam Vaani | Provides a platform which enables rural population to access radio platform on their mobiles free of cost | Gets over 6,000 calls per day, has over 500,000 unique users | Scale the Mobile Vaani platform
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Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy | 2 flagship programmes using mobile technology – I Change My City (ICMyC) and I Paid a Bribe (IPaB)
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Established strong partnerships with municipal bodies in Bangalore
I Paid a Bribe (IPaB) is compatible with 5 mobile operating system, made available in Hindi |
Replicating I Change My City (ICMyC) and I Paid a Bribe (IPaB) in other countries
Extend ICMyC to Delhi and Jaipur |
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Social Cops | Create a platform for citizens to provide regular feedback about the public infrastructure of their city
Empowered 8 NGOs to monitor untracked indicators with the use of low-cost smartphones |
Works with corporates and NGOs in 7 states on issues of road infrastructure, public worker incentives and delivery of public welfare schemes | Focus on government entities as the long term benefactor.
Target to have touch-points with 50 million individuals by Dec 2015
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Spatial Ideas | Converges technologies to create governance solutions in the following areas: Infrastructure mgt, Solid Waste mgt, mSwaasth Health mgt, PDS | PDS pilot – 27,000 families gained access to govt ration
Solid Waste Mgt Solution: Mira – Bhayander Municipal Corporation recorded 25 |
Expand to new geographies, develop new product offerings, raise investment capital |
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Transport Cities Network (TCN) at Citizen consumer and civic Action Group (CAG) | Uses mobiles to collect data on municipal infrastructure and services | In 2013, worked with Corporation of Chennai (CoC) to prepare tenders for public toilets
Used mobile devices to collect data of court cases in Madras High Court and The Supreme Court
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Improve the capacity of CoC for the better use of data for planning and implementations of city initiatives
Prepare and support the implementation of performance based contracts for municipal services |
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Urban Management Centre | Provides technical assistance and support to city govts | Created a performance measurement and assessment system and a database of 167 cities in Gujarat
Developed mobile app – CityCollect – integrated with Google Maps for navigation |
Make CityCollect an open source tool
Expand use of mobile apps to other projects – eg. Listing and grading of heritage sites in Gujarat |
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Women’s Organization for Social Cultural Awareness | Uses a mobile phone-based monitoring and information management system which tracks the efficiency of entitlement delivery under social protection schemes. | By Seized bogus PDS cards, saved approx Rs 7 crore worth of rice been distributed to fabricated beneficiaries in Keonjar District – Odisha | Expand the programme to include tracking of health and education schemes |
About Vodafone Foundation
The Vodafone Foundation in India recognizes the power of mobile technology to address some of India’s most pressing challenges relating to education, health, equality and access. We are committed to enable people and technology to drive innovation, disseminate knowledge, and create shared value to improve lives.
By leveraging our mobile technology in the four areas of m-women, m-education, m-health and m-agriculture, we work in partnership with key charities, development agencies and the community to drive social change on a large scale in India. As part of our social investment programme, the Vodafone Foundation in India also focusses on disaster relief and implements the World of Difference programme, a unique employee engagement.
In countries in which Vodafone operates, a unique footprint of 27 Vodafone Foundations operate to deliver our social investment programme. These programmes are directed and chosen by the Foundation Trustees and receive funding from the Vodafone Foundation in the UK as well as their local Vodafone company. For more information, please visitwww.vodafone.in/foundation
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About Dasra:
Dasra means ‘enlightened giving’ in Sanskrit and is India’s leading strategic philanthropy foundation. Dasra recognizes an urgent need for inspired and uncompromising competence to touch and transform the lives of 800 million Indians. Through knowledge creation, capacity building, collaboration and fundraising, we nurture powerful partnerships with funders and social enterprises. Since 1999, Dasra has engaged with over 3,000 corporates, foundations and philanthropists, influenced INR 280 crore towards the social sector and improved the life chances of over 10 million people. For more information, please visit www.dasra.org