Enhancing Efficiency in Public Participation through Tech
Civic Voices is transforming the way communities and their governments think and collaborate towards inclusive and collective development using technology.
Through the Civic Voices Platform, we help you to hold more meaningful and inclusive public participation. You can now engage your county government and citizens through the Civic Voices platform, anytime, anywhere.
At Civic Voices, we believe that equitable and accelerated development of our communities can only be achieved and sustained if the people worked hand in hand with their institutions of governance, locally and nationally, each playing their part in trust and commitment towards a shared goal for prosperity.
Through the Civic Voices Platform, we enhance information dissemination, knowledge sharing and collaborative contribution in public governance.
Public participation is a fundamental right of the people of Kenya, designed to promote democracy and enhance development by devolving decision-making power and responsibility in governance, down to the people.
However, effective public participation has been difficult to achieve due to limited access to information, cost constraints, exclusion of the majority and limited channels for people to directly engage with their governments. Statically, more than 90.5% of the country's adult population is excluded from public participation. Bills, policies and development initiatives proposed, therefore, fail to speak to the needs of the people, deepening inequality and propagating conflict instead.
When people lack access to engage with their governments and the power to influence decisions that affect their lives, policy and development proposals fail to address their needs and they feel excluded from the most critical components of their general well-being.
This in effect;
- Deepens economic inequality
- Propagates corruption
- Undermines social accountability
- Propagates conflict
- Kills the spirit of collective contribution in governance
There is massive potential in digital technology that can be maximized to contribute to the advancement of democracy and facilitation of inclusive and participatory development.
Kenyais already a digitized economy with 43.3 million people with access to the internet, more than 2,000 digitized government services and 11.8 million active social media users. The massive digital potential can be harnessed to drive collaboration for development in governance.
“Digitalization is one of the greatest transformative opportunities of our time. Amid multiple crises – prompted by conflict, climate shocks, COVID-19 fallout -- digital technologies continue to keep people, governments, and businesses connected. In developing countries, they have an enormous potential to drive green, resilient, and inclusive development..”
We are on a mission is to makes public participation easier, inclusive and more effective.
We want to walk with you in every step of this journey. We will keep you up to date with every important details worth your attention. Join our mailing list.
