Words by Jeannie McKeown
Professor Caroline Khene is a co-director of MobiSAM, a citizen engagement initiative that began as a research project investigating the use of mobile phones for increasing citizen participation in local government, as well as tools for social accountability monitoring. Initiated in 2011, with funding from the Ford Foundation, MobiSAM came into being as a result of the extremely poor water provision in Makana Municipality. Professor Hannah Thinyane of the Department Computer Science and Ms Debbie Coulson believed that a lack of communication between citizens and the municipality was exacerbating the poor service delivery, and began to develop ways of increasing meaningful citizen interaction with local government, through creating communication channels that permit efficient reporting of service delivery problems.
Between 2011 and 2014, challenges to the project included the lack of local government responsiveness to issues reported on MobiSAM, coupled with a lack of reporting from marginalised communities in Makana Municipality. The placing of Makana Municipality under administration added to the difficulties in engaging local government officials in the project. In 2015 and 2016, MobiSAM expanded, bringing in Professor Caroline Khene as co-director, and a new holistic approach to implementation that incorporated a more sociotechnical stance. This focused on building citizen education, working on building government responsiveness, and in getting marginalised groups more involved.
MobiSAM is currently a web-based application that is compatible for both desktop computers and mobile phone browser interface. A mobile application for smartphones is set to be released in
2018. The project also makes use of social media platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp, and incorporates an SMS and ‘Please Call Me’ function. All reports via the supplementary platforms are recorded on the web application, creating an archive of evidence-based data for future collective engagement with government. Citizens can report on all service delivery problems, such as water, roads, sanitation, electricity and stray animals. The MobiSAM application also permits all registered users (citizens, CSOs, media houses and municipalities) to monitor reported cases and to provide public or private comment on reported issues. Reported problems can be collated and presented visually in graph or map form. The communication channel functions well as a two-way dialogue, allowing the Municipality, as well as private citizens and other stakeholders, to send messages using the service.
MobiSAM has developed key partnerships with local civil society groups such as the Kowie Catchment Forum, the Institute of Water Awareness, the Black Sash, Makana Coalition, the Unemployed People’s Movement (UPM), Upstart Youth, and the Grahamstown Residents Association (GRA) – which has taken over the monitoring and management of Facebook reports. Local media such as Grocotts Mail and Rhodes Music Radio have supported MobiSAM activities and assisted in creating awareness of the initiative.
Champions in local government have been vital to the success of MobiSAM and engagement with Municipality employees and leadership is constant and ongoing.
In respect of MobiSAM’s connection with the academic project, it is still run from within the Information Systems Department. Members of the team include academics, researchers and community members. The co-directors of the project sought to develop it based on a University Service Model for community engagement and local government, and it applies a holistic approach towards technology development and stakeholder engagement; strategy formulation and both civic and government capacity building are incorporated. There has been one PhD, one Master’s, and one Post Doctorate completed based on MobiSAM research, and the project has also contributed to the development of case study material for teaching students at the Honours level, who can now critically engage with real life developments in the field of information systems in the public and South African context.