Technology aids Transparency in Sub-Saharan Africa
Technology is being harnessed to increase government transparency and accountability in Sub-Saharan Africa, writes Rebekah Heacock for the Transparency and Technology Network. Numerous governments including that of Angola, Kenya and Uganda publish parts of their financial activities online in an attempt increase effective resource-use and decrease public perception of corruption.
Some of the most recent innovations include Kenya’s Budget tracking tool which ‘helps track aid flows from the international level all the way down to local project implementation’. This is a promising commentary of the rise of technology for purposes of increasing accountability and transparency of governments’ financial activities (lack of widespread internet access in Africa notwithstanding). It also creates an environment in which people can begin to expect and demand information on where aid has been allocated so that they may hold their local officials and governments to account.
Heacock suggests there may be ‘room for greater partnership’ between such country-level tools, and the open aid data technologies used by the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) and AidInfo.
Read Heacock’s article.