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zens use the Internet to foster change in Africa? For the past 4
years, our NGO has worked on the empowerment of individuals,
with tools and information that would make them better citizens,
conscious of their role, of their rights, of their place in the society.
Our organization has done so through two main channels, among
other projects: citizen monitoring of elections in Africa, and the use
of data for advocacy purposes.
The role of citizens in election monitoring
Every democracy is gauged primarily by the place it grants citizens
when they proceed to the choice of people who speak and act on
their behalf. Guided by this assumption, Internet Sans Frontières
has set up in two Western African countries instances of citizen
election monitoring projects, powered by the Ushahidi technology.
In 2010, during the presidential elections in Côte d'Ivoire, Internet
Sans Frontières worked with Ivorian activists and citizens to create
Wonzomai, sentry in Bete, a language spoken in Côte d' Ivoire.
This platform allowed for many weeks Ivorian citizens to report
events observed during and after the election period. The Platform
was subsequently used in the investigation that took place on the
post-election events. In 2013 in Togo, a small country bordering
Ghana, parliamentary elections were subject of a similar platform.
Named Nukpola, the one who observes in Ewe, a language of the
country, the platform was acclaimed by users: nearly a thousand
tweets, and a hundred text messages were sent before the number
dedicated to the platform was disconnected by the authorities 1 (fr)
The enthusiasm perceived at the launch of these two initiatives has
shown that the Internet is not only used to socialize and entertain.
Indeed, citizens also use it to become agents of change. These
experiments led us at the Internet Without Borders to think and
Notes and references / Notas y referencias
1 Nukpola : la surveillance des législatives togolaises mise à mal
http://bit.ly/1vMBced