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Closing the Feedback Loop: Can Technology Amplify Citizen Voices?
as reflect on the potential to use ICTs in their projects. The responses to these questions were open ended. Most TTLs said that they collect feedback largely through surveys that take place annually or every two years. A much smaller percentage use specialized project websites or mobile applications. Even fewer use telephone hotlines or social media. Many project leaders seem to be looking for a more systematic and rigorous common approach and methodology to incorporating citizen feedback into their programs. The current feedback mechanisms remain a function of the perceptions of the individual project leaders. Thus the extent to which citizen feedback mechanisms are incorporated into the project cycle depends largely on their perceived value for each project leader and his or her commitment to implementing them in spite of the current barriers of relatively high costs and time. These results suggest that feedback mechanisms are currently ad hoc and poorly structured (box 8.9). Regarding the constraints, a recurrent theme in the open-ended responses is that there is a lack of frequent and cost-effective feedback collection mechanisms. One respondent also mentioned concerns regarding the dissemination of data as well as the target of projects. The factors that they said are “very important” are commitment of the TTL, anonymity of respondents, and visibility of
Box 8.9 Uganda’s U-Report: SMS-Based Polling Mechanism or Citizen Feedback Platform? Traditional monitoring mechanisms are often too infrequent or not timely enough to be of use in cases warranting rapid responses. Responding to the demand for real-time monitoring of social indicators, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) developed the U-report platform in 2011 to harness crowdsourced local information to enhance social monitoring. U-report uses RapidSMS, a free and open-source short message service (SMS), to enable Ugandan youth and other citizens to provide feedback on pressing development issues in their communities using mobile technology. In order to use the free service and become a “U-reporter,” respondents simply text “join” to a toll-free number and submit a few personal details. Anyone with access to a mobile phone can use the service to send in text messages, respond to polls, and receive relevant information as well as poll results. UNICEF currently partners with nine nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), including Uganda Scouts Association, World Vision, and BRAC, which assist in outreach and recruitment. Each week, two or three SMS polls are sent to U-reporters requesting information, feedback, or opinions regarding development outcomes or issues in their area. UNICEF’s U-report team and partner organizations meet to determine which issues to discuss. Once the topic is chosen, UNICEF’s U-report team texts U-reporters, who can select a list of preselected replies or text their own response. The topics covered have included “female genital mutilation, outbreaks of disease, safe water, early marriage, education, health, and inflation” (UNICEF 2012a). “The UNICEF team analyzes and interprets the responses, sharing the results and often following box continues next page
Closing the Feedback Loop • http://dx.doi.org/10.1596/978-1-4648-0191-4