Penplusbyte’s Connecting Citizens to Parliament project, has brought parliament to the door steps of thousand of the youth, a report has revealed.
Many of the youth who are not only interested in democratic process but also technologically inclined have been enabled to provide valuable feedback on the status of various development projects ongoing, within their communities to Parliament through the Project.
“Furthermore, Connecting Citizens to Parliament contributed in instilling in this youth the spirit of participation in the governance process as bedrock of any functional democracy,” the report released by Penplusbytes has said.
Penplusbytes, has over the last couple of years, been working with Parliament through its Government Assurance Committee (CGA), under its project, “Connecting Citizens to Parliament.
It intends to aid the Committee to effectively play its oversight role on assurances and promises made by government.
The project being implemented by Penplusbytes with financial and technical support from Open Society Initiative West Africa (OSIWA) was designed to increase interaction between the CGA and citizens on public service delivery with emphasis on education, roads, power, energy, and health sectors using technology platforms.
The report indicated that the project provides the committee members with information on assurances and promises made by government to effectively hold ministers accountable on promises made on the floor of Parliament.
The project has chalked out significant successes both in terms of its technology innovations, enabling cost effective citizens participation in the work of Parliament while strengthening the House’s oversight role over the Executive.
Among others, the project helped to attain improvement in public service delivery, easy and accessible information on government assurances, enhancement of citizen awareness on government assurances, and providing a platform for citizen-based advocacy on service delivery, while putting service providers on their toes in the delivery of public services.
It has also obligated duty bearers and government to see the need to make realistic promises and fulfilling them, while providing a vibrant online and offline platform for citizens and civil society organisations to engage with Parliament.
“We had a big challenge communicating directly with our Members of Parliament and Parliament as whole.
“It was with euphoria when we got to hear about Penplusbyte’s Connecting Citizens to Parliament because it provided us with digital tools such as mobile phones, SMS, mobile app, the interactive website www.assurances.gov.gh and whatsApp in order to engage with Parliament”, Mr Ransford Kojo Manu, a teacher in Twifo Hemang, and an active user of the “Connecting Citizens to Parliament” project said.
In the course of the project implementation, the platforms created by Penplusbytes for the CGA was able to monitor 65 assurances made by Ministers, and had nearly two million subscribers to the various platforms that include SMS, Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp.
The platform also generated more than three million feedback from citizens spread across the country reporting on various projects promised by the government with regards to the level of development.
The project roped in citizens usually considered as “democratic outsiders” those who are generally seen as not interested in politics, public policy or general issues of governance; and educated them on the work of the CGA as well as the role of Parliament.
“Here, it is significant to note that the targeted nature of the citizens’ forums and the presence of the Members of Parliament saw the project reach much more people in remote areas than the technology platforms provided ever did, bridged the digital divide to a large extent by providing the space and platform for citizens who were not technology savvy and not online to have their voices heard on government promises and assurances.”
The report noted that the platform provided evidence based data that informed the CGA on which government assurances to physically verify and hold ministers who made promises to account.
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