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This is the World Bank's blog on governance and anti-corruption. It aims at providing a space for debate and knowledge sharing on this critical field of development. | Learn more...

August 2009

Empowering citizens to report crime via SMS... what else can they do with mobiles?

Submitted by Alfredo on Fri, 2009-08-07 16:27

In a previous entry, I blogged about how mobile technology has been used to address some governance issues.  Crime denunciation was among the activities mentioned in which mobiles have empowered people by giving them a tool to report crime and violence outbreaks as they happen. 

Because a video is worth more than a thousand words, I'll share with you the case of CiviRep, an application that will allow citizens of Caracas to report crime via SMS.  Very similar to Ushahidi's platform, CiviRep aims at capturing on-the-go feedback from citizens to then map it with the help of Google Maps (see here Ushahidi's original example in Kenya).

 

CiviRep Team Video Spring 2009 from nextlab on Vimeo.

 

Arab Human Development Report 2009: Will improvement in Voice and Rights come from within?

Submitted by Kaufmann on Mon, 2009-08-03 20:57

A few weeks ago Obama went to Ghana and delivered a major speech to Africa.  He spoke candidly about the dire governance challenges faced by many countries in the continent.  I also noted that Obama was not explicit about the implications of his message for rethinking donor aid strategies to the continent. Hopefully such revamp in donor aid will be part of the follow through of his speech, if there is follow through.

A month before his momentous trip to Accra to address the Ghanian Parliament, Obama had gone to Cairo to deliver a major address to the Arab world.  It is a speech, which is also worth studying in depth.  But it was more muted and unfocused, refraining from being too direct on the governance and freedom deficits in the Arab world. For one, Obama is not seen as a prodigal son there, in contrast with how he is regarded by Africa...

WGI pillars

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The number of aggregate indicators of the quality of governance, as measured by the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI): Voice and Accountability, Political Stability, Government Effectiveness, Regulatory Quality, Rule of Law and Control of Corruption.
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