The Role of Crowdsourcing for Better Governance in Fragile State Contexts
in Sudan illustrates how mapping categories were developed by stakeholders, instead of being dictated by facilitators. Planning data generated through such processes can legitimately inform state-level and national development and poverty reduction strategies. In general, platforms that start at the community and local levels—for example, for collaborative community planning—seem to be the most promising, since their lower initial level within government reaps more immediate benefits and presents a weaker political threat to government leadership. The cases presented in this chapter outline opportunities for donors to encourage governments to share information with the public, to foster inclusive access to telecommunications, to prevent harassment of crowdsourcing activists, and to create critical links with civil society and the private sector for the inclusion of population groups hitherto subject to the digital divide. Such advocacy could be part of the political dialogue within a budget support program or a significant multidonor program. The willingness of donors to gather and share their data, making them publicly available through an open-aid mapping process with crowdsourced feedback loops involving beneficiaries, can be an important incentive for governments to become more open. Ideally, crowdsourcing initiatives for development will be closely linked to an open government program, as attempted by the Kenyan government. However, open government programs cannot be driven by donors; they need to possess strong ownership by government leaders in order to have a chance of success. Last but not least, by means of their reputational impact, donors can create linkages with and trust of a crowdsourcing initiative, especially in a fragile state where strong initial government support may not be an option. By supporting local crowdsourcing activities, donors as well as international campaign platforms such as Avaaz can link interactive mapping with other media and thus help to focus the international community and mainstream media on human rights violations and other important issues. The sheer potential of doing so could discourage abuses, prevent conflicts, and increase government accountability in the future. If a divisive situation develops into a crisis, donors can provide technologies and systems and mobilize external support that help to protect crowdsourcing activists and platforms from government abuse, as shown in the case of Libya. In fragile-state contexts, crowdsourcing can be made more difficult by government regulations and actions, but it can also draw more attention and motivations from the crowd, especially if the options to express opinions are otherwise limited. As the early experience has shown, crowdsourcing and GIS-based interactive mapping are already widely used by citizens within fragile states. Whether they will have a significant impact on governance depends largely on how governments relate to this emergent phenomenon. Embracing its potential, especially for participatory development planning and monitoring of issues by citizens, could increase governments’ accountability and ultimately their legitimacy, while efforts to stifle crowdsourcing initiatives could further destabilize regimes.
Closing the Feedback Loop • http://dx.doi.org/10.1596/978-1-4648-0191-4
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