End of Commitment Report – Develop a mobile application for georeferencing third sector institutions to ensure that citizens have access to information about the services provided in partnership with the municipality.
- Action Plan: Action plan – Contagem, Brazil, 2022 – 2024
Overview
Name of Evaluator
Isabella Lígia Moraes
Member Name
Contagem, Brazil
Action PlanAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen... Title
Action plan – Contagem, Brazil, 2022 – 2024
CommitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action...
Develop a mobile application for georeferencing third-sector institutions to ensure access to information
Action
Facilitate access to information about civil society organizations paired with the municipality through the development of a user-friendly application that will provide access to information about the location, operation, and activities provided by these entities. The results are expected to be greater citizen autonomy, reduction of political capture of public projects and services, and expansion of services, considering that more people will be aware of the existence and availability of services and activities.
Problem
In general, Contagem’s population is unaware of most of the social services provided by civil society organizations in partnership with the municipality, resulting in information asymmetry. This scenario also leads to a political capture of the social services provided by some groups.
Section 1.
Commitment completion
1.1 What was the overall level of progress in the commitment implementation at the time of this assessment?
complete
Provide a brief explanation of your answer:
The development of a mobile application for georeferencing third sector institutions operating in the city of Contagem – MG was satisfactorily completed, through the fulfillment of all milestones proposed for this commitment. Its implementation was formalized through the launch of the service application – OSCON at the “I Open Government Seminar of Contagem”, in May 2023. Initially the Android version was released, which is available for download on the Google Play Store, as it is possible to check at the following link.
Ever since, the application has been functional and available for public access, but improvements are being done to expand access and usability, including the accuracy of the information provided, considering that its update is performed manually. In addition, the application will be versioned for the IOS operating system later.
Provide evidence that supports and justifies your answer:
1.2 Describe the main external or internal factors that impacted implementation of this commitment and how they were addressed (or not).
The implementation of this commitment was mainly impacted by two external factors. The first challenge occurred when the build was made for Android and iOS, but the developer accounts for PlayStore and AppleStore made available by the Finance Department of Contagem City Hall had the wrong or expired passwords; consequently, it was not possible to locate who would be responsible for them. When this problem was resolved, the second challenge occurred, which was a setback in making the application available for iOS, due to the lack of equipment for specific tests, since, to do so, equipment of different dimensions is needed for testing and “proofing” the operation. The most viable solution, in this case, was to postpone the release of a version of the application for the iOS operating system.
An internal factor that impacted the implementation of this commitment is related to the data on third sector institutions registered with City Hall. It was detected that some of the information is out of date, since they are updated manually in the municipality database, which will require continuous work to update the data registered at City Hall to improve the quality of the information made available to the population.
1.3 Was the commitment implemented as originally planned?
All of the commitment milestones were implemented as planned
Provide a brief explanation of your answer:
In January 2023, a storage server was made available by the Municipal Department of Information Technology to store the data and, then, a database was created containing contact information and a description of the activities offered by the third sector institutions in partnership with municipality. The first milestones have therefore been achieved. The next milestone was related to the study necessary to create the application, considering that the person responsible for its development took five technical courses, throughout 2023, to improve knowledge about development of mobile applications. The creation of the application layout was prepared, as foreseen in the proposed framework, in partnership with Centro Universitário UNA Contagem, by students of the Graphic Design course. The application was presented to the working group and made available for download on the Google Play Store in its Android version, with dissemination carried out through social networks and in the university.
Provide evidence for your answer:
Section 2.
Did it open government?
2.1.1. – Did the government disclose more information; improve the quality of the information (new or existing); improve the value of the information; improve the channels to disclose or request information or improve accessibility to information?
Yes
Degree of result:
Outstanding
Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.
The development of the georeferencing mobile application for third-sector institutions guarantees citizens access to information about the services provided in partnership with the municipality of Contagem – MG. These services are organized in the application according to the following profiles to be selected by the users in their search: Elderly, Children, Children and YouthRecognizing that investing in youth means investing in a better future, OGP participating governments are creating meaningful opportunities for youth to participate in government processes. Technical ..., and General Public. Considering that data on these services was not centralized and updated, the application improved the quality and value of new and existing information in the municipality by disseminating it in a more precise, intuitive and organized way. In this sense, citizens have guaranteed access to the types of services offered by the referenced institutions and their contact details (address and telephone number). The impact of this dissemination of information consists of contributing to mediating the population’s access to social health, educationAccountability within the public education system is key to improving outcomes and attainment, and accountability is nearly impossible without transparent policies and opportunities for participation ..., sports, culture, security, and infrastructure policies offered in the city.
Provide evidence for your answer:
2.1.2. – Did the government create new opportunities to seek feedback from citizens/enable participation inform or influence decisions; improve existing channels or spaces to seek feedback from citizens/enable participation/ inform or influence decisions; create or improve capabilities in the government or the public aimed to improve how the government seeks feedback from citizens/enables participation/ or allows for the public to inform or influence decisions?
Yes
Degree of result:
Outstanding
Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.
Through the application, a channel was created between the government and the public with the aim of improving the way the government informs citizens about the services offered in the municipality. This created an opportunity for citizens to become more aware of their rights and to access them. The government, in this sense, recognizes the role of new technologies in innovation and their contribution to freer access to information, in an understandable and open way. The impact of creating this information space lies in the possibility of the population accessing the social policies to which they are entitled, guaranteeing an improvement in the areas of health, education, and culture in the municipality.
Provide evidence for your answer:
2.1.3 Did the government create or improve channels, opportunities or capabilities to hold officials answerable to their actions?
Not Applicable
Degree of result:
Did not change
Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.
The commitment in question refers to a space that allows citizens to find out about their rights. The application acts as an intermediary between the government and citizens, to guarantee access to social policies and services to promote health, education, sports, and culture carried out in the municipality. Therefore, the responsibility of employees for their actions does not apply to this commitment, as the focus does not include the situations described in this field, but is limited to the dissemination of services offered in the city by third-sector institutions.
2.2 Did the commitment address the public policy problem that it intended to address as described in the action plan?
Yes
Provide a brief explanation of your answer:
The municipality has an average of 60 civil society organizations, which provide various activities focused on the social area. However, in most cases, citizens were unaware of these organizations and the services they provided, which resulted in, mainly, two problems: an asymmetry of information and a political capture of the social services provided. In this sense, the commitment offered a resolution to this issue highlighted in the action plan, as it makes information about the services provided in the municipality openly available to the population of Contagem – MG, allowing people to intuitively search for those who serve to their current demand.
Provide evidence for your answer:
Section 3.
Lessons from
implementation
3. Provide at least one lesson or reflection relating to the implementation of this commitment. It can be the identification of key barriers to implementation, an unexpected help/hindrance, recommendations for future commitments, or if the commitment should be taken forward to the next action plan.
The implementation of this commitment brought to light some challenges inherent to the bureaucratic procedures of the municipality’s official institutions. For example, there was considerable difficulty in locating who would be the employee responsible for the developer accounts for PlayStore and AppleStore made available by the Finance Department of Contagem City Hall. Furthermore, during the work, a decentralization of the information that the City Hall stored on the services provided by third-sector organizations was detected, which resulted in inaccurate and often outdated data, as they are updated manually. Therefore, it is recommended that this commitment be updated in a future action plan, in order to continue working on improving the quality and accuracy of the information conveyed in the application and, in addition, making access to the application available to iOS system users.
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